[ILUG] Flat screen TV as monitor

[Colm Buckley]

On Sat, Sep 13, 2008 at 11:59 AM, Timothy Murphy <gayleard at eircom.net>wrote:

> Does a  flat-screen TV serve equally well as a computer monitor,
> or is there some technical difference?


In *general*, yes, however:

You need to make sure it has the appropriate inputs.  Most LCD TVs will have
DVI or HDMI inputs, some also have VGA inputs.  Note that HDMI is
electrically compatible with DVI; you can get a suitable cable to connect a
computer's DVI output to a TV's HDMI for ~20 euro.  Note that this won't
transmit sound.

Your TV should support "Justified Scan", which displays every pixel sent
over the DVI connection.  Broadcast television typically expects that the
"displayed" picture will be cutting off a few rows and columns of pixels
from the "transmitted" image.  Most modern flat panel TVs support this mode.

Note that the pixel resolution of large televisions isn't in general as
great as that of large monitors.  Mid-range TVs (capable of displaying 720p
HD signals) have a pixel resolution of 1366x768 pixels, and higher-end ones
(capable of displaying 1080p) have a pixel resolution of 1920x1080 pixels
(about the same as a 24" monitor).  The pixel resolution of 30" monitors is
now generally 2560x1600; very few TVs will be able to match this.

The colour gamut of the television might not match that of a good computer
monitor.  Usually you can "calibrate" the colour output of your computer
system to provide accurate colour rendering.

For what it's worth, I recommend Samsung LCD TVs.

Colm

-- 
Colm Buckley / colm at tuatha.org / +353 87 2469146