32' LCD TV driven by a PC ok?

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timmmay

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Topic # 12408 15-Mar-2007 22:05

Hi all, nice place you have here, mind if I hang around?

I'm a professional photographer, i'm considering getting a 32" LCD TV to hang on my wall in a smallish office to show potential customers some of my work. The TV would be driven by my PC, as well as being used as a regular TV some times.

I'm wondering if an LCD TV is going to give me good enough quality to bother with. Any thoughts? I've read a fair bit about it, seems the analog VGA input won't give me good enough quality. My video card only has one DVI connector, so i'd buy a cheap video card with DVI output and a DVI-HDMI cable. Seems some TVs work better with that than others. I'm considering the Samsung LA32S71BX and the Sony KLV32S200A (links below, not sure how to embed here).

Samsung: http://www.noelleeming.co.nz/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10001&catalogId=10001&productId=74402&crumb=10003-10137-13818-13816
Sony: http://www.noelleeming.co.nz/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10001&catalogId=10001&productId=71358&crumb=10003-10137-13818-13816

Any thoughts? Sony vs Samsung, and will the quality be good enough to show customers images?

Tim :)

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sbiddle

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Reply # 63884 16-Mar-2007 06:24

VGA input will be fine, using HDMI will theoretically give you a better picture quality but whether you will notice it is another thing!

The first thing you want to do is check the specs on the TV, particularly PC resolutions. Any good store will also let you try the TV with a PC so I'd recommend doing that to make sure it works as it should. Despite most panel TV's having PC/HDMI inputs these days they're not all PC friendly and getting a full screen picture without borders or black lines can sometimes be a mission. LCD TV's have a native resolution and will only support 1024x768 as a native resolution for a PC, if you want to view widescreen content such as TV via a PC then this can cause issues. Just displaying photos should cause no troubles at all.

ZiglioNZ

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Reply # 63892 16-Mar-2007 08:40

Hi think too that VGA is excellent quality, better than component.
There might be problems with the way the TV handles input levels (if it taks black as 16 instead of zero) that leads to washed out colours. Also, not all the TVs accept native resolution up to 1368 cols but a lot can go up to 1360.

timmmay

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Reply # 63924 16-Mar-2007 10:59

Thanks for the thoughts guys. VGA should be fine, i'll try it out, but if I can keep it digital i'll go that way. I think the best bet is to take a laptop to the store and try a few out for myself.

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richms

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Reply # 63944 16-Mar-2007 12:27

Just try it as the primary display on the laptop, not in clone mode or it limits the resolutions you can choose. Basically you want to match the pc res to the screens native res (usually 13somethingx720 or 768) - if you cant, then move on to another one.

Also check for bad banding in the colors - a panasonic my flatmate has is unusable for movies or photos on the vga input because it makes everything look like 16 bit, or worse.

If you buy one and find you cant get an acceptable 1:1 pixel mapping from the pc then take it back within 2 weeks so you are covered by the CGA. so dont tell them you are buying for your business.

Richard rich.ms

timmmay

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Reply # 63970 16-Mar-2007 18:17

They limit resolution when they're the 2nd monitor? What a pain! I'd buy another video card if it did that, I need both LCDs to run at native resolution. Must go try it out. Thanks for the idea about the CGA will not say it's business.

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richms

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Reply # 64038 17-Mar-2007 12:44

Yes, in clone mode you are limited to a very small set of resolutions, and if you fn-f5 to toggle monitors it will often not change the resolution slider to have the correct res for the screens on it. Only way it to activate it as a secondary screen, and to be sure make it the primary one.

Take along the nokia monitor test program too, it will give you some graidents to check the low level response of the monitor and see if you can adjust out the over-saturation and high contrast with the user controls.

Richard rich.ms

timmmay

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Reply # 64047 17-Mar-2007 13:01

Nokia has a monitor test program?

If I add a 2nd video card will that let me choose my resolution better? My current video card is a GeForce 6600GT, which does 2 monitors.

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ZiglioNZ

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Reply # 64585 21-Mar-2007 22:58

I've never herd that clone mode limits the resolution, but it's true that the primary monitor should be the biggest ;-)

if you have problems and have intel chipsets on your laptop, the intel embedde dgraphic drivers would give you a wider range of configuration.

I've written some tips on installing them on Powerstrip's website

http://forums.entechtaiwan.net/viewtopic.php?t=3363

I'm experimenting with version 6 of the drivers, it looks more complicated to set up than the previous versions, a lot of new settings

timmmay

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Reply # 64590 21-Mar-2007 23:33

Thanks Ziglio. I don't have a laptop, I use a desktop machine with an nVidia 6600GT card - DVI and VGA outputs. No idea what powerstrip is either, apart from what I can infer from this thread, but i'll check it out. I plan to run the LCD from the VGA port, but if the DVI is much clearer i'll get a 2nd video card and run the big LCD over that.

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ZiglioNZ

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Reply # 64760 22-Mar-2007 21:15

Definitely try Powerstrip: it gives you full control on timings (resolution) for common graphic chipsets (other than Intel unfortunately for me)

timmmay

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Reply # 64783 22-Mar-2007 22:10

I will, thanks, looks like just what I need :)

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