I spend a lot of time using a 27" monitor - for forums such as this, surfing the internet and streaming music and youtube. I like it much better than using a laptop sized screen, but I'm starting to get tired of sitting at a desk all the time. So I'm thinking of getting a big TV (say 65" or so) to use as a monitor, and mounting it across the room from my armchair, which would be about ten feet or 3m viewing distance.
My keyboard and mouse are already wireless, so it would be simple enough to do. However I'm concerned about the legibility of text and that kind of thing, with it being a TV rather than monitor (and probably not an expensive one, either). Has anyone got or used a setup like this, and if so how did you get along with it?
Thanks,
Kev
My keyboard and mouse are already wireless, so it would be simple enough to do. However I'm concerned about the legibility of text and that kind of thing, with it being a TV rather than monitor (and probably not an expensive one, either). Has anyone got or used a setup like this, and if so how did you get along with it?
Thanks,
Kev
I've used a 55" OLED TV as a monitor in the past. I had no trouble seeing text from 10 feet away but I can't remember if I adjusted the icon and text size in the windows control panel. Still though, I don't recall finding a keyboard and mouse pleasant to use while sitting on the couch. In any event, you want to make sure the graphics card allows for the proper TV resolution.
Thanks, that is most useful.
It also raises a point about scaling: almost all such TVs these days seem to be 4K resolution which would make everything relatively smaller for a given size of screen. So the display would need scaling up (unless the TV was more like 100", which isn't going to happen!)
Unfortunately I currently use Linux, which is pretty poor at scaling, on all the desktops I've tried. Fractional-scaling or scaling of individual components is often unreliable across applications and elements of their GUI; IMO the only truly reliable method is to set a lower display resolution than the screen actually has, but this is somewhat blurry.
Hmm, this could be a bad idea.
It also raises a point about scaling: almost all such TVs these days seem to be 4K resolution which would make everything relatively smaller for a given size of screen. So the display would need scaling up (unless the TV was more like 100", which isn't going to happen!)
Unfortunately I currently use Linux, which is pretty poor at scaling, on all the desktops I've tried. Fractional-scaling or scaling of individual components is often unreliable across applications and elements of their GUI; IMO the only truly reliable method is to set a lower display resolution than the screen actually has, but this is somewhat blurry.
Hmm, this could be a bad idea.
I use a low-end 2022 55" LG 4K TV at 2,3m as PC monitor. Resolution I use is 1920x1080@60Hz connected by HDMI. This is 1/2 of it's "native hardware resolution", which is easy to scale perfectly. At 3m I would get a 65" and still use 1920x1080. I also have a 24" pro monitor with calibration software/hardware, and I was pleasantly surprised over the quality of image I get with this TV screen. No problems 
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Thank you everyone. It does seem a bit hit and miss then. But from what is being said, maybe a 65" one that is fast enough and twice the resolution needed (to allow non-fractions in scaling) might still be a possibility. Happily 65" at "4k" seems to be around the current sweet-spot for price vs size. With that, 2x scaling would give around 1920px wide.
I've become accustomed to 2560 pixels width, and there is noticeably less space on a screen at 1920px. But it would be an acceptable compromise, I think. I've also started needing glasses, and begun to suffer from minor retinal damage, so bigger (in terms of visual angle) is perhaps the future for me, anyway.
I've become accustomed to 2560 pixels width, and there is noticeably less space on a screen at 1920px. But it would be an acceptable compromise, I think. I've also started needing glasses, and begun to suffer from minor retinal damage, so bigger (in terms of visual angle) is perhaps the future for me, anyway.
A desk is the best place to work, therefore I recommend a desktop. I have a media PC connected to a 65" TV with wireless keyboard and mouse, but sitting in the sofa is not a good place for working. A huge display can make icons and text too small to read, so you set the resolution to less than the max. I also have a laptop, but the screen is small, and the USB jacks are limited, etc. It's very easy to use up 4+ USB jacks. Laptops use up partitions for "recover" and "system", so a dual boot system is not possible or difficult, and there is no place for a second drive.
Dual monitors is interesting. You can compartmentalise what you do because this way you can maximise a window and it won't size to cover everything up.. just one of your screens.
Here I've screenshotted running windows simultaneously under Linux on a dual monitor setup.
https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/computer-games.341045/post-6346324
Don't be mad but this seems unnecessary when you can have more than 10 desktop screens available on your average iMac with just a two finger tap. I am not good enough to use more than a few but each app can be used on it's own screen.
Anyway, I also tried the 65" for internet and didn't like it, so I can't imagine enjoying it as a monitor.
