Why are Prices of Video Monitors So High Compared to Similarly Size TVs?
How come I can buy a 32″ Sony Trinitron TV set for $800, but when it comes to buying a monitor for my PC, $1400 only gets me a no-name 20″ tube? Why can’t a giant like Sony produce a PC monitor anywhere close in cost to an equivalently sized TV set? (Some of this from: Mike Stewart (mstewart@whale.st.usm.edu).) There are several significant factors being overlooked here: • Economy of scale. There are still *many* more TV sets being sold than computer monitors. Manufacturers order TV chipsets in much larger quantities. This drives down the price. • Resolution. NTSC TV signals aren’t even VGA resolution. Try getting that 32″ Sony Trinitron XBR to give you 1280×1024. A computer monitor has a CRT with a resolution about 2 to 3 times that of a TV of similar size in both horizontal and vertical directions. The beam is also more sharply focused. • Refresh rates. NTSC TV signals come at one refresh rate, period. You either watch broadcast NTSC at 59.94Hz (interlaced), or you don’t watch it at
