Nvidia, HDTVs and Text

[Deeky]

I recently purchased a 32" HDTV to use as the primary monitor for my PC. I slogged through exhaustive research prior to making the purchase, ensuring the TV I eventually settled on ticked all of my boxes, in order of importance:

1) Readable text.
2) Minimal input lag (for an HDTV).
2) Accurate colors w/ true 4:4:4 support.
3) Above average responsiveness.
5) Native 24p playback.

I finally settled on the LG 32LD450, the only 32" LCD I could find that touched all the bases. According to numerous reports (and exhaustive testing by several individuals across multiple forums), the LG was the clear winner. The only contender, really.

So here I am, the LG on my desk. Playing games on it is fantastic. Movies are great. I *WANT* to love it but I simply cannot come to terms with the quality of the text in Windows 7 64-bit. I realize rendering PC text is a weak point of HDTV's but all reports prior to purchase indicated the text quality on the LG was "pin sharp" and "excellent".

After more digging and several quick PMs, I came to a conclusion: Of the five users I've been discussing the matter with (all five own an LD450 and use it as a PC display), I'm the only one running an Nvidia GPU. They're all with ATI. It's literally the only variable. Compared to one guy on AVForum, not only do I have the same panel; it's the same panel from the same assembly plant with the exact same firmware according to the product/service code and the service menu.

So what? Does ATI somehow excel at rendering 2D text better than Nvidia?

 

[kllrnohj]

The video card doesn't render text at all, so nvidia vs. Ati is irrelevant.

Instead, play around with the clear type settings in windows.

 

[Deeky]

The video card doesn't render text at all, so nvidia vs. Ati is irrelevant.

Instead, play around with the clear type settings in windows.

Cheers, but I've played around with ClearType for days.

It's weird. Those w/ ATI report crystal clear text. I simply cannot reproduce anything I'd consider acceptable with my GTX 285. Assuming you're correct and the GPU is irrelevant, there must be another variable we're failing to notice.

EDIT: Hmm. I keep running across users forced to hack Nvidia EDID when using a flat panel over DVI-HDMI (which I am). Some of the posts are relatively recent. It could be relevant.

 

[addictedto60fps]

Not sure if this will help you, but it might be worth a try. Assuming you're using Windows 7, try fiddling with the different fonts and font sizes in Windows 7. I think the default font in Windows 7 is horrible on my Apple 27" cinema display, so I started to play around with font sizes/styles and found one that looks so much better. Much easier on the eyes and I think it's much sharper. See my post below I made in another thread:

http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1036321283&postcount=234

 

[450]

Try VGA at 1080p.

 

[SJetski71]

OP there's a panel lottery on that model LG, some are S-IPS and some are AUO-VA panels, i'm sure that'll skew the results as well. I don't know which panel is better with text.

And when you get a chance, read the last 4 pages of the input lag thread at AVS, lately they've been going into detail over 4:4:4 and smudged text. And of all things they found a budget model RCA TV to be competent with 4:4:4 and low input lag.

That's unless you're that AVS member known as DE3K? If so then you should have read all of that already

 

[kllrnohj]

Cheers, but I've played around with ClearType for days.

It's weird. Those w/ ATI report crystal clear text. I simply cannot reproduce anything I'd consider acceptable with my GTX 285. Assuming you're correct and the GPU is irrelevant, there must be another variable we're failing to notice.

EDIT: Hmm. I keep running across users forced to hack Nvidia EDID when using a flat panel over DVI-HDMI (which I am). Some of the posts are relatively recent. It could be relevant.

Well, it could be a subtle overscan problem. Does the TV in question have a 1:1 option? Are you outputting its native res (what resolution are you outputting)? It could still be related to the video card, but the fonts themselves are rendered by Windows (aka, ClearType)

 

[Deeky]

That's unless you're that AVS member known as DE3K? If so then you should have read all of that already

That's me! Thanks for the info, though.

Cheers, I've already tried VGA and the text was a little better, though it introduced artifacts during movie playback I'm otherwise not willing to deal with.

I'll definitely try messing with font sizes and types in Win 7. Maybe that in combo with some additional ClearType tweaking will make a difference.

 

[Deeky]

Well, it could be a subtle overscan problem. Does the TV in question have a 1:1 option? Are you outputting its native res (what resolution are you outputting)? It could still be related to the video card, but the fonts themselves are rendered by Windows (aka, ClearType)

I've been using "Just Scan", which I understand is 1:1. 16:9 results in quite a bit of overscan. I'm currently outputting the native 1080p resolution.

 

[SJetski71]

That's me! Thanks for the info, though.

NP, if all other tweaks fail, then try to follow up with panel types. There's ways of figuring out which panel you have, then compare it to the other forum members to see what panels they have, S-IPS vs AUO VA.

 

[evilsofa]

Is the TV's sharpness set correctly? If it isn't, it would definitely screw with text. Check it with this:

http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/sharpness.php

Some of the other tests, like Inversion (pixel-walk) may help diagnose what's going wrong.

 

[Lateralus]

I've read that the LH series was much better at producing crisp text than the LD series, but if other guys are reporting razor sharp text it could come down to a setting in the drivers or HDTV menu, or a cable? No reason you shouldn't get crisp text with an nVidia card unless something in the mix has issues...