HDTV as Computer Monitor Questions

[Distaleon]

Hello all. I am currently wanting to purchase a 32" LCD HDTV for use to view TV (of course) but also to use as a computer monitor. I bought my first one a week ago, it was a Poloroid 32" from Wal-Mart and it worked great for TV viewing and for my computer, my system reconized and resized the desktop to 1366x768, but the problem i had was 3 pixels were stuck, so i returned it for another one of the same model, that one had 6 burned out pixels, so I returned it for a refund.

I now have purchased a 32" LG LCD HDTV, and the TV and movies come in great! However I was only able to get 1192x648 and never was able to get it to display 1366x768 for my computer. So after long hours of tinkering and calling different companies, LG told me that it will only support computer display at 1024x768 and WILL NOT display as 1366x768. So now I go back to return it for a refund but a couple questions that I can hopefully get answered.

First, is it even conventional thinking to try to get a LCD HDTV that will display its maximum image for both TV signals and for my computer? Or will I only be able to get 1024x768 as a computer monitor and not 1366x768?

Second, is having dead pixels/stuck pixels typical of a new TV that came right out of the Box?

Third, what do you recommend I do in this situation? Is there a certain LCD TV I should be looking at for my needs, or is there some better idea that I am not considering?

I use a GeForce 7800 GS for my video card and used a HDMI to DVI connector. Any advice and your time reading this is highly appreciated.

 

[rexter]

I never use LCD TV before but I would assume it’s capable of higher res than what you mention. As far as I know 1024 X 768 is native resolution for 17” – 19” LCD PC monitor. 1600 X 1200 would be 21” – 23”, etc. I think your LG LCD is wide screen and can handle high res.

As for the second question widescreen is meant for viewing movies and if use for office application it would be too wide and you’ll have extra white space on the right hand side of your monitor. That’s why wide PC LCD monitor has horizontal and vertical adjustment so you can also view portrait style. But I'm not sure if your 32” LCD can do that.

As far as dead pixel, it sounds like you got a factory defect. Unfortunately a Class A digital ISO rating if you find any would be very expensive. So Class B is what mostly displays at Best Buy and other electronics store.

I’m not sure if you’re familiar of ISO rating, I’m not an expert either but Class A is the best. 32” LCD monitor for PC may sell for $3000 USD. A regular HDTV 32” LCD would sell for $1200 to $1600 USD.

Sony, LaCie, Viewsonic, Samsung, and BenQ, NEC, LG are good PC LCD monitors. So I would assume they do too on their TV lines. If I have to recommend a product it would be Sony or Viewsonic due to their warranty. So be sure to check the manufacturers warranty on dead pixels since it varies from their model line. Also check THG, I think they have reviews on ISO rating.

I would suggest using DVI cord instead of DVI to HDMI core and just use the pc speakers. That will free up the HDMI input for future use. Like Play Station 3 which would be the cheapest High definition player when it comes out this winter.

By the way try to set your display settings to 60Hz if it works otherwise 30Hz. One more thing I have bad luck using nVidea card when I use 20 feet of DVI cord. Picture was a little fuzzy. When use my radeon card it works ok. Unfortunately I didn’t check if it’ll work on 15 feet since 20 is what I need.

Hope this help a little. Good Luck.

 

[Sciberpunkt]

You should be able to select 16x9 HDTV/EDTV resolutions though the NVIDIA Control Panel unless the display isn't being detected properly.

 

[hectavex]

I have a 32" LG and run 1360x768. Once I plugged the LCD into my 7800gt video card using a VGA cable, I could choose 1360x768 in the display properties. When I did that I could tell the image was being rescaled on the TV. Even though it says to use 1024x768 in the manual, there are settings on the TV to change the resolution to 1366x768. It took me a while to figure that out. It's the ADJUST button under the slide-down part of the remote. I don't know why you have to change the resolution on the TV itself, seems strange to me, but once I did the image was much higher quality.

One thing I noticed however is that you can't select the native LCD resolution of 1366x768 in windows display properties, only 1360x768. It has something to do with the nvidia drivers only allowing resolutions in multiples of 8. I heard you can force it to 1366x768 using powerstrip but haven't tried it yet.

The major problem I have is the noticable latency using my mouse, which makes gaming impossible. This is supposedly a problem with most HDTV's though, and LG is supposed to have the least latency in this respect according to this article http/hdtvlag.googlepages.com/

 

[TeraMedia]

As for the second question widescreen is meant for viewing movies and if use for office application it would be too wide and you’ll have extra white space on the right hand side of your monitor. That’s why wide PC LCD monitor has horizontal and vertical adjustment so you can also view portrait style. But I'm not sure if your 32” LCD can do that.

???

