PC Monitor vs HDTV

Anthony Schilling · April 14, 2011

I've been thinking of upgrading to a 1920x1080 rez PC monitor. But today I was looking at some small HDTV's on display for the same price. I'm thinking an actual HDTV might be better for CC since that is usually my output source. My PC has an HDMI out from the Intensity Pro card. However the TV's have HDMI and VGA inputs, while the HD PC monitors only have VGA input. Has anyone gone the TV route or have any input? This would be for personal use.

Edited April 14, 2011 by Anthony Schilling

Adrian Sierkowski · April 14, 2011

Calibration always becomes the problem when dealing with monitors for color correction. Without the ability to really calibrate it, and display proper color space, a'la a pro monitor, I don't see the difference between a PC monitor and a LCD Tv. it's probably, due to economies of scale, the same or very similar LCD panels in them.

Adam Hunt · April 28, 2011

Anything LCD is not good for colour-correction. Plasma is an option. Plasma can actually reproduce the intricate black details you need for a good colour job, LCD can't.

Plasmas are sensitive to burn-in though so you need to be careful of that and not leave any still images on the screen too long. The burn-in problem means you can't use it as your primary monitor, but ideally for colour work you want a primary monitor (such as a nice medium size LCD) to work off of, while the plasma is connected to your second monitor output (via HDMI) and shows a full-screen preview of the image.

Keith Walters · May 2, 2011

I've been thinking of upgrading to a 1920x1080 rez PC monitor. But today I was looking at some small HDTV's on display for the same price. I'm thinking an actual HDTV might be better for CC since that is usually my output source. My PC has an HDMI out from the Intensity Pro card. However the TV's have HDMI and VGA inputs, while the HD PC monitors only have VGA input. Has anyone gone the TV route or have any input? This would be for personal use.

A lot of LCD PC monitors do come with HDMI inputs these days, as well as VGA.

Using a TV set as a PC monitor can be problematic. Just because you get good colour rendition when using it as a TV or video monitor, doesn't automatically mean you'll get the same quality results using it with a PC. Why this is I'm not sure.

In fact I have a sample 1920 x 1080 32" LED backlight LCD TV in front of me right now that I'm using to type this. It gives very nice TV pictures, but when used as a computer display the colours, look somewhat sad and washed-out, although for most PC applications this is not an issue.

I have these gigantic monitors on my desk just because it looks cool/silly, plus I can type letters from across the room using my wireless keyboard! (I've got a 40" sample coming in soon, so I'll be upgrading to that...)

However for colour-critical artwork, I still use a CRT monitor.

Adam Hunt · May 2, 2011

A lot of LCD PC monitors do come with HDMI inputs these days, as well as VGA.

Using a TV set as a PC monitor can be problematic. Just because you get good colour rendition when using it as a TV or video monitor, doesn't automatically mean you'll get the same quality results using it with a PC. Why this is I'm not sure.

In fact I have a sample 1920 x 1080 32" LED backlight LCD TV in front of me right now that I'm using to type this. It gives very nice TV pictures, but when used as a computer display the colours, look somewhat sad and washed-out

It's because you don't have the TV calibrated correctly and/or the right colour profile set on your computer. There is very little difference between the panels in an LCD TV and an LCD computer monitor.

John Sprung · May 2, 2011

It's because you don't have the TV calibrated correctly ....

Yup, exactly. With CRT's unavailable, professional post facilities have been using plasmas with the Cinetal Davio box ahead of them, set up using the probe dealie that measures the output of the screen on various test patterns. Major network shows are pretty much all done that way now. CapEx is like $10K.

-- J.S.

Adam Hunt · May 2, 2011

Yup, exactly. With CRT's unavailable, professional post facilities have been using plasmas with the Cinetal Davio box ahead of them, set up using the probe dealie that measures the output of the screen on various test patterns.

Yup, most of the consumer plasmas are even capable of 10-bit colour and wide-gamut xvYcc colour-space. I don't know of any LCD panels that support that.