Has anyone ever used their LCD television as their main monitor ?

[mofohobo]

My television has the hookups in the back so i know it's capable but was wondering if anyone here has actually done it and how does it look.
I have a 720p Salvania 

Here are some images...

[JavaJones]

I do this for my media machine, which is just a quad core running Win7, but I don't use it very much as a "normal" computer. I have a wireless keyboard and mouse for it, so it certainly can (and sometimes is) used that way, but depending on the size of your display, wireless may be a necessity to sit far enough back from it to see everything. The other important bit is to find the native resolution of the display and then set your graphics card for that. With any luck your system will detect it, but you may have to download a driver for the display, or look up the specs and set it manually.

- Oshyan

[mofohobo]

Thanks for the feedback.

I just hooked it up...It's like Christmas morning.It's only a 22 inch screen but a huge improvement over my 17 inch "Proview".My proview monitor always had a yellowish tint to it.This is cool.Still messing with the settings.Now to buy a better computer 

It would be cool to have a picture in picture option,say your watching tv and you also have the pc screen running in the left hand corner.

[app103]

It would be cool to have a picture in picture option,say your watching tv and you also have the pc screen running in the left hand corner.

If you were sitting up close, using it as a monitor, it would probably be better the other way around and have TV in the corner, than trying to see a tiny display of the PC screen.

[mofohobo]

Absolutely,either way would be cool.I will say my eyes are already burning.

[siacono]

I have been running my 42" lcd tv as my main monitor for about 8mths now and love it.
having all that desktop space is great and being able to run world of warcraft @ 1900x1080
Is awesome... running dual core athon 64 x2 4800+ with 2x Nvidia 8600gt's in sli.

[nite_monkey]

[attachthumb=#]
now you just need to run your tv and your old monitor at the same time... or if you have an onboard video card and a pci/agp/pcie video card like me, then you can go with a tripple display.
(I have a 17", 19", and 26" setup right now)

[Deozaan]

I have been running my 42" lcd tv as my main monitor for about 8mths now and love it.

How do you do that without being 10 feet away from your desk? Do you have a wireless keyboard and mouse so you can sit on your couch and do your computer stuff?

[steeladept]

I have been running my 42" lcd tv as my main monitor for about 8mths now and love it.

How do you do that without being 10 feet away from your desk? Do you have a wireless keyboard and mouse so you can sit on your couch and do your computer stuff?

I am guessing not, it was just a typo.  It is really a resolution of 19000x10800

Seriously though, that is something I would like to see.  Pictures by chance?

[wraith808]

I used to do it on my 46" DLP.  It wouldn't get 1900x1080, but 1280x1024 @ 46" is still pretty impressive.  It wasn't my main computer, but was in my living room, and I sat on the sofa about 3-4' away, using a logitech dinovo keyboard and a g7 wireless mouse.  And yes, I was playing WoW at the time... and guild wars, and Cit of Heroes... and many more.  It actually wasn't as immersive as my 24" on my desktop IMO... the distance killed it for me, and the fact that my coffee table was a lot lower than my desk.

[Rocker452]

I have a Samsung Syncmaster 22" hooked up via HDMI to my Dell Studio 17" laptop works great. Beats the heck out of the built in display.

[clif_notes]

For those with a wireless keyboard and mouse, I can definitely recommend a different web browser for use at more than 10ft away from the TV.

A Web Browser for Your TV - Kylo
http://techie-buzz.com/softwares/kylo-tv-browser.html

[Ehtyar]

At work one of our senior creatives uses a TV as his primary monitor. When we moved offices recently we tried to have it "go missing" (it takes up an insane amount of desk space), but comments were made involving "cold, dead fingers", so we gave it up

Ehtyar.

[clay]

Yes I have used my 26" Vizio on my desk hooked to a Compaq desktop SVGA out to SVGA input. They were Synergized together to a IBM laptop XP left of Compaq Vista a HP desktop XP right and Fujitsu Ubuntu right, right.
The Vizio is now on top of a dresser now hooked up to a ASUSTek computer that sets next to the dresser controlled by a IBM 600X via Synergy or Team viewer it is used for viewing movies. The reason it is moved to the dresser is the limited real-estate on my desk. The desk top, applications and shows are a perfect view running 1280x720 @ 60 HZ from on the desk previously or at a distance currently.


I also have a Dell in the Living room hooked up to the 42" Sanyo. The Dell is just used to run the Gom Player and retrieves video from a Gateway video server I have setup.
When the Dell boots it auto loads Synergy to connect to the IBM 700Z laptop on the coffee table which I use to control the Dell. The Sanyo is not equipped with a SVGA cable input as the Vizio is. It does however have a S video input and the Dell has a S video out which I use to connect the two.   
This set up works great for the movie viewing but while viewing the desktop of the Dell computer on the 42 inch screen the font under the icons are slightly blurred.
I have tried a lot of various settings to no avail.
I believe the video card is not that good of a card as it came with the Dell computer which is not that impressive of a computer to begin with. I have never used that computer for anything other that what it is set up to do right now.

I have hooked the Compaq laptop 17" to the 42" via the S video and it works great for video as well as desktop viewing and presentation.