In Windows, the desktop resizes itself to the resolution you specify. Objects on the desktop occupy some portion of that space. This is why if you have a laptop with 1920 x 1200 res, you can view two side-by-side pages in Word quite legibly, without any extra white space on the right hand side of the monitor.

Until this year, almost no LCD or plasma HDTVs supported 1080p resolution as an input signal. Some supported 1080i via HDMI, but that was as good as it got. The newest Sharps, Sonys and Samsungs all support 1080p inputs, though, so any of those could meet the OPs needs.

If OP wants 768p or 720p though, that's his call. I'm spoiled by higher resolution though.

 

[YuChem]

Wow, how did you do that?

I have LG 32LC2D and a PC with the GeForce 6100 video card. I have tryed RGB, Component, DVI/HDMI connections with no luck at all.
Could you please describe what exactly you have done, what resolution have you chosen for you PC and settings on TV?

Thank you

 

[joshakabulldog]

I have a Samsung 52" 1080P LCD paired with an old GeForce 5200FX that runs great at 1920x1080 and 60Hz refresh. The TV automatically adjusts to the varying resolutions during boot up (e.g. 640x480 at the Windows XP welcome screen). It's not using a DVI cable though, I have it hooked up with the old style monitor cable(I forget the name). I'm sure it should work with any other size TV too though. Hope that helps!

 

[fixingtheworld]

I like the idiot who mentions buying an HDTV, and then "later" realizes that his new HDTV doesn't have the capability he desires, so he thinks it's acceptable to "just" return it. What a loser!

It's no wonder that so many companies are in financial trouble... having to deal with selfish a&^^*'s who think "It's all about me"... "If I make a mistake, then I'll just place the resulting burden on someone else, instead of sucking-it-up and accepting responsibility for my own actions".

I wish I had a dollar for every time that an entitled person returned something to the store, where purchased, simply because it was more "convenient" than realizing they made a mistake, & taking the loss, & learning from it!

 

[Guest]

IF YOU ARE TRYING TO SETUP YOUR LG HDTV AS A MONITOR, READ THIS

I just spent many hours searching different forums, threads, and also reading the manual on my own. Apparently the way LG HDTVs ship, they are extremely un-optimized for use as computer monitors. Of course this is not mentioned anywhere in the LG manuals

You may have one or more of these symtoms:

- BLURRY or hard to read text
- JAGGED or "white outline" on all text and windows/buttons/etc
- Inproper display of resolution
- Bad (horrible) color balance or close-but-not-quite-fixable fogginess/graininess in color
- Limited range of selectable resolutions
- Some resolutions look GOOD, other resolutions look GOD-AWFUL


All these problems can be solved by following the steps below, if your LG HDTV has these options. Keep in mind that my particular HDTV model is an LG 42LH30 42" 1080P LCD. The actual menu options might be different, but hopefully this helps you anyway...


Let's begin!

First, if your LG HDTV has an HDMI-in with a "DVI/HDMI" label, make sure you are using that HDMI-in port. Otherwise if you are using DVI-in, don't worry.

1. Go to menu > Option
2. Open "Input Label"
3. For your input (in my case, HDMI-1) make sure to label it as "PC"
4. This should already significantly improve your video feed. Keep reading to tweak it more
5. Find a good resolution from your computer (I use the maximum, 1920x1080 on my 42") -- your best bet is to just test all of them; a strange one might look the best.
6. Now lets adjust the colors. You might notice the colors are more blurry/faded than regular TV. If you cannot tell a difference yet, or you are not bothered, you can stop for now!
7. Go to menu > Picture
8. Run the picture wizard and set everything appropriately so it looks great, and then apply this to whatever inputs you want.
9. Now the important part. Scroll all the way down the list of picture options until you see "Expert Control". If you have this, keep reading.
10. Change the gamma between Low, Medium, and High until it looks good. Mine looks good on High.
11. Change the Black level to look good. Mine looks good on Low. Putting it on High looks really washed out.
12. Set White Balance to your preference. I enjoy "warm" but you might think it looks better on "Cool" etc.

Basically everything else is minor tweaks, and you should be good to go from here. Hope this helps anyone. Enjoy that awesome 1080 picture now

 

[DaveHanson]

Anonymous, that was a great help to me. Thank you!

Amazing that there's no indication of this in the documentation. Many people will be using this TV as a monitor; setting the inputs properly is the first step towards getting MUCH better results.

 

[gangstamuppet]

I like the idiot who mentions buying an HDTV, and then "later" realizes that his new HDTV doesn't have the capability he desires, so he thinks it's acceptable to "just" return it. What a loser!

