LCD HDTVs for PC Gaming

My hopes are to get one LCD TV for use as a computer monitor, TV, and for video game consoles. I play a decent amount of computer games and I have a 360 for the occasional Halo 3 frag fest, but I do not have enough room in my dorm to have both a monitor and TV. I figure why not get a 32" LCD TV that one has an HDMI input for a DVI-to-HDMI computer cord, a dedicated red and white audio port for that HDMI port for computer sound, another HDMI for my 360, and component cables for HDTV. The only problem though is that many LCD TVs have an overscan problem with PC hookups and most TVs in my price range are 720p, which is a really small resolution for PCs. If the LCD's native res is 720p will it look as bad as setting my resoltuon on my laptop to 1366 x 768 (720p) which has a native res of 1680x1050? Should I just go for a 1080p? I only have around $500-600 to spend on a TV which Costco has a 32" 720p Toshiba for $599.99 and newegg has several others, but I don't want to buy a non-brand name company. There is a Toshiba 32" 1080p for $699.99, but its kind of out of my range. I know these Toshiba TVs have an option to unscale the picture so there is no overscan issue. Sharp has something called Dot-by-dot which fixes it as well. Can someone shed some light as to if its worth getting a 720p TV for use as a monitor and if so which one? Thanks

 

As you as you mentioned that you want to hook a PC up to the TV...forget the 720P. You want a higher resolution than that!

You might want to instead focus on a 24"-30" LCD monitor. You can get a 1920x1200 Gateway FHD2400 24" for ~$480, or a 1920x1200 Dell 2408WFP 24" for ~$599 (hint: wait two weeks as Dell is going to update the firmware which will make this monitor more appropriate for gaming).

 

I use my LG 32" 720p LCD hooked to my ASUS G1S by hdmi without any problems whatsoever. And when I'm tired of staying near the screen I take my swireless keyboard and mouse, and go to my sofa and continue to work/websurf/game from there.
I really don't miss the higher resolutions, and use heavily the other TV conections (HDTV tuner, DVD, Game console).

 

I would recommend an LG Scarlet, they've got like 3 or 4 HDMI ports, around 50,000 contrast ratio for amazing colours and contrast, and 1080p resolution!

If not a Scarlet or any other LCD HDTV, you could look into Dell Monitors, I don't know that much about them!

 

I use a 720p lcd tv also, using the lower resolution on a screen with a native 720p resolution looks much better than if you set it the same resolution on your laptop.

 

Maybe settle for one of these?
Samsung T260HD monitor
25.5" PC monitor with DVI, two HDMI ports and a built-in ATSC/QAM tuner. You're sacrificing quite a bit of real estate but you're getting a very good monitor well within your budget. Also at Best Buy.

 

Here is the one that I use, its discontinued now, but I only paid 369$ for it.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16889022042

 

No wonder you only paid 369$ for it!

1600 contrast ratio Amazon says, which is pretty poor, along with 8ms you are likely to get some dull coloured ghosting! :F

It's best to stay with trusted brands: Sony, Dell, Pioneer, LG, Samsung, Panasonic etc!

 

Wow, thanks for the input guys. Didn't expect to get so much so quickly. The problem with getting a monitor is that I cannot use it as a TV. The monitors that have a TV tuner in them will enable me to get TV, but are only 26" which is kind of small for use with a wireless keyboard on the sofa 7 feet away. The LG Scarlet will most likely be well out of my price range considering they are not out yet and they are LGs top line.

 

5 years ago you needed 16ms to avoid ghosting, why would you need 4ms now?

 

I have this monitor and only use it for my xbox.

there is no ghosting at all, although contrast is pretty bad on it, it's a good bedroom set to watch tv and play xbox on. I paid 299 for it in the winter, can't say i'm upset with the purchase whatsoever!

 

LG Scarlets aren't really overpriced as you think, 32" I don't think are too expensive, you can always go for the previous series, they are still a solid line of TV's!

It depends on the make and quality of the TV, my friends Samsung ghosts quite a lot at times, yet he doesn't admit it *hardcore sammy fanboy!*

If it's a good build from a good company, ghosting is nothing to worry about, but in rare occasions you can get it!

 

There is no ghosting on this tv, it took a little time to adjust the settings to fix the contrast, but it works perfectly fine. For the price and what I get out of it, its was more than worth it.

 

I know LG is a solid brand and I would get one if I could, but if you type in LG Scarlet 32" in google you get a price of $1,199.99 for a 1080p TV. That is double my price range. Its not expensive, but just not what I can afford as I said.

 

Guys quick question. If I bought a monitor for my 360, how would I connect my pc speakers to to the 360?

 

I used the VGA cable that Microsoft themselves market at any game store like Gamestop, Bestbuy, ect... It comes with one the vga input for your image, then another part of the cable has an audio part that has the red and white audio outputs. The audio part though has a little adapter that comes with it that turns it into a regular male headphone input. You have to get an adapter at like a radio shack called a coupler which turns the male headphone input into a female headphone jack. Then you plug your speakers into that and voila! The vga cable can run up to 1920x1080 as well and supports 16:9, 16:10, and 4:3 resolutions. Some games though might not run full screen though.

 

You mean like what this guy was talking about at 1:10? Couldn't find that at radioshack. Don't even know what the proper term for it is.

<object width='425' height='344'><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/c2U8SonHfzk&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/c2U8SonHfzk&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width='425' height='344'></embed></object>

 

http://www.radioshack.com/product/i...coupler&numProdsPerPage=100&parentPage=search

This is what you need with the VGA cord. What it has on the end of the audio input is literally a headphone input like the one you would see on the tip of any pair of headphones. This coupler makes it so you can plug in your speakers into that instead of not.

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200241670644

I just bought a Sharp 1080p Used 32" LCD TV on eBay for $565+shipping=$620. So I made up my mind. Hopefully it works out and has no issues. Thanks for all the hep yall!

 

I just got the tv. It is perfect! I highly reccomend if anyone is looking for a tv for a home theater setup or use as a monitor.