I need a new TV that I would like to be able to use with my PC when I want to switch from my desk to the couch on the fly (Steam big picture mode, Torrented movies, etc). What would I need to do this? Does the TV matter or does it just need an HDMI slot? How easily can I switch between using my monitor and TV? My PC does not have HDMI slots but could I just get a converter or some sort and be okay?

Family bought a new house and my room is big enough to be considered one averaged sized room with a personal living room and I want to treat it as such by buying a new big TV and couch. I don't have a console or Blu ray player and don't care about too much about actual T.V. since I mostly download animes and netflix. I just want to have a big screen for when I have my bros over and we want to watch 1080p anime or maybe even the international 3 (dota2 world cup thing) while sitting on a couch as my 22 inch monitor doesn't cut it outside of solo viewing.

/justifying having a big tv

Right so to get to the point: DONT HAVE HDMI PORT ON PC. DOES A CONVERTER EXIST FOR THESE NEW HDMI TV'S SO I MAY PLAY MY PC ON A BIG TV. ALSO HOW HARD IS IT TO SWITCH FROM PC MONITOR MODE TO PC TV MODE. HOW 2 SET UP

Also any personal recommendation on T.V's in the $400-500~ range including shipping to the US would be cool too.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812576006

You can probably find one even cheaper than that.

EDIT: Actually, I forget which one between VGA and DVI is better. If VGA's the better one, go find a converter for that lul.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Apr 29 2013, 2:32 am by Dem0n.

A little out of your price range, but my fiance and I have a low profile computer with ($350 ish), a wireless keyboard and a decent tv ($300 ish) that we use specifically for when we're streaming movies from netflix or youtube. I don't know how well it'll work with steam games, otherwise I'd highly suggest doing something like that.

The thing is that I feel like my situation is a bit different. I think that really works well for you because the spot where your main computer and main TV are located is farther than my set up which is 5 feet~ so having a second dummy PC for this feels silly. Also would I have to constantly unplug something from my PC to the pc monitor than replug into the TV and vice versa every time I want to switch screens? If so is there a set up where I can have both the TV and the monitor plugged into the PC so I can switch between either at the flick of a switch or command.

I'll be the first to admit the amount of technology in our apartment is ridiculous.

I setup a thing for my parents where they have the TV and monitor both hooked up to the PC at the same time. By default, it sends the video to both simultaneously. I changed it up a little so they can switch which one it sends to (via an application on the PC).

DVI is better than VGA. DVI is basically an older HDMI with no audio. They are all (potentially) inter-compatible, depending on the TV and your computer. If your computer has a DVI port, use that over a VGA port. And since you do not have HDMI you'll need another cable for sound.

Ok, so basically the standard setup is HDMI from your PC to HDMI on the TV. The standard setup will not work for you, because your computer doesn't have HDMI. So you have two options really:
1. Buy a new graphics card for your computer that has HDMI
2. Buy a TV that has a DVI or HDMI (DVI) input

I think #1 is self-explanatory. Maximum HDMI cable length is 10m, and you'll probably only be able to buy cables up to 3-4m in most retail stores (that's how it is in NZ, anyway - I had to get a 5m cable).

For #2, there are two options: a TV that has a direct DVI input. These may not be as common as they were a few years ago, as most stuff is moving to HDMI now. Or buy a TV that says it can be connected to DVI over HDMI. You can get cables that are DVI on one end, that you plug into your computer's current graphics card, and then HDMI on the other, that you plug into the TV. In either case, you will need an audio cable to carry audio from your PC to the TV in some manner (or from your PC to your receiver/stereo, if you aren't use the TV speakers). Either of these options may not work very well for you if you only have 1 DVI port on your graphics card which is currently being used by your monitor, in which case your best bet is just to buy a new grpahics card, unless you can stomach connecting your monitor to your PC using VGA, which doesn't look very good on LCDs.

If you go with the HDMI solution, then the audio should be passed over the HDMI cable and you won't need anything else, but you'll have to properly configure your PC to do this (eg, plug something from your soundcard / onboard audio into the graphics card so it can send audio over the HDMI cable).

In terms of watching your computer on the TV, you can simply set it up as an additional monitor. Then you can either clone the images to the second display, or use as a secondary monitor, so your mouse can go off the side of the screen and it gives you a bigger desktop etc. I have my TV set up as an additional monitor. When I want to view the computer on it, I just turn the TV to HDMI 2 and the signal comes up, then I drag my media player window onto the TV and start it and mute the speakers on my computer. I had to do a little fiddling to get the sound going over the HDMI properly but it wasn't too difficult on Windows 7.

