LG L173ST Multi Function Monitor

Flat-screen LCD (liquid crystal display) televisions are becoming all the rage in our living rooms, but we’ve had them plugged into our computers for some time. For people who live in smaller spaces, it makes a lot of sense to integrate the two, so you can watch TV on your computer monitor, compute on your TV, or maybe do a bit of both at once.

Features
This is a screen with options. You can plug in a computer via a standard blue analogue D-Sub (or VGA) cable or a digital DVI-D type connector (if you have a posh graphics card in your computer). You can plug in a TV aerial to get pictures delivered directly from your roof or there’s a Scart socket for DVD players, games consoles and set-top boxes. Lastly, you can also connect devices such as camcorders via the S-Video and composite video sockets. If you’re surfing the web on your computer and you want to follow something on TV, you can even bring a picture up on top of your Desktop. To be truly versatile it probably could have done with more Scart connectors for plugging in more than one device, as the area under our TVs is getting increasingly busy thanks to DVD, Freeview and the like.

Performance
One of the common short-falls in the quality of LCD screens is their ability to show fast moving action. Luckily for us, the cricket was on as we tested this display but, alas, it struggled to keep up with the sweeping camera movements. However, you can fiddle with the settings to help minimise these issues and there are quick settings you can tweak depending on what you’re watching or doing.

Ease of use
There’s nothing here that’s tricky to use. It’s obvious which plugs are for which cables and swapping between different devices is as easy as pressing a menu button and choosing from a list. Fine tuning menus are equally easily available.

Value for money
At £299, we’d expect a 17in LCD TV to come in at this kind of price, though monitor prices tend to be about £100 lower. As a result, you could get similar results for less cash with a standard monitor and a TV card installed in your computer, though having to start your computer every time you want to turn on the TV would soon start to wear a bit thin.