Can You Use A TV As Your Computer Monitor?

It’s becoming more common to see 24-inch LCD monitors on desktops, however you have a choice when it comes to which 24-inch you want to go with. In this instance I’m not talking about brand but rather monitor type.

The two types you can choose from are traditional computer monitor or actual television.

The price of a basic new 24-inch 1080p LCD TV is around $250. This gives you a native resolution of 1920×1080. The price of a 24-inch LCD computer monitor at lowest price new is around $180 with the same resolution. The cost difference between the two is $70.

You have two options when connecting up a PC to an LCD TV. The first option is D-Sub, otherwise known as VGA. The second option is DVI-D to HDMI, which requires an adapter.

Before we get into video signal types, here are the immediate advantages of using an LCD TV on your desk as a computer monitor:

Remote Control

If your computer happens to be in the bedroom or den where you want to sit or lie back and watch TV from time to time, having that remote is nothing short of just plain cool to have.

Built-in Speakers

The built-in speakers on an LCD TV aren’t great, but it is one less thing you have to use a power adapter for. Add to that most LCD TVs have a simulated surround sound that actually works, whereas for whatever reason simulated surround on a sound card software level is wonky at best.

Accepts many different types of inputs

Whether it’s a cable TV connection, DVD player (for proper NTSC output), Nintendo Wii or otherwise, you can plug in stuff to the TV that your computer monitor simply can’t do because it doesn’t have the connector ports.

For you old-school users out there, it is quite cool that you can hook up just about any yesteryear game console (NES, Sega Genesis, PlayStation 1 etc.) directly where your computer is because of the component inputs of a TV.

VGA, DVI-D and HDMI in a nutshell

The differences between these three are a source of a confusion for many, so I’ll do my best here to explain each.

VGA

15-pin VGA port

In the product description for an LCD TV, this port is labeled as D-Sub. On the actual television it’s labeled as "PC" or "VGA". It is a three-row, 15-pin trapezoid-shaped blue port.

The way VGA works is simple enough to understand. The video card sends a digital video signal, it travels across the wire as analog and is converted back to digital at the monitor. For all intents and purposes this does mean VGA is an analog video signal, even though it started digital and ended digital.

DVI-D

DVI port

There are three major types of DVI. DVI-A, DVI-I and DVI-D. A is analog, I is integrated (analog or digital, single or dual-link) and D (single or dual-link) is digital. The only one you need be concerned with is D.

A DVI-D port on most video cards is white, although sometimes it’s blue. It looks distinctively different from VGA in the respect it’s longer, wider and has crate-like grid for input.

The difference between VGA and DVI-D is that DVI-D addresses the pixels (sometimes known as elements) more precisely on a display; that is why DVI-D looks better than VGA does and has truer color representation.

HDMI

HDMI "Type A" port

Concerning televisions and monitors, the only thing you have to know here is that a DVI-D to HDMI works exactly as it should, as there is no signal conversion taking place from the two since DVI and HDMI are electrically compatible, meaning no video quality loss by doing so.

DVI-to-HDMI adapter

If you ever wondered why there aren’t any HDMI-specific video cards out there for general consumption, it’s because they simply aren’t required since the converter takes care of the job amicably.

When you convert DVI-D to VGA however, that’s a totally different story. You will see video quality and color quality drop by doing that. Reds won’t be as vibrant and in computer use some fonts may "fuzz" out noticeably at smaller sizes.

End result: Native VGA or DVI-D to HDMI is the way to go when using a LCD TV as a computer monitor

If your video card uses VGA now to pipe a signal to your computer monitor, then use VGA on the LCD TV.

If the card uses DVI-D, buy a converter for HDMI and connect to your LCD TV that way since you know there will be no video signal quality drop.

Converting DVI-D to VGA is not recommended because of video quality drop.

