1920x1200 32" monitor? Or 1920x1080?

[badger]

Can anyone recommend a 32" monitor that is ideally 1920x1200, but could be 1920x1080?

All monitors I can find of this size are higher resolution, which isn't what I want.

It is to be used mostly for watching TV (via a PC) but I do also use it for computer stuff too sometimes which is why I'd prefer 1920x1200 as it is much better for PC usage. I'd want it to have a 1080p setting though, so I can get the right refresh rate for TV watching.

I currently have a 24" that fulfills the above, but it isn't quite big enough. I can't read the screen from my sofa when using it as a PC (with wireless keyboard/mouse obviously).

There seem to be quite a few TVs that are 32" 1920x1080 so maybe one of those would do, but I've heard that TVs often have huge input lag that makes them too painful to use with a PC - and sometimes they cripple their PC input to a lower resolution.
Also it's a bit pointless to have a TV with a tuner as I won't be plugging an aerial into it, only a PC.

Anyone got any suggestions?

[Phil@Dabs]

TBH, for movie watching, a 1920X1080 is what you need to avoid streching or otherwise distorting the image, look for one that has a "Pixel by Pixel" or "Just ****" mode as this will remove over**** and ensure text is sharp. Economies of scale will make a 32" Full HD TV cheaper than a 32" monitor. I've had my media centre PC on a full HD TV for years and never had any problems, I rarely use internet on it, but it is perfectly useable when I have. I've never had any issue with input lag, that usually happens when picture processing is ramped up to the max, but for media centre or Xbox I turn most of that stuff off.



Edit - maybe putting 5can in the word filter was a tad over zealous

[badger]

My current (1920x1200) monitor has a 1080p resolution built-in, so I can watch TV/movies at the correct ratio without stretching. I'm more concerned that the loss of 120 pixels of vertical resolution makes using it as a PC pretty irritating unless I can switch to 1920x1200 mode - which obviously I can't with any standard TV. (Your opinion on this may differ from mine, in which case we should agree to disagree).

However, I suspect that nobody makes monitors of 30" and above without also making them higher resolution - so I'm probably stuck with a TV.

Do you have any recommendations on TVs that have decent inputs for PCs - ideally VGA, HDMI and displayport? I really don't care about the TV functionality as I won't be using it, although I might plug in a network cable and use iplayer if it has a sufficiently usable interface.

[Phil@Dabs]

Running a 1920X1200 monitor at 1920X1080 is not viewing it at the monitors native resolution, which will lead to worse picture than if viewed on a 1920X1080 panel, this is unavoidable, the screen is scaling the picture, which can range from "worse" to "awful".

7Q8N will do the job, no DP socket, but you can use DP to HDMI cable.

What about adding another graphics card and having dual display - best of both worlds !

[badger]

I run my existing monitor without scaling, so I get black bars at top and bottom when watching TV. Which is fine by me - it means my monitor does 60Hz refresh when used for PC, but switches to TV refresh rate when I autoswitch resolution in my TV application on the PC. Otherwise the picture gets jerky with dropped frames due to mismatched refresh rates, which isn't fun.

Are you suggesting I plug in 2 HDMI cables (or 1 HDMI and 1 VGA) from the PC into the TV and then just switch inputs on the TV to go from TV mode to PC mode? That's an interesting idea, but I'm happy with my PC switching resolution mode/framerate itself, so it's probably more complicated than keeping things as they are. Also I wouldn't want to have an extra remote handy for the TV just for switching inputs, as my current PC remote does everything I need already (including volume control and switching the monitor on/off via DPMS).

Does the 7Q8N allow switching off over**** on all its inputs, or just the VGA? Can you tell me what the VGA settings are e.g. does it do 1920x1080 at 60 Hz, or would I be forced to use TV refresh rates?
I've been considering whether I should get a TV that supports 120Hz refresh so it can happily do both 60Hz and 24Hz without dropping frames. Does it do that, and if not do you have any that do?

Also, I've no intention of using Freeview at this stage, but if I have to buy a TV with a tuner, I may as well get one that supports Freeview HD as well in case I decide to run an aerial cable to it in the future. It doesn't look like this one does.

Some of the Samsung TVs look promising. Any opinions on those?

Thanks.

[Phil@Dabs]

What I am suggesting is that you run two video cards and two screens, that would let you run 1920X1080P50 on the TV for the best video content, but a smaller higher res and refresh rate monitor for web/mail etc, you wouldn' have to change inputs, just switch the monitor off when watching movies and the TV off when using it as a PC.

Something you are correct in being concerned about is accepted resolutions on each interface, some TV's will not accept some resolutions over certain inputs, although from what I can see in the manual, 7Q8N appears to accept 1080P over VGA @60hz.

Over**** correction is available on this TV (LG call it Just ****)

Full Manual here
http://www.lg.com/uk/support/product...oduct-profile#

The latest Samsung TV's are outstanding, the 7000 series look stunning too.

[badger]

ok, so the LG could possibly work.

I don't really want to have a TV and a monitor - the whole point of my PC-based TV is that it provides everything in one place, and I want to be able to comfortably use the PC from my sofa without having to use ridiculously large fonts - hence the reason why I want a "low resolution" 1920x1080 screen in a physically large monitor. Having a separate small monitor would require me to sit close to it, which I'm trying to avoid.

I've not used a real TV since 2005. It looks to me like normal TVs are now starting to catch up with PC-based TV in terms of providing centralised PVR viewable on any screen in the house, internet access, streaming video (local and network based), email, skype, music, photos, etc. Hey, it's only taken 6 or 7 years...but I suspect most TV's technology is still inadequate in this respect.

I guess I should at least look at what the modern TV is capable of, and see if it has any hope of competing with the capabilities of the PC. Can you use a keyboard and mouse with any of these TVs? If not, how do you type stuff in (e.g. emails, URLs, search terms)?
The glossy hype for these TVs seems compelling, but I fear I would be sorely disappointed with them in terms of usability, compatibility with various video/audio formats, network accessibility, and whether they have sensible and long-term upgrade paths as technology inevitably changes.

The choice for me seems to be high-end TV that risks greatly disappointing me, or dumbest TV I can find that serves purely as a display, so long as it can just cleanly display the input my PC gives it without trying to over**** or apply any sort of video processing that is supposed to look better but will actually just ruin the picture.

My final question is: how do these TVs fare in terms of viewing angles? I understand that most TVs using LCD screens use TN panels which suffer significant contrast and colour shift problems when viewed from off centre. Decent monitors use IPS panels which look the same from any angle, and seem to be much more suited to use as a TV where the viewers may be sat at various angles from the screen. Ironic really...anyway do these LG and Samsung TVs give satisfactory results in this respect?

Reading this post, I realise I really really just need a big monitor, but alas nobody seems to make them...

[Phil@Dabs]

I was thinking you could have the smaller monitor closer to you for the computery stuff and use the 32" TV for movies.

Some of the newer TV's have decent online stuff, but nothing that will worry Media Centre or Boxee.

Never had a problem with any LCD viewing angle, always made sure it was viewed straight on at distance recommended from ISF.

IPS panels do have a better viewing angle, but refresh rates are awful for video.