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Testbed

Samsung 192MP
AOpen XC Cube EZ65
Gigabyte 9700 Pro
Sony Playstation 2 (AV and S-video cables)

Notes

The Radeon 9700 Pro, although old, provides enough gaming performance needed to make the monitor the bottleneck without having to change graphics settings. The Playstation 2 is used to test the monitor's input capabilities

Considerations

Previously, we reviewed the 173MW as a desktop monitor replacement with a TV tuner built into the monitor. While this undoubtedly describes a certain portion of the buyers, another portion of the buyers are looking for a standalone thin-profile television without needing a PCI tuner for TV decoding. No doubt, the cost of good LCD and a decent TV tuner will practically always be cheaper than one of these monitors. However, a similar argument can be drawn from the debate between choosing a desktop and a laptop. Although a desktop is always cheaper than a comparably spec'ed laptop, there are certain situations where using a desktop is just not a feasible option.

Case in point: it is highly preferable to have a LCD TV on the kitchen counter rather than a desktop with a separate monitor. Although it is possible to build a cheap multimedia system to hook up a separate monitor, sometimes the space saved is worth the price premium (not to mention a standalone LCD impresses the significant other more than a second computer).

Taking this into account, the decision should not only be one where you are looking buy a monitor with TV card capabilities, but you are purchasing an LCD TV with desktop hookup capabilities as well. From this point of view, the comparison should not only be with other desktop LCDs, but also with standalone LCD TVs (such as Sharp's Aquos line). Unfortunately, we were unable to procure one for this particular review, so that comparison shall be saved for another day.