widescreen TV as a PC monitor

[John Smith]

Does anyone have any insight into the problems of using a widescreen LCD or
Plasma TV as a PC monitor.

I was thinking something about 40" range...

If anyone has looked into this already, what should I be thinking abot
before I go and spend hard earned dollars, both in respect of the TV
requirements and the PC..

Cheers

 

[JohnS]

Does anyone have any insight into the problems of using a widescreen LCD or
Plasma TV as a PC monitor.

I was thinking something about 40" range...

If anyone has looked into this already, what should I be thinking abot
before I go and spend hard earned dollars, both in respect of the TV
requirements and the PC..

Cheers

Its pretty popular nowadays. Since Id never used one before and there
were a few people who were looking for even higher res than 1280x1024
--- the typical 19" resolution , I thought anything lower would be
going back to the stone age. You know , unacceptable.

However lots of people started buying LCD TVs when prices sharply fell
at the end of last year. Until then prices were so high only a few
people were using them for gaming. However now with the well known
generic brand --- Olevia/Syntax flooding the US mkt and now tons of
others , 26" wides as low as 399-499 made them super popular.

I finally got one and thought Id use it mainly as a TV as the res was
too low for PC. However Im using it right now as I type this. Ive
never used a large screen like a 30-40 as a PC monitor but the 26" is
on my desk quite close so I do notice details.

In general it works great. A few times I notice the lower res vs my
19" but in general I dont really notice a huge difference. As long as
it has DVI or even HDMI and you get an adaptor ---- some people have
problems in this area but if you look in various forums theres usually
some good advice to get it working.

Obviously with Plasma theres always been burn in issues. With LCDs
there arent supposed to be any burn in issues which made them
attractive for that reason. However Ive found there is a kind of temp
burn in which they called image persistance. You can google it and
find some advice on it. Supposedly if you just show I think a white
screen or some other color for a while it should eliminate the
problem.

Some people claim burn in has been reduced as a problem with plasmas
but if you mess up your plasma , thats a lot of money going down the
drain. I think LCDs are easier to move too from what I hear but ive
never owned one so Im not sure about that. There was also lots of hype
in the past about plasma using a lot of power, electricity vs LCDs. A
recent article clams they greatly improved in this area and are close
to LCDs now. I would look into this if your power bills are high. In
the past I saw numbers in the 400 watt range. Thats a lot of power to
use if you keep your PC on for long periods in the day.

Usually when things are really blown up you notice lower resolution
problems --- raggedy edges etc too, especially if you are close to the
screen. However like I said , my 26 inch is sitting within 2-3 feet
and it looks OK.

For games STUNNING. Its a whole new experience in gaming. I love it.
Ive posted many times I wasnt really into games much at all but my
widescreen makes it much more immersive. And of course watching movies
etc is far better than watching it on a 19" LCD.

 

[John Smith]

The reason I was thinking 40" was because I was told that if you were a
couple of meters away from the screen the text etc.. would be too small to
read clearly.

Whats your experience with the smaller screen. Would it be fine to work on
a word document from say 1.5 meters away..


Theres a BIG diference in price from the 32 to the 40" right now, so if that
8" isn't necessary, I not sure I want to pay the premium..

Cheers

 

[JohnS]

The reason I was thinking 40" was because I was told that if you were a
couple of meters away from the screen the text etc.. would be too small to
read clearly.

Whats your experience with the smaller screen. Would it be fine to work on
a word document from say 1.5 meters away..


Theres a BIG diference in price from the 32 to the 40" right now, so if that
8" isn't necessary, I not sure I want to pay the premium..

Cheers

I want to get a 32-37 or so maybe this Xmas if prices come way down
again.

I havent tried a 32 inch yet so I cant say. On my 26 its fine. I
really thought it would be horrible since Im violating two rules
people always talk about --- use native res and dont get below
1280x1024 res nowadays. Its surprisingly OK to me.

My native res is 1366 x 768 and Im running it in 1280x720.

On very rare occaisons with some really low res photos on webpages etc
it looks fairly noticeably rougher than my 19" but its rare. The other
thing is in angled lines in games youll notice jaggies more. In Far
Cry with trees and towers off into the distance where they looks very
thin the stair step look can be very noticeable until you up the res a
bit in the game. I was just playing Quake 4 , for a relative who likes
to watch it for some reason and 1280x1024 with 4x AA tends to make it
look a lot better , smooth out the jaggies but you still see a hint of
it in angled lines like in handrails.

Things like this are a very subjective thing though. Youll see on the
net tons of raves from consumers for various cheap LCD HDTVs used as
TVs and PC monitors and yet some bash them.

One guy said the"black levels were crushed" on the Syntax and LCDs are
criticized for their poor black levels but most consumers dont seem to
notice at all. I knew a guy who took back 3 PC crt monitors cause the
sides were perfectly straight --- the geometry was off. slight
pincushion effect which couldnt be fixed. Other friends didnt care
and didnt notice so it really depends on the person looking at the
screen. Your best bet is to try it but unfortunately like in my region
Ive never seen a setup at a store where they demo-ed a PC hooked up to
a large LCD HDTV screen.