Robert said:
I saw some nice 50'' inch Sony or Phillips flat screen TV's at Walmart.
I was wondering, can I use such a TV as my computer monitor as
well?? I mean, instead of buying a separate LCD for my computer,
wouldn't it just be better to buy one big TV which I can use for
both my computer and general TV watching purposes?? Anybody
got an opinion about this??
Thanks!
RB
TV sets have many options for input. Some of the traditional input
options are bandwidth limited, and make text blurry. If I output
640x480 to composite video to my TV set, the text is unreadable.
(I tried using it for a boot screen for a headless FreeBSD box,
but couldn't really use it.)
A CRT based TV traditionally would have had composite ot S-video
inputs. But modern TV sets, like ones based on LCD technology,
can also have other forms of input, like VGA or DVI connectors,
or component input. Depending on your video card, some video cards
have an adapter cable for the DIN connector, that has component
output of some sort. At least some of these interfaces, allow a
higher bandwidth signal to be delivered to the monitor.
There is some kind of relationship, between screen size, and
preferred distance from the viewer. From that perspective,
you may not be getting much advantage from using it. Another
thing, is power consumption. My 17" LCD computer monitor, uses
no more than 36W. A 50" TV set needs to illuminate a lot more
square inches of screen, and could easily use a couple hundred
watts, even if it was an LCD. My old 20" CRT monitor, the one
I had before the LCD, used 200W while running. So in that sense,
the TV is not such a bargain, if you use it for many hours a
day. Besides, you may want to watch TV occasionally
Paul