ViewSonic Diamani DUO PC/TV hybrid LCD Displays Swing Both Ways

ViewSonic takes a tilt toward practicality with its PC/TV hybrid LCD displays, packing a passel of inputs into its Diamani DUO 19-inch NX1932w and 22-inch NX2232w screens. It makes sense: You have all this resolution floating around, why not tack an HDMI port on board, add an ATSC HD tuner and 10-watt speaker system, and then have a dual use display? Good idea in theory, but the execution falls short.

First of all, that HDTV tuner just captures over-the-air signals, and that'll be good for about 5% of the viewing public that watches their HDTV that way. Plus there's no 1080p, because the highest resolution of the largest screen—the 22 inch—is only 1680x1050. That doesn't quite cut it. Stick a couple of CableCARDs in there, a processor, a terabyte hard drive for recording, and make it a 1920x1080 pixel screen but still flat and compact even with all those computery innards, and then ViewSonic will have our undivided attention.

But a pie-in-the-sky idea like mine would cost you well into the multi-thousands, while these two sets are shipping now for $349 for the 19-incher and $399 for the 22-inch display. Not a bad deal if you want to occasionally watch TV in the same place you do your computing