can you use a TV as a monitor

ave

ave

New member
with HD LED televisions available, I was wondering if you can use those as monitors and kill two birds- so to speak, or if for whatever reason it's best to stick to actual computer screens.
 
If your GPU has an HDMI port and so does your TV then go ahead. Bigger question is are you willing to work sitting in front of a giant monitor or work off your lap in the lounge
 
Ike_009 said:
If your GPU has an HDMI port and so does your TV then go ahead. Bigger question is are you willing to work sitting in front of a giant monitor or work off your lap in the lounge
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Well if he has a wireless keyboard and mouse it shouldn't be a problem.
It would be great to play games on and watch movies/or whatever.
 
Ike_009 said:
If your GPU has an HDMI port and so does your TV then go ahead. Bigger question is are you willing to work sitting in front of a giant monitor or work off your lap in the lounge
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That is also a consideration. is it uncomfortable working off a big screen? Unless I had some kind of dual screen set up. I mainly want a bigger screen for gaming.
 
That's the cool part, get a wireless kb, mouse and Xbox controller and you have a console killer :)

ave said:
That is also a consideration. is it uncomfortable working off a big screen? Unless I had some kind of dual screen set up. I mainly want a bigger screen for gaming.
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Well if you keep a healthy distance from your screen you should be good. Otherwise sitting next to a tv screen and typing in word is a bitch having to look left to right. But if your looking for gaming it will work great.
 
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ave said:
That is also a consideration. is it uncomfortable working off a big screen? Unless I had some kind of dual screen set up. I mainly want a bigger screen for gaming.
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The main problem comes in where if you are sitting too close, you don't end up moving your eyes to look around the screen but your head. This could get you killed in games. My professional (or not so professional) opinion.
 
I'f your TV supports HDMI and a high resolution then it is workable but it is difficult to see what goes on when you run it on a low resolution. It is doable though.
 
Of course also depends on what size screen we talking about. I for one have a 32" Sony LCD which runs on native 720p. To me, I'm sitting too close to the screen, which is about arms length away. Therefore I would rather use my 23" Samsung screen, though it is acceptable and nice to play on the bigger screen/tv, I would suggest being at least 2 meters away from it.
 
32" is perfect. I was just looking at my brothers 42" plasma, and that thing isn't that clear when you get too close, although that could just be the shows we were watching. I was wondering if the same thing happens when you get close to a large led tv- if you can see the individual pixels.
I play most of my games with a controller nowdays, so that shouldn't be a problem though.
 
I used to jam wow on my 42" lcd it was amazing but naturally not on a desk I used a wireless kb and mouse so I wasnt right ontop of it
 
Tvs are funny things. They have a lower pixel density than monitors but this is an easy explanation. When you sit in front of your monitor your normally within 1m of the screen, so to prevent you seeing the pixels the pixel density is high. However with a TV its on the other side of the room so they can supplement a large size with a lower pixel density so its still cost effective, basically different standards for different uses.
 
My thoughts...

When gaming you need to be at least 45cm away from the monitor, taking into account the size monitor would be 24".
When going bigger you'll need to sit further away, not just because of eye strain but because you'll be moving your whole head instead of just using your eyes.

I game on a 27" monitor and I feel that is about the absolute limit for gaming, especially fps games like Black ops II or Battlefield 3/4.
The only pro for gaming on a tv is the cost, you can now pick up fairly decent LED HD tv's for damn good prices where as monitors have become incredibly expensive over the last 2 months.
 
I'm eventually going to move to a setup where I have two, maybe three montitors for work and Eyefinity gaming, while a 1080p TV monitor is wired up through HDMI for use for movies and Steam Big Picture.

But yes, using a TV for a computer monitor is possible. Stick to Samsung if you can and find ones that operate at 1080p 60Hz. My parent's Sinotec works wonderfully for this, but I've seen other TVs where it's stuck at 50Hz.
 
I've got my pc connected to my Pc in the living room.

It works great for movies and games but like many have already said using any text editor can become a mission, you have to closer or i usually just set the resolution lower, text at 1920 x 1080 is a bit small on a 32" from about 2M.
 
Reading font in certain games can be a pain just thought you should know, the text does not always scale with the resolution and it can be blury and hard to read.

The pro of using a TV monitor is that (atleast for me) the colour is more vibrant and pronounced.
 
It's good to know all this stuff- there has been some great info and advice here. Thanks.
 
I would look into the Samsung 6 Series for a screen.

I'm in the same boat as you and this is what I'm looking at - Samsung EH6030 - refresh rate is nice and high and I've heard the input lag is minimal.
 
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