Using an HDTV as a PC monitor

[dud]

I have been in the market for a while for a replacement to my existing monitor. I currently use an older Samsung 19" 4:3 monitor as my PC monitor but sometimes hook my netbook up to my 46" Samsung HDTV to watch videos and whatnot. Through research within this (and other) forum I have found that the general concensus is to buy the larget PC monitor that you can afford lest you regret it later.

That said, large PC monitors (26" and larger) tend to get veryexpensive with prices rising exponentially over 28". I can go out and get a relatively nice HDTV (in the 32" range) for much less than a monitor. The biggest issue I see is finding a smaller TV that is 1080p vice 720p.

Anyone here use or considered using an LCD HDTV as a monitor vice a traditional monitor? How did it go? If successful what TV do you recommend?

Thanks ...

 

[yh125d]

I was considering a 32-37" TV to upgrade my 24", but I ended up with a 52" DLP instead (just yesterday)

But if you're going the TV route you want 1080p. If you get 720, it will look like crap, unless you're sitting rather far away which defeats the purpose of having a TV for use as a monitor

 

[SlitheryDee]

I use a 40" LCD HDTV as a monitor for my HTPC, which has become my primary PC lately. I have noticed no glaring deficiencies, but I believe the picture on a dedicated PC monitor would probably be better than that of a similar sized HDTV. In my case, I'm getting much more real estate in return for a tradeoff I'm not even certain exists. I have no experience with TVs in the size range you'll be looking at though.

 

[zuffy]

720p definitely look crappy as a monitor replacement. Personally, I think a large HDTV, even at 1080p, doesn't look as good because of the larger pixels. I am quite happy with the Samsung T260HD 25.5" LCD/HDTV I have at work. Love the 1920 x 1200 over the 1920 x 1080 resolution.

 

[kalrith]

A few weeks ago I bought the Panasonic TC-L32S1 when Amazon had it for $380 shipped. I use it as my main computer monitor with a 20" 4:3 monitor in portrait mode as my second monitor.

I was like you and having a hard time finding a >24" non-TN computer monitor for less than $700. After using a TN panel (my 20") for years, I knew I didn't want to go that route again. I was using a Dell 2408wfp, but I always found myself wishing that it was larger. I sold it for a net $300, so the switch to the 32" only cost me $80.

I absolutely love the size of the 32"! My desk isn't very big, and I would prefer to be about 6" farther from it, so I'm going to get an articulating wall mount like this one. I also have an exercise bike and a couch on the left and right walls from the TV. That mount will allow me to extend the TV from the wall and swivel it towards the bike or the couch, allowing me to use the computer room as a second HT room.

Sorry for the digression. I have two qualms with the TV. One is that it does not automatically power on when I boot up the computer, so I have to hit the power button every time. It will automatically power down after not receiving a signal for X number of minutes. The other qualm is that very colored fonts are somewhat blurry, but it doesn't bother me much. I will note that this is a problem specific to this TV, and other TVs (such as my plasma in the livingroom) do not exhibit the same blurry-font problem.

The main things to look out for with using a TV as a computer monitor are input lag and ghosting. Some of them have a lot of lag, and some require you to place it into game mode to reduce the lag. Game mode is a problem, because you lose a lot of the picture adjustments. My TV has very low input lag and uses an IPS panel (known for their low input lag). A lot of LCD TVs use PVA panels, which are known for higher input lag.

Some TVs also have a problem with handling motion, so you'd want to stay away from them as well unless you do zero gaming. Don't bother with a 120Hz TV either, because it's not true 120Hz, so you'll want to send it a 60Hz signal anyways and turn off the motion-interpolation feature, or else you'll have problems. The only thing that 120Hz does is remove the need for 3:2 pulldown when playing 24fps BDs, which won't affect your computer usage in the least.

I wouldn't recommend buying a TV to use as a computer monitor unless you can find specific examples of people using the TV as a computer monitor. I found a lot of my info at avsforum and hardforum.

 

[happy medium]

I sometimes use my 37 inch lcd as a monitor,and it works just fine even at 720p.
Text is clear and games run fast and smooth. Just use some aa/af and your good.
I find running @ 720p with aa/af is better then runnning @ 1080p performance wise.

