Widescreen Gaming Forum

ANyone have much expirence with using a 1080P 32" HDTV as a monitor?

I'm thinking about either getting the Toshiba REGZA 32RV530U or the Doublesight 265W 26" monitor.

Any opinions?

i use my tosh regza 37XV505DB for games i can play with my joypad, and it's been a blast so far. it's got an "exact scan" mode for gaming so it always fills the screen. haven't used it for anything more than gaming. if i need to use my pc for non-game stuff i always use my normal monitor (ancient 17" flat screen).

The 26" Doublesight is the best deal going in a large high quality panel monitor. The Toshiba model HDTV you referred to sounds good but unfortunately there's not much in the way of reviews yet to know if all those included features perform well, esp CineSpeed, as it's response is only 8ms compared to the Sharp Aquos 32" 1080p HDTV 6ms. I wouldn't doubt the Toshiba is more quality built though.

With the Doublesight you'd be getting less than one frame input lag and 5ms rersponse time, it's a very good gaming display. You'd also be getting a 3 yr warranty vs 1 yr on the Toshiba, and only if it's purchased at an authorized Toshiba retailer. The Doublesight would have more scaling options and display more game resolutions full screen and undistorted since most are 16:10.

On the other hand the Toshiba has a built in HDTV tuner, video processing, and it's 16:9 aspect ratio fits movies better. Overall I would say the Doublesight would be a better gaming specific display with excellent photo work capabilities as a side note and the Toshiba perhaps a better multi-purpose HTPC display, provided you use it from a comfortable viewing distance. Some struggle with 32" for desktop use due to it's size.

I am using a 32' 1080p Sharp, but I tries the 1080p Toshiba first. I did nto like the Toshiba at all! It had terrible overscan and I just didn't think the actual picture of the Regza was that good either. And this is the new line of Regza that started using Sharp panels (Still much better than the previous screens). If you want a 32' TV for a monitor, I HIGHLY recommend the Sharp. No ovescan and a beautiful picture.
And to the person who said Toshiba was better quality than Sharp. You are WAY off!

I find it odd you are basing much of your opinion of Toshiba's Regza and Tosh vs Sharp on overscan alone, which has nothing to do with quality and can quite easily be adjusted in your video card panel (even ATI now) or the service code of the TV's remote control.

I have read tons of reviews on the AVS forum about the 1080p 32" Sharp and there are certain common color related problems with them, one of which was addressed with VERY poor customer service concerning one of their more tech oriented forum members.

Toshibas have always been a bit different than other brands concerning adjusting the settings. This is probably even more true with all the video processing features the new ones have. It can take a while but once you get them adjusted well they look great.

Besides that, TV settings and color levels are largely personal preference. I find it common that those whom don't like Toshiba's picture quality like the over saturated colors that most sets have, in some case with lots of red push. Toshibas never look like that. They go for a more natural look.

On the panels, there are very few panel manufacturers out there and the fact that two sets use the same one has much less to do with how the picture will look than the video processing chips they use. The Regzas may in fact use the same panel the Sharps do, but I doubt they're made by Sharp, more likely Samsung.

I am reading this thread with interest as I am in a similar situation myself.

First off, I am not interested in any Toshiba vs Sony vs Sharp issue and would like to concentrate on the general technicals as below.

Items under exam:
1. Display: 46" HDTV with a 1920 x 1080 panel and supports up to 1080p. It has HDMI input connectors and a D-sub 15-pin connector for PC.
2. Graphic card: Radeon HD 3850/3870. It has 2 DVI outputs.

Part I: Single display
Consider only using this combo for playing PC games, what is the better way to connect the card to the HDTV?

Option A: use a DVI-to-HDMI cable to connect the card to one of the HDMI input connector of the HDTV. But I discover that when I choose 1920 x 1080 @ 50Hz in CCC, the desktop gets pushed outside the panel border. If I choose 1920 x 1080 @ 60Hz, the entire desktop is now shown inside the panel but the icons and text look a little fuzzy. Why so?

And, is the signal being sent out from the card to the HDTV a 1080i signal or 1080p signal?

(I am currently using this option. I have a gut feeling that I need to dig into the setting of the HDTV and CCC and use more fine-tuning. Any advice?)

Option B: use a DVI-to-VGA cable to connect the card to the D-sub input of the HDTV.
Max supported resolution is 1360 x 768 @ 60Hz and the signal will be scaled up by the HDTV to fill up the panel. Since scaling (ie, not pixel-to-pixel) and digital-to-analog are involved, I imagine final image quality will suffer more or less (depending on the ability of the HDTV internal scaler). I have no experience in this area. Anyone has?

Part II: DTH2G
Use a dual-link DVI cable to connect the card to the DTH2G unit is obvious. Then, what is the better way to connect the DTH2G to the 3 displays? 2 Options similar as above.

