Computer Monitor or TV Screen?

as400

I have a work laptop and am setting up a home office environment. Need to open up quite a few windows/applications so am thinking of 2 24" or 27" monitors...


But then for a similar price could have 2 32" TV's...


Are there any disadvantages to having TV's attached to a laptop rather than traditional monitors?...I mean they generally have good speakers and smart tuners all included if I get bored?!

boliston

Most tv screens are only 1920x1080 which would look very grainy (large individual pixels) on anything over 24" when viewed at computer screen distances

wongataa

as400 wrote: »

Are there any disadvantages to having TV's attached to a laptop rather than traditional monitors?...I mean they generally have good speakers and smart tuners all included if I get bored?!

No modern TV has good speakers. They aren't deep enough to fit good speakers in.

RobTang

If you can get a decent TV ie has a decent panel, can do 1to1 pixel mapping and you can disable all post processing; then its fine.


For me I think I've only been really happy with about 40% of the TVs I've used as monitors and even then only for watching movies or games.
The problem for me is every TV I've used has some display lag compared to the built in laptop panel or a monitor even if you turn on game mode etc, I find it irritating enough I would never consider using them for office or day to day work. If you don't mind this than they are probably fine.


I'm sure there are some TV's which would be ok but you must try before you buy.


I've heard the sweet spot is the bargain basement 40" 4K TVs, ie all the budget went on the panel and they cut every other fancy feature

stator

I wouldn't use a TV. Too many potential problems and usually a crap resolution. Whenever I connect to a TV The edges of the screen disappear. They also often have crap refresh rates.

wongataa

stator wrote: »

I wouldn't use a TV. Too many potential problems and usually a crap resolution. Whenever I connect to a TV The edges of the screen disappear. They also often have crap refresh rates.

You need to turn off overscan on the TV to prevent the edges disappearing.

psychic_teabag

We got an LG TV to use primarily as a monitor - the box was claiming it was dual-purpose TV / monitor, so we assumed that meant it was reasonably tolerant of having to display a static picture. Not had any problems with it, but it's only 22" - wouldn't get a huge TV and expect to get a good picture when sitting up close to it. (Is there much difference between watching TV on a small screen close-up, or a huge screen from across the room ?)

Of course, our tired old eyes are perhaps more tolerant of less than crystal-clear picture.

WobblyDog

I've got a 27" Samsung TV and a 27" Samsung monitor side-by-side attached to my PC, both have 1920x1080 resolution. I'm happy with the arrangement.


I think the dedicated monitor is slightly better for PC use, but not much. The monitor had the right brightness/contrast/gamma/etc. settings out of the box, whereas it took quite a lot of adjustment to get the right settings on the TV.


Most TVs are either 1920x1080 (not really enough above 27"), or 4K (not yet widely supported by PCs).

RumRat

Definitely no to a any TV, I've never seen one that can match a good monitor.
27" 2560 x 1440 for the extra real estate, IPS screen preferably....Would be my recommendation.
If you want to watch TV you can view it via an online source or get a TV dongle .

stator

wongataa wrote: »

You need to turn off overscan on the TV to prevent the edges disappearing.

Never had one with such an option

forgotmyname

stator wrote: »

Never had one with such an option

Same here, never had an overscan setting. Changing the refresh rate in windows often works to some degree. With my previous 32" screen it was only a couple of pixels over. My current screen is crap though. Half of the start button is missing and the 3 buttons on the top right of a window are almost invisible.

Ti use the X to close the window is hit and miss, its barely there.

I cannot get a refresh rate that betters it though.