Casual Gamers is there a Point in getting a screen...

a screen big enough (27 or 32" and up) to use both as a monitor for games AND as a TV (to play movies off your computer, doesn't necessarily have to have a tuner) without spending loads of money?!

Or unless you wanna spend thousands, should you get the two separately?

 

Not sure what you're asking lol

For some people a bigger monitor is fine for watching/viewing content if they don't plan on putting it in their living room.

 

Meaning would these larger monitors look so crappy (unless spending a lot of money for higher resolutions) while playing games, that it is better to get a smaller size for computer and a seperate big one for watching stuff.

 

The physical size of the monitor isn't what makes a screen look terrible. It's the resolution of the monitor. If the 27" monitor can only do 720p, then you can only game and watch movies at 720p. To me that looks terrible. If you have the money, you should go for 1080p. For an example, this asus 27" is more along the lines that I think you are looking for. It all depends on how much you have to spend though.

 

Originally I was looking at 32" HDTVs to use as both, but then I realized that @ 1080P, it would look horrible with games (the 32").

Then I was thinking about getting a 27" monitor and just mounting it on a wall in front of my desk with a long extending arm for when I'm watching from the bed. However, I've read that even on a 27" monitor @ 1080P, although video obviously look nice, games look crappy. (I've read that you need the x1440 for good gaming on a 27") .

 

I have one for my laptop because sometimes my eyes are strained. I have it set up on my desk for whenever I'm at home. Makes things more comfortable. Of course I have a keyboard as well. Its nice with a bigger screen. Then again its all based on your screen size normally. If I have a laptop larger than 15inches I probably wouldn't have gotten one.

edit: its all preference.

 

Gaming on a 1080p TV doesnt look that bad.

Once you deal with big monitors with 1440 or 1600 resolutions, you will need a very powerful graphics card which notebooks lack. 2560x1600 is twice as many pixels as 1920x1080.

If your using it to mainly watch videos from your bed, your gonna want an IPS panel with excellent viewing angles and brilliant colors (Dell Ultrasharp U3011). Only problem is the resolution and IPS panel is not ideal for gaming.

Best screen to use for gaming is a TN panel with fast response times. Not to mention cheap.

 

My laptop is pretty powerful and I have the AMD Radeon HD 6570M graphics card, which is supposedly a strong one.

Like I said, I do gaming regularly though casually, so how gaming looks and performs is important for me and I dunno how 1080P looks with gaming on a 27". Also, I would prefer to have something I can also watch videos on from my bed as well.

I would like to have a monitor that I can mount on the wall right in front of my desk (about 3-3.5 ft across), and use as an external for my laptop. My bed is also directly behind my computer desk and if I lay down legs to the desk my head is about 10-11ft away from the wall.

 

I only recently picked up a 24" LG screen. Up till now always used the laptop screen and been happy with it. The new screen is nice. If I did it again, would probably splurge just a bit more and grab a 27".

Is it necessary? Depends on how big your laptop screen is, what res it's running, and how powerful your GPU is. I reckon screens are getting so cheap these days, that if you use your laptop a fair amount, it's a great investment.

 

when i used to play xbox i used a 21.5in 1080p monitor and it worked great bought it 4 years ago for 189, and thats still a good price today.

 

I have a 1080p 32" LED Samsung Tv. I game on it all the time with my pc, kinda annoying though because I cant watch TV at the same time but yeah. You just have to have the grunt to power such a beast.

Not really lol because those are LCD screens... 21 inches is absolutely tiny.. and I don't see how 21 inches could do decent 1080p

 

I would recommend going to a big box store such as best buy and trying out various screens with your laptop there.

 

I had a hard time going from my 37" 1920x1080 to a 24" 1920x1200 size is important for immersion and ease of reading.

For my laptop 17" is fine as I am right infront of it but if your going to be a distance away for gaming (like controller use) or watching movies. May as well go as big as you can afford. Resolution does not make a huge impact think about current gen consoles like 360 & PS3 they are 99% 720P (1280x720) and people play them on 40+ TV's and think it looks fine.

At normal monitor range for typing and sitting at the desk 37" was probably the upper limit. A bit further back and 42" would have been ok.

 

I have no issues playing games on my 37" HDTV.
It does native 1920x1080 so both my PC and PS3 games that does 1080p looks crisp.
I also invested in a USB XBox 360 reciever so now i can play my GameCube games in sweet high resolution awesomeness.

@ ViciousXUSMC
Im waiting for my Euro SNES controller to ship too, its a little expensive BUT totally worth it.
So thank you for mentioning the USB controller site, otherwise i would have never known about it.

 

I sometimes play Widelands, OpenTTD or other lightweight games that my HTPC netbook can handle on my 46" TV. It's fun.

