Quick Question about using an LCD TV as a Monitor...

[Jayce]

i had a 32" LCD 1080 hooked up to my rig and games were frikkin amazing but text was painful.

I'm soooo on the fence with what to do considering this little factor. I use my computer to be a computer too. So if I'm going to get something like an LCD TV as a monitor, it needs to function normally and display text clearly.

My train of thought is this, and maybe I'm wrong, and if so somebody correct me.

I have a 24" @ 1920x1080. When I go to Best Buy and look at the TVs on display that are 1920x1080, they have the exact same resolution as my current monitor. So, if I sit up close to it (normal computer screen distance) and focus my eyes on the individual pixels, that should give me an idea of how pixelated a picture of sentence of text may look when I have it on my computer. Right? After all, it's the same resolution. If I can't see the individual pixels on the LCD TV from normal viewing distance, then I assume it should be okay. And besides, if I watch the TV long enough, I'm sure I'd see some sort of a commercial with some fine text that I can focus in on to see how clear it is.

Am I completely off by this idea? Or could I just sit close to an LCD TV to get a prediction of how it'd look on my computer?

 

[saltynay]

22" = 1680x1050.

30" = 2560x1600

I know thats the standard res = size but I sure I have seen ones higher have to do some googling in the morn to tired atm

 

[Nagasama]

how close are you going to be sitting if it is your monitor?

 

[Jayce]

I kind of decided against using a TV as my monitor. I saw some up close in the store and, where I'd be sitting, I can just see the pixels.

Besides, my current monitor is 24" 1920x1080. A TV would be 32" 1920x1080. It's not an upgrade... simply a bigger screen with the same proportions on the images and windows.

If anything, the only other thing I'd consider is a higher resolution monitor, such as a 2560x1900... I saw a Gateway 30" with that resolution with an S-IPS LCD panel in it (much like Apple's Cinema Displays) but that sucker is a grand. No thx.

 

[Nagasama]

yeah anything with 2560 resolution is going to be close to a thousand dollars. i think newegg had some on sale for like 600 though...