Using HD TV as a computer monitor

ViperGTI

ViperGTI

New member
I have a 40" HD LCD TV (which supports resolution of 1920x1080) and I've connected it a couple of times to my pc for games, but for some reason I can never set the resolution to 1920x1080. The maximum setting available in my display properties is 1600x1200 which doesn't really make sense since my TV is made for 16:9 viewing ratio (plus the box says 1920x1080 which should count for something).

When my tv is connected, the text in Windows / applications are blurred a bit but I suspect that my viewing distance was wrong and perhaps the fact that I'm using the wrong resolution has something to do with it.

Has anyone tried replacing their computer monitor with a HD TV that can give some feedback on how well it works, pros and cons and perhaps how to resolve the freakin resolution problem?
 
OK small crash course:

Has to be a HDMI connection. I'm guessing you got that.

The 1600*1200 res is because thats the laptop's res. You need to disable the laptop screen, then you'll get the 1920x1080 option. Its limiting resolution to the lower of the two. How exactly you do that will depend on the graphics card & laptop. Sometimes you can switch via laptop keyboard shortcuts. Usually something like Fn+F2 (or whatever F key).

Make sure you've got Cleartype enabled.

Finally there is another issue which can't be fixed: In a TV the pixels are much further apart, so you can't really sit close. The end result is that this works fine for games & movies but you can forget about Excel spreadsheets.
 
Thanks, but I'm actually using my pc, not laptop. My other monitors all run on 1920x1080... it is just as soon as I plug the TV in, that the high resolution option is removed.

I actually used a VGA cable. Is the HDMI cable better than the VGA?

Ok, so for work purposes, the TV isn't really an option then?
 
ViperGTI said:
I actually used a VGA cable. Is the HDMI cable better than the VGA?
Click to expand...
Yeah you def don't want to be using an VGA cable. Its analog (more blurry) & all kinds of tedious. With a digital link, the PC can work out whats connected on the other end & so can figure out the resolution automatically.

Modern PC graphics card tend to have DVI output. You need a DVI-I or DVI-D (running over digital) output specifically. Not DVI-A.

TVs tend to have only female HDMI ports, so you need a cable that has HDMI male on one side and DVI-I male on the other (or whatever your gfx card needs). Getting that kind of cable is tricky. Incredible connection sells them for like R200-R700 I think, but if you get a good shop you should be able to get one round the R70 mark. Check what your gfx card supports first before buying...

HDMI = DVI-D plus audio. So if you feed a DVI signal in there then its fine. You might run into trouble if you try to play Blu-Rays though because of HDCP (see wikipedia).

EDIT: I hope you're not using VGA cables for you're other 1920x1080 screens either, right? VGA = bad.
 
Last edited:
sorry for the mini hijack, but what graphics are you running? and how does it hold up on the big screen for general pc work and games. Tired of 1680x1050, everytime I hook up mt ps3 to the 22" lcd it comes up with a warning, figure I might as well go 32" fhd
 
ViperGTI said:
Thanks, but I'm actually using my pc, not laptop. My other monitors all run on 1920x1080... it is just as soon as I plug the TV in, that the high resolution option is removed.

I actually used a VGA cable. Is the HDMI cable better than the VGA?

Ok, so for work purposes, the TV isn't really an option then?
Click to expand...

Viper as someone who uses his TV as a monitor here is the recipe for awesome everything
You need some sort of GFX card pref one with DVI or HDMI between the 2 picture quality will be the same only real advantage
of HDMI is that it will transport audio as well as Picture .Both are Digital so Higher res will be possible.
Assuming your GFX card is Nvidia
Go to control panel and select custom resolution on your PC set it to 1840x1040
unlike with normal monitors TV monitors by default do a bit of scaling on any feed you put in
Your screen will pick up the digital feed and you will see that res will in fact be 1920 x1280
Benefit of doing this is that all text on your screen will be perfect ,excel , web pages anything .
For reasons to detailed to get into setting your card res to 1920x1280 which from the digital source will be considered native
kinda zooms out text making it look edgy (no clear type does not work with LED/LCD TV 32" and higher )

So yeah do that and you will be sorted .
 
Venom said:
Viper as someone who uses his TV as a monitor here is the recipe for awesome everything
You need some sort of GFX card pref one with DVI or HDMI between the 2 picture quality will be the same only real advantage
of HDMI is that it will transport audio as well as Picture .Both are Digital so Higher res will be possible.
Assuming your GFX card is Nvidia
Go to control panel and select custom resolution on your PC set it to 1840x1040
unlike with normal monitors TV monitors by default do a bit of scaling on any feed you put in
Your screen will pick up the digital feed and you will see that res will in fact be 1920 x1280
Benefit of doing this is that all text on your screen will be perfect ,excel , web pages anything .
For reasons to detailed to get into setting your card res to 1920x1280 which from the digital source will be considered native
kinda zooms out text making it look edgy (no clear type does not work with LED/LCD TV 32" and higher )

So yeah do that and you will be sorted .
Click to expand...
The HDMI for audio is good advice. The rest I disagree with though.

1920x1080 = 1.777 aspect ratio
1840x1040 = 1.769 aspect ratio
1920x1280 (:confused:) = 1.5 aspect ratio

1.777 and 1.6 are standard aspect ratios. (16:9 and 19:10). Viper's TV is 16:9 aspect ratio. If you feed it anything else, either the TV's built in scaling will stretch it (bad) or give you a black bar at the sides (bad). There is simply no good reason to do this. I understand the effect you're trying to fix here, but that is the wrong solution.

