LCD PC monitors that double as HD-enabled TV sets have become increasingly popular over the past few years, as they allow users to enjoy multiple functions without the need to purchase two separate products. And this is exactly the reason why the Planar company has released the XP19W 19-inch widescreen HDTV LCD TV back in the first half of 2007, as this device provides everything one might need either for working of for watching HD content.



The XP19W has been built around a 19-inch LCD TV Active Matrix Flat Panel Display, which offers an active area of 410.4 x 256.5mm, an 1000:1 contrast ratio, as well as 16.7 million colors. Furthermore, it supports PC resolutions of up to 1440 x 900 but also HD-specific ones, namely 1080i, 720p, 480p and 480i.



Other important features worth mentioning about this particular display are the brightness level (400 cd/m2), the response time (rather average, just around 5 ms), as well as the pixel pitch (0.285 mm x 0.285 mm). Moreover, the viewing angles are also quite OK, namely 170 degrees horizontal and 160 degrees vertical, and the manufacturer also points out the fact that the panel sports an anti-glare and anti-reflection coating for high contrast in bright environments.



Now, for the TV-related specs of the XP19W. The device supports ATSC with 8VSB & Clear-QAM (digital) and NTSC (analog) video signals and also sports certain features found mostly in HD-ready TVs, as for example a built-in 3D comb filter and motion adaptive de-interlacing for best possible picture quality, noise reduction, 3:2 2:2 reverse pull down, color fine tune and Aspect Ratio Control (ARC) functions for end user customization of viewing preferences, Closed caption & v-chip.



As expected, the display sports a wide range of connectivity options, namely Component (YPbPr), S-Video, Composite Digital Video, HDMI (HDCP & E-EDID compliant), Analog (VGA D-Sub 15 pin) as well as a mini-jack audio input for the built-in speakers. Moreover, it has also been equipped with an S/PDIF RCA jack (digital audio output).



The XP19W 19-inch widescreen HDTV LCD TV monitor from Planar can be found at several retailers for around $479.00 - $527.99, which is quite an OK price range, taking into account the plethora of features this thing has to offer.