What HDTV type is most comparable to a 19" at 1440x900

[Mide]

I'm trying to make an upgrade to have an HDTV LCD as my main monitor. The thing is that I'm very picky in terms of resolution because of my horrible eyesight.

A 19" Widescreen at 1440x900 is perfect in my mind as a computing monitor, but when I have guests come over, they hardly want to watch a movie on such a tiny screen. I would love it if I could get a 22" or 24" at the same resolution, but sadly the resolution jumps when you go over 19". I've played on a few 20" and 22" LCDs at 1680x1050, but I found everything too small.

I have been looking through a few HDTV LCDs that do 720p and supposedly their native resolution is a little below my ideal. Is this what I'm looking for? I'm just needing some verification or advice since the whole HDTV arena is totally new to me.

Thanks in advance.

 

[angry hampster]

Watching bluray movies on a 27-32" 720P tv is a great experience. Frankly, 720p wouldn't be enough for me to use as a main monitor, but I'd certainly use it as a second one to watch movies while I edit photos.

 

[LtPage1]

720p is 1280x720. I'd be careful with this- I've briefly used a 720p tv as a computer monitor, and text was mostly unreadable, except for very large headlines, etc. Why don't you use both in a dual monitor setup? Another idea: I'm primarily a Mac user, so I've never tried to do this in Windows, but in OS X it's very simple to enlarge all text in the OS, or turn on screen zooming for the visually impaired.

Or you could get some glasses.

 

[Mide]

Originally posted by: LtPage1
720p is 1280x720. I'd be careful with this- I've briefly used a 720p tv as a computer monitor, and text was mostly unreadable, except for very large headlines, etc.

Ah, that's what I was looking for. That sucks. Yeah maybe a dual monitor setup would be the best option.

So are video cards these days able to pump out a Blu-Ray movie via HDMI connected to a DVI converter and then have the other DVI slot hooked up to a computer LCD to surf around simultaneously?

 

[angry hampster]

HDMI -> DVI cable:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16812189056

 

[Jax Omen]

Well, I don't know what your budget/desk space is, but one option would be to get a much larger HDTV and go 1080p.

Other than that... yeah, dual monitors would be the way to go. Any modern GPU can drive a movie on one and light computing on the other, easily.

 

[Engraver]

32-37" are usually the best price/size ratio for TVs currently. There are some cheaper ones around $600, can't vouch for the quality though.

 

[Viper GTS]

If you're comfortable with the dpi of your current monitor use the link in my signature to compare monitors of a different size and resolution.

You'll find that yours is not particularly low dpi. In fact it's virtually the same as a 22" 1680x1050 and only slightly lower than a 24" 1920x1200. In fact the 22" and your 19" are so incredibly close (less than 1 dpi difference) that I seriously doubt you would be able to tell them apart if you were viewing them from the same distance. You probably just felt the need to sit further back from the 22".

A large 1080P display (37" or 42") would actually result in much larger text than your current display. I have configured each of those as an example but you can put in any size and resolution you want:

http://tvcalculator.com/index....12cc7bc75f87f75b214e43

Viper GTS

 

[BrownMofo]

Originally posted by: LtPage1
720p is 1280x720. I'd be careful with this- I've briefly used a 720p tv as a computer monitor, and text was mostly unreadable, except for very large headlines, etc. Why don't you use both in a dual monitor setup? Another idea: I'm primarily a Mac user, so I've never tried to do this in Windows, but in OS X it's very simple to enlarge all text in the OS, or turn on screen zooming for the visually impaired.

Or you could get some glasses.

I have a 720p 42inch plasma and I run my laptop on it at 1024x768 for movies/games and the image is incredibly clear.

 

[Mide]

Thanks viper, that calculator helped a bunch.

 

[Throckmorton]

Originally posted by: LtPage1
720p is 1280x720. I'd be careful with this- I've briefly used a 720p tv as a computer monitor, and text was mostly unreadable, except for very large headlines, etc. Why don't you use both in a dual monitor setup? Another idea: I'm primarily a Mac user, so I've never tried to do this in Windows, but in OS X it's very simple to enlarge all text in the OS, or turn on screen zooming for the visually impaired.

Or you could get some glasses.

There reason text looks so bad is there are no 1280x720 LCDs. They are all 1366x768, which means they upscale the image. OP, why don't you get a 1920x1080 LCD, and just sit close enough to it that the apparent pixel size is the same as your 19"?