Using a TV as a monitor - pros and cons

  • Thread starter Tyger
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Tyger

Tyger

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ReTyger
I'm hoping to get a new computer soon, and will get more bang for my buck with a base unit only, but my monitor is a little old now so I am looking at my TV, which is about the right size for what I want, pretty lightweight and looks the part. Will just need to rejig my furniture to put it on my desk and make sure my PS3, DVD player etc. as well as the computer are all nearish and feed into it.

Anyway I don't have a great deal of experience of such things, so was wondering what experiences other people have had, namely:

1. What is the best method of connection, HDMI? Both my TV and the computer I am looking at have HDMI sockets.

2. Is there any delay/latency when using a TV with a PC? I'm guessing not as this would also then be the case with my PS3? Although perhaps it depends more on the video card output.

3. Are there likely to be any issues with adjusting the TV? I guess it will try to auto-adjust to some extent but i've heard stories of black bars around the picture and such.

I know a lot of this is dependent on the hardware, but I was hoping to get a general feel, ie. is it usually easy to get a good result, does it rely on certain specifications, etc etc.

Hope someone can give me a few pointers, cheers!
 
I use a HDTV as a monitor:

1. I currently use a DVI to HDMI converter from the back of my video card. I think it's specific to my current TV but the picture appears to be more vibrant doing this compared to using DVI to DVI. I've used HDMI to HDMI before but the picture seems to be an odd shape and not anywhere near as sharp or as clear as DVI. I think that is an issue with my video card and may work better for you.

2. HDTVs are always going to have more lag over most dedicated monitors. Pixel response is slower (thus more blurring in fast moving images in games for example), and you'll have something called input lag. Input lag doesn't affect a lot of people but it maybe worth reading about:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1131464

3. While using DVI or VGA (depending on what socket the TV has) it should allow you to auto-adjust like a normal monitor would. And allow you to have limited picture options to adjust things. Through HDMI you should have the full picture options available, but again for some reason HDMI from my video card no HDTV adjustments appear to make it anywhere near as good as the picture through DVI... :confused:

My experience is based on using 3 different HDTVs as monitors.
 
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I use a plasma and I think it works great. Some others in another thread don't seem to agree with me, but I'll never go back to a pc monitor after using my 50 inch pasma. I use a mini HDMI to HDMI. As far as lag goes, there is none at all with mine, plamsas have a much better delay then LCD or LED.
 
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bevo
I use a plasma and I think it works great. Some others in another thread don't seem to agree with me, but I'll never go back to a pc monitor after using my 50 inch pasma.
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TVs are still unacceptable for image editing and other work of that nature. Gaming is all right but if I'm sitting 3 feet away from my 22 inch monitors or 10 feet away from my 42 inch TV, its going to feel about the same, even if they are both running at 1920x1080
 
Azuremen
TVs are still unacceptable for image editing and other work of that nature. Gaming is all right but if I'm sitting 3 feet away from my 22 inch monitors or 10 feet away from my 42 inch TV, its going to feel about the same, even if they are both running at 1920x1080
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Why is it that they are unacceptable for image editing?
 
bevo
Why is it that they are unacceptable for image editing?
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I'll correct myself - they can work for it, but compared to a nice IPS panel, the colors aren't going to be as nice. Then pixel density, etc. And then with lots of text you eyes have to do a lot more moving to read through things, plus messing with the DPI of the OS so things are even readable. I use my TV for gaming and watching movies - any time I do work or even a lot of web stuff, I just use my monitors on my main computer - 3 monitors on my desk gives me considerably more digital work space than having my TV setup as the main monitor.

AOS- you can edit on them, but I'd be nervous about color accuracy. Especially on a cheaper TV. For everything else, I'd say it would be fine. Do take what I say about image editing with a grain of salt; I intend to sell my photography and work at a professional level eventually.
 
Thanks guys for the info. Will give it a try, worst case scenario i'll get a more dedicated monitor at a later date, but hoping for decent results with this :)
 
Tyger
Thanks guys for the info. Will give it a try, worst case scenario i'll get a more dedicated monitor at a later date, but hoping for decent results with this :)
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Get yourself a calibration disk to setup your tv, before you decide if you want to use the tv or not. The pc will look very, very bright and the color will seem bad unless you get the tv calibrated at least decently.