An LCD TV as a computer monitor is a totally do-able thing

If the convenience of in-built speakers, remote control and the ability to hook up multiple devices sounds attractive to you, then by all means, go LCD TV instead of a regular computer monitor.

I do suggest however to buy your LCD TV locally (such as from Best Buy) so you can take advantage of a 30-day return policy just in case you don’t like it for whatever reason.

In closing, one of the most important things to pay attention to if you decide to go this route is the LCD TV stand. Many are rounder for aesthetic purposes and stick out in front of the monitor quite a bit, whereas computer monitor stands are more squared off.

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Kidd
Good article Rich. I figured this stuff out a couple years ago, and it’s really handy to understand the interchangeability of newer TV’s to be used as monitors. I had a friend’s PC connected to my PC’s monitor, but couldn’t connect to internet because my PC uses wifi, and his didn’t have it. So I moved his PC closer to the router, but that was too far away from the monitor. Living room TV fit the bill, and after installing some updates, I browsed the net on it. That really solidified my want for a media PC, as his wasn’t anything special, but it streamed video beautifully on the big TV.
David
Good overview article. Is there any significance to the properties on the TV in question? Frequencies, refresh rates, etc?
I have a ATI 5770 card which has HDMI output. I bought an LCD HDTV I wanted to use as a larger secondary monitor. It’s connected via the HDMI, but doesn’t get near the quality I hoped. Specifically, the text is blocky and hard to read. The TV gets great HD, and good video, etc. So I figured something about the TV just isn’t well suited as a monitor. But I’ve been too lazy to research it fully.
Rich
This will probably answer your question:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/255917-33-connecting-plasma
It’s specifically concerning a large 42-inch plasma TV for PC use. Yes, it’s an old thread from 2008, but it still applies.
Gord Campbell
Both my desktop and laptop computers have HDMI output. They work great with my 42″ HDTV! Streaming TV programs full-screen doesn’t look as good as cable or satellite, but I can watch programs which are not on my Satellite.
LuisR
There are many video cards out there now with HDMI so with time the computer will be just one more device in a home theater. My computer is in the same room as my home theater and I have it hooked up to the TV using a long DVI to HDMI cable. My computer has VGA, DVI and HDMI outputs in the video card and I use a DVI to HDMI cable only because when I did this setup the video card I had at the time did not have HDMI. My 32-inch HDTV is the secondary monitor. While I normally don’t use it as such, I sometimes put full screen video from the computer in the TV while I continue doing other things in the primary 17-inch monitor. As mentioned by another reader, for some reason its resolution is not nearly as good for text as my regular monitor even though it is perfect for HD content such as HD cable or off-air TV and BluRay movies. Another nice thing is to send audio from the computer to the larger speakers in the home theater via the TV,
Larry
HDMI out put has been available for a couple of years on most ATI cards . I started with a HD3650 and upgraded to a upgraded to a HD4670 card as the 3000 series cards only provided audio via HDMI if you used the DVI to HDMI dongle . But with the 4000 series and up you can get audio Via the actual HDMI port . I have my computer in the bedroom and it is cloned Via an HDMI cable into My 37 inch LG int he living room and it works great . and sounds great to through my stereo system
Boublik
It’s a pretty good article, yet maybe except for the HDMI output, for the $70 difference you can get a TV tuner. The difference could be bigger than $70 if you want LED full hd.
David
Yes, that explains it. I pulled out the manual, and the TV spec is in fact 1366 x 768. I had been running it in 720p, which I guess distorts the small characters. On first glance, it seems clearer running at 1360×768.
Guess there’s the lesson. The TVs probably won’t support the same number of resolutions as a monitor.
http://aaronfournier.50webs.com/ Aaron Fournier
Oh I do this with a TV my aunt game my family. It works decently as a monitor. I don’t really use it to watch television, but I’ll use the built in DVD player to watch movies and I’ll connect a Nintendo Wii to it sometimes.
Bill
Bill.
Any chance of wireless ?
In the future.