Large LCD HDTV as a Computer Monitor? 143
An anonymous reader asks: "I have seen $2000 27"and $1400 23" HDTV LCD sets at Costco, and similarly priced smaller sets elsewhere. I asked a salesperson (elsewhere) if I could try one with my laptop's DVI, and was told that the TVs wouldn't work well. DVI and VGA inputs, 400-600:1 contrast ratio, fast refresh rates (for gaming?), and HDTV capability for other uses, why can't they work? The prices run from as above to very significantly more. Has anyone tried the inexpensive large LCD HDTVs, or the expensive ones, for their desktop? I want to reduce the clutter in my family room and upgrade to highdef? Is it time?"
Abit expensive? (Score:2, Informative)
why not just get a nice Samsung 19" TFT for 650+ Euro (abit more in $'s) you can that patch a tv signal into this?
I'd personally rather keep them both seperate (tv and pc monitor).
It's the resolution, silly (Score:5, Informative)
Apple 23" is $2000 (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Resolution? (Score:2, Informative)
Thus, at 1080 lines, you'd get 1920 columns (16x9 widescreen).
I think the biggest problem, though with using these things as normal computer monitors is what my friend experienced: Most computer display cards don't like outputting to them. You can get a computer display at some resolutions, but very few cards without special drivers/software can output (1920x)1080 interlaced resolution, at a refresh rate that the TV likes (his, at least, was very particular). Eventually I think he got it in 1080i at 56Hz, but it wasn't steady or reliable, or something like that. Eventually just 'downgrading' to 720p. Your mileage may vary, depending on OS, video card, driver version, TV, etc.
Re:Large LCD Screens as monitors (Score:5, Informative)
Or if you really have money to burn, you can get one from IBM [ibm.com] at a blistering 3840 x 2400 for a measly $8k plus a grand or so for a card to drive it.
Re:Standard TVs? (Score:3, Informative)
Browsing the web, however, is a pain in the ass. Text is very hard to read, even with the font sizes cranked up.
Using a TV as monitor for playing media is a viable solution, however, especially if you have your hi-fi sound system in the proximity of your TV. It's much nicer to kick back and listen to mp3s on the couch rather than at your desk.
Re:Resolution? (Score:1, Informative)
My take on it, as an LCD HDTV owner (Score:5, Informative)
Specifically, I have an HDTV LCD rear projection 50". Its native resolution is 1280x720, but with a little overscan you have to cut that down to about 1200x680 (roughly). I believe this resolution is typically the same for DLP rear projections and LCOS. I suspect that LCD flat panels are the same. Some DLP TVs appeared to me to have a limited color depth and too much dithering was apparent. I don't think this is an inherent problem with the technology, however, as DLP projectors work quite well hooked up to computers.
An "EDTV" plasma flat-panel TV is (IIRC) 768x480. That is clearly inadequate for use as a computer monitor. I think even the HDTV plasmas are commonly only 720 vertical lines. The few TVs that actually have 1080 lines of resolution are mostly CRT tubes (e.g. CRT RP).
The most important question is what the native resolution of these LCD flat panels is, and whether or not there is a computer-compatible connector that makes full use of it. For example, my TV I specifically got because it has both RGB (HD15) and DVI inputs, and I can get a resolution that maps directly to the pixels on the screen.
Unfortunately, this resolution (again, 1280x720) is not really adequate for full-time use as a computer monitor. It's great for the occasional web surfing, but I wouldn't want to do any real work on it.
In summary: If you can deal with the resolution, and there is a good connector on the TV (DVI is ideal, VGA is acceptable), then you will be fine. There's nothing particularly wrong with the attributes of these LCD TVs for use as computer monitors, in general, including color depth and pixel response times. (Once you start looking at other technologies like CRT RP, DLP, and Plasma, these other issues may become problematic.)
Re:Uh... (Score:2, Informative)
Mordern display won't even attempt to display things outside their range and the inputs are protected from over/under-voltage similar to an RS-232 port (tough suckers they are; at least the true-to-spec ones are).
Re:My take on it, as an LCD HDTV owner (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHO
Re:Apple 23" is $2000 (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Resolution? (Score:2, Informative)
I purchasing IT equipment and albeit I'm not looking it up right now BUT I'm always turned off by the LCD TVs low native resolution when it comes to computer displays.
Most of them only have an 800 x 600 resolution or commonly 1024 x 768. On a 23" LCD screen (1024 x 768) it's going to look decent but not as great as it can be.
I'm not sure why the resolutions are so low but optimally I would say you should go for 1600 x 1200 resolution. These are out there but they're still up there in price. I would say wait a year or two to make the investment.
I predict too that 15" LCDs will go bye bye within 18-24 months and only be made for notebooks. We'll still see 13" - 17" notebooks but the core will be 15" and then the primary/standard LCD monitor will be 17". At this point the 21" - 23" market are going to drop along with the 17".
Where is evidence of this? 15" LCD monitors are going up in price (remember I'm talking about large volume pricing here) and closing the margin between 15" and 17" LCD monitors so that the transition won't be so hard for the corporate customers.
Re:Projector (Score:2, Informative)
So up front the investment is great but the downside is the replacement of the parts, bulbs, color wheel, ballast, etc.
Re:Resolution? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Apple 23" is $2000 (Score:3, Informative)
I don't think the panel is made by Sony... I forget who does make it.
Re:Apple 23" is $2000 (Score:3, Informative)
My setup (Score:4, Informative)
I personally have a HTPC (home theater PC) setup in my apartment. The display is a Samsung HLN4365W DLP set. Not the same as LCD, but it accepts the same types of input as a standard HDTV device: DVI, Component, etc.
My PC is a standard Windows XP box. Shuttle XPC SN45G case/mobo, Athlon 1800+, 512MB RAM, WinTV PVR, and a Radeon 9600 Pro.
My display's native resolution is 1280x720p. By default, my video card does not have this resolution enabled. An application called PowerStrip has been around for a good long while that excels at doing things like adjusting vertical/horizontal scan rates, resolutions, etc. in most video cards' firmware & drivers. Note that the display worked fine at 800x600, but then I wasn't making much good use of the widescreen aspect ratio and DVDs from the HTPC were letterboxed in the 8x6 area of the screen, which looked retarded.
So will your laptop work? It's not 100% clear that it will since your laptop probably has an integrated video chipset that PowerStrip may not support. Of course, you might just get lucky and it might work out of the box, too.
The agony of a non-HDTV! (Score:5, Informative)
Where I was extremely let down was in the quality of the TV display. I don't have an HDTV, just an older rear projection set. I have to enable the Windows Accessibility Options in order to even come close to reading the fonts on the screen. Really ugly Windows High Contrast Black (large fonts). Yuck.
When I called VIA to get the display driver specs versus typical TV specs I was told that 800x600 was the best resolution I could hope for. And that this sort of setup is primarily intended for watching videos. Any onscreen fonts are really pushing it.
Can't complain in that the whole setup was around $600 in all, but I am still amazed at how average TV screen resolution is so much poorer than what a home PC can put out. I guess HDTV would be a good step up for me, but then again I am not relishing shelling out $1500-2000 only 5-6 years after getting my current set.
[/rant]
Re:Apple 23" is $2000 (Score:3, Informative)
Dell sells rebranded Samsung flat panels, and they kick ass. They have the best refresh rates (not the same term as in a conventional CRT, but rather, the amount of time it takes to light or darken an individual pixel), and fantastic contrast ratios. The Apple displays look great, but saying that the Dell displays look like shit puts you squarely in the Apple Fan-boy category.