It's no wonder that so many companies are in financial trouble... having to deal with selfish a&^^*'s who think "It's all about me"... "If I make a mistake, then I'll just place the resulting burden on someone else, instead of sucking-it-up and accepting responsibility for my own actions".

I wish I had a dollar for every time that an entitled person returned something to the store, where purchased, simply because it was more "convenient" than realizing they made a mistake, & taking the loss, & learning from it!

I have never responded to one of these threads before but I just couldn't help myself this time. I just wanted to tell you how douchey you sound. Return policies, especially in big box stores, were established to accommodate dissatisfaction with a product, regardless of whether the fault lies with the product or the consumer. The person who bought the tv has every right to return it, as long as they are adhering to the guidelines of that store's particular policy. You seem to have some bizarrely placed anger, and were not at all helpful in response to this person's honest inquiry. Find something more constructive to do with your time.

 

[lewismayfield]

Gangstamuppet,
My wife works at Costco, she is a refund cashier. The truth is that regardless of store policy, abuse of returns cost us all. In may cases a perfectly functioning unit cannot be re-sold as new and the retailer is forced to destroy the product. This cost is 100 percent of the time passed on to other consumers in the form of higher prices. How often does someone return a product simply because a newer model is now available? The customer never returns it saying "Wow I noticed you have a new Super widget and I bought last years model, so I want a new one." Instead they make up some lame issue like the picture is bad or the sound is off etc. Big retailers have no time, expertise or incentive to troubleshoot electronics. Instead we all pay.

 

[66MUSTANGKID]

I certainly do not want to be paying for Mr. Lola's new super widget. Is that a man issue? Gotta have the new this and the newest that! Go ahead and correct me if I am wrong. Maybe it's just me. Is this issue with having the newest toy usually a man's issue? I happen to have a Mr. Lola at home and whatever Lola wants Lola gets. I also love my electronics, but not to the extreme of taking it back to get the newest. I really am irritated thinking about this subject!

 

[jmm5351]

People return stuff to Wal-Mart 24-7 through out the year. I even saw someone return a pool. He even said I bought this in the beginning of spring and now that summer is over I can't use it anymore and he wanted to return it. That is exactly what he said to the cashier at returns. Haha I could not believe it. The point I am making is people return millions of dollars of stuff to Wal-Mart each year, who knows maybe even billions. Wal-Mart prices never go up in money from that, they just keep getting lower and lower. Secondly, who cares. People here seem like they feel bad for companies like this. WTH!!! They are freaking rich as hell and they have the money to do what ever they want. They have money to do things you thought weren't even possible. If someone wants to return something, let them for what ever the reason is. It is not hurting any companies the size of Wal-Mart and other companies that everyone is talking about here, like LG and other television companies. They have freaking billions.

 

[jmm5351]

FixingtheWorld,

LCD Televisions do function as a monitor, as they have the connections needed to hook up to a computer. It is obvious they are made to function as a monitor. But where at all can you find the specs of a television on a manufactures web-site stating the capabilities of the television as a monitor. I will tell you, NO WHERE. So don't you think the manufactures are being a little misleading. The engineers who developed the television know these specs and the company can easily post them. The reason why you don't find the specs is because they don't want consumers to know, because then who would buy one. The companies are taking a risk by doing this because some people may return the television once they realize it sucks as a monitor. Once LCD televisions can be used as a monitor and actually work like consumers want them to, then the companies will have the specs posted everywhere. Its companies faults that they go out of business, not the consumers. That is a bunch of crock. How would the company even be in business if it wasn't for us consumers. They go out of business either because, their product sucks, poor management/poor employees, high prices, false advertising, or are too risk taking and finally the risk catches up to them - Kind of like how all the banks made a risk loaning out money that they didn't even have in the first place, then the government bailed out the banks with a *** ton of money. A lot of that money was ours, through taxes. Did you know that infact the government gets back all your money. There is even a math formula to prove it, its a rate of decay formula or exponential rate of increase calculus formula. If you go to sheetz and buy something for a quarter and you hand the cashier a dollar, then you will get back .75 cents. The gov just made some money from taxes on the thing you bought for a quarter. That .75 cents you got back you are going to spend that else where and repeat that process, gov will make some money from taxes again on what ever it is you buy and you will be given back change. On another note, the dollar you gave the cashier at sheetz, she is going to hand back out to someone else as change. You can see where I am going with this. And it is actually true. If anyone is actually interested I will explain it perfect using the calculus formula. It is actually quite crazy.

 

[66MUSTANGKID]

jmm5351:

It's Friday before a 3 day weekend. I'm in a much better mood than when I posted a response here earlier. I'm glad that you posted. It's a different angle and I think both sides have great points.
I do not make a habit of returning purchases because I usually don't buy it unless I really want it. My other half buys on impulse many times and regrets send him to the return counter. It definitely is a problem if I have to pay extra for this type of behavior, but if it isn't really what drives up cost well then I don't mind minding my own business.

