PC Through HDMI Tv - positives and negatives

[Cbarker]

Hi all

I bought a shiny new pc through pcs which I love and have set it up so it's HDMI out is to my 42 inch LG (non-smart) tv.

Question I have is whether there are any performance implications of this - I'm no technical expert and am asking generally about the positives and negatives of using a tv as a monitor.

I use wireless keyboard and mouse (or gamepad) and sit on the sofa and use it. Distance isn't a problem for most games, a few (Crusader Kings - worlds smallest text) require me to sit a bit nearer but generally speaking this works well. Also fantastic for netflix, skygo, Iplayer, YouTube etc... Even can knock up a word document at that distance just set zoom on 125.

Personally I've got an AMD HD7870 card, but for any graphics card would a monitor be less stressful on it? Does the question even make sense or does it simply have no effect?

(Posted here rather than in technical as something I'd wanna know before buying - even though I didn't think about it till after!)

 

[keynes]

I had a plasma tv similar size and I don't enjoy gaming on it, the detailed/colour/contrast......... etc is not as good as in my monitor. It also depends on the native resolution of the tv.

 

[Rack]

I have both a monitor and a TV hooked up to my PC (both 1920x1080), yet as Keynes said, the colours etc are not great. Even for my wallpaper, the colours are not as vibrant on the TV as they are on the monitor. Since I got my monitor, all I use my TV for are movies, streams, and useful internet pages that may help with a game. All gaming is done on the monitor.

 

[mantadog]

What they said really. I noticed it as soon as I plugged my PC into my TV, it just doesn't look anywhere near as good in my opinion.

From a technical point of view, your GPU doesn't care, it doesn't even know it's different. If your TV is 1080p and you have a 1080p monitor it is exactly the same to the GPU itself so no technical problems, I just notice that TV's aren't as good

 

[Bsrz]

What everyone else said + the fact that you are limited to the resolution of you tv and 60hz.

 

[Keedar]

I am playing on Panasonic 42" NeoPlasma Tv and its great.Cant say anything bad.Hate small monitors because i cant see anything 60hz is enough for me.I will never switch to monitor because as i said they are to small

 

[steaky360]

I am playing on Panasonic 42" NeoPlasma Tv and its great.Cant say anything bad.Hate small monitors because i cant see anything 60hz is enough for me.I will never switch to monitor because as i said they are to small

If your sitting across a room from it aye, if you were (for example) less than 1 meter away from your TV your 42" TV would be waaaaay to big Totally depends on your set up really

 

[Keedar]

If your sitting across a room from it aye, if you were (for example) less than 1 meter away from your TV your 42" TV would be waaaaay to big Totally depends on your set up really

I am sitting like 2 m away Not to close not to far for me.

 

[steaky360]

I am sitting like 2 m away Not to close not to far for me.

My point is still valid, if you were sitting closer (like most people do if using a monitor for example) then a smaller screen is more than adequate.

I'd personally say in general monitors were better for PC's. However if you were basically just playing games and not much else, then a tv should be just as good.

 

[Boozad]

What everyone else said + the fact that you are limited to the resolution of you tv and 60hz.

My 46" TV is the same resolution as my 24" 60 Hz monitor. Should be much better for gaming.

 

[Grimezy]

It depends entirely on the type of games you play to be honest. If you personally can cope with the desktop use and colours then stick with your tv; it will be no more taxing than a 1080p 24inch monitor to your GPU.

However, if you play fast paced games then you may notice the input lag time of your tv, plus that of your wireless m+k may put you at a disadvantage when gaming online. If you don't plan to do this and only play strategy games, etc then you should technically be fine.

One thing I used to find when using my 32inch LCD tv was that desktop use was really quite poor. Plus gaming felt very slow and unresponsive even on single player games and I was struggling to get 'stuck-into' my games as I felt very distant. I switched to a 19 inch square office monitor, not even HD, and it was 10x better just in smoothness and reactiveness. I then went on to buy my 24 inch Benq XL2411T and have never looked back. Brilliant monitor and I really don't think a tv can ever match the responsiveness and smoothness when it comes to gaming. The only time I found my tv gaming manageable was when using my xbox controller... but then I might as well have been using my Xbox anyway...

Remember, a 1080p 24 inch monitor will have a greater pixel density than a 42 inch 1080p tv as the pixels are being displayed over a smaller area. Therefore, a 24 inch monitor should offer much better detail; however, if you're sitting quite far away from your tv then you probably wouldn't notice the small details anyway.

Ultimately it's your call, some people enjoy tv gaming, others need to play on a monitor. If you do play strategy games a lot then text and details will be much easier to see though.