Are there ANY problems viewing PC on HDTV instead of monitor? (laptops, hard drive)

[tripod]

I just bought an HDTV and want to buy a desk top computer minus monitor and hook up to HDTV alone. TV has plenty of inputs like hdmi, pc-in, etc and wondering if there will be ANY picture issues on hdtv (vs monitor) for viewing websites or watching movies/tv over the internet. Thanks!

[swagger]

No problem. Most home theater PCs are set up this way.

[thecoalman]

Shouldn't be as it's really giant monitor.

In the past monitors compared to TV's had higher resolution, were progressive displays and of course had the connections for a computer among other things that made it a "monitor". A modern TV has all these features.

[azspeedbullet]

if your computer supports it, you should hook up the tv to the pc using either HDMI or DVI...do not use the blue VGA..HDMI or DVI will give you a brighter crisp cleaner image then the VGA

[NHDave]

As others have said, no issues. If you really want to have fun get a cable card tuner and rent a cable card from your TV provider and you have a nice DVR/guide setup as well using Windows Media Center or something similar.

[MediocreButArrogant]

Everyone seems to have missed the fact that TVs, even LCD HDTVs are usually set by default to overscan by a few percent. You have to go into your TVs menu and select the option that disables overscan completely, otherwise you won't have that 1:1 mapping from frame buffer pixels to display pixels, and the edges on all four sides will be cut off. To use a TV as a monitor you definitely want no overscan and 1:1 mapping.

[tejano2828]

The PC+HDTV is taking a whole new meaning now at days. More so than ever "it" even
has a new name in the techie world...called "HTPC"
You can learn more about HTPC or Home Theater PC at overclocker.net

I will give you some advice on HTPC I have one at home.

#1 get a blu ray 3D player if possible they are really cheap for your PC
#2 get a lot of hard drive space on your PC 5-6 TB and you have a serious
movie collection on there.

#3 get a great Video Card and movies and games look excellent

One thing that I did was download a free media server forget which one
because I am not at home right now but everytime my computer turns on
the media server kicks up and streams my whole movie collection to any
device that I want. XBOX, PS3, laptops etc etc so my family can enjoy
movies from anywhere in the house, this is one of the biggest advantages
of HTPC.

Also there are these mini-bluetooth keyboards coming out for HTPC's there
are a few on Amazon.

Good Luck with your HTPC and don't forget to check out
overclocker.net for some more tips

[Peregrine]

Originally Posted by MediocreButArrogant

Everyone seems to have missed the fact that TVs, even LCD HDTVs are usually set by default to overscan by a few percent. You have to go into your TVs menu and select the option that disables overscan completely, otherwise you won't have that 1:1 mapping from frame buffer pixels to display pixels, and the edges on all four sides will be cut off. To use a TV as a monitor you definitely want no overscan and 1:1 mapping.

Both AMD and Nvidia have finally built into their software an applet that helps fit the screen to match the pc display. I know Nvidia's works very well.

[thecoalman]

The overscan is to accommodate SD signals that still have information in the overscan area. On a SD analog TV this was outside of the viewing area and used to transmit information to like CC, copy protection etc. If you have even seen some video with noise along the edges that is what it is. It wouldn't be needed today but I'm not sure if they mask/crop it.


If you have an original SD source like VHS it will have this in it. A lot of software for video playback on a computer will also have adjustment for hiding this area of the video. What I do when transferring analog to digital is mask it off with black border. Here's sample from a hi-8 capture, there is none along the top but it's obvious on the sides and bottom. :

[Severs]

This depends on the application, I've had my computer hooked up to an HDTV a few times. Most things look perfect, tho you may have to tone down the resolution so you can see text a little better depending on how far from the TV you are, the games look excellent, however there are a few applications that I have used that don't like being on an HDTV, but that's a very small amount that I have seen.