Hey Ken. I had been flying with an LG 3D 49 (49 or 50GA6400) inch for a year before I did a little research and found out about the gaming mode that most TV's have now! 

 

One thing was I had to name the HDMI output to "PC" in order for the input lag to TV to be at it's very least!

 

Running a 970. Have a second 25 inch dedicated to Plan-G and a 19 inch for misc. Coming from a triple 25 inch surround set up I could never go back!

 

Add 2 x DSR...gorgeous with negligible lag! Picked up the TV at a local shop for under $500 as it was there last floor model!

 

The colors and clarity blow my Asus monitors away!!! 

 

There is a site that reviews most models and break down their specs including input lag for gaming!

Here is another...http://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/by-test-results/input-lag

 

Greg 

Any monitor or TV with the same resolution will have the same number of pixels. Pixel density on monitors (which are usually smaller than TVs) is higher hence the picture looks crisper. Monitors also handle colour, and multiple refresh rates better than most TVs.

 

Saying that, I use a 46 inch Samsung TV as my PC/flight sim display and I am more than happy with it, especially considering the price to size ratio when compared to fully fledged monitors.

 

In theory, there's no reason why a 1920X1080 HDTV can't look almost as good as the equivalent PC monitor. (and with 4K Ultra... many are actaully designed to work PC monitors as well as TVs). That said, there are a couple of things to watch for: Input lag can be an issue with an HDTV due to extenisve video processing they perform. That can usually be bypassed using PC or Gaming modes typically available on some of the HDMI inputs. Read reviews on the particular TV you're considering to see if Lag has been tested. Another thing I've seen personally, is with both my Sony HDTVs, if i hook my PC (using an older GTX680 card) directly via HDMI, the TV appears to do significant DOWNSCALING of the image quality - I believe this is an anti-piracy measure, but I've never been able to find evidence of this on the web. I get around it by using a HDMI soundbar in between my PC and my Sony. Displays properly then and looks great! I also have a Panasonic 4K Ultra HD, and it woks perfectly (and beautifully) directly hooked up via HDMI in 1080p mode.

 

As you may have gathered, I'm in the 'bigger is better' camp and started with a 42" HDTV and have since moved to a 58" 4K TV.

I have 3 32" lcd tv's. The resolution is 1920x1080 each. In NV Surround I use 5920x1080.

They are in use as my cockpit windows.

 

4K monitors are way too sharp for outside view use only.

In reality nothing is that sharp in the distance.

You guys have given me a TON of info to keep in mind!!

 

Thanks

Ken

If you want to make an easy comparison of the look of a 2k  HDTV versus a monitor, think of the old dot matrix printer as an analogy. The more dots per inch, the better the print you will get, with more details that you eye can resolve. A standard 2K TV has a relatively low dots per inch display usually  compared to a decent computer monitor of equal size screen. There is no way the lower dots per inch picture will look as clear as the higher one. Anything else is wishful thinking. That is why 4K is becoming the new design for modern TV's, but the down side of 4K is that unless you have a very big and expensive 4K TV, to see the difference between the 4K and 2K you have to sit really close to the 4K screen.   

A standard 2K TV has a relatively low dots per inch display usually compared to a decent computer monitor of equal size screen.

 

Rubbish

Lots of strange info in this thread ... a monitor or TV will have a 'native resolution' this is the "actual" number of pixels the monitor will have ... in my case that native resolution for my 4K Sony XBR850B 49" is 3840 x 2160.  You do NOT want to run your Monitor/TV on anything other than it's native resolution for optimal clarity. Native resolution will have a 1 to 1 pixel per resolution.  If you operate outside of a monitors "native resolution" this will interpolate the image and it will NEVER look as good as native resolution (it will seem either blurry for lower to over contrasted and unclear text for higher than native).  For example my Sony supports 4096 x 2160 but its not the native resolution and hence will not look as good at that resolution even thought it is a higher res than native 3840 x 2160.

 

Monitors/TVs will also have a pixel pitch ... this is the distance between the pixel (if you run native resolution this will be 1:1) ... the larger the screen size for the same given native resolution will mean a higher pixel pitch (wider space between pixels).  This is where your viewing distances to the TV/monitor comes into play ... if you are sitting about 3 feet away from your monitor and you have a 65" monitor running native 3840 x 2160 you might notice the space between the pixel, but if you were running at 40" monitor at native 3840 x 2160 at the same view distance of 3 feet you would most likely NOT see the gap between the pixels.

 

Then there is pixel response time (note this is NOT refresh rate) ... this is how long it takes a pixel to change it's color state and is measured in milliseconds (high  response times can cause motion blur) - LCD is typically longer response time (bad thing) than OLED but again will vary considerably per monitor brand/type.  However, most LCD's today don't have a response time issue unless they are very lower quality.

