an odd hardware question

[thubby]

my computer monitor died recently, and i was shopping around for a new one when I noticed that my TV is still a 15 year old CRT. it struck me as silly to spend a bunch of money on 2 high definition displays.

so i got to thinking, is there any way to use one screen for both my computer and TV watching? or is this the feverish dream of a madman?

[GreyVulpine]

my computer monitor died recently, and i was shopping around for a new one when I noticed that my TV is still a 15 year old CRT. it struck me as silly to spend a bunch of money on 2 high definition displays.

so i got to thinking, is there any way to use one screen for both my computer and TV watching? or is this the feverish dream of a madman?

It's quite possible. There's a number of TVs that'll input composite, s-video, component, VGA, DVI and HDMI. My 32" LCD TV has inputs for VGA on it. A number of current video cards output DVI, VGA (with adapter) as well as s-video(wouldn't recommend it). If you have a video card that'll output HDMI, then you'll be set. Pretty much all new LCD TVs have at least 1 HDMI input.

[tyckspoon]

Possible and easy, nowadays. Just look for a TV that has a PC input, either DVI or VGA. Or pick up a monitor with a TV tuner in it. They're pretty much the same thing, only TVs tend to be larger.

[valadil]

The other way of doing it is watching TV through your computer. I do this with Hulu. You can also get a TV tuner card (which would allow for more shows).

I bought my HD TV a year ago. All the models I saw would let you hook up a computer. You might need a DVI -> HDMI converter, but those are less than ten bucks on Amazon.

What you need to watch out for is the contrast. My TV looks great most of the time, but struggles with black text on a white background. This isn't a problem when watching TV shows, but really sucks when I plug a computer into it. If at all possible, I *highly* recommend bringing a laptop and plugging it into the TVs you try.

[Optimystik]

I recommend using DVI/HDMI, but S-Video is also an option if you're on a tight budget.

[Erloas]

my computer monitor died recently, and i was shopping around for a new one when I noticed that my TV is still a 15 year old CRT. it struck me as silly to spend a bunch of money on 2 high definition displays.

so i got to thinking, is there any way to use one screen for both my computer and TV watching? or is this the feverish dream of a madman?

You aren't trying to use your old CRT as a computer monitor right? They aren't HD and it will look like crap, though you can do it.

If you are looking at getting a new display to replace your broken monitor and your old CRT TV then that is easy enough.

It is almost impossible to find an HDTV without either HDMI, DVI and/or VGA inputs (usually 2-5 HDMI and 1 DVI or VGA), and any reasonably new PC with DVI outputs can be adapted to HDMI or VGA. I would never use S-video, because it isn't an HD signal, it can't run more then 420p resolution which simply isn't acceptable for use as a monitor, if that is all you have you are better off not using it at all. Same with composite video, it isn't HD (the single yellow for video, white and red for audio) Some video cards can also do a component video output (usually a round 9ish pin connector with a breakout cable that plugs into it) which does support HD and there are a number of monitors and TVs that have component inputs as well (red, green, blue RCA plugs, usually with white and red audio as well).
I know my last video card purchases came with 2xDVI outputs and adapters to go to component, HDMI, and VGA.

Things to note:
Generally speaking monitors don't have TV tuners in them, but HDTVs do (the only real difference any more). There are some exceptions, the Samsung 25.5" T260 that I'm using has a TV tuner built in, but since it is 16:10 instead of 16:9, ie 1920x1200 rather then 1920x1080, it is listed as a monitor instead of a TV.
All TVs are either 720p or 1080p, 1280x720 or 1920x1080 resolution respectively. A lot of wide screen monitors use 16:10 instead, so they are generally a little taller for the same width. The only thing with 16:10 instead of 16:9 is that if you are running a TV HD signal (blue-ray, 360 or PS3) they will be 16:9 instead of 16:10 so the image will either be stretched a little bit or have very small black bars on the top and bottom (not very noticeable IMO)

Personally I wouldn't use a TV as a monitor at less then 1080p, I've been use to running high resolution for too long (been running 1600x1200 in CRTs for 10 years now) to loose usable hight switching to something that is only 720 high instead of 1200. At the same time I wouldn't use a monitor at lower resolutions either.

You might check a lot of technical reviews on something before you buy. Some monitors have input lag, more so with TVs compared to monitors because input lag isn't important to a TV but it can make a noticeable difference in use as a computer monitor. Its not the same as the response time, that is how fast the image can update without ghosting, but in how long it takes the input hardware to get the signal ready to go to the screen. You have have ghosting with no input lag and input lag with no ghosting because they aren't the same thing.

The other thing to check is if they have anything on screen scaling, some companies have much better scaling algorithms then others. So if you can't run at the native resolution of the display, (common if you don't have high end computer hardware to run a game at 1920x1080/1920x1200) how much image quality are you going to loose changing to a lower resolution that your computer can handle. (my screen does a good job at scaling. I'm not sure how much of a problem this is any more, I know it was a big issue with LCDs for a while though)


Yes... I've done a bit of research on this. I'm happy with the monitor I got too.