42"+ HDTV as PC Display. How Usable?

F

flight16

n00b
Joined
Oct 29, 2005
Messages
25
Sorry if there's already a thread on the topic, but I haven't been able to find one... or much on Google.

I'm moving to a tiny, tiny apartment, so I'm thinking about buying a large 1080p HDTV (42-52") and using that as my monitor to save on the need for an elaborate PC desk setup.

I know it's possible and I know people do this. The reason I created this thread was to get comments about the following from people who have tried it:

  1. How big is your TV (size and resolution)
  2. Does it strain your eyes to read text at 6'-10' away? For example, XP menu items, a document in notepad, or chat text in a FPS/RTS game. This is the point I am most curious about and haven't been able to find any information on.
  3. How bad is ghosting? How bad is ghosting compared to the mid-range gaming LCDs of the season?

I know I could get one of those 37" Westinghouses or similar, but my first priority is to have a sizable TV I can sit back and watch and that I can also use for PC work/gaming... (ie. -not- have a 37" LCD at my desk that I can also watch TV on).

I don't know if it really matters, but I'll be using the TV primarily for TV, console gaming, some PC gaming, programming, and the usual email/surfing (...so I guess that means I'd like to use it for everything)

Thanks for your comments.
 
flight16 said:
bump

Nobody has tried their PC on a 42"+ 1080p TV?
Click to expand...

I have tried a bunch of TV products to display Computer information. For me it’s still in a place where so called convergence technology is way behind. If you are doing a Power Point display it works fine but sucks for reading email or picture detail if you want to edit a photo.

I’m not saying you can’t do it, I have a feed from this pc to a 48” HD but in the end it’s not crisp for computing and my Samsung 244T is too digital looking for movies. I like my movies to look like film, not a computer game.

As far as 1080p I think that will be a lot like CD was back in the beginning. The audio engineers knew all there was to know about analog tape and knew exactly what to do with each brand etc. Digital isn’t like that and so far both HD DVD formats at 1080p have way too many artifact issues for my tasted, but that will change just like the Music recording business did.

It’s a tough call and it all depends on how fussy you are as a user is what it comes down too.

With luck you have a computer store nearby with both setups that you can see in person. I know Microcenters do. Some of the really big Office Max and Office Depot stores do as well.

Again, no flames please I can only represent my own opinion, not others.:rolleyes:
 
BillR said:
I have tried a bunch of TV products to display Computer information. For me it’s still in a place where so called convergence technology is way behind. If you are doing a Power Point display it works fine but sucks for reading email or picture detail if you want to edit a photo.

I’m not saying you can’t do it, I have a feed from this pc to a 48” HD but in the end it’s not crisp for computing and my Samsung 244T is too digital looking for movies. I like my movies to look like film, not a computer game.

As far as 1080p I think that will be a lot like CD was back in the beginning. The audio engineers knew all there was to know about analog tape and knew exactly what to do with each brand etc. Digital isn’t like that and so far both HD DVD formats at 1080p have way too many artifact issues for my tasted, but that will change just like the Music recording business did.

It’s a tough call and it all depends on how fussy you are as a user is what it comes down too.

With luck you have a computer store nearby with both setups that you can see in person. I know Microcenters do. Some of the really big Office Max and Office Depot stores do as well.

Again, no flames please I can only represent my own opinion, not others.:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

You pretty much hit the nail on the head.
 
I'm considering the same thing. I'm going to take my laptop to Worst Buy and see if they will let me hook it up to a giant display.

There's lots of people here that use the 37" 1080P Westinghouse as a computer monitor. Check that thread.
 
If your apt is tiny, they just go with the 37 Westy. People rave about them.
 
All else being equal (which it's not, but bear with me; I'll get to that after the math bit), to get a good idea of how big a TV you can use as a computer monitor and at what distance, you can do the math. Here are the rough steps:
  1. Figure out how far you would sit from a 1920x1200 monitor. It doesn't matter what size since that can be a variable. Let's say with a 24" widescreen you sit 2.5 feet away = 30".
  2. Measure the width of the monitor--just the screen, not including the bezel. Let's say it's 20".
  3. Distance divided by width is a constant ratio for your comfortable seating position. In this case distance/width = 1.5.
  4. Now you can use this ratio to decide your screen size and seating distance combination, because both values are tied together by the ratio. For instance with a 42" 1080p with a width of about 36" you'd want to sit about 54" (4.5 feet) away to maintain the comfort ratio, since distance/width = 54"/36" = 1.5.

That's how you can figure out your comfortable seating distance for any given screen size and vice versa. You'll probably also want to do another ratio for absolute farthest distance vs. screen size (the distance at which if you moved any further away you'd have to squint to read the text), since it's seldom the case that anybody has their living room setup exactly to the specifications of the comfort ratio. That way you can have a seating distance range instead of an exact spot.

Having said all that about the theory, apparently in practice some LCD TVs are better for computer use than others because of image quality issues. Don't ask me why; I have no idea. Westinghouse's 1080p TVs are used a lot by [H]-ers, so it's probably one of the safer bets for computer use. Regardless, definitely try before you buy. The math will give you a rough idea of the size vs. seating distance, so depending on your room dimensions you can at least figure out what size TV to be looking at to begin with.
 
MentatYP said:
All else being equal (which it's not, but bear with me; I'll get to that after the math bit), to get a good idea of how big a TV you can use as a computer monitor and at what distance, you can do the math. Here are the rough steps:
  1. Figure out how far you would sit from a 1920x1200 monitor. It doesn't matter what size since that can be a variable. Let's say with a 24" widescreen you sit 2.5 feet away = 30".
  2. Measure the width of the monitor--just the screen, not including the bezel. Let's say it's 20".
  3. Distance divided by width is a constant ratio for your comfortable seating position. In this case distance/width = 1.5.
  4. Now you can use this ratio to decide your screen size and seating distance combination, because both values are tied together by the ratio. For instance with a 42" 1080p with a width of about 36" you'd want to sit about 54" (4.5 feet) away to maintain the comfort ratio, since distance/width = 54"/36" = 1.5.
Click to expand...

Interesting! I never thought of doing that. Thanks a lot! Now I have at least have a rule-of-thumb instead of no idea whatsoever.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top