LCD as PC monitor help

COOL^J

COOL^J

COOL^J

Associate
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
173
Location
derbyshire uk
I did a search on this subject but found nothing. Is there anybody that has used a 32" LCD 1080p screen as a PC monitor. Are they any good for this what's good points and bad.

I'm looking to spend about £600
I Play game and watch films

My Spec is

I7 CPU
ATI 5870
6 GB of memory

Any help would be really appreciated
 
I used to use a 37" Toshiba LCD as a monitor, it was just as good as the nice Dell LCD monitor on the mrs' PC. The main issue at that size is that it's too big to sit directly in front of, and too small to sit away from. ATM I use a 46" Panasonic 1080p Plasma as my monitor. And I can honestly say it's been the best screen i've ever used with any PC, plus burn-in is a non-issue as i've left mine for hours on the desktop and any retention is gone after 10 mins of freeview. If you're dead set on a 32" all I can say is get a decent branded 1080p LCD. Another plus is games that still have screen tearing on a 75/85hz pc monitor (Resident Evil 5) even with vsync on, don't have any at all and are silky smooth on a Plasma. Plus there's nothing like a BIG tv for gaming, especially on a 360 pad, I would never go back to a monitor :)
 
Last edited:
I used a 32" TV (only 720) for a year and now ive gone to a 24" 1080 monitor. I wouldnt touch the HDTV again! They simply are not designed for PC's Colours are washed out. they certainly are not as sharp and (research into this) pixel dot pitch is very bad.

There is a reason a 32" PC monitor costs close to a £1k and a 32" HTDV can be had from £300,

I do freelance web design and it was AWFUL for things like photoshop. Gradients dont look right as there arent enough colours available on the screen. You can see physical lines instead of a gradual change of colour.
 
stoke1863 said:
I used a 32" TV (only 720) for a year and now ive gone to a 24" 1080 monitor. I wouldnt touch the HDTV again! They simply are not designed for PC's Colours are washed out. they certainly are not as sharp and (research into this) pixel dot pitch is very bad.

There is a reason a 32" PC monitor costs close to a £1k and a 32" HTDV can be had from £300,

I do freelance web design and it was AWFUL for things like photoshop. Gradients dont look right as there arent enough colours available on the screen. You can see physical lines instead of a gradual change of colour.
Click to expand...

get a better brand :p
 
You're dead right there stoke, that's why I wanted a decent Panny plasma. The colours are glorious on it, and the depth to very dark scenes beats any monitor i've ever had for the pc. I highly recommend them for pc's, I was truly stunned just how good they are. As for LCD, I can't stand them anymore, anyone who's seen mine has said it's much nicer looking, with richer colours and silky smoothness than their LCD tv's or monitors.
 
COOL^J said:
I did a search on this subject but found nothing. Is there anybody that has used a 32" LCD 1080p screen as a PC monitor. Are they any good for this what's good points and bad.

I'm looking to spend about £600
I Play game and watch films

My Spec is

I7 CPU
ATI 5870
6 GB of memory

Any help would be really appreciated
Click to expand...

if you get a decent one sony/sharp or maybe samsung then you should be ok...there are others but im not listing them all.

the thing to look out for aswell as resolution is response time...in fast past games (fps mainly) you can get ghosting with a high reponse time...look for 8ms or less.

plasma tv's dont have that problem but personally i would rather not sit too close to them as they tend to let off more heat, that may not be an issue depending on how far you sit from it.
 
That's good advice Amnesia, if you look at the manufacturers spec of any half decent tv that you want to buy nowadays, you can usually find the response time listed. Generally they sway it slightly in their favour by testing grey to grey response, but if you can get a tv say 6ms (which many Samsung/Sony's are), it will be much nicer for gaming. As for the plasma thing, that's true, you need quite a large one to sit a few feet away from (with 360 pad and wireless kb/mouse) due to the screen getting quite hot. Nice at the moment though, you don't need the radiators on in here lol.
 
Dont fall for the mistake I did with my new Panny, the VGA does not output 1080p max is 720p and the picture quality is blurry and poor.
I was outputting out of my NC10 so I sold it and replaced it with a Shuttle with HDMI out, as it was the only way the TV would do it. Might work DVI to HDMI though on a PC. Tried on a Macbook and it never, could have been the limits of the OS not TV though.
When it works the picture is pretty good, not as good as my 24" or 20" monitors but its alright, only use it for films anyway.
 
Thanks for the replys lads.

So with a budget of £600 do you think I would get a descent 32" 1080p LCD any ideas in witch make and model to go for ?
 
why do people have this hype on getting 1080p/i TVs. If your going to be connecting a monitor to watch movies / play games and general web browsing then any monitor now a days have better resolution higher than 1080p.

Heck - my NEC 24WMGX3 does 1920 x 1200.
 
I'm using HDMI on my Panny at 1920x1080, as Banny said VGA doesn't go over 1360x768 so it has to upscale and you lose desktop space. If you have a Radeon card though as you do, the HDMI output is fantastic, and also as a big bonus supports sound through your HDMI lead. It's like having a console, blu-ray and media centre all in one, with no cumbersome wires around the place.
 
Banny said:
Dont fall for the mistake I did with my new Panny, the VGA does not output 1080p max is 720p and the picture quality is blurry and poor.
I was outputting out of my NC10 so I sold it and replaced it with a Shuttle with HDMI out, as it was the only way the TV would do it. Might work DVI to HDMI though on a PC. Tried on a Macbook and it never, could have been the limits of the OS not TV though.
When it works the picture is pretty good, not as good as my 24" or 20" monitors but its alright, only use it for films anyway.
Click to expand...

dvi to hdmi works fine
 
As the OP has a 5870 it already has a HDMI port built into the card. So it's just a simple matter of getting a lead from almost any supermarket or hifi shop, then installing the gfx driver with HDMI sound enabled. VGA is really poor on a 1080p tv as the image is upscaled, through HDMI it should be pinsharp like a proper monitor.
 
Schizophonic said:
why do people have this hype on getting 1080p/i TVs. If your going to be connecting a monitor to watch movies / play games and general web browsing then any monitor now a days have better resolution higher than 1080p.

Heck - my NEC 24WMGX3 does 1920 x 1200.
Click to expand...

Because you can get a decent quality LG 1080p 32" telly for £329, you can't get a 30" LCD for that money. I use an LG 32" with a PVA baed panel, it's very good.

@ Stoke: 1080p on 32" makes a massive difference as a monitor, it has over twice the pixel density as a 720p screen!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom