Dell monitor HDTV.. HELP!!

Hey everyone... I have a quick question for you all... A few days ago I picked up a Dell monitor-TV because money was tight. I passed on the Samsung monitor that people here suggested... At Best Buy, there was a price gap between the two $67(the Dell was cheaper), but I snagged a great discount so it was an even better deal. On paper, this Dell has the same specs as the Samsung (50k:1 contrast ratio, 5ms response, 1080p Full HD), so that's why I went with it. Did I make a huge mistake by not getting the Samsung? I tried it out yesterday and the picture quality when watching PBS or local channels is pretty bad... just not great. Then I hooked it up to my laptop via HDMI and I was disappointed again... browsing the web and seeing icons looks okay, but it's definitely worse than my laptop screen, which looks much nicer than the Dell... It's frustrating because I expected the Dell to look better... though when I play games, the graphics actually look cleaner on the Dell than on the laptop... everything seems sharper. Is this normal, or is there just something wrong with this Dell monitor-TV?? Thanks in advance
If anyone owns one, please let me know what you think...

This device functions primarily as a computer monitor and only secondarily as a television receiver, which means the factory settings are almost certainly optimized for PC use rather than broadcast media. To achieve a more refined display of a digital TV signal, I would suggest carefully adjusting the various parameters within the "picture" sub-menu, such as the dynamic contrast, MPEG noise reduction, gamma correction, standard color levels, or perhaps switching to the film mode. If none of these adjustments yield the desired result, you can always revert to the original factory defaults at any time.

Brandon Morales said:It’s primarily a monitor first and a TV second, so the factory settings are definitely tuned for that. To get a better look at digital TV signals, you should probably mess around with the "picture" submenu options (dynamic contrast, MPEG noise reduction, gamma correction, color standards, film mode, etc.). If nothing works, you can always just reset everything back to factory defaults.

I'm not upset about the TV quality since I mostly bought it to use as a monitor, but it was disappointing how much better everything looks on my laptop... from browsing the web to just seeing the icons in My Computer. It looks better on the laptop than the Samsung monitor... and I bought the monitor specifically because it's a $500 while the laptop is just a $1200... I expected the Samsung to be an upgrade over a laptop screen. The only reason to get it was for better graphics in games... maybe it's because of the Full HD resolution or something... but what about HD movies? They really should look way better than a TV since this is a Full HD monitor...