Sometimes when my brother comes over I hook up to the 40 inch Sony crt at 1080i and play some NBA 2k10. The picture @ 1080i on the crt is very comparable to the lcd @ 720p.

 

[kalrith]

I see two problems with 720p. One is that you won't be able to sit as close and have as immersive of an experience. If you're going to be 4-5' from a 32", then that's not a problem; however, at 2-3' from a 32", you'll definitely want 1080p.

720p sacrifices screen real estate. You simply don't have the same number of pixels (i.e. amount of space as Windows sees it, even though the screen sizes are the same). If you want an example of this, just decrease the resolution on your current monitor a notch or two. Everything will look HUGE (meaning you'll want to move farther away from it), and you won't have much space to work with. My 1080p TV is great for two documents or web pages side by side, but my 720p TV in the livingroom doesn't have nearly as much space to work with since it has only HALF as many pixels as the 1080p TV does.

Another problem is gaming at the native resolution. Most "720p" TVs aren't actually at the 720p resolution, and use 1366x768. I'm not sure if games allow you to choose that resolution. If you game at 1280x720 resolution, you won't be gaming at the native resolution of the TV, and we all know that using anything but the native resolution of an LCD screen is far less than optimal. OTOH all modern games support 1920x1080 resolution, so you won't have the same problems there.

In other words, absolutely don't get a 720p TV as a computer monitor. With the prices of 32" 1080p TVs frequently dipping down below $400, there's no reason to settle for 720p. Now, if you're not using it as a computer monitor, then that's a totally different discussion, but that's not the discussion taking place in this thread.

 

[tweakboy]

This is a good thread. Here is the difference between using a HDTV as your monitor or using a PC LCD monitor.

The pixels on the PC monitor are much smaller and give a crisp look, fonts clean and images clean.

The pixels on a 32 inch or higher HDTV are bigger pixels and not as clear and perfect image as a PC mon showing same thing.

The advantages of using a HDTV as your monitor though is that you can use 120hz or 240hz. Every HDTV now on market is 120hz and some 240hz. Which means your FPS gaming will be amazing, along with watching videos.

However once again its larger pixels and not meant as a Pure PC monitor.

Best thing you can do is get a 27 inch that supports resolution of 2550 by 1440 Which is higher then HDTV or blu ray.

Youll get more real estate with that kind of resolution. Look at my sig, u see the res I run. Been using that res for over 10 years,, love it, small clean, lots of space,, Great with DAW and what not..

 

[konakona]

had a similar question here
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2030332&highlight=

and followed the advice that was given (bought the same panasonic as the one kalrith has), very happy that I did.

as for the red text blurring, I don't have a colorimeter to do the color adjustment with the service menu. doesn't really bother me, I don't really get to see that much red text anyway

 

[Yuriman]

The advantages of using a HDTV as your monitor though is that you can use 120hz or 240hz. Every HDTV now on market is 120hz and some 240hz. Which means your FPS gaming will be amazing, along with watching videos.

Incorrect. This has already been covered in the thread.

 

[kalrith]

This is a good thread. Here is the difference between using a HDTV as your monitor or using a PC LCD monitor.

The pixels on the PC monitor are much smaller and give a crisp look, fonts clean and images clean.

The pixels on a 32 inch or higher HDTV are bigger pixels and not as clear and perfect image as a PC mon showing same thing.

The advantages of using a HDTV as your monitor though is that you can use 120hz or 240hz. Every HDTV now on market is 120hz and some 240hz. Which means your FPS gaming will be amazing, along with watching videos.

However once again its larger pixels and not meant as a Pure PC monitor.

Best thing you can do is get a 27 inch that supports resolution of 2550 by 1440 Which is higher then HDTV or blu ray.

Youll get more real estate with that kind of resolution. Look at my sig, u see the res I run. Been using that res for over 10 years,, love it, small clean, lots of space,, Great with DAW and what not..

There's some good and some bad in this post. The bad is the 120Hz and 240Hz comments. There are only a 2-3 true 120Hz monitors, and they're the 3dVision ones. 120Hz TVs do absolutely nothing for a computer. If you send a 120Hz signal, you'll get something like 60ms input lag, which will even be noticeable in normal computer usage, and there won't really be any advantages with that. Even if you went with 120Hz, you'd get better results by sending 60Hz from the computer, which defeats the purpose of 120Hz altogether.

