TV instead of Monitor Question...

[Townley]

Currently waiting on my new pc arriving but i didnt order a monitor as i have a 22" Hitachi Tv that i was planning to use until a friend told me not to as it would look crappy as he tried it before on the exact tv and it was awful.

Is the difference that bad and if so can anyone explain why? Im pretty sure his Pc he hooked up wasnt very good does that make a difference?

 

[adator]

I would leave it for now and see what you think, if it is crap then you could always order a monitor after but if its ok you have just wasted your money on a new monitor.

 

[Townley]

I would leave it for now and see what you think, if it is crap then you could always order a monitor after but if its ok you have just wasted your money on a new monitor.

thanks for the reply

quite a sensible response tbh i now feel daft for asking now lol

 

[keynes]

Currently waiting on my new pc arriving but i didnt order a monitor as i have a 22" Hitachi Tv that i was planning to use until a friend told me not to as it would look crappy as he tried it before on the exact tv and it was awful.

Is the difference that bad and if so can anyone explain why? Im pretty sure his Pc he hooked up wasnt very good does that make a difference?

It depends on the resolution and response time of your tv which is likely to be lower than a standard monitor. I found the quality of the image not as good when gaming on my tv. It also depends on what gpu you have.

 

[Townley]

It depends on the resolution and response time of your tv which is likely to be lower than a standard monitor. I found the quality of the image not as good when gaming on my tv. It also depends on what gpu you have.

2GB AMD RADEON™ HD7850 - DVI,HDMI,DP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 3 Capable
is the GPU iv looked up the spec of the tv and its awful so looks like a monitor it is and maybe use the tv for a 2nd screen

 

[keynes]

Do you know what the native resolution of your tv is?

 

[bigben]

Just to add, when I had my 1080p laptop plugged into my 1080p tv to watch some films, for some reason it didn't all fit properly on the desktop (missed out the sides I think)

 

[Grimezy]

Just to add, when I had my 1080p laptop plugged into my 1080p tv to watch some films, for some reason it didn't all fit properly on the desktop (missed out the sides I think)

Sounds like an overscanning/zoom issue, should be easily sorted in the tv settings.

As for the original question, I would not recommend it unless you're planning to big-screen game which you clearly aren't. I gamed on a 32 inch LCD and desktop use was extremely blurry and response times while gaming where poor, not to mention the detail wasn't great. You may have better luck on a smaller screen with clarity as the pixels won't be spread across such a large area but you will still suffer big input lag times and response rates.

I switched to a 7 year old square office monitor, not HD at all, had blurry lines whenever i gamed but honestly it felt so much better. A huge amount smoother and reactive.

In my opinion you'd be better spending £100-£150 on a new 1920x1080 monitor which will have pure 60hz refresh rate and a low response time. Can't even guarantee that your TV will display in full 1080p resolution or that it'll go past 30hz.

Forgot to mention, I always read before I bought my pc that should you spend a similar amount on your monitor as your graphics card. Not strictly scientific but the theory behind it is pretty true. If you spend £300 on a gpu, a £100 monitor probably won't show the same benefits. Same as if you spent £300 on a monitor using a £100 gpu you probably wouldn't get the best out of it. Moral of the story, don't scrimp on peripherals! It's shocking how many people overlook which keyboard, mouse and monitor they use even though they're effectively main parts of your experience.