HDTV as a PC display

[Duff-e]

Why hello there.

Do any of you guys use your HDTV as a PC display for a home theater setup? The internet (hardocp, arstechnica, tomshardware, metafilter, other forums) has let me down so I'm hoping some of you have real world experience with this. I have 5 or 6 HDTV's I'm really keen on but I need to be able to play PC games and this seems to change everything according to the internet. Unfortunately no one elaborates on this.

I'm really interested in hearing from people who have the same or similar situation as me, especially when it comes to FPS games played at 10ft (max) on a PC/HDTV. Also I can't settle on 37-42" / 720p-1080p. I have no problem shelling out the extra money for 42" 1080p but only if it's going to be the main factor for PC/HDTV gaming. I rarely watch any 1080p worthy content, mostly because I have a huge downloaded movie library and they're all 700 mb files. I'm confident I won't be doing any console gaming on this tv if that matters.

I already have a badass PC, wireless mouse/keyboard/headphones, I just want to be able to play fallout 3, source, and other choice games without having to use some ridiculously bad resolution where I get ghosting and lag anyway. I've used this PC on a 2560x1600 30" samsung 305T flawlessly so I'm confident on that end.

Plasma vs LCD doesn't matter to me. I checked out some of those new panasonic plasma sets and they're damn sexy, but the internet whispers of PC/HDTVplasma as bad.

Again, please real experiences only. There are enough people already on the internet using industry slang and big acronyms that just copy/paste press releases.

Thanks <3

[Sentura]

i've had no problems hooking my tv up to my pc. it's just like a regular monitor except widescreen. my tv is a 32" LG with a 1366x768 res. it's not really a problem with games since the games themselves will notice the change in screen and will adjust accordingly.

[Duff-e]

I understand how to setup a pc to hdtv. I mostly want to know your size, resolution, distance and satisfaction with your setup. Preferably people with 42" HDTV's using a PC @ 1920x1080. I'm talking browsing and applications too, not just gaming and movies.

If I have to be 3 ft from a 42" HDTV PC @ 1920x1080 to functionally use it as monitor, I'd rather just save the money and buy a 720p. That's the heart of my question.

Sentura, how far do you sit from that tv?

[Sentura]

around 2.5 meters, that's 8-9 ft.

[Duff-e]

You sit 8 ft from a 32" 1366x768 and games don't look like shit?

[Thrik]

I have my 42-inch VIERA hooked up to a gaming-only PC downstairs. It's a pretty beefy machine, and most critically I use a graphics card that has a HDMI output so I can have my picture and audio sent to the TV via one cable. Older plasmas wouldn't be very good for PC use due to the static interface elements, but newer ones like this VIERA don't really suffer from screen burn.

You can get minor image retention (fades within a minute or so and is unnoticeable unless you're staring at a plain black screen) if you leave like a bright white window on screen for a while, but I just have my screensaver kick in after 5 minutes to stop that. It's worth it IMO because the native blacks are insanely good, which is superb for dark games. The blacks are actually darker than the Samsung CRT TV I still have knocking around in my bedroom.

I can't really report any problems, other than needing to adjust the DPI in Windows as using 1920x1080 is just too small for general Windows use at six feet. Windows Vista/7 are much better than XP for this as they can enlarge all applications, even if it causes a bit of blurring — XP will only enlarge stuff that's been specifically designed for it, with the most notable application that doesn't have support for XP's way of doing it being Steam. I also have Firefox zoom in to 120% by default as most sites are a bit hard to read.

You may want wireless peripherals if you're at a significant distance. I did a lot of research and isolated the Microsoft Sidewinder X8 as the best wireless mouse for the job, and I've been very happy with it — able to kick ass in games like TF2 as usual. Steelseries do a nice mouse mat that's got a solid plastic base but a cloth top, which is good for putting on sofa arms. I got a Logitech wireless keyboard but it's a bit badly designed as the transmitter is where my leg often touches the keyboard, resulting in a blocked signal which causes input lag. Need to replace that at some point.

If there's anything else in particular you wanted to know, go ahead and ask.

[Sentura]

You sit 8 ft from a 32" 1366x768 and games don't look like shit?

any specific reason why they should? i play both my consoles on that tv as well, it's always looked awesome. i credit this partly to the fact that lg make awesome tvs.

[Buddy]

I hooked my 32" samsung tv @1920 to my pc once to see how it works, the only problem i noticed was that the tv obviously wont support some resolutions and in some cases you will be getting black screen Other than that i sat around 2 meters away from the display and it was pretty cool. I think i played stalker on it.

[Duff-e]

sentura - only reason I say that is because it seems like a low resolution to be stretched out to 32".

thrik - the viera is one set I've seriously been considering. that's exactly the kind of info I was looking for. I'll probably end up going with a very similar setup. I figured I would have to do some DPI adjustment, I just need to figure out now how well OSX can take care of that because the PC is mainly a mac pro. Thanks Also, whats the exact model of your viera?

[Thrik]

It's the TH42PZ80.

[cyberjunkie]

I have a 42-inch LG 1080p LCD TV + HTPC in the living room. I don't use it as a gaming rig but to browse and watches HD content on with the lights dimmed or turned off. With a TV of such sizes, I don't see why people should sit at a distance of 8 and 10 ft or more! Just use a 22-inch display and sit 2 ft from it then

I sit at a distance of around 5ft from the screen and I have tried playing some games. I've been using the Xbox 360 controller. I've also configured it as my controller for my PC. Text is clear, readable and games playable and they look great! There are no delay/lag issues with this TV but I have seen some others with some serious problems. Choose carefully.

[Sentura]

well i sit 8 ft from mine because it's across the room from my couch. i did not set it up to have exactly 8 ft between the tv and me...

the resolution is fine at the distance; like i said, games look excellent when i play them.

[Duff-e]

Do newer graphics cards all have HDMI outputs or something? I gotta buy a damn dvi > hdmi cable.

Anyway, I decided on the Panasonic TC-P42S1 42" Viera S1 Series Plasma HDTV. I'm paying through the ass cause I'm buying it local and from a big store but I'm hoping it will save me from future hassles. They have a 46" 1080p LCD samsung for $850 shipped...so tempting...but it is what it is.

Thanks for the info everyone

[cyberjunkie]

Yes, figure out what you're going to do with the sound. Does the TV allow a separate audio source than the video stream (ie. audio through optical/3.5mm analog, RCA, etc) Most cards have a small audio-in slot that lets you connect a cable from your motherboard/sound card to the graphics card so both video and audio are channeled through HDMI. Most newer high-end and HTPC cards (8400GS, 9400GT) have HDMI but SOME of them don't, but they come with a DVI->HDMI convertor. I don't think audio can be passed through that DVI slot on the card. I don't know if these cards have an audio-in thingie and if DVI will pass it to that DVI>HDMI convertor.

My living room PC has a 780G board with HDMI that has onboard graphics/sound so I have no such problems.

[Thrik]

If it sheds any light, my graphics card is an ATI 4870 1GB and it comes with a native HDMI slot. As in, you literally just plug the card into your motherboard and it somehow gets both the picture and audio together and sends it to the TV — there's no extra wiring between the sound card and the graphics card or anything like that.