Attachments
Each to his own taste.... I guess.
I´m doing the same as our norvegian member in my living room.
Wireless mouse and keyboard on the sofa table. Main desktop connected to both TV and Stereo system.
TV is the latest 55" Panasonic plasma before they dropped plasma. 1920 X 1080.
Besides TV and Netflix, tgis is my main PC for e-mail, internet and the occational post in here.
At 70, I have no problem with using this for daily purposes and at the same time sitting in my listening position.
Distance is approx. 4 meters (13 feet).
Of course, as one gets older, it would be nice to have a 65" or 75", but I have a really hard time letting go of
the plasma. Exeptional picture quality. Still haven´t found anything rhat matches
Just my 5c.
Get checked regularly for retinal damage as you get older, particularly if you have diabetes.
I bought a new TV, tried old one as monitor, too many shadows / ghost pixels, got a 1080 FHD 22" LG instead, much better.
I sit at a table, monitor is wall mount...find chair better than a couch.
It would be best if you actually test the thing in the shop with a device that allows text on screen before purchase.
I bought a new TV, tried old one as monitor, too many shadows / ghost pixels, got a 1080 FHD 22" LG instead, much better.
I sit at a table, monitor is wall mount...find chair better than a couch.
It would be best if you actually test the thing in the shop with a device that allows text on screen before purchase.
Thank you everyone.
Yes, for work I used multiple monitors very happily, but they aren't what I really want in my living room. So until now I've been using multiple virtual desktops on one monitor instead; Linux has offered this for a long time, I believe Mac OS is similar (and ms windows looks to have recently started offering it). But, maybe I could compromise and have at least dual monitors; the huge wall screen plus a smaller one on a desk for 'work' purposes.
This would be a good fall-back. I think the big TV might work, and I'm encouraged to try it with what I see offered here. But if it fell short then no worries, just have a proper monitor as well.
Yes, for work I used multiple monitors very happily, but they aren't what I really want in my living room. So until now I've been using multiple virtual desktops on one monitor instead; Linux has offered this for a long time, I believe Mac OS is similar (and ms windows looks to have recently started offering it). But, maybe I could compromise and have at least dual monitors; the huge wall screen plus a smaller one on a desk for 'work' purposes.
This would be a good fall-back. I think the big TV might work, and I'm encouraged to try it with what I see offered here. But if it fell short then no worries, just have a proper monitor as well.
I did this for a long period with a 2015 OLED 55EG9100 in my living room and LCR audio.
My conclusions: 4K would have yielded notable improvement for multi-tasking, and a newer TV with lower input lag would have improved things too. Wonderful for media and gaming (among other things, running Madden 99 in 4:3 FHD). For most non-media tasks, the experience was mostly better than a 15" laptop screen but generally not as good as a local 32" monitor or dual 21-24" displays. The distance has a certain detaching effect mentally, at least for me. Writing felt different and not quite right--thats the one task that benefits most from a local monitor. I'm thinking my next office setup might be local dual displays with a scrap 40" on the wall above with Linux and Windows boot options.
My conclusions: 4K would have yielded notable improvement for multi-tasking, and a newer TV with lower input lag would have improved things too. Wonderful for media and gaming (among other things, running Madden 99 in 4:3 FHD). For most non-media tasks, the experience was mostly better than a 15" laptop screen but generally not as good as a local 32" monitor or dual 21-24" displays. The distance has a certain detaching effect mentally, at least for me. Writing felt different and not quite right--thats the one task that benefits most from a local monitor. I'm thinking my next office setup might be local dual displays with a scrap 40" on the wall above with Linux and Windows boot options.
Thanks, that is good to hear. I might well do this then, depending on what the required specification does to prices. It seems that cheaper ones could be laggy and too low in resolution (to scale non-fractionally), so it is possible that a suitable one could cost much more than I'd bargained for.
Here's mine, set up in "Gaming mode/low latency", latency is zero, no HDMI/mouse lag! https://www.lg.com/uk/tvs-soundbars/nanocell/55nano766qa/
The limiting factor for me is size of text, at resolutions above 1920 text becomes too small at my viewing distance. See also https://www.panasonic.com/uk/consum...lculator-how-to-find-the-perfect-size-tv.html
Setup in progress, about to do some testing.
The limiting factor for me is size of text, at resolutions above 1920 text becomes too small at my viewing distance. See also https://www.panasonic.com/uk/consum...lculator-how-to-find-the-perfect-size-tv.html
Setup in progress, about to do some testing
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