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All About HDTVs as a PC or Laptop Monitor

135K views 528 replies 182 participants last post by  57 
#1 ·
As I shopped for an HDTV, I got the uncomfortable feeling that few were PC friendly. Most new models sport HDMI inputs. Contrary to what I read in many AV magazines, HDMI isn't a backward compatible evolution of the DVI interface. This White Paper from the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) explains the incompatibility between personal computers and consumer electronics. In short:
A major contributing factor to this growing problem is the use of similar (and in some cases identical) digital interfaces used in both markets. Examples include the DVI and HDMI specifications, both of which are based on a common electrical interface definition and which are showing up more and more in both entertainment and PC systems. There is a growing likelihood of consumers having products of both types in their homes, and the apparent compatibility naturally leads the consumer to believe that such products will interoperate. However, due to the current incompatibilities between PC and CE industry standards and typical industry practices, a consumer attempting to connect CE and PC products will very often find that they do not work well together as expected.
The whole point of an HTPC is to connect it to a high definition display. Many people in this forum are having problems doing this. So, I thought I would start a thread that would specifically identify those high definition monitors and TVs that can't be connected to a PC or that do not allow the PC to use the panel's full native resolution.
 
#54 ·
How do you have the TV connected? S-video or composite cables (AKA TV out on most video cards) will deliver poor results with a large screen HDTV. Some HDTVs have dedicated DVI or D-sub connectors for PCs. Others may work by using a HDMI to DVI cable but it is not recommended. In your case, the best way to connect the set may be with component video cables. GeForce 7900 GTX cards should supply this. (You may need an adapter cable.) In any case, you will need to adjust the output to a standard HD resolution (1280x720, 1920x1080i) and adjust the size to reduce overscan. Your video drivers may do this or you can use a utility called Powerstrip. I find 1280x720 to be the best resolution.
 
#55 ·
i'm using a dvi-hdmi cord, whats wrong with using that cord? i know my video card came with an component adapter should i be using that? i'll check out the power strip ya the only thing i dont like is the over scan of the image. please explain why dvi-hdmi is bad as i dont have alot of experinece with this
 
#56 ·
Your plasma is overscanning, which means you need to use something other than the "native" resolution. Use Powerstrip. Annoying, for sure.

I also just noticed this weekend that 42" plasmas are made in non-16:9 resolutions. Panasonic, too. Not just brands like Prima. 1024x768, which is 4:3. Rectangular pixels?? Not sure. But they are called HD because they can show 720p. But they scale horizontally, so they aren't showing 1280 pixels wide. Odd.
 
#57 ·
Rather than start a new thread I thought I'd post a question in here as the topic name certainly applies. I currently output video off a toshiba laptop to a standard def TV through s-video and it works relatively well. Am in the process of choosing a hi def TV and am wondering if anyone has went from (laptop has no DVI output) pc 15 pin vga to hdmi or if there is a way. Looking on the net can only imagine a 15 pin to dvi connector then a dvi to hdmi cable. May or may not work I guess, just curious thanks in advance. I expect to put together an HTPC box with a video card that has a DVI output in the future, but wondering if it's even worth trying the HDMI with laptop or should I just stick with the 1366 res pc connection.
 
#58 ·
VGA will not work on HDMI.


VGA is an analog signal. DVI was designed to carry either (or both) analog and digital signals. Your VGA to analog would only carry the analog signal.

HDMI will carry only digital signal. You laptop cannot produce a digital feed without DVI connects.
 
#61 ·
Do you have a 40" LCD that is 1366x768 and connected to a PC? Please read this..

Hello,

I am in the process of buying a 40" LCD TV that has a PC resolution of 1366x768.

I was wondering if the regular size Windows XP text is readable from 8ft distance (without playing with font size).

Many thanks
 
#62 ·
I have a 32" LCD at 6'. It should be comparable. Using component cables, text is barely visible at 1024x720 resolution. I would guess that HDMI might be slightly better. Don't even try 1080i. The problem is not so much the TV or desktop resolution but the size of the text. 1080i causes additional problems due to interlace artifacts. I am using the standard XP desktop.
 
#63 ·
Thanks,

I was actually thinking of connecting my PC with DVI or d-sub (VGI) cables to LCD screen.

I had opportunity to check out a Viewsonic 32" hooked up to a PC at Staples and I know on 32" text is small(readable from 2-3 feet at most). I am thinking going 8" larger screen while keeping the resolution the same should give me leverage for the distance.

Cheers
 
#66 ·
Hooked up my pc to my TV and????

Ok....total HTPC Newb here.
I do alot of gaming and i thought i'd try and hook up my pc to my tv to see what it would look like. I hooked it up and was not too impressed and it seemed to screw up my ATI drivers or something (ATI x800XL). I hooked my pc back up to my regular LCD monitor and my ATI2DVG driver blue screens all the time now. Replaced the drivers a few times and still same thing.
Anyways....got a backup nvidia 6600GT and it is fine now.