Getting a wireless keyboard/mouse or something like this http://www.logitech.com/en-nz/product/dinovo-mini will let you easily control the TV from the couch.

It's probably best to get the DVI/HDMI cables on the internet. If you go to retail stores they will be anywhere from $20 to $50 (instead of $2 to $10).

What connections does your video card have and how many of each?

If you have at least 2 DVI, you could most likely connect one to the HDMI port on a TV using an adapter cable (or a DVI to HDMI converter that can convert an audio input, if for some reason the TV does not have a separate audio port that can be used with the HDMI). If you only have one DVI, you will need to use VGA for one of the displays or use a splitter for DVI or HDMI.

EDIT:
If this is the computer from your PC thread with the Asus GTX460 768MB, it has 2 DVI and 1 mini-HDMI. You may have an adapter to regular HDMI if you have the adapters that the card came with, though if you need to buy cables anyway, an adapter cable won't put as much strain on the port. Monoprice.com has some good cheap cables.

What is the resolution of your monitor and if you need to go the splitter route (though I'm guessing you don't), what inputs does it have?

If your monitor is 1920x1080, you can easily use the same resolution on the TV if you get a 1080p TV. This would be applicable for if you have two outputs and clone the output to display the same thing on both or if you use a splitter. If you can't or don't want to clone the output, or even if you do but sometimes want to display different things on each, there's a nice hot-key for switching displays in Windows: windows key + P (P as in presentation). You will want to turn off overscan on the TV at least when using your computer on it, but probably for everything else as well.

Does your computer have Realtek HD Audio?

There's a good chance that you have this because it is fairly common. I'm not sure about others, but I know Realtek's can clone audio outputs, though depending on the model it may be available in the utility that comes with the driver that you install from Realtek (but not with the default driver in Windows) or only by changing a registry setting for the driver (but still requires the Realtek driver). The model that the utility supports configuring audio jacks is more common, I think. This way you can have two outputs for speakers to send it to both your computer speakers and the TV without switching around cables or having to change the default audio output device when you want to switch (the latter you would probably need to do if you use HDMI audio). If the TV supports using an alternate audio port for one of the HDMI ports, I'd recommend doing this if you want to simplify switching to the TV.

As for TV models, I'm not sure of any specific one to recommend or what site to look for recommendations. I did search Amazon for "ips tv" to find ones that specifically state that they use IPS LCD panels and it seems only Panasonic ones come up. I found this one, which is cheaper than some of their lower models for some reason, though a little above the range you mentioned: http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-VIERA-TC-L42E50-42-Inch-LED-LCD/dp/B00752R9PK/ref=cm_cmu_pg__header

EDIT:
Seems it is that price because it is last year's model and there are new 2013 models out now, which Amazon might not be listing yet; though that still doesn't explain why it is cheaper than some lower models from the same year.

I'm not sure what shipping for large TVs on Amazon is like these days. Back when I got my 42" Panasonic from them, they used some kind of specialty shipping company for shipping large TVs and they brought the box into the room I wanted it in. This was a thicker set with fluorescent rather than LED backlighting, though, and I'm not sure if they do that anymore for LCDs of that size with all of them being thinner sets with LED backlighting these days (which also may have a higher chance of getting bent during shipping).

Post has been edited 20 time(s), last time on Apr 30 2013, 3:31 am by ShadowFlare.

dvi is only "better" than vga in that it's newer. It's still horrendously deprecated, and VGA has much better compatibility. Most laptops have a VGA port. Few have HDMI, and even fewer have DVI.

most TVs come with VGA and HDMI. You might have to look for one with displayport or DVI.

I personally have the 42" panasonic viera that shadowflare mentioned. I am greatly unimpressed since it does not have built in wifi (extra $50 for the dongle, only works with their dongle), the UI is noticeably slow, and it has ads. The LG magic remote looks to be amazing, since it presumably requires a much faster processor to handle the mouse pointer. Unfortunately, it's like paying double to get it.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Apr 30 2013, 3:31 am by rockz.

What about the picture quality on it and other things only related to using it as a display? (and the speakers)

btw, I didn't really do any price checks with other sites before. Apparently Dell has that model for almost $20 less: http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=A6305607&dgc=SS&cid=27530&lid=627063

Not true. DVI is digital, VGA is analogue. On CRT monitors it's not a big deal, but on LCDs connecting to VGA is noticeably fuzzier/blurrier than DVI or HDMI.