Option A: use a DVI-to-HDMI cable and feed a 1280 x 720 @ 60Hz signal (720p ?), making 3 x 1280 x 720 overall resolution.

Option B: use a DVI-to-VGA cable and feed a 1360 x 768 @ 60Hz signal (max supported for DTH2G), making a 3 x 1360 x 768 overall resolution.

Option A remains digital all the way but has a smaller resolution. Option B has a higher resolution but it gets analog.

Anyone has any experience in this kind of setup?

(I hope I am not hijacking this thread. I hope this thread can generate more input and sharing of experience of using HDTV as monitor)

What brand/model is your 46" HDTV? Some TVs have inferior circuitry on some of the connection ports which can result in the type of problem you're describing. You do need to precisely match the type of connector the set uses with the cable you buy though.

Theoretically DVI to HDMI should give you the best connection and HDTVs work best at 60Hz. The 1080i broadcasts are always in 2x 30Hz though.

What brand/model is your 46" HDTV? Some TVs have inferior circuitry on some of the connection ports which can result in the type of problem you're describing. You do need to precisely match the type of connector the set uses with the cable you buy though.

The HDTV is a Toshiba Regza XF-series 46" (with the ultra-slim bezel of 23mm :) ideal for triplemon setup :)

Theoretically DVI to HDMI should give you the best connection and HDTVs work best at 60Hz. The 1080i broadcasts are always in 2x 30Hz though.

Yes, I agree. That is why I have chosen Option A as my starting point for connection.

I had a little time to do some adjusting yesterday. I think the 'fuzziness' might actually be the 'grainy-ness' of showing fine text at 1920 x 1080 on a 46" panel. The pixel pitch size of the panel is 0.531mm which is roughly doubled that of a typical 24" 1920 x 1200 panel with 0.27mm dot pitch.

I must admit that I am new to using a HDTV together with a PC. And so I am not used to 0.531mm pitch size text which are so familar to me at 0.27mm.

Unless anyone has good advice in this area, I think I will move on for the time being as I have discovered a new hurdle to pass. :(

With 1920 x 1080 @ 60Hz chosen in CCC, the whole Windows desktop is shown but it does not fully fill the entire panel. So, there is a black border between the bezel and the edge of the Windows desktop. This is odd as the panel size is 1920 x 1080 natively and I am feeding a 1920 x 1080 resolution to it. I wonder why it is not filled?

I should also admit that I am not familar with ATI's CCC as I have been using nVidia since the days of Ti4200.

Any constructive sharing is welcome. I hope this thread could develop further and helps those of us using HDTV with a PC.

I had a little time to do some adjusting yesterday. I think the 'fuzziness' might actually be the 'grainy-ness' of showing fine text at 1920 x 1080 on a 46" panel. The pixel pitch size of the panel is 0.531mm which is roughly doubled that of a typical 24" 1920 x 1200 panel with 0.27mm dot pitch.

I must admit that I am new to using a HDTV together with a PC. And so I am not used to 0.531mm pitch size text which are so familar to me at 0.27mm.

Unless anyone has good advice in this area, I think I will move on for the time being as I have discovered a new hurdle to pass. :(

With 1920 x 1080 @ 60Hz chosen in CCC, the whole Windows desktop is shown but it does not fully fill the entire panel. So, there is a black border between the bezel and the edge of the Windows desktop. This is odd as the panel size is 1920 x 1080 natively and I am feeding a 1920 x 1080 resolution to it. I wonder why it is not filled?

I should also admit that I am not familar with ATI's CCC as I have been using nVidia since the days of Ti4200.

Any constructive sharing is welcome. I hope this thread could develop further and helps those of us using HDTV with a PC.

This is what I was refering to in my post about Sharp vs Toshiba. With the Sharp TV's, you hook up the DVI-HDMI cable and the screen shows the entire desktop without adjustments after setting the res to 1920x1080.
Also, the text is as sharp as a tack. No fuzziness and no grain!

This is what I was refering to in my post about Sharp vs Toshiba. With the Sharp TV's, you hook up the DVI-HDMI cable and the screen shows the entire desktop without adjustments after setting the res to 1920x1080.
Also, the text is as sharp as a tack. No fuzziness and no grain!

I am not aware of any 46" HDTV with a 1920 x 1080 panel that has a pixel size smaller than 0.531mm. If it is 0.531mm, then it is 'grainy' and 'fuzzy' to me :)

I have now narrowed down the cause of the problem to the HD3870 and/or CCC and is not related to the Toshiba (because I tested it with a Nvidia card and it fills the whole panel in 1 shot.)

And digging further into CCC, I notice the Display Manager has a function to 'force detect' my HDTV and add 720i/720p/1080i/1080p setting. I wonder if this might be the solution. Are you using Nvidia or ATI card? If you are using CCC, what version are you using?

Let me reiterate that I really dont wish to get into Sharp vs Sony vs Toshiba vs whatever issue. But thank for your comment anyway.