TV Suitable for Use with HTPC

Wardrop

Member
Jul 30, 2011
38
0
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Hey All,

I intend to upgrade my current 4 year old 40" TV to a new 55" LED-backlit TV. Looking around, it looks like decent 55" TV's start at around $1000 AUD which is at least a quarter of what such a TV would have cost me 4 years ago.

In using my current 40" Samsung TV in conjuction with a HTPC, there are at least two quirks with this screen that are a relatively common problem for those using TV's as essentially a computer monitor. The first is that not all TV's do 1-to-1 mapping of the signal to pixels. My 40" Samsung does, it's called "Just scan", but it has a habbit of resetting to "16:9" a few times a week. Just a minor annoyance. The second perhaps more annoying issue, is that when the HTPC goes to sleep or the video card goes to sleep, the TV displays a power-chewing "No signal" message instead of going into power saving like a computer monitor would.

I'm therefore seeking advice as to which brand or perhaps model of 55" TV is best suited for use with a HTPC. Are there any TV's that have proper power saving like monitors do, even over HDMI, and do all TV's these days have a 1-to-1 pixel mapping/scaling option?

Thanks
 

Raduque

Lifer
Aug 22, 2004
13,141
138
106
I have a Samsung UN55D7900 and it does 1:1 pixel mapping over HDMI with ATI cards, but not with nVidia cards. Very odd. It's a 2011 model though.
 

Wardrop

Member
Jul 30, 2011
38
0
66
You sure the graphics card isn't simply doing over/under-scan. What's the actual picture scaling mode set to. It should be somewhere in the options. Also, does it go into power saving when the video card stops sending a signal, or does it have an option to enable such power saving?
 

Dstoop

Member
Sep 2, 2012
151
0
0
My old 32" Sony KDL32EX450 handles power-saving well enough. It gives the standard grey "no signal" message when the signal is cut, but if it doesn't detect an active signal for about 5 minutes it just turns itself off. The catch is it wont turn itself back on when a signal is detected, you have to manually turn it back on.

I don't see why the newer Sony TVs wouldn't do the same thing, unfortunately my KDL50EX645 hasn't been delivered yet :/
 

olds

Elite Member
Mar 3, 2000
50,040
705
126
Timely question. I am looking at a Panasonic VT50 and was wondering if it had an overscan setting?
My present plasma doesn't and I have to crop down the desktop resolution to get my desktop to fit on the TV.
 

assassin24

HTPC Moderator
Mar 27, 2005
394
0
0
Timely question. I am looking at a Panasonic VT50 and was wondering if it had an overscan setting?
My present plasma doesn't and I have to crop down the desktop resolution to get my desktop to fit on the TV.

I have a 65" ST Panny. Great TV for HTPC use.
 

piasabird

Lifer
Feb 6, 2002
17,168
60
91
I have a dedicated PC for my TV, since I watch a lot of things on the Internet. I do not watch any live or cable or satelite TV. I set the video resolution to an exact match for the TV. This way there is not stretching or adjusting. I am currently using an INTEL K-series i5 with the 3000 HDVIDEO. It works good for what I am doing.

I like to watch Korean videos.

Since I dont watch TV on my TV, I have no tuner.

I am just using a 40" Samsung, I purchased at Wal-mart about 2 years ago or so. It works fine for me. It is a LCD. I purchased a slightly better one for upstairs that is also a LCD, but it has Ethernet, and Wireless via a dongle. I watch over the air TV (Sometimes), and mostly play my Xbox 360 on it.

A lot of TV's have some settings for correction due to faster Hrtz. So I think anything faster than 60 Hrtz is too fast for watching standard video or blu-ray. So often people use custom settings for the TV to keep the TV from trying to make up frames and doing corrections and filling in screens. 3D requires like 240 Hrtz. I am not too impressed with 3D and think it is a waste of money.
 
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Wardrop

Member
Jul 30, 2011
38
0
66
I ended up getting a Samsung UA55EH6000M yesterday which is the cheapest 55" in the 6 series. It's got one-to-one mapping with the "Screen Fit" settings. It's also got a setting to automatically turn the display off after 15 minutes of no signal - I want to contact samsung to see if they can update their firmware to support something more like 2 or 5 minutes as well. I'm really happy with it, especially for what I paid for it ($996 AUD).

I'm about to watch my first movie on it; a remuxed blu-ray. Should be good.