Anyways my tv is a Lg 45nz60 RPTV with a DVI input. What is required for it to look decent? Is there any configuring that I need to do, because of resolutions? I have no clue.
Any help is appreciated! Thanks!
 
#67 ·
I have a 32" LCD connected by VGA at 1360x768 for general windows. It gets hard to read at more than 8-9'. Closer up, i can read text at 1360x1024 which is what I play games at.

The native resolution is 1368x768 but it will take a lot of different resolutions through VGA at least up to 1920x1080, but that doesn't look very nice as I can only get it at 30Hz.
 
#74 ·
htpc with Samsung 42" plasma ? - ok ?

Hi guys,

I currently have my htpc hooked up to my 50" Tosh DLP, using a hdmi-2-dvi cable ( dvi on computer video card, hdmi on the back of he tv )

Now, my question is this,

I'm thinking of buying 42" Samsung plasma TV that has a HDMI input
on the back of it.

Now what I'm wondering is this, -- these TVs are not true HDTVs, they
are something called EDTV.

My brother in law has one, and the picture on it is very very nice, however, he has no computer to hook to it, so I have no clue how it would look.

Does anyone here on the board have their computer ( htpc ) / media center hooked to a TV like this ?

Or a better question, has anyone hooked up their media center / hdpc
to any Samsung *plasma* tv ?

Thanks for any info guys !
 
#76 · (Edited by Moderator)
Hello, and thanks for the fast response :)

How does Windows XP look on your screen ? , I use media center
a lot, but often I will quit the mce shell and do stuff on the computer from
the couch, and on my hdtv ( Toshiba dlp ) the Windows XP screen
is very clear, almost as good as a computer screen. I'm assuming you will tell me it's amazing also, but I thought I would ask.

Anyway, thank you for the info, it's much appreciated.
 
#81 ·
I have a 42" Samsung HDTV with HDMI. I bought a dvi to hdmi cable on ebay and I was able to connect the pc to the tv, no problems. However, you can't use it for anything other than movies because the true resolution of the TV is 1024x768 (even though in theory it supports 1920x1080). Movie quality is great though, the only problem I had was when I tried to set the resolution to 1920x1080 on the video card -> then the output was stuttering on fast paced scenes. If I set the res to 1024x768 the quality is identical and there is no more stuttering. I think it has something to do with the ability of cable to carry so much information. Since the TV scales the input anyway quality seems to be unaffected. However, I only watched div x movies with low resolution (compared with HDTV).
 
#83 · (Edited)
...the true resolution of the TV is 1024x768...
...when I tried to set the resolution to 1920x1080 on the video card -> then the output was stuttering on fast paced scenes.
...I think it has something to do with the ability of cable to carry so much information...
The HDMI/DVI cable can carry much more than that.
In your case too much manupilation is done to the stream. First, you convert the DivX (that is not more than SD in most cases) to 1080i in you computer.
Second, the TV deinterlaces the stream and converts it to the set native format with non-square pixel.

DLPs have always square pixels and therefore don't have this problem.

Diogen.
 
#82 · (Edited by Moderator)
Hi there cgrecu,

This is very interesting. I say meaning, it's both interesting, and disappointing, if this is indeed a fact.

I have yet to see anyone ( any of my friends ) who have a PLASMA hooked
up to a media center PC.

*However* - about 2 years a go I was in a Staples store ( like Office MAX ) and they had a computer there, that was running, and it was hooked up to a Plasma TV. You could do computer work on it if you wanted, the screen was that clear.

Now, I have my media center running on a Toshiba 50" DLP. Even when I first got it running on there, the screen was crystal clear for text ( in Windows XP ! )

I only have the screen set at a low res, I will check this later today, when I turn it on and check it to and report back what it was. Now, I do know that I use an "under-scan" or "over-scan" mode ( the computer asked me if I wanted to do this, and what it does is makes the whole Windows XP screen
visable on the TV screen ( in wide format )

However, even without using this "under-scan" mode, you can still see windows XP very clearly on the 50" screen. It's so crisp that I often write email, and surf the web on it, you would sit here with me, and say it's like looking at a large computer screen. I know that others on another large TV group, do this all the time also, many in fact use their TV all day long to do their web work.

This is rather distressing, as I was looking forward to buying an "inexpensive" plasma Samsung TV ( about $1500 now for a 42" )

Also, I bought a good quality HDMI-2-DVI cable, not a $150 MonsterCable one, but one at Walmart made by Phillips ( about $45 ) and it, I find gives super super quality.

Anyway, I'm really going to want to hear back from other plasma users, perhaps it's something on your video card that is creating the problem you are describing.

Well, I put this post on hold and decided to check my media center's
screen res.... it's set to:
1177 x 662, but from what I understand this will change with every TV.

For example - when I first ever hooked my TV to my media center computer, the computer actually knew exactly what model of TV I had hooked up... so I'm assuming it would do so with a plasma tv....

this is rather an interesting topic for sure.
 
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