UHD TV or monitor? - X-post

They have been tempting ever since HD came in, but ever more so now they're 4k. But there's a bunch of things to consider when you're using it for text from two feet away that don't matter with movies at ten feet.

Make sure you're looking at a size that'll give you sensible sized pixels. Windows' default DPI is 96, and it is still a bit pants at in-betweeny resolutions, and indeed at hiDPI - you'll occasionally get teenytiny panels popping up. A 40" 4k is 110dpi, so will give you a slightly small display at normal resolution. 32" at 4k is ecch, just all wrong either native or hiDPI 2x mode. 44" (96dpi) might be a better choice if you have aging eyes.

Make sure the TV has a PC mode or a Game mode, which switches off all the telly's fancy image processing brains and just passes the signal through, or it'll look awful. It must support 4:4:4 uncompressed colour mode too ("UHD Colour" is the tag), or you will lose definition if it only runs 4:2:2 or worse.

Make sure your graphics card can handle 60hz 4k, which needs HDMI v2.0 or higher. Running at HDMI1.x speeds of 30Hz is surprisingly awful.

And finally, make sure you can return the thing if it doesn't work out.

Cheers - Jaimie

Jaimie covered most of them, but also:

Cheap TVs can have nasty scalers with lots of lag. This can be annoying for scrolling and for gamers.

Check the controls. You may find you can't turn it on without the remote control. It may be annoying to change input.

It probably doesn't have VGA or Displayport. Some machines may only be able to output 4K on DP, not on HDMI.

Check how low the brightness goes. TVs viewed from a distance are often too bright close up.

Make sure you have a high speed HDMI cable:

Beware. HDMI TVs put a significant lag in the video signal. Significant enough to make using a mouse irritating.

I am not sure if they are better using a VGA connecteor, where fitted.

I don't know if you're planning to use a 40" TV, but I don't think you'll find a smaller one. We had to use a monitor because we don't want a TV bigger than 32".

Are there LCD TV's that don't have such a mode.

Every LCD TV I have bought has had a computer mode, even if I had to spend some time googling to find it.

If you do buy a 4k uhd capable display irrespective of whether it's a TV set or pc monitor:

Checkb that your graphics card can support 4k natively or you will need to replace card with one.

Some computers have onboard graphics on the motherboard so you either replace the motherboard or disable the onboard graphics and fit a 4k uhd capable pci-e graphics card

Id say maoist budget onbes do just that

Same here, but I buy 2nd-tier-from-last-year tellies so they are always fully features. Supermarket low end ones sometimes have no such obvious options, I've met at least two without even a 1:1 pixel mapping mode - mandatory overscan. Mad. I mean sure, you can probably google up the engineer menu on those too, but it's a PITA.

Cheers - Jaimie

Do check the TV has the ability switch off overscan. Many smaller TVs overscan, and may not give the option. And you lose the start button on Windows. ;-)

Good information.

I am idly looking at Samsung, LG and Panasonic with an eye to 2018 models which should carry some discount in 2019. My shop window is Amazon but if I get tempted I will cross check with other suppliers.

There are so many variants on the same model (I think mainly due to the feature set and built in processor) that it is a bit of a minefield.

The reviews can be interesting but I tend to discount the "wonderful" ones and look for the thoughtful and informed low star ratings. Not "broken on delivery" but comments about network connectivity, display lag and the like.

Should I ignore the LCD screens and just go for LED/OLED? Or doesn't it make much difference when using as a monitor?

Cheers

Dave R

I'd read some real reviews from people who test them, not random postings by people who don't have another TV to compare.

LED *is* LCD. It's just an LED backlight rather than another kind (CCFL most likely). The display technology is still LCD. They aren't a big difference - and most of today's 'LCD' screens actually have LED backlights anyway.

OLED has individual polymer LEDs deposited on the surface. More contrastly, but way more expensive and some questions about pixel burn in (especially relevant for a monitor).

Theo

...and allegedly shorter lifespan compared to LED backlit LCD. For some reason, OLEDs in a big grid can start to crawl up the curtains after about 5 years while an LCD's bog-standard bits o' doped rock LED backlighting is good for 50,000 hours.

If you're a tightarse like myself, it's relevant.

I was interested in your post because I too have two monitors, useful for looking at one document while editing another.

However I think having just one screen is not for me. With two monitors sharing the Windows desktop you can move a document to one of them and with one click maximise it to that screen. Ditto the second document. With only one screen I would have to fiddle about making each document into a suitable size and position.

Also my monitors are old CRT types, which I prefer over LCD because they can be viewed from any angle with no change in colout. With an LCD TV viewed from the sofa this is not a problem but close up it might be. Even if you have two LCD monitors, they can be angled to face you on the chair for best viewing.