PC to 32" 720p LCD TV=win or fail?

[OptimumSlinky]

I've got a new build on the way, with a Radeon HD 5850. I am considering having my 32" Samsung LCD TV (few years old, don't know the model) serve as my monitor. Max/native resolution on it is 720p. Question is, with anti-aliasing and what not running, will it actually look decent? I have a 19" widescreen LCD that I can also use, but thought it would be pretty sweet to run the rig on the TV. However, doing so requires me to rearrange my entire living room (I live in a small flat so my TV and PC will all be in the same room).

Thoughts?

 

[happy medium]

It will look good close up but I suggest for you to be at least 5 feet away for the best viewing experience.
I game sometimes on a 37 inch lcd at 720p.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

You might have to increase the DPI settings for windows text from 96 to 120 to get letters that don't look fugly as hell, but that's about it.

 

[Attic]

Yea, you'll have to experiment with DPI settings. I'd imagine 125% normal will be fine. Fugging with DPI settings can sometimes cause games to misbehave, cursor misallignment. Almost all new games don't suffer from this, though I had numerous issues with older games.

32" 720P will be awsome for gaming, for reading webpages, maybe not so great, but you can always zoom (lower right corner of IE) pages still look great and much less eye strain.

 

[Powermoloch]

I have no problem with a 32" westinghouse on my bro's comps. using native 1366x768 resolution. It's perfectly fine as long you sit 4-5 ft away from it.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Have my gtx 280 on a 1080p LCD. I love it but 5850 is way overkill for 720p.

 

[zerocool84]

5850 is way overkill for 720p.

This

It's such a small rez you'll be able to max out anything but since it's a small rez blown up you'll have to run tons of AA to compensate.

 

[tweakboy]

Not worth it if you want full detail . Fast moving things like movie or sports 720p is ok, but if you want ubber resolution and graphics get 1080p ,,thx

 

[yottabit]

I think you'll be happy with it but when you eventually upgrade to a larger 1080p tv (which you should especially if you want to keep it as a monitor) you'll be in love with it.

I've got one friend who uses a 32" 720p as his primary monitor and he likes it, but playing games I can tell it doesn't look anywhere near as sharp as my 1080p 23" monitor but that's got way greater pixel density. For FPS and racing games it seems to be fine but if you play any RTS or anything with a lot of the text on the screen I'd highly recommend 1080p.

I've got another friend with a 47" 1080p LCD as his primary monitor, and I have to say I think that's about the ideal viewing experience

I have my living room set up so I can send my video to my monitor or 32" 720P TV. I find it fine for reading webpages and such, no complaints there. You may have issues with the TV scaling to the proper resolution. The native resolution of nearly every 720P TV is 1366x768 not the true 720P resolution so that's what you'd want to be running. Not all TV's have adjustments on every channel for PC inputs like H-fill and such. If you have HDMI or DVI try that, and if you can't make the necessary adjustments use the VGA connection and try that. My TV doesn't allow me to make any adjustments except on the VGA connection, and VGA or DVI really shouldn't make a difference at such low resolution.

 

[Patrick Wolf]

You sure your TV doesn't accept 1920x1080, OP? Many 720p TV's do. Though the native resolution will probably still look the sharpest.

 

[Attic]

You sure your TV doesn't accept 1920x1080, OP? Many 720p TV's do. Though the native resolution will probably still look the sharpest.

My old 720P set accepted 1080i and it looked better than 720P when sent from my PC. It was sharper.

Problem was that no DX10 or DX11 titles support 1080i (couldn't game at 1920x1080), they would only output 720P. DX9 I could game at 1920x1080 (1080i). Was an odd issue, made more so by the DX9 vs DX10+DX11 difference.

 

[konakona]

I've got another friend with a 47" 1080p LCD as his primary monitor, and I have to say I think that's about the ideal viewing experience

From what distance?

I have spent a fair share of my time looking and posing in front of 32'' / 37'' TVs at local fry's trying to decide which one would work better for desktop use from 3-4'' away. My conclusion was 37'' would be too big let alone the lowered pixel density. Ended up getting a 32'' Viera S1, very happy with it

A friend of mine actually has a 47'' Bravia and he sits about 10'' away, which looks about the right distance in my eyes. I can't handle that since I don't game sitting on a couch.

