Can you use a flat screen LCD tele as a computer monitor?

[mzjo]

I don't know if this goes here or in OT. It probably seems a stupid question to which everyone knows the answer (except me) but I will ask anyway.
I have acquired for free a 40cm (15.6 inch) tele which I think is LCD (not knowing much about these things anymore). It was free! It has VGA, HDMI and S-video inputs (but no USB). Can I use it as a monitor for a computer on a permanent basis (the box is an ex-Vista, i-core duo piece of junk)? The current monitor is a square ex-industrial thing which obviously distorts the image hideously (I gave my old 19" wide-screen monitor which used to be on this box to my daughter for playing games).
The reason I ask is that I have memories from the days of CRT teles that they were not suited to permanent computer use because they couldn't handle (or were damaged by) stationary images but I don't know if the same is true with LCD screens. I don't think resolution will be a problem.
Of course the tele being free and redundant one could just say "use it until it goes bang" but that seems a bit of a waste all the same.

[David Martin]

Yes they are fine.

[freeflow]

Fine - ish

[Feanor]

In general, yes you can. But a couple of things to watch out for.

You are aiming for 1:1 pixel mapping.
That means that your PC sends an image which is for example 1920x1080 to a display which has a 1920x1080 native panel resolution, and no re-scaling nonsense is applied along the way.

1) Overscan. Kill it with fire. Some cheaper TVs have overscan that cannot be disabled. This means the computer's desktop will be stretched so that the edges of the desktop are off the visible screen area. This can be 'fixed' by scaling on the PC, but the double-scaling ( once in the PC, and once in the monitor doing the overscan ) results in a horrible blurred image.   Disable overscan for the PC input.  The menu items are often not clearly labelled, but may say things like 'PC mode' and 'Video Mode'.

2) Non-square pixels. Throw it in the bin. Computers expect the individual pixels to be square (1:1 aspect ratio). Some TVs are physically 16:9, but the number of pixels on the display panel are not.  When crappy TVs with non-square pixels are displaying video from the TV at say 1920x1080 which is 16:9 on a panel who's native resolution is not 16:9, then the on-board re-scaler deals with it, and stretches and squeezes the image so it displays correctly on the screen which is physically 16:9 but pixel-wise is not.  You will never get a satisfactory PC display from these horrors.

[Kim]

Main issue is going to be annoying behaviour like not supporting power saving, or requiring that you press a button on the remote to select the right input every time you turn it on.

Persuading a computer to output VGA at the TV's native resolution may be awkward, or it may just work.


For reference, DVI-D and HDMI can be connected with a suitable cable.  This doesn't support audio or encrypted video, thobut.

[Kim]

1) Overscan. Kill it with fire.

Overscan should have died with CRTs.

[mzjo]

Thanks for all that; seems I was right to ask the question after all. I know that the VGA input works with my netbook although I didn't play with the resolution on the book to match the tele and the image was a bit small. It sounds as if the best connection option to the pc would be DVI-D to HDMI; sound is not going to be a problem, I always use external speakers. I think the pc video card supports HDMI, haven't looked for a while, never used it before.

edit non-square pixels are not really a problem much worse than what I already have with a square monitor trying to stretch and squeeze an unsquare image.

[Afasoas]

Lots of PCs/Laptops have HDMI ports on them these days which support sound.

It's been a while since I've connected to PC to a TV and had any notable issues to contend with.

[Mr Larrington]

The PC in the Great Hall is HDMI'd direct to the distascope, though when it's doing iTunes it talks to the amplifier via the network.  The laptop can also route to the amp and thence to the distascope via HDMI.  Only problem is that if you switch the TV off while the laptop is talking to it, the laptop screen goes blank.  Something keeps buggering up the display settings in Windows.  I expect it's Windows doing it.

[NeilP]

I never knew anything about the technicalities of pixels etc and was planning on getting a cheap LCD tv to use as a second screen for my laptop which I use for turbo work. If a flat screen tv isn't ideal what would be the best thing to use for dual screen purposes?

[Feanor]

look at what connections your laptop has for monitors.
Ideally, it will have an HDMI port.
This will plug into pretty much any modern TV.  Check it has an HDMI port.

The remaining discussion is all about image quality issues caused by scaling etc.
If this is important to you, then I'd want to take my laptop to the shop and try it out.

If you are unfussy about this, then it will Just Work, so long as both PC and TV have HDMI ports.

[NeilP]

Ha Ha, forgot about the good old monitor, only use them every day at work 😃😃. TBH I don't actually need a TV as anything I may want to watch during a long session would be available online anyway and it seems you can get a reasonable budget monitor for just over £100.

[ElyDave]

Ha Ha, forgot about the good old monitor, only use them every day at work 😃😃. TBH I don't actually need a TV as anything I may want to watch during a long session would be available online anyway and it seems you can get a reasonable budget monitor for just over £100.

I tend to run the turbo trainer on the laptop, and have something to watch on my 8" tablet next to it, sound from a Bluetooth speaker. Lots of stuff to carry out to the shed, but works for me.

[NeilP]

My garage sound system is rather extravagant but couldn't bear to get rid of it, Denon  amp with Mission speakers and sub 

[mzjo]

The tele in question worked after a fashion with the netbook (image not otimised at all) on VGA, not at all with the pc on VGA and not tested at all on HDMI-DVD-D (no HDMI ports on either machine, VGA only on netbook). But it works fine on HDMI with the Raspberry pi which will be its rôle for the forseeable future. Just need the 3D printed VESA drilled pi case from my mate (or the file when the Limouzilab is up and running again).