A high-resolution monitor (like the 27" 2550x1440 you mentioned) is not for everyone. Sure, it gives you more screen real estate and more PPI, but that's not what everyone's after. I personally wanted a large gaming monitor that I could also use for general usage. Considering the hardware that would be required to play games at such a high resolution, I didn't want higher than 1920x1080 (and I refuse to play games at anything other than the native res).

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

I sit about 4' from my 32" 13x7 tv and it looks fine although I'm sure 1080 would look better. Wouldn't go higher than like 37" if you're sitting close and definitely 1080 for anything bigger than 32" or so.

 

[tweakboy]

Thanks, good post kalrith

thanks all for input on this..

 

[kalrith]

np! Even though I just bought my TV a couple weeks ago, I've actually been looking into this for a few years. I chickened out 9 months ago and bought a Dell 2408wfp instead. At that time the only 32" 1080p TVs at $400 were refurbished Vizios on ebay with a 90-day warranty . The Dell was definitely the better choice between those two, but I always found myself wishing it were bigger (no out of context jokes, please ).

I wanted a very immersive experience, which would be around a 40-45° viewing angle. That put my eyes at 2' from the 2408, which required me moving the monitor almost all the way to the front of my desk, left me 0 desk space, and was not the most pleasant experience and kind of caused my eyes to bug out (sorry, but I'm having a hard time putting that experience into words).

I frequent a couple deals forums and noticed the prices of 32" TVs creeping down below $400. I also noticed that people were selling their used 2408s for around $365 shipped. I always regretted the fact that my 2408 had a PVA instead of IPS panel, so when I saw the Panny with an IPS panel, my jaw dropped. I knew that's the one I wanted. I missed out on the first deal, but that was from a not-so-reputable etailer. Once I saw the Amazon Gold Box deal for $380 shipped, I ordered it.

I couldn't believe the massive difference! The size increase was simply overwhelming. People often don't realize that screen sizes increase at about double the linear increase in diagonal size. i.e. One would think that going from 24" to 32" would be a 33% increase, but it's really a 69% increase in size! I think I manage the extra size without extra screen real estate pretty well with the No Squint FF add-on and zooming out on different documents. What's sad is that I've actually become accustomed to the extra size, so it doesn't seem too big any more. I still want to wall-mount it, move my desk back a little, and reclaim my much-needed desk space.

Anyways, I think I've blogged about this enough for one post

 

[happy medium]

I see two problems with 720p. One is that you won't be able to sit as close and have as immersive of an experience. If you're going to be 4-5' from a 32", then that's not a problem; however, at 2-3' from a 32", you'll definitely want 1080p.

720p sacrifices screen real estate. You simply don't have the same number of pixels (i.e. amount of space as Windows sees it, even though the screen sizes are the same). If you want an example of this, just decrease the resolution on your current monitor a notch or two. Everything will look HUGE (meaning you'll want to move farther away from it), and you won't have much space to work with. My 1080p TV is great for two documents or web pages side by side, but my 720p TV in the livingroom doesn't have nearly as much space to work with since it has only HALF as many pixels as the 1080p TV does.

Another problem is gaming at the native resolution. Most "720p" TVs aren't actually at the 720p resolution, and use 1366x768. I'm not sure if games allow you to choose that resolution. If you game at 1280x720 resolution, you won't be gaming at the native resolution of the TV, and we all know that using anything but the native resolution of an LCD screen is far less than optimal. OTOH all modern games support 1920x1080 resolution, so you won't have the same problems there.

In other words, absolutely don't get a 720p TV as a computer monitor. With the prices of 32" 1080p TVs frequently dipping down below $400, there's no reason to settle for 720p. Now, if you're not using it as a computer monitor, then that's a totally different discussion, but that's not the discussion taking place in this thread.

Yes ,you are correct,but all my games give me the option for 1366x768,and I have about 15 of the latest games.

I'm sure 1080p is better ,but really I can't tell when I'm playing a game unless I stop and look around for a few minutes, especially if I add aa/af which I can with 720p.

