Using HD tv's as Monitors

I am using a 32 inch hdtv as a computer moniter, that said you need to purchase a tv with a lot of contrast ratio. the less ratio you use there will be more of a goast trail when the colors move on the screen
I am using a Soyo brand 32 inch lcd hdtv with 1600 to 1 contrast ratio and I am wired through the VGA port and I didn't have to ajust anything but the picture quality controls to get a great picture.
You can purchase this TV on the Home Shopping Network

Ok. You've spouted a lot of impressive sounding numbers, but have you ever actually seen 2560x1600 on ANY monitor? At any size?

How close are you going to sit to that 30" monitor? I don't remember the exact formula, but I know the recommended optimal distance to my 55" Sony HDTV is about 10 feet away. Since 30" is about 2/3 of 55", that would put you still over 6" away. I'm thinking that unless you have awful good eyesight, 2560x 1600 is gonna be kinda hard to read from that distance. Aren't those letters are gonna be kinda small??? Maybe the specs are different for Monitors and TVs. I don't know.

But all of that is just guesswork. The reality is, I've used the 37" HDTV in my bedroom as a monitor at 1366x768. Maybe I'm just an old man, but even from about 8 feet away, it's a little hard to read. It looks very good, just small from that distance. Pack 4x as many pixels into that screen and there's no way it's gonna be a good experience.

Oh, yes, one more thing. I paid $899.99 for my 37" HDTV and IT'S ALSO AN HDTV!!!!!!

Having a really high resolution does not mean you have to have tiny text or icons. There are settings in Windows that allow you to up the default font and icon size.

My goal is to put TV/LCD Monitors in Conference rooms for Architects and Engineers. I did one but found that the tv/monitor tried really hard to zoom in a bit too far. We got around it using software called Powerstrip, but it required learning a lot more about video settings than I really cared to. People tend to sit between 6 and 8 feet from the screen, and while readable and clear, angled lines looked a bit pixellated.

I'm not an expert in this arena, but believe the higher resolution would only server to make things clear, angled lines crisper, etc. with the right settings.

I'm also wondering about aspect ratio. i.e. would circles be round? Anybody have any experience with this?

mkoehne is really getting into deep waters with his application: Technical drawings for Architects and Engineers. This is where lots of pixels are required... up until 1-pixel-wide lines disappear. At such high resolutions, yes, you must set Windows to use large icons and fonts. Enable anti-aliasing to smooth the edges of angled lines.
That is as far as you can go with basic Windows settings. An advanced (expensive) graphics card could have its own control panel settings to do more, but you will surely need to get into the monitor settings to get correct circles. Ideally, the monitor has adjustments of picture size with separate width and height settings. These can acheive the right aspect ratio. Don't bother until you have the right width and height of pixels for the display. That ratio and quantity must first match your screen.
In a professional application such as yours, where you don't want to read 5 books, call in a freelance professional to set up the displays and then don't change a thing.
Oh. One other thing: buy TFT LCDs with a high contrast ratio (low black level) over 3000 and less than 20 milliseconds (mS) response time.

Thanks dolbyg, I think you are getting closer to my concern with using HDTV's as monitors.

Architects and Engineers usually are not that price sensitive, and the purpose is not to use the HDTV as a workstation, just to have meetings and be able to see each project schedule and occasionally drawings to discuss. Spending $500 or so on a video card is OK, and they are into the COOL factor of having a large LCD TV in their conference rooms.

I just don't understand the aspect ratio workings. At a regular monitor (1024x76 if I divide 1024/768 I get +/- 1.3, but my laptop is a widescreen 1440x900 and I get +/- 1.6. On both screens circles are round.

I did one HDTV setup and got it to look nice, but not sure I understand why. I did read the books (bummer for me) and used the SideBar software to finalize everyhing. I have heard something about square pixels, but again my knowledge is limited.

Thanks again

Very few cards on the PC do this. There are also stumbling blocks tossed into roadway by the industry.

