Anyone uses a 32" or 37" 1080p LCD as PC monitor?

[calnbs]

I've been looking to upgrade my 19 inch CRT monitor and was looking forward to a 22" or 24" LCD monitor but to my surprise, they don't seem to impress me at all.

I went to check out some 32" LCD 1080p TV and think that its doable but I would rather prefer the 37", which IMHO is the perfect size I would like. My desk is a decent size desk so I would be sitting about 4 ft away from the monitor/tv.

So my question is....Have anyone here every used an LCD TV that size as monitor? And did it turn out well? The monitor will be use mainly for online gaming. I'm concern about ghosting and how clear the colors/graphics will actually be with something as large as those TV are.

 

[jostenmeat]

I have a friend who is a coder, and gamer, and I think he has one that big hooked up to his "Hackintosh". He actually has three monitors making a semi-circle, with the big fat daddy in the middle.

I'll shoot him an email about size, model, and distance. I may not get back to you for a while, depending on when he gets back to me.

j

 

[gus6464]

The only problem I see with using a 32" or 37" TV as a monitor is that you will be limited to 1920x1080 res on the screen. While it may look ok when playing xbox or playstation around 6 feet away IMO that resolution is just too low when playing 1 foot away. If you do decide to go for it just make sure you buy a video card capable of playing whatever games you want to play at that resolution with most eye candy turned on at reasonable frame rates (~30-60fps).

 

[yettitheman]

I have a 24" LG 1080p LCD monitor.... native 1920x1200.

Be forewarned, as you go bigger in size for monitors (not TV's as they are maxed at 1080p) you will need a powerful graphics card to drive the resolutions.

Using a 32" or 37" TV as a computer monitor is not reccomended from my view; only a monitor will provide you clarity and proper PC ergonomics.

From far away (TV viewing distances), it will be ok. But if you intend on being a foot or less away, you NEED a monitor that has higher resolution to match the screen size.

 

[Djizasse]

For me 37" is too large. I got a 32" (Samsung LE32A6**) and found it to be the perfect size for my desk.

When gaming I don't have any ghosting problem. With a Opteron 165 (old stuff) and a 8800 GTS I can play Half Life 2 and others that use the same engine (CS:S, DOD). Grid also plays well at full hd.

With harder games (like Crysis), I have to lower the resolution and play with the quality settings. Scaling is much better than it was in the past and I find the quality quite acceptable.

The pixel size, for me, is not a big deal. When gaming, I'm much more satisfied with a lower resolution but bigger display. The immersion is what counts and big screens are great in this aspect.

And I found out that these lcd tvs are very comfortable to work with. I do a lot of software programming and use the TV as the main coding display. When talking about comfort and ergonomics, I think it's much more important to pay attention to the room lighting.

 

[jostenmeat]

I have a friend who is a coder, and gamer, and I think he has one that big hooked up to his "Hackintosh". He actually has three monitors making a semi-circle, with the big fat daddy in the middle.

I'll shoot him an email about size, model, and distance. I may not get back to you for a while, depending on when he gets back to me.

j

He got back to me. He said:

"I have a 30 inch.

I bought it for around 1500 almost 2 years ago, it's probably down to around 1000 now.

I have the one from Dell, it's good, I love mine".

 

[calnbs]

Thank you everyone. I'm going to have to really think about this. If comes comes to push, I might push my luck with the 32".

 

[LukeR]

I got the Vizio VO37LF with 1080p but as was stated the res issue definitely comes up at a closer ranger. I know they also have the VMM26 monitor which was designed specifically for gaming/multimedia use and has a res. I loved it (super glossy, very pretty) but wanted something bigger. Look on their website they have a bunch of reasonably priced options

 

[zhimbo]

With a slight twist...

Has anyone used something like a 24-26 inch widescreen monitor as a primary TV? This is more or less the same question as has been discussed, but mostly it's been about how well a TV performs as a monitor, not vice-versa.

I'm waiting to get a job offer (fingers crossed) in the NYC area, which means my wife and I moving into an apartment, which in our price range will not resemble a cavernous 'Friends'-style space. To conserve space we'll probably get rid of my Sony 27" 4:3 CRT, and having a single screen for both my computer and for my TV makes sense to me.