A lot of laptops have DisplayPort as well, which is incompatible with DVI and HDMI.

And you wouldn't want to use the VGA because it looks like ass at HD resolutions.

For VGA, the quality depends on the quality of the digital to analog converter on the video card and the analog to digital converter on the monitor, along with the quality of the cable. If all of them are good, even at 1080p resolution it can be close enough that you would only notice the difference when comparing side-by-side with the same type of monitor.

Kind of going off-topic here, but DisplayPort is capable of including a DVI/HDMI compatibility mode that only requires a simple adapter rather than a converter. Some graphics cards exist that only have DisplayPort, but support running up to 2 of the ports in DVI/HDMI compatibility mode. Any more than that (or however many the card supports) need converters rather than adapters.

Plus the fact that some TVs will only support 1080p over HDMI, even though VGA and component video can both do it. However, some do support 1080p on all the HD-capable analog inputs. On TVs that do support 1080p over analog inputs and have a good analog/digital converter and you use a good cable, the quality can still be good. The thing about the digital signals is just that it is easier to make it be good; however, the signal can still be bad if the sender, receiver, and/or cable are bad.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Apr 30 2013, 9:36 am by ShadowFlare.

Very interesting information, thanks.

I'll have to try out the viera remote app...

Personally I've never noticed a difference in quality for VGA/DVI. I just know on a day to day basis I encounter VGA much more often.

I got a 2nd monitor at work, identical to my first one, and at first it looked like utter garbage. Two things were wrong: wrong resolution, and then using VGA instead of DVI/HDMI.

In my previous post I said "even at 1080p resolution it can be close enough that you would only notice the difference when comparing side-by-side with the same type of monitor." However, I can't really even see the difference on mine when comparing the output on my two computers to this monitor, which has 1 VGA and 1 DVI input, by switching with the input select button.

Both computers are running the same version of Windows, but one is connected by DVI and the other is connected by VGA. The one connected by VGA has integrated AMD Radeon HD 4250 graphics and is connected by a quality 15 foot cable to my ViewSonic VP2365wb (which wasn't cheap).

The VGA cables that usually come with monitors these days are cheap, thin ones that probably have very little shielding, if any. I've seen noticeable noise on LCD monitors when using such cables; you can reduce it by making sure the refresh rate is no higher than 60 Hz, but it doesn't completely go away. On the other hand, the cables that came with the old CRT monitors, permanently attached or otherwise, are significantly thicker. When you buy a cable separately, you usually get one like those, rather than the cheap ones that come with LCD monitors.

Regardless, I'd still use DVI or HDMI where possible. In this case, the monitor doesn't have another digital input and I don't really want to use a switch if not necessary. There are also cases that some old drivers don't handle DVI very well, and if you put your computer to sleep or maybe even just have the display go off automatically when the computer isn't used for a while, you lose the output until you restart the computer or somehow tell it to reinitialize the display. I had this happen on an older computer and was forced to use VGA even though DVI was available.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on May 2 2013, 2:42 am by ShadowFlare.

I've set this up for both myself and my parents- you've gotten lots of good advice, so I'll just say what I did, in case it helps.

My set up used to have a computer that had two DVI outs- I hooked up one to my monitor (dvi->dvi). and got a DVI->HDMI cable for the TV. I plugged a 2.5mm->2.5mm audio cable into my computer's headphone jack on one end and the "pc input" on the other end, and the TV was luckily smart enough to use the audio from the pc input (which had a VGA slot) even though it was getting the video from the hdmi input.

My new set up has a new video card- simple DVI->DVI on monitor, hdmi->hdmi on the TV. I mainly got the new card because when I moved, the cord goes across a doorway under the carpet, and I didn't want too many fat cables going across. These were all 35 foot cables, so I replaced my fat 35ft dvi->hdmi and 35ft audio with just one 35ft hdmi.

I did the same thing for my parents- just bought a 40 dollar HTPC video card, stuck it in an old computer, and did dvi->dvi for the monitor and hdmi->hdmi for the tv. If you do this, make sure the card you get is compatible with your motherboard- a modern card may not work well with a pci express 1.0 slot, though anything 1.1+ is fine.


But ya, basically, whatever you do, only use displayport/DVI/HDMI signals, however you end up converting them and getting audio, since VGA and others are inferior.
And get cables from monoprice.com if you don't already have a preferred source, they are cheap and high quality.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on May 2 2013, 9:00 pm by fritfrat.