HDTV or Big Screen over LCD

[Thread_Necro]

Im looking to do away with an LCD and use a bigscreen tv for my monitor. By bigscreen, I dont mean 5 feet wide but about 2-3 feet wide. an example i will use is a 30" plasma...

I'd like to know anything and everything about LCD's ( read the guide here already though), HDTV setups and Plasmas. I'd like to know how they work with thecurrent graphics cards if anyone is running these setups. Also, what is the difference in quality between VGA and DVI inputs on these televisions, if they have DVI.

A final word is speculation, since computers are becoming HD and HD tv is being streamed over Ethernet now, anyone have an idea on future technologies that might be good to wait for?

Thanks in advance

[Dethrattle]

i have a hdtv and its not the best moniter.

[EXreaction]

A 30" monitor for a PC?

Is this just for a PC alone or will you use it for other things like movies, etc?

30" is pretty big for a PC alone unless you start getting into CAD related work...

I would either get a 20" widescreen or dual 17" (non-widescreen)...

[Whir]

Well, there's no such thing as a 30" plasma, so that rules that out. Heh.

TV makers don't really care about monitor support, so all you really end up with is 1024x768. I have only had two TVs that would even do widescreen off a normal VGA/DVI input, and those were both 17" widescreen LCD TVs. I'm guessing you want something a little bigger.

One way you can get around that is to get software that turns your DVI output into a TV style HDMI. There _is_ a difference, and the TVs are smart enough to know it (due to refresh rates and such). That's pretty much the only way to get real widescreen high-res from a computer to a TV.

You really don't want to use a 42" plasma by the way, most are 1024x768 widescreen. Which means they use wide pixels, and stretch your normal 1024x768 desktop out like a widescreen TV does to an analog 4:3 signal. It looks horrible.

You could also get a video card that has component outputs, like a 1900XT(X) and run it that way. That way it will run the TV like it's supposed to. I'm not sure on picture quality or anything as I've never hooked mine up, my tower is too big to lug around like that. Heh.

[EXreaction]

Or...you could get a Giant screen!
http://www.pricegrabber.com/p__Samsu..._TV,__10087312

50" 1080P DLP.
(my dad just ordered it )

[mrniceguy]

hey X, did that show up yet? are you going to hook it up to a computer? I was just researching buying a tv and may follow suit

[Thread_Necro]

Id like some pictures of his setup if you got a camera.

[carl33p]

I had a friend who uses a 37" Olevia LCD(might have been 32") and it looked pretty good. Although, whenever he went to play a game, sizing up was a hassle.
But for regular applications, and Movies it looked good.

[Thread_Necro]

well my father has a 32" (I believe) plasma but it lacks vga, so connecting to play games through it when he was out of the house was through S-Video. The picture wasnt bad, but it ran into issues getting the resolutions right.

I wouldnt mind something similar but smaller and more computer friendly. If anyone knows of any vga capable big screens with nice gaming potential, let me know.

[erhan28]

The thing is that you need a Very big resalution for plasmas. there is no 30" plasma ive heard of.
If you get anything bigger than 24" it would need to be 1600Xwhat ever resalution and a powerfull graphics card. A graphics card has a hard time to play a game on a big screen so keep that in thought.
VGA is analog and DVI is mostly digital.
Some TVs have both VGA and DVI which means that they are excepting both analog and digital. Some just VGA so no digital there. Some only DVI but that does not mean you can get a VGA to DVI and have it work. so get a Monitor/LCD TV that has a DVI input with a good resalution and a graphics card that can hanndle big screens with DVI output.