What are the differences between an LCD monitor and an LCD television, and what is an LCD television monitor? Usually the terms "monitor" and "television" are not used interchangeably; a television screen includes a tuner and a monitor does not.

The Television Tuner

Unlike a monitor that receives a signal from a computer or a projector screen that receives a light-projected image for viewing, a television screen has to be able to decode the television signal that is being received by an antenna, cable or satellite. This is because the television signal is not broadcast as a whole picture, but rather is broken into lines of resolution and sent over the airwaves as a scramble of lines needing to be reassembled for viewing.

The number of lines broadcast for each picture depends on whether the broadcast is standard or high definition, and the tuner decodes the order in which the lines should be transmitted to the screen and when the image is complete and the next one should begin. The lines are then sent and received at such a high speed that the human eye can't make out the separate lines and they change so quickly, that the pictures look as though they are moving.

Even is an LCD monitor were hooked up to a TV, it would not be able to produce a television picture. This makes the term LCD television monitor a rather meaningless phrase.

Without a tuner, a monitor is generally less expensive than a TV screen; external tuners are available for purchase and can be hooked up to a monitor to make it a TV screen. If a tuner is sold with a monitor, you might well have an LCD television monitor. Front projection televisions are made up of separate units to project and receive the image, and in this case, the tuner is in the projection unit. However, a front projection television requires a special screen to make the picture look its best and it certainly wouldn't look good on a computer monitor.

A Television Monitor

Now that you know the picky grammar of television, an LCD television monitor might just include a tuner. If you are looking at that term in an ad, the "television" part might mean that the monitor is, in fact, a television screen, for it certainly is not a projection TV screen or a computer monitor. If the ad is on an online auction site, the writer might well have made a slight grammatical goof. Just make sure that the ad for an LCD television monitor is really a TV part and not a deliberate trick. So even if you think you understand what the ad means when it says "LCD television monitor" remember to make sure.