A better solution is to use the native resolution of the TV screen and then use the Operating System's built in scaling to avoid the "zoomed in" look. In windows 7 these controls are here:
5c7jy.png

(http://i.imgur.com/5c7jy.png)

That way you got both native resolution (& thus avoiding blurriness) and stuff doesn't look ridiculously small.

ClearType is Microsoft's name for sub-pixel rendering. It works on all types of LCD screens, regardless of size. What you do need to do is configure it correctly for your screen, just follow the built-in wizard in windows 7 (just pick the one that looks best). I'll spare you guys the details on why this is necessary (they're in that wiki article anyway).

LED screens are also a type of LCD screen. LCD is the layer that makes the colour, LED is the back-lighting. In non-LED screens, the LCD layer is still there but they use CCFL for the back-lighting. The stupid marketing people of Samsung etc just confused people into thinking that its either LCD or LED.
 
Wow, thanks... a lot of great responses here.

Soul Assassin said:
Is this maybe a Sinotec tv, buy yourself a dvi to hdmi and it will work.
Click to expand...
It is actually. Sinotec HD TV.
I didn't know that you get a dvi -> hdmi cable.

HavocXphere said:
Yeah you def don't want to be using an VGA cable. Its analog (more blurry) & all kinds of tedious. With a digital link, the PC can work out whats connected on the other end & so can figure out the resolution automatically.

Modern PC graphics card tend to have DVI output. You need a DVI-I or DVI-D (running over digital) output specifically. Not DVI-A.

EDIT: I hope you're not using VGA cables for you're other 1920x1080 screens either, right? VGA = bad.
Click to expand...

I use a DVI cable for my primary screen and VGA for my secondary screens (simply because the DVI cables are too short and haven't gotten around to finding longer ones).
My display cards in my "new pc" actually have a mini-HDMI ports so I'll try to hook that up to the TV's HDMI port. I just used the VGA cable cause it made sense to me... pc cable going from pc to tv since the tv has a port for it (someone who don't know much about displays obviously)

speedz said:
sorry for the mini hijack, but what graphics are you running? and how does it hold up on the big screen for general pc work and games. Tired of 1680x1050, everytime I hook up mt ps3 to the 22" lcd it comes up with a warning, figure I might as well go 32" fhd
Click to expand...
I have the MSI Twin Frozr II 560GTX TI... well, two now actually (got the second one a week ago). It has 2 DVI outputs and one mini-HDMI (but they do provide the mini-HDMI to HDMI converter).
I run all my games at 1920x1080 with highest graphics settings and it comes with software that allows you to overclock by moving some sliders around which can be done either before loading a game or automatically when starting Windows.
So far, I've only had one or two games that stuttered a bit, but I can't remember which ones. Recently though I've played Dragon Age II, Duke Nukem Forever MP (don't judge me), Mafia II, Just Cause 2, Fallout New Vegas, Witcher 1 & 2... all running smoothly. I'm yet to try play Crysis (I know Crysis is usually a good one to test your limits with) and come to think of it, Witcher 2 does have some "Uber setting" that I can't turn on or else the game becomes unplayable.
If there are any games that you want me to do a test on, just let me know.
 
HavocXphere said:
The HDMI for audio is good advice. The rest I disagree with though.

1920x1080 = 1.777 aspect ratio
1840x1040 = 1.769 aspect ratio
1920x1280 (:confused:) = 1.5 aspect ratio

1.777 and 1.6 are standard aspect ratios. (16:9 and 19:10). Viper's TV is 16:9 aspect ratio. If you feed it anything else, either the TV's built in scaling will stretch it (bad) or give you a black bar at the sides (bad). There is simply no good reason to do this. I understand the effect you're trying to fix here, but that is the wrong solution.

A better solution is to use the native resolution of the TV screen and then use the Operating System's built in scaling to avoid the "zoomed in" look. In windows 7 these controls are here:
5c7jy.png

(http://i.imgur.com/5c7jy.png)

That way you got both native resolution (& thus avoiding blurriness) and stuff doesn't look ridiculously small.

ClearType is Microsoft's name for sub-pixel rendering. It works on all types of LCD screens, regardless of size. What you do need to do is configure it correctly for your screen, just follow the built-in wizard in windows 7 (just pick the one that looks best). I'll spare you guys the details on why this is necessary (they're in that wiki article anyway).

LED screens are also a type of LCD screen. LCD is the layer that makes the colour, LED is the back-lighting. In non-LED screens, the LCD layer is still there but they use CCFL for the back-lighting. The stupid marketing people of Samsung etc just confused people into thinking that its either LCD or LED.
Click to expand...


sorry I meant 1920x1080
I agree with you some , the scaling im talking of is not stretching its is actually size scaling on the screen .
All screens do this .
 
Main issue with gaming on a really large screen, especially when playing games like Black ops, you tend to only watch the center of the screen..Its almost like you loose perspective. I wouldn't recommend it for online fps games but for anything else I love it.
I sometimes play on a 40" Sony Bravia and its pretty awesome.

The gpu you're running wouldn't really matter. If it can run games at 1920x1080 on a normal 23" LCD then it'll run it fine on a much larger 32" or 40". Seeing as the resolution still remains 1920x1080.
 
Ok, so I plugged in a HDMI cable from my graphics card's mini-HDMI port to my tv's HDMI port. The additional settings appeared and I was able to set the resolution to the highest setting including an option to use 1080p which makes everything look and work 100%. I'll play around with it and see how it goes.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top