Using an HD TV as a Computer Monitor
- Thread starter Marc
- Start date
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tomvehoski
I just put together a home theater PC from a Dell scratch & dent desktop plus a HDTV tuner card. It is mainly for movies/TV, but I can also surf the internet with it. I'm connected to a 52" LCD at 1080p (1920x1080) over HDMI. It also goes through my audio receiver for surround sound. I'm using the onboard graphics (ATI Radeon 4200) since it supports HDMI and Dolby Digital 5.1.
Windows 7 Media Center works great for the TV and movies stuff with the TV style remote that came with the tuner card (Hauppauge 2250). I'll surf at times with Firefox, but have to blow the text up to 150% to be able to read it from across the room. I use a bluetooth keyboard and mouse from the recliner or couch about 10-12' from the display. I also discovered a browser that is designed for HTPC use, but can't recall the name right now.
Most of my "computer" use for it has been for setup and troubleshooting. I find that if I want to surf the internet while watching TV, the laptop or netbook are easier to use.
Computer monitors these days are basically just HDTVs without tuners or speakers. With HDMI outputs becoming normal on video cards, and many HDTVs having VGA inputs they are becoming quite interchangeable.
Windows 7 Media Center works great for the TV and movies stuff with the TV style remote that came with the tuner card (Hauppauge 2250). I'll surf at times with Firefox, but have to blow the text up to 150% to be able to read it from across the room. I use a bluetooth keyboard and mouse from the recliner or couch about 10-12' from the display. I also discovered a browser that is designed for HTPC use, but can't recall the name right now.
Most of my "computer" use for it has been for setup and troubleshooting. I find that if I want to surf the internet while watching TV, the laptop or netbook are easier to use.
Computer monitors these days are basically just HDTVs without tuners or speakers. With HDMI outputs becoming normal on video cards, and many HDTVs having VGA inputs they are becoming quite interchangeable.
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True Position
Your monitor is one of the parts of a computer you deal with the most, it's one area I wouldn't cheap out on. TV's are lower resolution then monitors and the difference is quite drastic. I found a Sharp 22 inch television that outputs 1366x768. My Dell 2405 runs at 1900x1200.
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LNeJame
Hi Marc,
Ive got a similar setup at my house with an HTPC that i built and is hooked up to my 50" LG. I use a gyration remote(with air mouse) and wireless keyboard to navigate. The remote/air mouse is a bit cumbersome to use unless you are just doing some quick navigation.
The main purpose for the HTPC is to watch movies or play music, which you want in HD, whether 720p or 1080p. General computer usage is a bit of a pain at such a high resolution on a large screen. You would probably need to constantly switch the resolution back and forth between 1920 x 1080 for movies and something like 1280 x 720 or 1360 x 768 for general computer usage. Or just zoom in with the web browser....
Also if you dont happen to have HDMI out on your computer they make adapters to switch from like DVI to HDMI, etc.
Ive got a similar setup at my house with an HTPC that i built and is hooked up to my 50" LG. I use a gyration remote(with air mouse) and wireless keyboard to navigate. The remote/air mouse is a bit cumbersome to use unless you are just doing some quick navigation.
The main purpose for the HTPC is to watch movies or play music, which you want in HD, whether 720p or 1080p. General computer usage is a bit of a pain at such a high resolution on a large screen. You would probably need to constantly switch the resolution back and forth between 1920 x 1080 for movies and something like 1280 x 720 or 1360 x 768 for general computer usage. Or just zoom in with the web browser....
Also if you dont happen to have HDMI out on your computer they make adapters to switch from like DVI to HDMI, etc.
This is sorta why I'm asking. I have looked around a bit on the net but thought I'd ask here as well.
I don't have a TV. My thoughts have been to buy a MacMini because (in part) I use Macs so all my drives are Mac formatted, my LAN is on an Apple Airport Extreme dual band, and such. I would use the MacMini to play videos through the TV via HDMI (mainly using VLC) but want a TV which will have resolution close to my iMac (2560 by 1440 pixels) so I can use it as a computer monitor if I want to. I'm looking in the 55" size range.
I'm going to have to do some more research on TV vs. computer monitor resolution.
I appreciate the replies!
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True Position
You'll find a 55 inch TV as quite uncomfortable as a regular monitor just from the eyestrain and neck strain unless you sit quite far away. Also, it seems most HDTVs are only aiming for 1080p (1900x1080).
I mainly plan to use it for videos. In the past I had one of the old TVs - An old 27" - and watched videos on it as a second 'monitor' off my iMac which was OK but not at all as a computer monitor (not that I used it as one per se). I brought up the monitor aspect as I'm slowly planning on getting another TV and have been wondering about the computer monitor aspect. I don't plan to use it as a computer monitor much at all, but have been trying to think of all aspects including limitations.
I'm really only thinking of a TV becuse the biggest computer monitor I've see advertised is 27". I want something bigger than that.
I'm really only thinking of a TV becuse the biggest computer monitor I've see advertised is 27". I want something bigger than that.
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bazzle - 2012
I have an 55" Phillips LED TV that works good as a computer monitor (from about 3 meters away)
I let it auto choose resolution.
Bazzle
I let it auto choose resolution.
Bazzle
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tomvehoski
What kind of videos? DVD, Blu-Ray, Youtube, Netflix, Hulu, ...? HD and blu-ray top out at 1080p so any resolution above that won't help for video. If you only want it for videos there are some <$100 media players or <$200 blu-ray players that can stream internet content, hard drive content, etc.
I tried a network blu-ray player, but found it rather lacking in formats it could handle. Navigation was also pretty bad. I decided to go for the HTPC since it can handle any format, connect to any website, work as a HD DVR, Digital TV, file server, backup drive, VPN server, game machine, .....
I tried a network blu-ray player, but found it rather lacking in formats it could handle. Navigation was also pretty bad. I decided to go for the HTPC since it can handle any format, connect to any website, work as a HD DVR, Digital TV, file server, backup drive, VPN server, game machine, .....
I think most of it has already been said however I'll reiterate and expand a little....
computer monitors are hi-res, even the samll 19" ones. Cheap models have resolution of around 1680x1050, this compares to 1920x1080 for "full HD". A decent monitor will have a resolution of 2048x1546 upwards. Although the cheap models of monitor cannot display full HD, there are still considerations away from a "TV"
tv's typically have a much larger screen size and therefore the individual pixels are much bigger...This is fine for when you are sitting 2m+ from the screen, but a computer user typically sits <1m from the screen.
Having said that there are plenty of computers running entertainment centres on TV's due to the fact they are used almost exclusively for films and minimal emails/web from across the room.
Hope this helps.
Without getting a specialist monitor, I believe the largest monitors can be bought from dell and apple both at 30".
computer monitors are hi-res, even the samll 19" ones. Cheap models have resolution of around 1680x1050, this compares to 1920x1080 for "full HD". A decent monitor will have a resolution of 2048x1546 upwards. Although the cheap models of monitor cannot display full HD, there are still considerations away from a "TV"
tv's typically have a much larger screen size and therefore the individual pixels are much bigger...This is fine for when you are sitting 2m+ from the screen, but a computer user typically sits <1m from the screen.
Having said that there are plenty of computers running entertainment centres on TV's due to the fact they are used almost exclusively for films and minimal emails/web from across the room.
Hope this helps.
Without getting a specialist monitor, I believe the largest monitors can be bought from dell and apple both at 30".
