Using a HDTV screen as a computer monitor

lazlo

I'm looking to use a HDTV screen as a computer monitor. What kind of TV should I go for? Does it matter if its plasma or lcd? Also will I expereince problems my resolution if I go for an LCD screen with a refresh rate of 50hz?

My budget is around four hundred quid what should I go for?

fionny

TV's are not designed to be monitors, first of all if you are using a massive screen your graphics card will be up against it.

Also the refresh rate is much lower on TV's because its just not needed for movies but in the likes of games etc you will see a noticeable difference... were I you I would get a decent sized monitor instead.

PogMoThoin

fionny wrote: »

TV's are not designed to be monitors, first of all if you are using a massive screen your graphics card will be up against it.

Completely untrue, graphics cards can cope with much higher than the standard 1920x1080 resolution of a TV, the size of the screen makes no difference

fionny

PogMoThoin wrote: »

Completely untrue, graphics cards can cope with much higher than the standard 1920x1080 resolution of a TV, the size of the screen makes no difference

My bad then I was sure I had read that the power draw needed was a negative (nothing to do with screen res)

padraig91

you will be getting headaches if you use a tv as a pc monitor tv's are not as sharp as monitors and writing is always slightly blurred on a tv screen

Nichololas

I have the 20" version of this: Samsung T240HD. Depends on how big a TV you're looking for and whether it's a dedicated monitor or multi-purpose, but I have PC, XBox and megadrive all plugged into this at once which is handy, and it should be in your price range.

Also;

* Most current gen HDTVs will work fine as monitors.
* You can adjust resolution and cleartext (font display) until you find something comfortable (I use normal res on my ~6 year old HDTV and just turn up the size of the fonts if I'm sitting say, on a couch)
* TVs have their own power plugs.. power draw?

EIREHotspur

Better to buy a Pc Monitor with HD.

I have had two LG 24inch screens which have served me well.

cgarrad

Stick with vga/dvi, hdmi has overscan built in which messes with the pixel mapping.

Had it on a 46" and worked well from about 10' any closer you can feel you head moving to view the image ;-)

leviathon

Second that comment about not using hdmi. I've mine hooked up to a 40" and text etc is perfectly readable (once you're back a bit from it). That's through VGA. Put it through hdmi and it looks like crap, would have thought the opposite but there ya go.

So from experience you can definitely use a hdtv as a computer monitor.

ricman

get 21 or 24inch tv, then you can sit close to it,set pc card refresh rate 60mhz, change font size till its readable, set resolution to 1024x768.As above use vga input,i would not be ready to use a 32inch tv,to read long articles,blogs ,you cant sit close to a 32inch tv.See tv manual,pc input,settings,resolution.i think 1024x768 is the ideal resolution for reading text,blogs ,long articles.

M00lers

HDMI is perfectly fine for connecting a PC to a HDTV, if you're not getting full pixel mapping your settings are wrong, either on your PC or TV or both!!!

cgarrad

moolers2000 wrote: »

HDMI is perfectly fine for connecting a PC to a HDTV, if you're not getting full pixel mapping your settings are wrong, either on your PC or TV or both!!!

True, but overscan is on by default with hdmi and not all cards have settings to adjust overscan.

Annoying

M00lers

Never had a problem myself with PC---HDMI---TV, and that's with a nasty old PC with a rubbish GPU. No overscan and full pixel mapping.