The one thing 720p has an advantage with is you need a lesser card to run it.
I can spend 150$ on a card and get 90% of the picture quality of 1080p.

I guess if you have the money for a 300$ video card every year, your good to go with 1080p. Don't get me wrong, I would love to upgrade whenever I want , but I don't make that much dough.

Edit: yes I do sit 3/4 feet from the lcd. It won't fit on my desk.

 

[kalrith]

but really I can't tell when I'm playing a game

This is an important statement. If you're far enough away from the screen, then the difference between 720p and 1080p won't be that much for games and video. However, in anything else, you'll always be limited to 50% of the screen real estate of a 1080p TV.

I'm curious as to what your viewing distance is. If it's 5' or more, then you're probably correct about the difference between 1080p and 720p not being that great in games. If it's closer, then I would be that your experience would be enhanced quite a bit with 1080p.

As far as the video cards go, I just ordered a 4890 for $120, and that should have me set for a while at this resolution.

 

[Patrick Wolf]

I'm using a Samsung 32" 720p LCD (LN32A450 and a PVA I believe) as a PC monitor. I didn't choose it specifically to use as a monitor, just kinda happened; and I like it a lot. My primary usage is gaming/video so I prefer the larger picture. It's native resolution is 1360x768. Works great, looks very good. However, I will agree a native 1080 TV would probably be much better as it would look much cleaner simply because it has double the pixels.

The D-Sub input only supports up to 1360x768 so I use DVI-HDMI and then it goes up to 1920x1080. In Win7, I have 17 resolutions to choose from and they (usually) all work. But for some stupid ass reason this TV doesn't allow full adjustment of picture settings at it's native resolution or at any standard PC resolution. And when the TV uses this "no- adjustments" mode it does something to the colors; makes them look a little more washed out. I couldn't figure out a way to fix this either. Happily the two main HD rezes 1080 and 720 allow for adjustments.

1280x720 has some very slight cutoff around the edges so I used nvidia's picture adjuster and got a custom rez of 1266x714. Still looks very good. 1920x1080 doesn't have the cutoff...

I think most games take the resolutions Windows gives or something and let's you choose from that. Take Day of Defeat: Source for example, it let's me choose my custom rez of 1266x714.

I don't care about going any higher than 1080. The only real advantage of a monitor is that it provides a cleaner picture simply because it has so many pixels squeezed into a smaller screen. How big of a difference when, for example you compare a 24" (non-TN that doesn't blow) to a (good) 40-42" HDTV at 1080? I can't say since I've never seen such a comparison.

It's really about usage & preference. For me a bigger screen = a better experience. I just wish my TV was 1080 instead of 720.

And the 120Hz thing? Not sure about it exactly. I don't care about it, but I was thinking it's a feature of the TV that will work reguardless of the Hz signal the PC is outputting.

 

[gen3d]

I unplugged my LG 22" LCD monitor from my PC a while back and plugged my PC into my 42" 1080P LCD TV using a HDMI cable to watch a movie, and I have left it that way ever since. I knew it would look great for games, but I was suprized how well it displayed text and photo's. I quality difference is only slightly worse than a monitor monitor, but the screen size more than makes up for it in my opinion. It comes down to personal perference, but I love my setup currently!

 

[Fallen Kell]

The advantages of using a HDTV as your monitor though is that you can use 120hz or 240hz. Every HDTV now on market is 120hz and some 240hz. Which means your FPS gaming will be amazing, along with watching videos.

Not really. VERY few HDTV's will take a 120Hz input signal, even if they have 120Hz or 240Hz "refresh" rate. The few exceptions are the Samsung LN40.B.630 / 650 series (and only a handful of others). Most TV's do their PROCESSING in 120Hz or 240Hz, but won't take that as an input. They will internally take a 24frame/sec movie, or a 30frame/sec TV, or a 60frame/sec TV feed and convert it to 120 or 240frame/sec. The purpose of this was to allow all the disparate video types to playback smoothly on the TV, because 24, 30, and 60 can all be evenly divide 120 or 240 (240 is really just a "marketing" thing at this point and there is no real difference to 120Hz until the TV can accept a 240Hz input, at which case, it will make a difference).