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Using a TV as a PC monitor what do I need to look for?


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Old 14-06-2016, 18:42
soulboy22
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Hello all,

upgrading my PC, and going to get a bigger monitor. This will be a media PC rather than a gaming one. I was going to go for a Phillips 40 inch UHD monitor, but the model I wanted is now out of stock. It seems these were originally tv's that had tuner's removed. What should I look for in a TV to use as a monitor?

Regards

Soulboy
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Old 14-06-2016, 23:07
Chris Frost
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Any TV can be used to display the image from a PC, and they work okay for casual view. The limitations come with lag and scaling. Lag is because the TVs processing delays the picture as it works. You can get rid of most of this delay (but not all) by putting the TV in to PC or Game mode. The effect is to switch off a lot of the processing responsible for delaying the image.

Scaling is harder to bypass. This is the thing that takes any resolution image and makes it fit the screen resolution. It's how a standard definition image at 720x576 pixels (de-interlaced) is expanded up to 1920x1080 for a Full HD set.

It would be reasonable to expect that simply setting the PC output to the native display resolution of the TV would be enough to ensure nice sharply-defined text, and with PC monitors it is, but not always with TVs. There's often a processing layer sitting in between the source signal and the panel that gets in the way. Partly this is to do with refresh rate because PCs generally run at a minimum 60 progressive frames per second whereas TVs are expecting progressive images 24 / 25 / 30 frames per second, or interlaced images at 50 fields/s for UK- or 59.94 fields/s for American-sourced video content. In basic terms then the TV is expecting to deal with images that conform to video standards where there's quite a lot of anti-aliasing that softens the boundaries between areas of high contrast such as black text on a white background. The best you can do then is to ensure that if the TV has an overscan feature that it's turned off with a PC source, and that usually happens in PC mode anyway.
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Old 15-06-2016, 18:29
soulboy22
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Any TV can be used to display the image from a PC, and they work okay for casual view. The limitations come with lag and scaling. Lag is because the TVs processing delays the picture as it works. You can get rid of most of this delay (but not all) by putting the TV in to PC or Game mode. The effect is to switch off a lot of the processing responsible for delaying the image.

Scaling is harder to bypass. This is the thing that takes any resolution image and makes it fit the screen resolution. It's how a standard definition image at 720x576 pixels (de-interlaced) is expanded up to 1920x1080 for a Full HD set.

It would be reasonable to expect that simply setting the PC output to the native display resolution of the TV would be enough to ensure nice sharply-defined text, and with PC monitors it is, but not always with TVs. There's often a processing layer sitting in between the source signal and the panel that gets in the way. Partly this is to do with refresh rate because PCs generally run at a minimum 60 progressive frames per second whereas TVs are expecting progressive images 24 / 25 / 30 frames per second, or interlaced images at 50 fields/s for UK- or 59.94 fields/s for American-sourced video content. In basic terms then the TV is expecting to deal with images that conform to video standards where there's quite a lot of anti-aliasing that softens the boundaries between areas of high contrast such as black text on a white background. The best you can do then is to ensure that if the TV has an overscan feature that it's turned off with a PC source, and that usually happens in PC mode anyway.
Thanks for such an informative post. That gives me something to go on
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Old 22-06-2016, 21:22
banbury_oddball
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I've used a tv with a computer for a few years. Currently I have a 49" LG HDTV and connected to my media pic to it via HDMI, and with the graphics card, it easily outputs 1920x1080p. So great for movies, and music videos that I've downloaded and play on it. It's also connected to my amp so get 5.1 sound. I have the DPI set to 125% so that I can view the icons and task bar easily. I have a similar set up in the kitchen and also the bedroom albeit on smaller screens. It has an SSD so it boots in 15 seconds from power on. I also use Kodi and with addons view many additional films and to series., and handy to show family pictures on and play music, Internet radio etc. The 'ribbons' screen saver looks ok on a big screen too if you decide to keep the to on whilst listening to music.

