HDTV for computer display

[Boge42]

I recently hooked up my computer to a 50" Plasma Panasonic TV 1080p. I hooked it up with a DVI to HDMI cable and set the resolution to 1080p (1920x1080).

The display wasn't as crisp or as clear as my 19" 1680x1050 resolution monitor and I'm confused as to why it's not.

This is a big deciding factor for me on a TV to buy because I'd like to hook up to a big TV for gaming.

Did I not set something right? Are TVs just more blurry looking than a monitor? What is the difference? Would an LCD TV look more crisp than a Plasma?

 

[greenskye]

The same number of pixels are spread across a much larger surface. This will result in a softer image compared to the more close set pixels on your 19" monitor.

 

[jerohmeee]

True that is why you need to sit further away... How close are you sitting? You can not be sitting anywhere near as you did with your 19 inch. Also, you sure u have the resolution correctly set? I have a 720p 32 inch with my computer, but the resolution is set to 1360x768

 

[leon2006]

I'm using a 70 inch HDTV and run it at 1080P..... I wont go back to smaller screen.

I use it for games, computer related work, HD movies (Blue Ray & HD-DVD), HD-TV through HD-Tuner....

PC gaming at 70 inch is jaw dropping.... Small details on 24/30 inch display is big on a 70 inch display. All my games are set to 1080P....

For HD/Blue Ray movies.... You wont appreciate the difference of 1080P-HD movies until you use ~ 42/47 inch HDTV..... 720P/1080_ movies are almost the same at smaller screen.

I can't comment on what is wrong with your plasma display because there can differences between HW. What is the refresh rate of your PLASMA?

When you hook up a PC to a plasma what video card do you have? Why not LCD 120HZ HDTV?

For the money spent on a big screen you have to use a kick-ass video card specially for gaming.

 

[Boge42]

Yes, I'm positive it was set 1080p. I'm using a 4890 video card, and yes, I had it hooked up with a DVI to HDMI cable. The plasma screen has a 480hz refresh rate. Now, I didn't change anything with the settings. I checked the resolution in the video display options and it already said Panasonic Plasma display at 1920x1080, so I went about my business browsing a bit of internet and played a game of NBA 2K9.

The text just didn't look as sharp as any monitor I've ever seen. It looked more blurred. I guess I expected the pixels to be a bit bigger and more noticeable at 50", but it wasn't that, it just looked softer or more blurry.

The TV is my parents, so I can hook back up to it if there are other settings I can try.

Did I miss some setting that could have made it look better? Would an LCD look better than a Plasma for PCs?

 

[leon2006]

Go to HDTV stores like Best Buy or Walmart. Bring a notebook and connect it to different size TV and check what will work for you. I'm sure the store personel will allow you to do that.

My characters and images are not blurred in my display @ 1080P....

The new generation LCD TV are designed to be used as computer display.... Its fitted DVI, VGA and HDMI interface.

 

[orangegator]

What do you expect? The plasma has a 700% larger screen size, but only 20% more pixels than the lcd. Of course the picture won't look as clear. And both have the same vertical amount of pixels, but the vertical size of the plasma is about 3x that of the lcd.

 

[IzzyCraft]

plasma pixels aren't nearly as standard as those of an lcd. Does it look blurred or is it tearing? And seeing as its 1080p i assume it's not a cheaper plasma that just can take a 1080i input downscale it then re upscale it on the tv.

As far as cripsp
19" 1680x1050 92842 Pixels per inch
vs
50" 1920x1080 41472 Pixels per inch in terms of pixel density to make a crisper picture the 19" is more then double that of the tv
Food For Thought.

 

[fazers_on_stun]

I have a 50" Pioneer Elite plasma as a gaming/movie monitor, and found that (1) - you need to set the HDMI input that is connected to your PC in "dot for dot" mode" so that the internal scaler is not processing the picture - the TV is displaying directly the output of your video card, and (2) try turning off Cleartype and seeing if that helps.

My Pioneer also lets me select over/underscan settings for the HDMI input connected to the PC, although it seems to automatically recognize that so I never have had to adjust that setting.

BTW, watching BD movies on that plasma display is jaw-dropping!

 

[jerohmeee]

plasma pixels aren't nearly as standard as those of an lcd. Does it look blurred or is it tearing? And seeing as its 1080p i assume it's not a cheaper plasma that just can take a 1080i input downscale it then re upscale it on the tv.