 

[yottabit]

From what distance?

I have spent a fair share of my time looking and posing in front of 32'' / 37'' TVs at local fry's trying to decide which one would work better for desktop use from 3-4'' away. My conclusion was 37'' would be too big let alone the lowered pixel density. Ended up getting a 32'' Viera S1, very happy with it

A friend of mine actually has a 47'' Bravia and he sits about 10'' away, which looks about the right distance in my eyes. I can't handle that since I don't game sitting on a couch.

Maybe 6' or 7' or so, it is setup to view with a couch like you mentioned.

 

[konakona]

yeah well I knew I definitely wanted this thing sitting on top of a desk with me sitting on a regular office chair, so I did my homework.

http://myhometheater.homestead.com/viewingdistancecalculator.html

The recommended THX viewing distance for a 32'' is 3.6feet, which is just about how far I am situated away from the monitor.

 

[Voo]

Well I've seen several people use TVs as monitors and while that may be great for gaming if you can sit far enough away, the dot pitch is too distracting for me with the usual distance for a desktop.. everything especially text is just too blurry.
But I know other people who don't have any problems with that, so maybe I'm just sensitive for that or maybe I'm just too used to my 30" lcd.

 

[konakona]

Well I've seen several people use TVs as monitors and while that may be great for gaming if you can sit far enough away, the dot pitch is too distracting for me with the usual distance for a desktop.. everything especially text is just too blurry.
But I know other people who don't have any problems with that, so maybe I'm just sensitive for that or maybe I'm just too used to my 30" lcd.

maybe, but it could have been
1) their TVs were 720p. I think you really need 1080p for text
2) they left the default 'enhancement' features on. On my panasonic, with 'sharpness' setting north of 11 text becomes quite illegible. Turn that down to 0 (unadulterated input from PC as it should be), and things look great.

 

[Voo]

maybe, but it could have been
1) their TVs were 720p. I think you really need 1080p for text
2) they left the default 'enhancement' features on. On my panasonic, with 'sharpness' setting north of 11 text becomes quite illegible. Turn that down to 0 (unadulterated input from PC as it should be), and things look great.

No they were all 1080p but no idea about 2 so that could be. Though the dot pitch is still 2-3x bigger than for my 30" monitor so there are bound to be some differences, the only question is how noticeable - maybe with some better settings it'd be imperceptive, no idea.

 

[tweakboy]

What you decide my friend. 720p will be smoother refresh.

 

[imaheadcase]

Hooking a video card for gaming up to a TV is the worst idea ever. It will look horrid.
Not only do aspect ratios get fubered up, the FOV in games is terrible.

TV are not meant for gaming with video cards. If you want to game on a tv leave it to a console.

 

[konakona]

It will look horrid.

Probably not quite as good due to lower pixel density, but I wouldn't go as far to call it horrid. If it is between a 24'' monitor and a 32'' TV, I take the latter. Having lived with both, I have an overwhelming preference for the latter. A 30'' monitor and a correspondingly powerful GPU would be nice... if I were a millionaire that is A minor note is that some people prefer IPS-Alpha to H-IPS. The former is only available on TVs.

Not only do aspect ratios get fubered up

All LCDs out there are either 720p or 1080p to my knowledge (16:9). The trend in monitors has already shifted from 16:10 to 16:9, so TVs and monitors are hardly different in this regard. Most modern games support 16:9 just fine. For games that only support 4:3, my panasonic has an nifty toggle button on the remote, a luxury my previous monitor did not have.

the FOV in games is terrible.

How is it any different from a monitor of comparable size?

TV are not meant for gaming with video cards. If you want to game on a tv leave it to a console.

Nothing that I am aware of makes TVs inherently poor choice for gaming, except maybe the fact that TVs tend to use VAs more often than the monitors and have some input lag. Still, there are plenty of monitors out there with horrid input lag, and also TVs can have low input lag as well (like the one I have).

 

[tvdang7]

looks very small since there are 720 lines. I just hooked a 32 720p to my media center and sometimes when im on webpages i get irritated that i have to scroll a lot more than i am used to. Its like being on a netbook.