 

I tend to use my laptop with my 32" HDTV (only 720P T_T).
I usually play games on my laptop screen and put my work on the TV, unless friends come over and we play together, then I play on the big screen so we can know where each other are (League of Legends).

 

If you have a decent budget, why not go for a +-170€ lcd monitor 22-24" (LG sells at this pricerange), which will be more than big enough for playing games and other pc work.

And spend like 400€ on a 32" full hd led tv (samsung, sony, all cost 400€ with the full hd resolution and led backlighting).

Thats what I got for myself ^^ Its not that expensive, and you get the best of both worlds ;-)

 

Just my two cents, but 1080 on a 32" TV looks great for Xbox360 games, as well as TV viewing (duh, haha). However, after returning a HDMI cable I was borrowing for the Xbox, 702p still looked pretty good. Yet again, the couch is roughly 9 or 10 feet away from said TV, and I've never hooked up a computer to it (I don't have any spare VGA/DVI/whatever cables to hook it into). I bought a 22" 1080p TV for college recently, though I also haven't hooked my laptop to it yet. Video on it looks good though.

 

I was thinking of getting a larger screen, I find it really hard to play starcraft 2 on a 15 inch screen. Units are really small on the screen.

 

lol, you all are spoiled.

Playing BF:BC2 on my 15.6" 1080p laptop screen seems absolutely fine with me. I did hook it up to my 32" HDTV last night though to mess around with it for a bit, and my experience was pretty much neutral. My TV isn't LED backlit, so it's just not as crisp as my screen. I'll try again today sitting much closer up to it and see how it goes.

 

for whatever reason if I need extra space on my laptop (i usually will just my desktop if I need the desktop space (6160x1600 resolution) i'll hook it up to my dell 3008wfp and just run games in a window.
Having an extra screen is worth it imo, however it really depends on which LCD you are buying.

 

Wow, that's pretty much exactly what I said in my other thread about monitors! (by some stupid reason I made two of them)

" I'm actually kinda starting to think MAAAAAAAAAAAYBEE, I should just get a smaller, like a 23" monitor, it will be easier for graphics card to handle, it will look nice, and it will be easier to use upclose cause it's not to big. I imagine a decen 23" goes for somewhere between 150-250$ (am I correct?)

And ALSO get a 32" LED HDTV (I imagine price for a decent one is $350-500) to put where my old tv in my room stands and just run wires to it from the laptop for watching stuff.

This way I only spend $500-$750 (if my calculations are correct) in total and have the best of both worlds and not have to settle for less in either aspect. This would be cheaper than getting one expensive big multiuse monitor and more practical."

 

Graphics cards don't care for screen sizes. All they're interested in is the amount of pixels they have to handle.
So whether you get a 23" monitor @1920x1080 or a 50" TV @1920x1080 doesn't make any difference from the standpoint of the graphics card.

 

Thank you, but I understand this. I meant easier on the graphics card because I would not be going for a higher resolution BECAUSE of a bigger size.

 

Whats the kind of graphics card do you have?

 

AMD Radeon HD 6570M

 

See, great minds think alike ;-)

People are always thinking about getting as much functionality out of 1 item, and spend a lot of money on it, while its usually cheaper and better to buy seperate things.

[For example, many buy a gaming notebook for +-1300-2000 dollars/euros because they need a laptop for school and they like to play games. It would be cheaper to buy a gaming desktop and a a seperate netbook. This way one has better battery life on the go, and better performance (+ longer lifespan) at home for the same price or even less. I myself figured this out too late and am now forced to play games on a laptop from 2007 lol...]

Once I read a post in this thread about someone who advised you to buy a dell ultrasharp IPS monitor I figured, why does he need to buy something that expensive if there are cheaper alternatives? (you don't need IPS unless you use photoshop or stuff like that, a cheap lcd/led monitor will be just fine for most people who browse the web and play games. lcd/led monitors have a far greater response time than IPS panels anyway).

Also, when I play AC (2 or brotherhood) on my full hd 32" led television, I barely see a difference between 1280*800 resolution or full hd because of the distance between myself and the tv (distance is about 2.5-3 meters, 1 foot = 30.48 cm so thats about 8 to 10 foot?).
Most people say a low resolution looks worse on a bigger screen, this is true if you sit with your nose against the screen, but with normal tv use I think it looks just fine.

 

Yeah bro, that was a crazy coincidence! Thanks for all that.

So everyone - with all that said: What are your recommendations for say a 23" monitor for gaming and browsing? And what are your recommendations for a 32" HDTV for just watching stuff on it?

 

My family owns both a Westinghouse and an Insignia 32" TV and both make for good TVs at the size. Both were around $300-$350 when purchased, IIRC.