 

The down side to "Monitors" that are based on DVI only is that they ONLY support the RGB color space, a good high quality 4K TV will support both RGB and YCbCr444/422 so end user can select what they like.  Often a TV will provide many more "adjustments" to image quality when using YCbCr color space.

 

So to summarize, TV or Monitor doesn't really matter what you call it ... look at the specifications (those above) and see what it can or can't do and decide from there.  All monitors/TVs are NOT the same, so pick wisely.

 

Cheers, Rob.

 

EDIT: For 4K TV's DVI is out (unless you go an exotic route of using two DVI ports and two DVI inputs - very rare) ... so for 4K it's DisplayPort 1.2 (60Hz) or HDMI 1.4 (30Hz) or 2.0 (60Hz).

Rubbish

 

I spent my entire working career conducting classes on high end video displays for the military,broadcast industry, and movie industry. What are your qualifications, genius, since it is obvious to me that your understanding of display resolutions on a scale from 1-10 is probably about a minus 5.

Lots of strange info in this thread ... a monitor or TV will have a 'native resolution' this is the "actual" number of pixels the monitor will have ... in my case that native resolution for my 4K Sony XBR850B 49" is 3840 x 2160.  You do NOT want to run your Monitor/TV on anything other than it's native resolution for optimal clarity. Native resolution will have a 1 to 1 pixel per resolution.  If you operate outside of a monitors "native resolution" this will interpolate the image and it will NEVER look as good as native resolution (it will seem either blurry for lower to over contrasted and unclear text for higher than native).  For example my Sony supports 4096 x 2160 but its not the native resolution and hence will not look as good at that resolution even thought it is a higher res than native 3840 x 2160.

 

Monitors/TVs will also have a pixel pitch ... this is the distance between the pixel (if you run native resolution this will be 1:1) ... the larger the screen size for the same given native resolution will mean a higher pixel pitch (wider space between pixels).  This is where your viewing distances to the TV/monitor comes into play ... if you are sitting about 3 feet away from your monitor and you have a 65" monitor running native 3840 x 2160 you might notice the space between the pixel, but if you were running at 40" monitor at native 3840 x 2160 at the same view distance of 3 feet you would most likely NOT see the gap between the pixels.

 

Then there is pixel response time (note this is NOT refresh rate) ... this is how long it takes a pixel to change it's color state and is measured in milliseconds (high  response times can cause motion blur) - LCD is typically longer response time (bad thing) than OLED but again will vary considerably per monitor brand/type.  However, most LCD's today don't have a response time issue unless they are very lower quality.

 

The down side to "Monitors" that are based on DVI only is that they ONLY support the RGB color space, a good high quality 4K TV will support both RGB and YCbCr444/422 so end user can select what they like.  Often a TV will provide many more "adjustments" to image quality when using YCbCr color space.

 

So to summarize, TV or Monitor doesn't really matter what you call it ... look at the specifications (those above) and see what it can or can't do and decide from there.  All monitors/TVs are NOT the same, so pick wisely.

 

Cheers, Rob.

 

EDIT: For 4K TV's DVI is out (unless you go an exotic route of using two DVI ports and two DVI inputs - very rare) ... so for 4K it's DisplayPort 1.2 (60Hz) or HDMI 1.4 (30Hz) or 2.0 (60Hz).

 

Nice to read a comment by someone that understands video instead of some of the misinformation  that I have read on this thread. 

Yep! I guess I've been told. Your da man Bob!

Yep - your da man Bob!

 

And you are BS artist and a rude one at that. 

Well lets look at the facts: 2K TV is generally considered as having  a native resolution of 2048 X 1080 (although what is considered the 'standard' appears to vary). I believe most would consider a 1920 X 1080 resolution to describe a 'decent computer monitor' (pretty much the industry standard at this time). So, if the screens were of equal size, the 2K TV would actually have a slightly higher pixel density (dots per inch, as you put it) than the monitor, not the other way around as you've stated.

I'm using 32" LG TV from almost a year and it was a very good choice for simming and gaming. Only things I must to do before I think "wow, its amazing" were set "screen mode" to 1:1 pixel and set "gaming mode" to ON - both found inside TV setting menu. First one allow me to see whole my computer desktop without any cuts on border, second one cancel all mouse movement delays.

...and what has not been addressed yet Ken is that those with up close vision problems, like me, need that bump in size  

to enjoy this hobby to the full...with cheaters on, I can definitely SEE the space between the pixels but on a good day,

 

no cheaters, simming bliss! AND if I were not on a budget and room size constraints...I'd go for two more large screens like Gerard...

 

Confused yet??? The formula...keep digging for your treasure and you'll find it!!!

 

Safe skies!!!

 

Here's an oldy but a goody!

 

Ok.....I am officially overwhelmed with info!  :smile:

 

I am starting to get a handle on things....finding budget TVs with good rating/price ratios.

 

Thank you

Ken