Read http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.html

There is NO technical reason the hardware needs to have HDCP or HDMI to go beyond 480p. Just so you know.

Bob

I went ahead and got a 47" Vizio 1080p tv to try, and the highest resolution I got was 1360 x 768, through the PC input. I was hoping to get a higher resolution by getting a video card with special HDTV output, but the screen looks beatiful with the PC input and not so good through the HDTV. Can't blame the TV, they clearly advertised that PC support is limited, but my question is are there any TV's that are supporting true 1920x1080 through the PC connection?

BTW, even at the lower screen resolution the text is perfect for presentations.

I have an excellent view with my DELL Optiplex connected to Sony Bravia LCD XBR2 - 1080p, crystal crisp, running VISTA 64 bit. DVI to HDMI converter and that's it. Same quality that i get on VGA 1920 x 1080. TV detect the input as 1080p and that is the best resoution that i can get, (my cable providers can have only up to 1080i).

I have my PC hooked up to my 32 LCD HDTV, and its via VGA. It looks great. But when ever I go to play something in Windows Media player, I can see it on my laptop screen, but all I see is a black box on the TV? Does anyone know how to fix this..

I have a Gateway Tablet PC and a Norcent LCD (http://www.norcent.net/main/product_detail.asp?prodID=64&category=homeent&type=lcdtv&view=specs)

It looks good, I have sound, granted it my Laptop speakers.. hay its the first time, I have ever hooked up a PC to a TV, so this is new to me. So I will be going back to best buy for the correct audio cables, just as soon as I figure out which one it is..

That's great. Thank you for the response.

Any problems with Aspect Ratio (circles look like ovals)? Do you prefer the DVI to HDMI over the PC connection? Did you increase the Font Size to compensate for the higher resolution?

Sorry to pound you with questions, it just seems there has been a lot of mis-information put out there and it's nice to hear from someone who actually has it up and working.

First feel free to ask any question you have, I have some experience with PC HW and playing with them. Now about your questions...
I was same way thinking that having 16:9 might not look right, compared to 4:3, but i think that the industry is moving to this format widely, (large LCD screens for desktops and even laptops are most 16:9 format at present) and the graphic cards can already compensate and match the standard, so no issue there.
I also did not see any change between the VGA and HDMI, well not right away. In the begining PC through HDMI screen was out of screen, both H and V and I have to adjust settings on my TV to "Full Pixel" from "Normal", not sure if all TVs have them, but Sony seems to come loaded wiht features, I still use only half of them -.
I also did not change font or icon size they look great as they are. i seet about 3 - 4 feet away when i am working on PC, but if I use media functions, about 5-6 feet. Having a wireless keyb/mouse helps, but i haven't switched to a media center system, waiting for a way to get high def from cable to my PC, (cable card). For now i use only to view ripped DVD or DivX videos.

I doubt my Vizio has the features of your Sony, but I was just getting my feet wet and experimenting (I own a small computer company, and we are getting clients asking for large LCD's in their conference rooms).

I think you are right about the wide screen not being an issue, but from what I've seen they just put more pixels in the X direction.

I'm going to go get an DVI to HDMI cable and see how it goes.

Thanks again,

DAB

You said "large LCD screens for desktops and even laptops are most 16:9 format at present". I thought that they were 16:10 in their aspect ratio, and that this difference in aspect ratio was the main difference between large widescreen LCD TV screens (1080p is 16:9 with 1920x1080) and widescreen LCD desktop and laptop displays (WUXGA is 16:10 with 1920x1200. I am going to assume that I am right about that as I ask these questions.

What PC graphics card would I need to provide a 1080p data feed at 1920x1080 to a Westinghouse LVM-37w3 1080p Monitor at its native resolution?

Wouldn't any data feed other than one providing 1920x1080 require compensation in some way, thereby falling short of an optimal pairing of graphics card resolution to monitor resolution?

Am I possibly imagining the potential for an issue where there isn't one, and if so why is that?

