OT - Use of TV as monitor

[Icedawg]

I've heard of several players using TV's as monitors and figured I'd get some input from those who do before I go
out and get one for my computer. I found a Black Friday special - 32" LED HDTV for a mere $98. Even though its an
off brand, you can't beat the price with a stick.

Questions - is image quality going to suffer significantly if I switch to the TV? Also, can you get sound to play
through the TV, or am I still going to be needing the computer's speakers?

[Lokasenna]

In my experience, image quality on a TV is much worse. Depending on how you hook the TV to the computer you can get sound. The optimal way, IMO, is to use an AV receiver, like for a home theater, in between PC and TV.

But the image quality is not so great. A 'high def' TV will be 1080p but twice the size of a monitor...

[moore4807]

Yes- I'm one of those people...

for an old man its a lifesaver... 42" TV its a 720p AOC Envision (off market brand) and I've been using it as a monitor for just shy of two years.

Make sure (most do nowadays) the TV and your video out graphics card support HDMI. Get the shortest HDMI cable that will fit between the CPU and the HDMI port of the TV.

Once the HDMI is connected - most TV's have a remote and then you can choose the HDMI/Computer setting on the TV and your graphics card will likely pick up the TV info and auto optimize... If you have to choose it manually, go into your graphic card program and choose from the available settings. (mine is 1990X992)

Good luck with it... I've herd some people are running +60" screens or better... [X(]

[wdolson]

HDMI is the best way to connect a TV to a computer. You get both the sound and video that way. Most TVs have DVI inputs too which is essentially the same video protocol as HDMI, but doesn't have the audio channel.

One thing I found with LED lighting and backlighting. White LEDs still have a strong spike in the blue spectrum right in the middle of the light frequency range used for night vision. Some people are more sensitive to that frequency range and LED can cause eye strain. I'm one of those people. Philosophically I like the idea of LED lighting and back lighting, but I get severe eye strain after just a short time using them.

Apple has tried to fix things with the retina displays which are easier on my eyes than most LED backlights, but I still get eye strain.

Just FYI if you suddenly find your getting eye strain with a new display.

Bill

[Amoral]

Check the technical specs of the TV to get it's actual native resolution.

The bigger the TV, the higher you'd want that resolution to be. 1024x768 looks fine on a 15" monitor, but on a 32" TV it makes reading text a real eye strain.

At 32" you't want at least 1440 x 1068. My bet is that a 98$ Tv is 1024 x 768, which is just not good enough for a monitor of that size.

[zuluhour]

A while back someone posted their TV hooked up.[X(]

[Numdydar]

ORIGINAL: Amoral

Check the technical specs of the TV to get it's actual native resolution.

The bigger the TV, the higher you'd want that resolution to be. 1024x768 looks fine on a 15" monitor, but on a 32" TV it makes reading text a real eye strain.

At 32" you't want at least 1440 x 1068. My bet is that a 98$ Tv is 1024 x 768, which is just not good enough for a monitor of that size.

The general rule is the bigger the screen, the higher the resolution.

I went the TV route (although this was several years ago) and decided I'd rather spend the money on a bigger monitor. So I now have a 30" Dell that has 2560 X 1600 [X(]. Even though I cannot sit on my couch and play, I find the trade off to be much better [:)]

[jamesjohns]

You sure can, I do for games and also for streaming movies on netflix

First look at what connections your tv has. Most will have HDMI and may have VGA (normally blue in color) and/or DVI (normally white in color) Next look at your computer, it will most likely have VGA (often blue in color) and/or DVI (often white in color) and possibly HDMI

For computer to tv, and with a game like WITP AE, there is no real difference in quality of image with these 3. I would use what 2 your computer and TV share, it is most likely VGA. You can get VGA cables for less than the other 2 tyeps and have cable lengths of 25 feet before any decline in quality.

For sound there may be an audio input on your tv, just use a male to male audio cable to go from the headphone jack to the tv and may be the "input source" that is paired with the VGA or DVI input on the tv (it is called a 3.5mm audio cable, also cheap to buy) You can also just use external speakers that you normally use with your computer. Even if you use HDMI, you will still need to get audio via speakers or a 3.5mm cable. Computers do not push audio through HDMI, they have to use a 3.5mm cable

Others posted about resolution which is good info.

Side note HDMI is great for things like blue ray players and it supports audi on same such devices but for PC connecting to a TV, there is no real diff. in image quality, only the $$ of the cables.