Question: TV's vs computer monitors

[Connor Macleod]

I've always wanted a BIG monitor for my computer, but they are super expensive. However, TV's are much cheaper:

32" HD, for about $150
40" HD, just over $200
42" HD, just over $300
48" HD, are under $400
39" Ultra HD from $313

Anyone know of any problems or issues using a TV as a monitor? Special equipment or cables needed for the hookup?

 

[FreeOnes_Anders]

I'm using my TV as a second monitor, I just plugged it in with a HDMI cable from the GFX card to the TV for the video and then I'm routing the audio through the normal sound system, has never been an issue for me, works just fine.

Just make sure you check exactly what resolution the TV that you're getting is capable of.

 

[klies13]

32" HD, for about $150
40" HD, just over $200
42" HD, just over $300
48" HD, are under $400
39" Ultra HD from $313

Are Tvs really that cheap where you live? LED Tv,right?
here they cost 3x-4x of those prices

 

[Chopper3000]

UK 47" LED,Smart, 3D etc... £500. I should know I just bought one.

 

[Connor Macleod]

Are Tvs really that cheap where you live? LED Tv,right?
here they cost 3x-4x of those prices

Yeah, where do you live that TV prices are that high?

If I buy from a store, it's usually Wal-Mart, Sam's Wholesale (owned by Wal-Mart), or Best Buy.

But, about half the time, I just buy off Amazon. You have to wait a few days, but you don't have to pay sales tax (at least not where I live).

 

[somedah]

I don't know about any problems using TV as a monitor, but some issues might arise from viewing distance (planned versus applied), "monitor"(TV) setup, and from compliance with software. There are bunch of tags in new monitors that tell about compliance with operating systems and such, so when buying TV for monitor, these compliances are question mark.

 

[klies13]

Yeah, where do you live that TV prices are that high?

If I buy from a store, it's usually Wal-Mart, Sam's Wholesale (owned by Wal-Mart), or Best Buy.

But, about half the time, I just buy off Amazon. You have to wait a few days, but you don't have to pay sales tax (at least not where I live).

india.for 32" it is 400-550$ (converted to US $ from local currency).online buying options are very limited in here, unlike US.retail store prices are even higher than those i mentioned.
must be gov trying to suck our ***** in the form of taxes.

i cant believe you guys get a 40" for just 200$.

 

[somedah]

India.for 32" it is 400-550$ (converted to US $ from local currency).online buying options are very limited in here, unlike US.retail store prices are even higher than those i mentioned.
must be gov trying to suck our ***** in the form of taxes.

i cant believe you guys get a 40" for just 200$.

India?

I am from Europe and we outsource cloth making and such to India because of cheap labour. So how can TVs cost that much? Usually labour prices and general prices are in somewhat reasonable proportion with each other. They also manufacture the TVs in nearby (China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and such). Or is there just so huge economic inequality? That doesn's show in here (even USA is in same boat with third world countries, but not India). Or is it because of cheap/low currency, how are other import products?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Econom...le:Gini_Coefficient_World_CIA_Report_2009.svg

 

[Jagger69]

No issues whatsoever. Since HDMI carries both video and audio, you'll have no issues using a regular flatscreen TV as a monitor if you choose. Frankly, however, I find most TVs to be woefully lacking in audio capability using the TV's internal speakers so I would highly advise connecting to an auxiliary audio outlet such as an SS system, soundbar or some other external speaker configuration if sound quality is important to you.

 

[klies13]

India?

I am from Europe and we outsource cloth making and such to India because of cheap labour. So how can TVs cost that much? Usually labour prices and general prices are in somewhat reasonable proportion with each other. They also manufacture the TVs in nearby (China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and such). Or is there just so huge economic inequality? That doesn's show in here (even USA is in same boat with third world countries, but not India). Or is it because of cheap/low currency, how are other import products?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Econom...le:Gini_Coefficient_World_CIA_Report_2009.svg

Haha!! I thought only IT work was outsourced.

not sure whats the reason,may be very high import duty and other taxes by the government but still 300% high is too much.
how huge economic inequality either within the country or compared to other countries can affect prices of imported electronic items?that is completely different thing.Low currency might be responsible but to this extent? i dont know price of every item in other countries but for those i know they are only about 20-30% costly here.

