Using TV as a monitor

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Hi chaps

I've mentioned this question a few times in a few places and people tend to avoid answering it, or, dont bother because its not even worth mentioning?!

I am building a pc for my bedroom, to use on my 52" tv up there

I will be using HDMI and the graphics card will be an HD6950, the resolution is 1920x1080

questions:
Does it look GOOD on a tv ?
Does it play games as well as a monitor?
Any limitations?
Can I use the onboard sound through the hdmi and tv speakers?
Is it just as simple as plugging in to the tv and off you go?

The TV is a Sharp LC52XD1E if its relevant

I just want to make sure it will be good before I ***** £1000 on the new hardware!! :)

Thanks
 
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Of course if the features are being provided with the TV then manufacturer has thought and considered these factors while manufacturing it. So I would like you to raise these questions at the shop while buying it.
 
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Hi there, I currently use a TV as a secondary monitor and it's great - but there are big variations in TVs and not all are wll suited for use with a PC.

First thing I look for is pixel size and how far you are from the TV. Your 52in TV is 1080p, while most 22-23in PC monitors are the same resolution. This means the pixels on your TV are much larger and you would need to sit much further back to see a good image.

Next is response time, based on reviews the 4ms quoted response times translates into a decent real-world performance in motion-heavy tests. This is a pretty subjective test as well as people perceive image ghosting differently - and some can tolerate it more than others. It also depends on what you will be doing exactly with the TV, and how much fast-paced content you will be putting on it.

Input lag, this is one of the main reasons why people don't use TVs as PC monitors - the lag between the video signal being sent to the monitor and it being displayed on-screen is much higher in most TVs than in PC monitors (as TVs do a lot of processing on the image which slows things down). I'm not sure how bad this will be on your TV, but you can test it by running the same screen (clone screen) on the TV and a fast PC monitor and how much the image on the TV lags behind. This lag (as well as ghosting due to slow response times) will affect your performance (and enjoyment on fast-paced online games) - though for single player games (or console games) there is less on an issue.

The last main big problem (in my mind at least) is TV post processing (like image sharpening) make the image look bad on a PC monitor - especially if you are displaying text. Often this can be disabled or turned down, but unless you make these adjustments a TV will look pretty poor for standard PC work.


As for speakers - all you need to do is plug the HDMI cable from the 6950 to the TV and enable the AMD audio device in windows.
 
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From what i've read, if you're gaming on a pc, a moniter will look a lot better. Gaming on a tv will look ok, but not great. Gaming on a console a tv is better. For movies and general interweb stuff a tv should be fine. Just depends on how much you play pc games.

not sure on the sound. Been awhile since i plugged my tv in. But apart from yeah, plug the tv in and your done.
 
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Thanks guys, and a huge thank you to cmndr_andi


That is exactly the information I've been searching for, and it's now cast into doubt whether I should go ahead or not (as ideally I wanted to use it for gaming, playing an MMO)

I think it would be prudent for me to test it out first, and see how it performs - I hope my current GPU has an HDMI output (GTS250), I'll lug it upstairs and see how it performs.

If not I might see about an xbox or something. Thanks again :)
 
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I tried WOW on my last years Samsung C8005 and it was way to slow due to input lagg compared to monitor and the resolution wasnt any good either.
I got a Hazro to use as monitor and as backup TV for xbox and my HD satellite reciever and it works better with monitor as backup for TV than the other way around.
 
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Thats what I'm thinking - Especially raiding etc when there's a ton of stuff to render / mass fights going on I just wonder how it will cope never mind the lag that you get anyway.
I just happen to have the TV up on the wall in my room already and I wanted something to play on there so its not like I could opt for a monitor instead... xbox with Skyrim looks like a cheap and sensible option at the moment
 
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To be clear - if you play a game on your console, it will be affected by the exact same lag on the TV as a PC game is. The only difference may be that the PC game is rendered at a much higher resolution and higher framerate - while the lower image quality of the console game can help hide this lag a bit (but imho this isn't much of a win for consoles).

But to be honest, if you are mainly playing single player games (and especially RPGs) or MMORPGs then even if the TV has a high input lag then the should still be perfectly playable and you will get used to the lag. Input lag is really only a big problem when you are playing fast-paced competitive multiplayer games (where a 50ms lag can mean the difference between a headshot and a near miss).

If you want to test out your TV with your current graphics card (GTS 250) and see how it plays then I would suggest using this adapter (if you already have a HDMI cable) or this cable.
 
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Soldato
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Well, using a TV as a monitor is great. My last two monitors have both been TVs.

If the Sharp TV has a game mode or the option to turn off all video processing then it should be fine for games.
 
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