Using monitors as tellys as well as for monitoring

I'll be moving soon, and I'll have feck all space. I also happen to have a
hole in my monitor at present.

Is it a sane idea to use a BFO monitor as a telly? Or to buy one of those
smallish LCD tellys and use it as a monitor?

 

Get a SlingBox.

 

I use a BFO (40") telly as a monitor (among other things), can't see any
reason using a smaller one wouldn't work.

 

Why? I want to watch telly in a room that contains an aerial socket.

 

Is that actually usable for WP and the like, and at what sort of distance?
One concern I have is that the 22" monitor I had at work made me feel
slightly ill. I think if I had a 26" or so monitor, I'd be best wall
mounting it a good distance away from my eyes...

 

I'm currently looking at a 32" LCD TV as I type; I reckon the
principle's sound as long as it has the resolution. Just be sure it's
HD-capable and has the appropriate PC input.

Just one minor thing: this TV has the resolution but there are a
couple of odd intermediate PC video resolutions that it doesn't
support and I only get a blank screen.

 

It's not my work machine. For that I have a laptop with a 15.4" screen
running at 1920x1200 - I seem to be about the only person who can
actually read it and it took me a few weeks of adjustment. But it's
perfectly usable from about 8 feet away on the sofa.

 

That's ok

Don't do this. I thought the same, and tried to use a Samsung LCD
telly as a replacement monitor. The display is awful on either DVI or
VGA. It's great as a TV though.

Paul.

 

Really? My experience has been the opposite.
My LCD TV makes a really good monitor.

52" at 7', 1920x1080 on an HDMI connector.

Works a treat.

 

I used my 24" Dell monitor as a telly for long enough and it was just
fine but it was a bit unforgiving of crap input sources.

Now I have a 40" telly that I use as a monitor and that's also fine.

The only problem with the former is that it's probably best as part of
an AV setup to control input switching and generate sound. Unless, of
course, you're also using a(n) HTPC but that's not clear.

 

I will be using a HTPC. There may also be a freeview box involved somewhere
to give fast channel changes etc.

 

I've got a similar set-up in my bedroom, PC, and Freeview box, connected
to an adaptor box, then a 15" PC monitor.

I've got a Logic 3 VGA box, a similar type one is here:
<http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=310127065653>

The freeview box and PC are connected to the VGA Box, (make sure it has
a SCART in, or adaptor for SCART in), then the monitor is also connected
up. You press a button on the VGA Box depending on which one you want.
Works fine.
I was told you cannot connect, directly, a freeview box to the computer
monitor, as the video signals are totally different (new monitors may be
suitable now?), so teh VGA Box converts it for use on a VGA monitor.

Cost me about £30 for the box off ebay.
Alan.

 

Big LCD telly then. Bigger the better.

 

I hooked one up to my TiVo, very nice piece of kit. VBut if you just
want to use a monitor as a telly then that's your decision.

 

Mine's a tiddler, a replacement for a 19" flat screen monitor. It sits
next to my Dell 19" and Iiyama 19", the difference side by side is
marked ...

Paul.

 

I don't understand why bigger is supposedly better.

My mum has a 26" LCD TV, which seems fine, from my POV, whether viewed
at 9 feet or 20 feet. My bruv has a 50" plasma, which I can't stand -
it's just too big, even from about 20 feet away. When I watch TV, I
want to watch the whole screen without focusing on different bits to
get the whole picture and thus avoid a migraine.

Maybe its because I'm long-sighted...

 

Best avoid the cinema then IIWY.

Er and when I use it as a PC, it means I can sit on my
sofa 7 feet from the screen and type emails and use
Word, etc, looking at it like a normal monitor.

These words are small, but those are far away...

 

I do. Last time I went was to see HHGTTG. I lasted the whole film, but
developed a bugger of a headache and remembered why the last time I
went to the cinema, before that was 1989...

 

I'd not go about 24 inches or so. Or £200. At that price monitors seem to
have a bit of a price and function edge. And I am wanting to use the thing
as an actual monitor for proper work, not just messing about watching
telly...

 

Big LCD telly then. Bigger the better.[/QUOTE]

do you count the pixels ?