So, I'm thinking either a 24-26 inch widescreen monitor or a 32inch 1080p television. A 24-inch or so wide screen monitor would actually be about the same size as widescreen movies on my current TV.

It's a compromise either way. Any additional thoughts/advice?

 

[allargon]

Yeah, you probably might be better off looking at a Toshiba or Mitsubishi (something that is all bezel) to maximum screen area. For TV viewing I would get at least a 42". Anything smaller, belongs in a bedroom (even in a NYC apartment), IMHO.

 

[Jack Hammer]

I used the Vizio 37" 720p tv as a monitor and got lots of ghost images when playing games. I traded that up a few times and now use a Samsung 52" 1080p tv as my computer monitor. It's really nice, I can sit on my couch with my feet up on the table, what I'm doing now, and look at stuff online or play games. Pictures and video look great too.

I think the picture quality of the tv will be more important than the size of the tv when you are looking for clarity. My larger tv gives me a much more detailed, clearer and overall better picture for gaming than the smaller ones ever did.

Jack

 

[zhimbo]

I traded that up a few times and now use a Samsung 52" 1080p tv as my computer monitor. It's really nice, I can sit on my couch with my feet up on the table, what I'm doing now, and look at stuff online or play games. Pictures and video look great too.

Whoa. Maybe I need to toss off some preconceptions. How close are you to the screen? You like this for text-based work, too - Word processing, spreadsheets, etc.? I would be doing some office-work on this machine, too.

My current home monitor has a vertical resolution of 1024, so 1080p is little different in pure pixel count...hmmmm...

 

[fmw]

It's pretty unusual to sit 4 feet from your computer screen. You must have a very large desk indeed. I agree with the others. I'd go for a 22 or 24" monitor. Personally I sit about 2 feet from my monitor and I use 1024 X 768 on a 19" 5:4 ratio screen. If I were to put in a wide screen it would probably be a 22" A higher resolution than what I use would require a significantly larger screen for me to be comfortable reading text. I use 1280 on my notebook and I can barely read the text from about 18". It isn't a comfortable computer for me to use.

I have a 37" TV in my bedroom but I watch it from about 8 or 9 feet away. I can't imagine choosing it for computer use.

 

[Jack Hammer]

Whoa. Maybe I need to toss off some preconceptions. How close are you to the screen? You like this for text-based work, too - Word processing, spreadsheets, etc.? I would be doing some office-work on this machine, too.

My current home monitor has a vertical resolution of 1024, so 1080p is little different in pure pixel count...hmmmm...

I'm about 8-9' back from the screen. It took me a day or two to adjust to the screen size, but I like it.

Jack

 

[krzywica]

I had an LG 50" Plasma 720p (1280x768)that I ran my HTPC through when I was at my old place (an apartment in Green Bay) and I used it for some word processing, tons of web browsing, and other computer tasks. However that was not very extensive on my end as I have a dedicated workstation with a 22" monitor (1680x1050 res).

I just bought the TV in my sig which is 1920x1080 and looks just glorious....and you could use it for a computer monitor from 2-3 feet away if you wanted to with no issues. This is actually rather bad for me as my couch is about 15 feet away now and there is no way I could ever read the text from that distance so I had to jack the DPI settings to like 200....which blows some stuff up but not others and I need to find a way to fix that without changing the DPI....I just got it and haven't had a weekend to even calibrate the set yet.....so I'm sure I will be able to tweak it just right....


How it will look will vary greatly from set to set as even though the res will be the same the quality of the panel varies greatly.

 

[Djizasse]

Excellent pic Jack. That's what I call a nice laid back surfing session
I also got a sammy 52" for my living room and it is glorious. At 10 feet from the screen, my PC has a very nice picture. But playing Forza 2 at 5 feet from the screen is a blast. Now the 32" at my computer desk looks very small LOL

 

[Nemo128]

HP LP3065 here.

2560x1600 native res @ 30". Great for graphics and CAD work, not so great for high end gaming without a serious card. I have a Quadro 3450, it's not meant for gaming.