whats a good tv to be used as a monitor?

aj1soad

aj1soad

aj1soad

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Joined
29 Aug 2009
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173
hi all. im after a tv for my pc. its mainly going to be used for gaming, watching films and web browsing. i was thinking of getting something like a 32" and my budget is £350. my current setup is:
Be Quiet 530W Pure Power PSU - 120mm Fan Dual 12V Rails 5x SATA 2x PCI-E
Casecom 6788 Black Mid Tower Case with Full Black Interior/Exterior 120mm Blue LED Front Fan - No PSU
Samsung F3 500Gb
Samsung SH-S223 22X DVD±RW/RAM/DL Serial ATA Black Bare Drive - OEM
HIS HD 5770 1GB GDDR5 DVI HDMI Display Port Out PCI-E Graphics Card
Crucial 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1333MHz/PC3-10600 Memory Kit CL9 1.5V
AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Socket AM3 3.2 GHz 8MB L3 Cache Retail Boxed Processor
Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3 AMD 770 Socket AM3 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard
 
I'm using this sony unit 'Sony bravia KDL-32EX301' which I picked up early this year for £350 and it works very well with my HTPC in our living room. Native res is 1366 x 768 though.
 
what kind of distance away fromt he screen will you be?
1920*1080 on a 22/24" Vs 1920*1080 on a 32" the pixels will be a lot bigger and very noticeable if your close to the screen.
 
That should be fine for 32" at 1920/1080, I'm playing on a 32" sony bravia at about half a metre away and looks pretty much fine lol

So you should be fine with that. Couldn't recommend one myself as I haven't looked at them in a few years but just thought I'd clear that up ;)
 
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I am using a LG M2762D and it is awesome. Its 27inch but beautiful contrast and look (imo). It is so good my dad got one about a month after me for his pc.
 
I game on my 40" Samsung 6 Series and it's really good. My friend brought round his 37" LG (think it's the LH4010) and it's nowhere near as good.

When I was looking to buy the above Samsung I remember reading that Samsung LCDs are generally very good TVs to use a monitors - don't know how true this still is.
 
I used a 1920x1080 technica 32" tv as a monitor for a while, about 3 feet away, the picture quality was better than my 24" samsung monitor but since the samsung is 1920x1200 I could "see more" even though its a much smaller screen.
 
which one comes first gaming or watching films?
probably if gaming id go for a monitor if watching films a tv
 
I use a 37" Samsung LH3000 1080P TV as my monitor - I sit 1m away

It seemed a bit ridiculous at first - but now I'm used to it and it's awesome

I'm not sure I'd like a 720P TV as a monitor, the res would be too low
 
Interesting, does anyone know the real technical differences between a TV panel and a monitor panel?

Is refresh rate an issue, obviously you wont go over 1920x1080 on a TV where as larger monitors will.

I have my 40" Samsung which uses a HDMI from my HTPC but I have res issues at times, no matter what I have done I cannot get the 1920x1080 res to properly fill the screen. Lower res works fine and will scale to screen but 1920x1080 will not fill the screen despite being native res.
Only option I found that would work was a manual scaling in CCC.

I was thinking of possibly getting a 32" Tv to use as a monitor since I mainly play WOW I am sure the refresh would be good enough. Do TVs have DVI connections? Pretty sure my Sammy hasn't just the old fashioned monitor plug.
 
im using a Samsung Syncmaster P2470HD its a 24" 1080p TV/Monitor

not sure if they come in 32" but its solid so far.

:)

http://www.richersounds.com/product/lcd-tv/samsung/p2470hd/sams-p2470hd

from spec

"When it comes to connections this 24 inch Samsung LCD is seriously well equipped, with HDMI, DVI, component and VGA (PC) inputs. It gives you a lot of versatility for using it as a PC monitor or connecting it up to a Blu-ray player to watch your favourite movies in High Definition. Although the P2470HD has Freeview built-in, doing away with the need for a separate Freeview box, there are still component and SCART sockets - ideal for a Wii and VCR or older DVD players."
 
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jakesnake said:
im using a Samsung Syncmaster P2470HD its a 24" 1080p TV/Monitor

not sure if they come in 32" but its solid so far.

:)

http://www.richersounds.com/product/lcd-tv/samsung/p2470hd/sams-p2470hd

from spec

"When it comes to connections this 24 inch Samsung LCD is seriously well equipped, with HDMI, DVI, component and VGA (PC) inputs. It gives you a lot of versatility for using it as a PC monitor or connecting it up to a Blu-ray player to watch your favourite movies in High Definition. Although the P2470HD has Freeview built-in, doing away with the need for a separate Freeview box, there are still component and SCART sockets - ideal for a Wii and VCR or older DVD players."
Click to expand...

Got the P2450 which is HD 1080p but without the tv bit, hence the 50 not the 70. Going to get myself one of those and use my old one as a second monitor :) Perfect!
 
robskinner said:
I have my 40" Samsung which uses a HDMI from my HTPC but I have res issues at times, no matter what I have done I cannot get the 1920x1080 res to properly fill the screen. Lower res works fine and will scale to screen but 1920x1080 will not fill the screen despite being native res.
Only option I found that would work was a manual scaling in CCC.
Click to expand...

I had similar issues when i tried out my PC on my 37" LG for the hell of it. You need to make sure your TV isn't overscanning (probably will be in most modes) and that your GFX card isn't underscanning. For some reason when i first hooked it up via HDMI I had exactly that, so whilst the screen was filled, the GFX card was resizing down and the TV was then resizing back up - the result was a blurred mess like an image badly resized in photoshop. You need to find the 1:1 pixel mapping mode on your TV (if it has one), called 'just scan' on my LG as opposed to other options like 'movie zoom', 'standard' etc which all seem to have some degree of scaling. When I found this option the image didn't fill the screen and it took some googling to find out my 5850 was underscanning, and Sherlock Holmes skills to find the 'scaling' option in CCC and set it to 100%. With all that sorted I suddenly had a beautiful crisp 1:1 pixel perfect 1080p display just like using a monitor.

It's an LG 37LH3010 which you can grab for bang on your £350 budget from Richer sounds. It was fun gaming on such a big screen sitting on a bean bag about 1-1.5 metres away with keyboard and mouse on a tray on my lap :). Didn't notice any input lag or motion blur even in FPS, eg L4D. Ultimately though it was just temporary - I can't really hog the TV from the Mrs, and the gaming experience sitting at my desk a couple of ft away from my 24" 1920x1200 Nec monitor is prettier and more comfortable.
 
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