I haven't tried this one yet, but it's suppose to be very good.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000V6LST0/?tag=gtplanet-20

Here is the one I use, which is also good but it's a dvd and not blu ray
I actually use the older version of avia
http://www.hdtvsupply.com/avgutohoth.html

One of these will make a huge difference with your tv and make your colors look much better. At first it will seem like your tv is kind of dark, but that's just because they are overly bright with the factory settings.
 
Tyger
1. What is the best method of connection, HDMI? Both my TV and the computer I am looking at have HDMI sockets.

2. Is there any delay/latency when using a TV with a PC? I'm guessing not as this would also then be the case with my PS3? Although perhaps it depends more on the video card output.

3. Are there likely to be any issues with adjusting the TV? I guess it will try to auto-adjust to some extent but i've heard stories of black bars around the picture and such.
Click to expand...

HDMI can give you a better picture, certainly. And depending on the TV you may or may not have any sort of objectionable processing lag. Generally the more processing the TV has to do (scaling, mosquito noise or macro block filtering, etc), the more lag you will see. If you're getting a 1080p TV, it's a good idea to make sure you computer can handle everything you'd want to do at 1920 x 1080 resolution. A decent gaming desktop PC these days should be able to handle that just fine though. Also, some TVs offer VGA inputs that bypass the internal processing entirely, but look out for other caveats if you do that. Some TVs won't even let you adjust basic picture settings when using VGA in, or only accept an input resolution that's lower than the TV's panel resolution, which sort of defeats the purpose.

As bevo mentioned earlier, PC gaming on a big HDTV can be thrilling. If have designs on going beyond 1080p though, right now you're still looking at PC monitors (and bad mofo PCs to drive them). Also consider refresh rate. Correct me if I'm wrong here people, but I believe today's 3D TVs don't accept 120Hz 1080p signals via their inputs. So if you're building or buying a powerful PC cable of sustained 120fps at 1080p, you may want to look at PC monitors too. Otherwise you'll want to keep your image Vsynced and at 60fps.

As for image editing, I'd imagine there have to be some IPS panel HDTVs out there. I've Googled it now and then, but getting specifics about a lot of TV panels has been tough. If your priority is gaming though, then I wouldn't sweat it too much. If you buy a nice monitor or TV and really learn and take the time to calibrate it, it can look pretty stunning. I have an Xrite i1 Pro from work and really dialed in my projector. It took time, but it was sooo worth it. The aforementioned discs are good. I've used DVE in the past. You can also download free disc images of patterns too: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=948496
 
bevo
I use a plasma and I think it works great. Some others in another thread don't seem to agree with me, but I'll never go back to a pc monitor after using my 50 inch pasma. I use a mini HDMI to HDMI. As far as lag goes, there is none at all with mine, plamsas have a much better delay then LCD or LED.
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Do you get any image retention or burn in using your Plasma with your computer? Because obviously there will be lots of static images on screen.
 
Robin.
Do you get any image retention or burn in using your Plasma with your computer? Because obviously there will be lots of static images on screen.
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I haven't yet. Last night I somehow got into a 6 hour star craft 2 marathon and everyhting is fine today. With my first plasma I bought it was a problem in some games with health bars, but anything made in the last 3 or 4 years is much better. I've used this tv for pretty much gaming and pc only, and have never had an image retain so much as a faint ghost on the screen at all.

I really think plasmas got a bad rap because of the early models. It doesn't seem that the burn in is an issue an more. Now if you left it on for 2 or 3 days with a static image you might have a problem. I've had this one for 3 years, and my 5 year old plays halo split screen by himself, and doesn't even move the guy on the bottom screen. It never hurt anything. I put a stop to it after I found out what he was doing, but I really don't think it would have hurt anything anyway.
 
These days plasmas are supposed to be much better about image retention and image degradation. Power consumption has gotten more efficient too.
 
I'd say go for it. I've been using a 32" (LCD) as my main monitor for quite some time and I love gaming on it.
 

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