 

[somedah]

Haha!! I thought only IT work was outsourced.

not sure whats the reason,may be very high import duty and other taxes by the government but still 300% high is too much.
how huge economic inequality either within the country or compared to other countries can affect prices of imported electronic items?that is completely different thing.Low currency might be responsible but to this extent? i dont know price of every item in other countries but for those i know they are only about 20-30% costly here.

Economic inequality or the lack of it, is a huge factor when it comes to prices. It affects all prices and most impact it has to labour intensive products/ services. Like you probably know prices are the result of supply and demand. If 99,99 % people are poor and can only pay for example 1 $ for produxt X, then the price settles around there, provided that it is profitable to sell at that price. So if you belong to the 0,01 % of people who are rich, your buying power is great, because you can buy at the same prices than the poor ones, but you have much more money alias buying power. And if the poor ones have more money, the prices go up and your relative buying power shrinks. This applies to within countries and between countries. That is why we outsource to poor countries, to get cheaper products and services.

 

[Lonilover]

TV's v.s. computer monitors.. depends what you want to do with it... but of course the quality of the graphics and the size of the screen does play part in it !

 

[vogory]

I've always wanted a BIG monitor for my computer, but they are super expensive. However, TV's are much cheaper:

32" HD, for about $150
40" HD, just over $200
42" HD, just over $300
48" HD, are under $400
39" Ultra HD from $313

Anyone know of any problems or issues using a TV as a monitor? Special equipment or cables needed for the hookup?

I have Sony 40" TV as my monitor. As for me, the only "problem" is the wide color gamut of my TV, the color space is much wider tha sRGB. And sRGB is standard colorspace (de-facto). This means that in IE, Google Chrome, Opera images and colors look oversaturated. But Mozilla Firefox understands color profiles, so photos and other colors in Mozilla are OK (after I've made a color-profile with my Datacolor Spider4Pro set). The same goes for video players (only MPC HomeCinema onderstans color profiles), photo viewers. Games arfe different story, as oversaturated color almost never look bad in games, IMHO. But I must admit, that Blue-Rays and BDrips in MPHC look amazing.

And another problem, which I don't have, but which I've seen on other TV-s, is that you might not see your desktop in 1:1 ratio. In other words, you see "cropped" image, with some area near borders missing, as if you zoomed your desktop a little. My other Panasonic HD Ready (~1300x768 resolution) TV displays my desktop just fine, but no-name HD TV (1920x1080 resolution) form guest room crops image a little, just about half height of taskbar in Win7. I think, that if you buy a TV from a well-known brand like Sony, Sharp, LG, Samsung and so on, you're safe. More or less anyway

 

[Connor Macleod]

Right now, I'm leaning towards the 39" Ultra HD, but I've decided to hold off buying until after I move into my new house.

 

[D-rock]

One of the main things that need to be taken into account is that people usually sit much closer to a computer monitor. Getting a large television and using it as a computer monitor might be counter productive as the resolution of images not only has to do with the pixels televisions and monitors have and their size, but also how far away somebody is from them. Being close to a big screen could make images look worse.

 

[zell]

I have a 27" Asus VS278Q-P and it's pretty much pure perfection.I play PS4 on it and watch Netflix and I wouldn't trade it for any tv. Although it's only 60hz,it's still better than any tv of similar size because of it's 1 ms refresh rate and 80,000,000:1 contrast ratio.I got it for about $250 and it's worth every penny.

Honestly,I don't know where the OP lives to be seeing those type of prices on LEDs.I'm willing to bet that they are either off brand,or the specs suck.If you are going to be doing any gaming on it,monitors are always better than TVs because TVs have a little bit of input lag where a quality monitor doesn't.The only disadvantage of a monitor is that even though they have gotten better over the years,they don't have as good viewing angles(especially vertical viewing angles) that TVs do,unless you get a really expensive IPS monitor.

 

[Ace Bandage]

I use an HDMI cord and connect my 60" LED 240 Hz TV to my computer for SWTOR, TESO, and other games.

It's fucking awesome. Highly recommend it.




Side note: paid $1,000 for the TV... and it was worth every penny.