So it's easily done and you don't need a top of the range pc to do what you are looking for, if you have a media pic style case, you may need to look for a 'low profile' graphics card so it will fit in the case. I also purchased a blu Ray drive but since copied my DVD's and Blu Ray to my server pc and stream from them to the other PCs around the house.

I'm not sure what it would look like on an UHD tv. Only the latest video cards will output to the resolution of UHD and they are pricey. Ask around and see if anyone you know has a computer connected to a screen but doubt you won't find any/many connected to UHD tv's.

Drop me a PM or post again if you need further help.
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Old 23-06-2016, 12:58
Philip Wales
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When my new PC arrives it will be going on my OLED 4K 55", so I will let you now how it goes.
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Old 24-06-2016, 17:23
soulboy22
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I've used a tv with a computer for a few years. Currently I have a 49" LG HDTV and connected to my media pic to it via HDMI, and with the graphics card, it easily outputs 1920x1080p. So great for movies, and music videos that I've downloaded and play on it. It's also connected to my amp so get 5.1 sound. I have the DPI set to 125% so that I can view the icons and task bar easily. I have a similar set up in the kitchen and also the bedroom albeit on smaller screens. It has an SSD so it boots in 15 seconds from power on. I also use Kodi and with addons view many additional films and to series., and handy to show family pictures on and play music, Internet radio etc. The 'ribbons' screen saver looks ok on a big screen too if you decide to keep the to on whilst listening to music.

So it's easily done and you don't need a top of the range pc to do what you are looking for, if you have a media pic style case, you may need to look for a 'low profile' graphics card so it will fit in the case. I also purchased a blu Ray drive but since copied my DVD's and Blu Ray to my server pc and stream from them to the other PCs around the house.

I'm not sure what it would look like on an UHD tv. Only the latest video cards will output to the resolution of UHD and they are pricey. Ask around and see if anyone you know has a computer connected to a screen but doubt you won't find any/many connected to UHD tv's.

Drop me a PM or post again if you need further help.
Many Thanks for the offer, and I think I will PM you at some point. UHD is not a killer for me, but thought I may as well go future proof. Gone for a gtx 970 and whilst not a true UHD will certainly handle 1920 x 1080. looking at this for the monitor.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-KD-43X...&tag=rtings-21
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Old 24-06-2016, 23:48
Winston_1
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Many Thanks for the offer, and I think I will PM you at some point. UHD is not a killer for me, but thought I may as well go future proof. Gone for a gtx 970 and whilst not a true UHD will certainly handle 1920 x 1080. looking at this for the monitor.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-KD-43X...&tag=rtings-21
You can't future proof as no one knows the future.
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Old 26-06-2016, 08:30
soulboy22
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I've used a tv with a computer for a few years. Currently I have a 49" LG HDTV and connected to my media pic to it via HDMI, and with the graphics card, it easily outputs 1920x1080p. So great for movies, and music videos that I've downloaded and play on it. It's also connected to my amp so get 5.1 sound. I have the DPI set to 125% so that I can view the icons and task bar easily. I have a similar set up in the kitchen and also the bedroom albeit on smaller screens. It has an SSD so it boots in 15 seconds from power on. I also use Kodi and with addons view many additional films and to series., and handy to show family pictures on and play music, Internet radio etc. The 'ribbons' screen saver looks ok on a big screen too if you decide to keep the to on whilst listening to music.

So it's easily done and you don't need a top of the range pc to do what you are looking for, if you have a media pic style case, you may need to look for a 'low profile' graphics card so it will fit in the case. I also purchased a blu Ray drive but since copied my DVD's and Blu Ray to my server pc and stream from them to the other PCs around the house.

I'm not sure what it would look like on an UHD tv. Only the latest video cards will output to the resolution of UHD and they are pricey. Ask around and see if anyone you know has a computer connected to a screen but doubt you won't find any/many connected to UHD tv's.

Drop me a PM or post again if you need further help.
Decided to go for this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...k_ql_qh_dp_hza

Seems to have the Chroma 4:4:4 needed
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