You are very correct when mention that WUXGA 1920x1200 is not same as 1920x1080, (16:9 and 16:10), I retrieve what I mentioned previusly - . I belive though the adapter is able to detect either monitors (Plug and Play, standard monitor or LCD-TV) and adjust accordingly so there is no distortion, better to say it will change "pixel size" so that 1200 H will fill 1080 on LCD-TV. A very good explenation of the process can be found following:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1080p

Cergas, how did you get 1080p or even 1080i on your Sony 32"? I have the same LCD HDTV, but the HDTV or video card rejects any resolution higher than 1366x768. It just goes blank for a few seconds, then defaults back to 1366x768.

Could the problem be that I'm still using Windows XP Pro and not Vista? I suspect Windows is not detecting the HDTV correctly.

As I mentioned earlier though, I did go into the video driver settings and change it so I could use unsupported resolutions with the HDTV. The HDTV still rejects anything over 1366x768.

Hooking this HDTV up to my XBOX 360, I have no problems. I get 1080i and games look great.

I am dual booting my computer with both VISTA 64 bit and XP-SP2 x 32 bit, I have a Sony 40", but i don't think that makes any difference, as long it is a 1080p TV-set. My Video Card (intel 9545G) is the one that i think talks/negotiates with TV and based on the TV settings it should detects what Display modes are supported (Full Screen No Border needs to be checked).
One thing that i have seen on drivers folder is a HDMI folder, not sure if this is what it is making it work or not though.
When Computer turns on and is connected via DVIxHDMI converter to TV, it shows right away 1080p, it shows 1080i when connected to my cable box, (apparantly still there are no provider broadcasting on 1080p).
At the end, i think you are correct, your video card is not able to negotiate and detect highest video resolution that your TV can support. Look for newer driver, contact PC/card manufacture

You said (apparantly still there are no provider broadcasting on 1080p). You had a typo or misunderstand. 1080p is not a broadcast standard of ATSC. 1080i is the highest resolution broadcast standard.
A few HDTVs up-convert the video to 1080p by de-interlacing it. This doubles the frame rate to reduce flickering of moving objects.
You would have been correct to say "apparantly there are still no providers broadcasting in 1080i".

kdodd92 said "On my 27" lcd which has both vga and DVI inputs, it automaticy fits the aspect ratio to fit the screen."

Isn't it the other way around? I thought that the aspect ratio on your 27" lcd was fixed at 16:10 with, probably, a 1920x1200 native resolution. If so, then auto adjust would not be necessary for WUXGA input from your PC to display at native resolution on your 27" lcd regardless of whether the connection is vga, DVI, or HDMI. Isn't what you experience here your screen fitting your aspect ratio?

Isn't the reason that you can't see your task bar and the upper most part of your screen on your HDTV (without auto adjust via HDMI), that your are sending a 1920x1200 data feed to a 1080i capable monitor with a 16:9 aspect ratio and 1920x1080 as its native resolution (or even lower)? Isn't this a case of your screen not fitting your aspect ratio?

I ask because I am trying to understand. I am considering the purchase of a Westinghouse 37" 1080p monitor for (1)PC monitor as primary use, and (2)HDTV as a secondary use. I want 1920x1080 as my native resolution for Windows in a large monitor, without having to sacrifice that native resolution to vga, DVI, or auto adjust considerations that take away from the advantages of going with the native resolution. What is necessary here, and what is not? What am I missing?

Everybody has some very interesting replies. Mine question is a little different... I plan to use a 42" LCD for my monitor. I would like to open up to 8 windows at one time and place them on the screen so I can view all at the same time. I do a look of public records searching and need to see all I can see with out having to tab constantly. I was at Best Buy last night and the sales person hooked up a laptop to one of the LCDs and proceeded to open several windows and man what a sorry sight. The letters for the most part were illegible. From reading here various settings may over come this and possibly be possible. I would probably be working within 2 -3 feet from the monitor. Thanks for any help.