Large LCD HDTV as a Computer Monitor?

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?"

Large LCD Screens as monitors

[dfinney]

You'll see these fairly often at tradeshows. They make it easy to see the software from a relative distance during a software demonstration.

I bought a large screen LCD for my company to use during such a software demo. We wanted to keep it in our development lab, figuring that a huge monitor would be a Good Thing.

The unfortunate reality is that, for reasons that remain mysterious to me, the maximum resolution when driven by a computer is only 1280 x 768. This means that you're not getting a massive, high resolution display; you're just getting really big pixels.

I spent some time searching, but couldn't find _any_ manufacturers whose large screens could be driven to 1080i HDTV resolution (1920 x 1080). Quite a disappointment.

At a recent AFCEA show, I saw a 3000 x 3000 pixel large screen flat panel display in the Matrox booth. They said it was a prototype display made by Toshiba. They said it would be available in about 1 year for $30K.

Is there someone out there with an EE type background that can explain why, with pixel addressability of 1920 x 1080 we're not seeing any LCDs that can be used at this resolution as computer monitors?

Re:Large LCD Screens as monitors

[Harik]

You can, and I've done it. The reality, though, is that HDTV is designed to display, well, TV. It's very good at video. It's incredibly crappy at B&W text.

Also, 1080i is interlaced, so your video card would have to output interlaced signal. Not worth it.

Summary: Save the HDTV for conference rooms and trade shows.

Re:Apple 23" is $2000

[Anonymous Coward]

Or the beautiful Dell 20" will do 1600x1200 for $750-$1000 (depending on which day you're there)... and without a stupid $100 (!) adaptor.

Apple? Get real.

Re:Standard TVs?

[colinramsay]

No way man, I used to have a tv (sans remote!) connected to a Commodore 16, then a Spectrum of some variety, and then a Commodore 64. My mate and I used to argue about which was best - the 64 or the Plus4, but then we always were sad bastards.
br/? Anyway, my first monitor was for the PC - just before that I had an Amiga which had a weird device called a TV modulator.

I have a 42 inch Sony LCD RPTV

[multiplexo]

that I use as a computer monitor with my HTPC. The resolution is not high enough for dedicated work, it's OK for websurfing if I want to look something up on IMDB but the resolution is too low for any sustained work. It is however pretty good for playing Civ III or other PC games and as soon as I get some time I'm going to set it up to play upsampled DVDs.
I never had any luck using the DVI inputs on the TV with my video cards, I'd end up with horribly low resolutions or weird looking stretched screens. I finally went out and got an ATI video card and one of ATI's VGA to component video converters and that worked pretty well with Powerstrip to give me a resolution of 1280 by 680.
Again, it's not perfect, but it's not bad for light web surfing, playing games, etc.