The LCD Buyers Guide

[Serra]

I haven't bought a truly "good" LCD monitor since 2003 and I'm hoping someone can help me with my current dilemma - I just don't keep up with this market like I should. This may get long, but please do me a favor and read it through.

Basically, I need two identical monitors in the 21.5-24" range for a home office... and one needs to double as an HDTV (temporarily). The situation is this: I have a home office area, but won't be using it properly for about 1-2 months. In the meantime, I don't have a TV (though I do have a receiver and speakers) so you can see where this is going. I figure I should try to kill two birds with one stone for now and in 1-2 months when the monitor migrates to the office area I'll buy a proper television.


Now, as one of the two monitors will double as an HDTV for a bit I would highly, highly prefer an HDMI input. Because I have this crazy notion of hooking it up to something like a PS3 or Xbox 360 the ability to play games would be great, but color correctness and black control will be greatly valued.


Being that I am a complete n00b as regards current monitor offerings/quality I have migrated over to Dell.com because their specs are at least more complete than most (regarding at least basic panel types), and I was wondering about whether anyone has any comments about an Alienware Optix AW2210? It's not that I'm particularly in favor of Alienware or anything, but in general they do provide (overpriced) quality products with an excellent warranty. I'm positive there must be a cheaper alternative, but I'm not sure what they are.


So.. yeah. Any thoughts on preferably cheaper alternatives? $300USD / monitor is really my absolute max for this project as they will be largely dormant office monitors and I would love to come in well under it if possible. I see a person can get a 21.5" monitor for around half of that these days, but I guess my concern there would be how one of them would preform with a gaming console/movie input (temporarily) and how the blacks/colors would appear on them (long term).