Lewismayfield:
Maybe jmm5351 has a point here. Without returns, your wife wouldn't have much of a job to do.

 

[jmm5351]

I am not a person who always returns things, actually I am not like that at all. I only will return an item if there is something wrong with it, like it is defective or it was damaged during shipping, or if it fails later on down the road and it still has warranty. The normal things you know. But I am going to describe here what I bet everyone has done before, and if you say you haven't then man up and tell the truth. I live in a relatively small city. So if there is something I want to buy, chances are if I go to my local bestbuy store or walmart they are not going to have it in stock. This is leaves me only one choice. The internet. The internet is a very misleading place a lot of times. I wanted to buy a certain widescreen LCD monitor for my pc. No one had it where I live but Newegg online had it. It was 19" LCD. I read all the reviews left by people, some were helpful but they were confusing because one person said it was great, then the other person said it wasn't. I looked up other reviews of it also making sure it was a legit television. After the research I decided to buy it, but it was a hard decision because all the reviews were mixed results. I never owned a wide screen television before, the monitor I had before I bought the 19" LCD from Newegg was also 19" but CRT type. When the LCD arrived and I took it out of the box, I immediately realized that the LCD was smaller than my CRT because it was widescreen. It was a little wider than my CRT but not by much, but the LCD was vey narrow compared to my CRT which I did not like at all. I knew it was going to be like that, but not as bad as it was. As in my case, if I lived in a larger city where there would have been more demand for these LCDs, I could have went somewhere local and compared LCDs actually infront of my face and realized that I did not want something as small as a 19" LCD. I returned it and bought a 27" and I love it now and I am absolutely glad I returned that thing and got what I like. At this time of writing this my local BestBuy store does carry LCDs Monitors (Very Few though) but when I bought the LCD from Newegg, BestBuy didn't have any LCD monitors there at all. So I couldn't gauge the size of LCD televisions and was forced to make an educated guess.

But I don't care if your a person who always returns things. Like 66MUSTANGKID said, it gives people jobs both at the store you bought the item from and at the manufactures facility. A business normally has a whole building dedicated to returns. And second as I said previously, who cares they are freaking rich. Like it really hurts them. Tell me one big business that has gone bankrupt or went out of business because of people returning things. Tell me one.

 

[w4ke]

Score 1 for logic!

 

[Guest]

JMM5351, you are the very reason the country is in such dire straits. You and your idiot friends who think that "companies are rich". You idiot. Don't you realize that WE ALL OWN THESE COMPANIES through stock ownership. Your 401K (if you have thought that far ahead) is full of these supposedly "rich" bastard companies.

Wanna know what companies have gone out of business because their profit margins were so slim that they couldn't tolerate the tiniest hiccup in returns? How about Circuit City. How many frivolous returns did they have to eat?

Is there ONE SINGLE SOLITARY consumer electronics company still in existence in the United States? NAME IT. No, we have bankrupted every last one of them and the cheap asian labor markets have picked up the slack.

Go study some economics before you and your asshole friends vote more communists into power.

 

[BennoTron]

I like the idiot who mentions buying an HDTV, and then "later" realizes that his new HDTV doesn't have the capability he desires, so he thinks it's acceptable to "just" return it. What a loser!

It's no wonder that so many companies are in financial trouble... having to deal with selfish a&^^*'s who think "It's all about me"... "If I make a mistake, then I'll just place the resulting burden on someone else, instead of sucking-it-up and accepting responsibility for my own actions".

I wish I had a dollar for every time that an entitled person returned something to the store, where purchased, simply because it was more "convenient" than realizing they made a mistake, & taking the loss, & learning from it!

Dude really? I agree that you should research and make a plan and try to be sure that it'll work before you invest in a large-ticket item like an HDTV, but 'selfish losers' return items they don't end up wanting or needing?

Yeah, I bet Samsung is taking a huge hit on still functional returns on the retail level. Oh, and If Circuit City's bottom line can't (or couldn't, I suppose) allow for the returning of products, then they need(ed) to think more about their business model. Returns are a part of the game, and if they didn't think that was the case, then they had the ability to control that loss through their return policy, which last I checked was theirs to mold, and not controlled by the communists. By the way, most returns are either resold at the retail level or brought back for factory refurbishing, after which they are sold, still at a profit. Did you think that restocking fee you paid every time you returned an electronic item was actually to pay the guy in the red polo to put it back on the shelf? Nope, that covers the discount they'll give on the item when it's sold again. Return abuse is yet another issue, and one which stores have the right to control through their return policy.

Quit drinking that Haterade and do your homework.