<p>First off, I'm a motivated kid and I understand I'm going to have to spend time studying, but that doesn't mean I won't have any downtime to just relax and watch a little TV. Anyways, I'll be a freshman next year, and a TV that I can bring to college because no one else needs it at my house. But I was also thinking it might be a good idea to get an external monitor for a couple hundred bucks for next year. Basically, it'll be fun to have the TV to watch sports, play PS3, etc with other people, but for times when my roommate is studying, sleeping, already using the TV, or for any other reason it's not available, I could use the external monitor with headphones. Does anyone do this? I have some TV shows on my laptop and could get a bigger external monitor for when the TV isn't available.</p>
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<p>But not so fun for the sleeping roommate. Everyone is different, but even with headphones, sometimes the varying degrees of light emitted from the set can be distracting when one is trying to fall asleep.</p>
<p>I would just use your laptop. I know in my dorm, there just isn’t the room for a TV. Besides, Netflix is the shiznit:) Go for it instead.</p>
<p>I would bring the TV for sure. </p>
<p>Yeah, you can watch stuff on your computer, but sometimes, you don’t want to, or if there’s a new episode of a show or whatever…</p>
<p>My roommate and I have a 32" flatscreen in our room, and without it, I’m pretty sure neither of us would be too happy. We watch shows and movies together all the time, and have it on as background noise randomly etc.</p>
<p>I would go for the TV. TV and Laptop are not the same. You can catch a majority of the shows online but you can’t catch everything (which is my case often). Also, like you said, it’s good for playing games the PS3. I want to play my Wii so bad but I can’t b/c I don’t have a TV :(</p>
<p>With sites such as SideReel, Surf the Channel, TV Dome, etc. you really can catch just about any show on your laptop, albeit maybe an hour or two after it airs. Your dorm might also have a TV, so I would find out about that before lugging a TV with you to college. There is generally not much extra space in a dorm room.</p>
<p>Anytime you would need to watch TV when your roommate is sleeping, go for your laptop. A monitor would be really bright and it seems kind of unnecessary. Do you really need to watch TV so much that you essentially need a backup TV?</p>
<p>There’s plenty of room in dorm rooms for a TV! They really don’t take up as much space as everyone here seems to think…you can put a small one on top of your fridge, or a larger on on top of a dresser…my roommate and I actually have a TV stand for it, and there’s plenty of space in the room!</p>
<p>Also, you can adjust the screen brightness of a TV…so I wouldn’t worry about it when your roommate is sleeping/trying to sleep.</p>