As far as cripsp
19" 1680x1050 92842 Pixels per inch
vs
50" 1920x1080 41472 Pixels per inch in terms of pixel density to make a crisper picture the 19" is more then double that of the tv
Food For Thought.

Yea, but pixel per inch does not matter in this case... he should be sitting further away. You can not notice a difference in pixel per inch once you sit further away. People sit like what? A foot away from a monitor? With a 50 inch he should be like 8 feet away. Huge difference. 50 inch is not made to be viewed from 1 foot away. Or else everyone would have a 20 inch screen in their living room.

On my 32 if I look real close I can see pixels everywhere. I am about 5 feet away right now and I can see no pixels at all and the picture looks great!

 

[Boge42]

I was sitting about 8-10 feet away and could notice it looking more blurry. It looked blurry, not bigger pixels, not tearing, it just looked kind of fuzzy/blurry.

If I set my computer monitor in something lower, like 1280x800, it still looks more "crisp and clear" than that plasma screen looked.

I'll try the "dot for dot" mode and clear type. Is that a PC setting or on the TV?

 

[IzzyCraft]

"dot for dot" mode i assume he means setting the tv to "just scan" for the aspect ratio so that the tv doesn't scale, but i assumed 1080p was the native resolution and wasn't scaled though with plasma i never really understood them.

 

[fazers_on_stun]

I was sitting about 8-10 feet away and could notice it looking more blurry. It looked blurry, not bigger pixels, not tearing, it just looked kind of fuzzy/blurry.

If I set my computer monitor in something lower, like 1280x800, it still looks more "crisp and clear" than that plasma screen looked.

I'll try the "dot for dot" mode and clear type. Is that a PC setting or on the TV?

Dot-for-dot mode is a TV setting - basically it will not scale the picture but just display it exactly as received. Probably not called exactly that in the Panasonic manual, but I'm sure your TV has an equivalent setting.

As for Cleartype, that is a Windows setting that will blur the pixels used to screen fonts so that they look more natural on an LCD display. In XP, either click on an empty area of the desktop or go to the Control Panel and click on Display. Then go to the Appearance tab, click on "effects' and make sure the Cleartype mode of displaying screen fonts is not selected. Dunno if that will help or not - didn't make much difference on my plasma but then I didn't have a problem with fonts in the first place .

 

[the-Mike_D]

I have an a 52 inch Samsung LCD HD TV Model #. LN52A650 It has loads of options and I use it with a dvi to hdmi cable. Works great at 60 hz / 1080P. There are so many settings it a bit overwhelming but I think I maybe have a reason and solution why your text doesn't look perfectly sharp. As I discovered, you really want to turn the "sharpness" setting down.. WAY down. On my tv I had it on 100 thinking that since it's a 100 digital signal and screen that it 100 means .. well, 100% unaltered. But that's completely wrong. For samsung, the "sharpness" setting actually produces and acts like a micro-contrast setting. It creates a larger difference in intensity between each pixel... that's like a tiny scale but it'll make your dark letters look horrible on any shade of background other than pure white. It creates a halo'ish effect around the black letters that is truelly maddening. I had my tv for six months before realizing that it was the "sharpness" setting causing it. Since then I lowered it until I had perfect crystal clear text (for me the sharpness setting was perfect for text at a setting of about "35". Oh one more thing. The windows setting for "smooth edges of screen fonts: choice A) standard OR choice B) cleartype are both terrible. The worse of witch is cleartype.. it makes fonts look all blotchy on my lcd screen increasing pixel thickness overall and not sharp at all. Definately just uncheck the "smooth edges" option.

The one thing I can say that I still have not solves with using the 52inch (and this is a high quality 52inch) is why some colored fonts appear hazy when set against another different color background. It seems to be an interaction between a certain font size used on a webpage and the background color. It's very specific case... but terrible looking when it happens. It's as if some fonts spread out unevenly across the tv pixels and parts of the text gets a full intensity color while the other edges of nearby fonts get shoved halfway off the pixel as whole. yeah it sounds like gibberish but some fonts just don't fit the tv perfectly. But it's rare so I don't really care. Oh, but before you say "turn the cleartype on to fix that" ... Nope, tried it... and doesn't do a thing other than what i said before as in making it look thicker and blotchy to begin with.

Well, hope the "sharpness" setting was all that was causing your text fonts to not look quite as sharp as they should be, and possibly the "cleartype" setting which u should disable. Perhaps your choice of plasma may alter things a bit though.