LCD HD-TV as a Monitor?

[Loupey]

We have a media center desktop in our kitchen. We wanted to upgrade the monitor as we watch live cable TV in addition to home videos and music.

I bought a 22" Viewsonic LCD monitor which looked great for computer work. But TV/movie playback through the video card via DVI looked really bad. Went back and exchanged it for an Olevia 23" LCD HD TV which had inputs for cable, HDMI, VGA, S-Video, and composite inputs. Obviously the direct feed of the cable makes TV superior. But I was worried about picture quality from the computer.

Happily, the quality (as a computer monitor) is better than I expected. Even through the VGA cable, the image is only slightly less degraded compared to the DVI-HDMI converted signal.

Best part was that the TV was not on sale when I bought the Viewsonic. The day later when I exchanged for it, it was on sale. 23" HD TV for $350

[zrfraser]

Did you get your Olevia through Office Depot? I work there as a Product Solutions Manager and I regularly set up our computers with HD TVs set as monitors. The other day I set up a Media Center Desktop with a 42" Phillips Plasma, and looked really good. More and more people are ditching thier traditional monitors and going with much larger LCD's as their main setup. A few weeks back we had a 27" Olevia for $369 if I remember correctly. Glad you are liking the LCD though.

Z

[BMWJNKY]

How is the regular cable TV on the LCD? I am thinking of going with a media system type setup when I move into a different place in a few months as was going to go with one LCD screen that can work as a computer monitor and TV. For photo editing I'd still probably stick with a separate computer/monitor just for that. But it would be nice to have a separate system for doing digital slide shows, movies and music along with regular TV.

[masdog]

The real estate company I current work at has a plasma screen hooked up to a media center pc in their conference room. It's a very nice setup, although I was only in there once to help support a driver problem they were having.

[Loupey]

Did you get your Olevia through Office Depot? I work there as a Product Solutions Manager and I regularly set up our computers with HD TVs set as monitors. The other day I set up a Media Center Desktop with a 42" Phillips Plasma, and looked really good. More and more people are ditching thier traditional monitors and going with much larger LCD's as their main setup. A few weeks back we had a 27" Olevia for $369 if I remember correctly. Glad you are liking the LCD though.

Z

Z, I bought mine at Micro Center. The sales associate there told me that on Black Friday they were blowing out 42" Olevia's in the $499 range after rebates.

[Loupey]

How is the regular cable TV on the LCD? I am thinking of going with a media system type setup when I move into a different place in a few months as was going to go with one LCD screen that can work as a computer monitor and TV. For photo editing I'd still probably stick with a separate computer/monitor just for that. But it would be nice to have a separate system for doing digital slide shows, movies and music along with regular TV.

We only have basic cable (not HD) so the TV playback on the LCD seems slightly grainy as compared to a good conventional TV. I'm sure that if I upgraded my cable that the display would be outstanding.

If you do go for an LCD TV, try it as a monitor before buying a separate computer monitor. To tell you the truth, I was shocked at how my images looked on it. Even better than what I was getting with my Sony LCD computer monitor that it was replacing (too small).

[Loupey]

The real estate company I current work at has a plasma screen hooked up to a media center pc in their conference room. It's a very nice setup, although I was only in there once to help support a driver problem they were having.

It seems that the two paths of the monitor and TV evolutionary lines are soon to merge (or have already merged).

Earlier, I had our family computer in our family room which has a large 9 year old CRT TV (weighs a freakin ton ) I had the computer set up as a 2 monitor system by connecting the TV via S-video cable. That way, if something interesting was on the internet or a group of people wanted to watch a home video, we can just slide the active window over to the TV for group viewing.

[Loupey]

The biggest reason for my enthusiasm is that the technology does seem to have finally reached a point that true "media center" computing is here (for me at least).

When I purchased our Sony Vaio desktop media center 3 years ago, I made sure it had the upgraded video card to support multiple media simultaneously. Still, I could not get a computer image to look like a computer image on TV. And I could not get a TV image to look like a TV image on the monitor.

I'm all for streamlining. Hopefully, we can all just have one small media center, a TV/Monitor, speakers and be done with it all. No more separate monitors, no more separate DVD/CD players, no more separate FM tuners. Getting close. Real close.

[BMWJNKY]

We only have basic cable (not HD) so the TV playback on the LCD seems slightly grainy as compared to a good conventional TV. I'm sure that if I upgraded my cable that the display would be outstanding.

If you do go for an LCD TV, try it as a monitor before buying a separate computer monitor. To tell you the truth, I was shocked at how my images looked on it. Even better than what I was getting with my Sony LCD computer monitor that it was replacing (too small).

I'll have to see how it goes. I just got a new video card that will do S-video, composite RGB, and standard monitor out so maybe it will work out where I can just have one video display.

[JSPhoto]

The real estate company I current work at has a plasma screen hooked up to a media center pc in their conference room. It's a very nice setup, although I was only in there once to help support a driver problem they were having.

A plasma isn't a good choice for photo work. You leave the photo on their too long and it will burn into the screen. An LCD would be better as they don't have that issue.

JS

[livin4lax09]

yeah, as JS said, burn in can be a problem with plasma. that is why they don't recommend them for using with computers, or gaming. even though the color is so much better. stick with an LCD. my friend uses his 40" HDTV with his computer and I must say, it's pretty awesome.

[masdog]

A plasma isn't a good choice for photo work. You leave the photo on their too long and it will burn into the screen. An LCD would be better as they don't have that issue.

JS

That's a problem with any monitor or screen. It can happen with a CRT, and similar problems have been documents with LCD panels (although those are correctable)

However, it goes without saying that proper use of power management features, screen savers, and anti-burnin features will prevent this from happening.

But I don't do any work on that screen anyway...I only have to occasionally support the media center PC it's hooked up to.

[ZJChaser]

:thumbsup: