Big Plasma/TFT telly for computer display

[Neo_VR]

Wonder if anyone can help...

Ive been tasked with sourcing a nice 32"+ plasma or TFT tv to be mounted on the wall at work, unfortunately it will be used as a display for our enterprise monitoring stuff like Whatsup and MOM. does anyone have a similar setup, anything they can reccomend etc? there will be 3 machines connected to the TV via a KVM...

any advice?

taa

[mannyo]

You are better of going LCD for this type of thing, they are after all just huge pc monitors.

[ap0gee1978]

Our plasma at home has a direct PC connection, if that's any help...?

Know feck-all about the virtual machine bit, though

[ap0gee1978]

Oh, except further to Manny's post, plasmas suffer from screen burn whereas LCDs don't - so if you have static images on display, go for the LCD. Plasmas have much better look angles and contrast ratios, however...

Sorry if you already know this!

:sofahide:

[Sporky McGuffin]

Aye - for moving video most people prefer plasma, but for that sort of data display LCD is a much better choice.

My concerns would be whether 32" is big enough for that sort of thing and whether you'll get a high enough resolution. Sony (if you have the money) and Samsung (if you don't) are decent though.

[mattbeef]

As long as the TV has a VGA or a DVI connector on it you will be fine as the graphics card SHOULD auto detect the resolution.

Failing that you will have to manually set it but if you have all the tech specs that's easy enough

[Dr Zoidberg]

We use a row of Sony 40" W series screens - 1920 * 1080 means plenty of desktop space for network monitoring.

If you go for a 720p set then you end up with less pixels than a normal desktop monitor and it looks pants.

[Sporky McGuffin]

Does anyone actually make a 720p panel though? All the LCD TVs are WXGA and scale 720 lines to 768.

[Dr Zoidberg]

True enough , but the extra 48 pixels don't make much difference for PC use

[AvRS]

I run a 32" Samsung N73 which is set to 1280x768 and there's absolutely nothing wrong with it for PC use and I use it as my main screen with PC, Xbox and Sky HD all connected. Whether I'm using it for photoshop, surfing the net or watching movies on my PC then it performs perfectly fine. Would recommend the newer M86/87 range as they're similar but offer 1080p if that's what you want. I used avforums to help me find the TV for me when I was looking as there's a wealth of info on there from reviews to actual owners telling you the good and bad, you should go check it out.

[Xavier]

Whilst the 1366x768 sony/samsung LCD TVs have HDMI input, if you use HDMI, you're forced to use a "TV" resolution, so 1280x720. This does force scaling and there's not much you can do about it. Whilst it's fine for movie viewing, you can notice the aliasing with PC outputs, hence I use the VGA on mine which runs at 1360x768. Perfect 1:1 pixel mapping and I lose a column of 3 pixels wide each side of the screen which isn't even noticeable once you're sitting more than a couple of feet away.

If you want proper high def, then you need to have a 40" screen. However, most high def panels can only be fed a true high def signal over component or HDMI, so if you plan to use VGA, you're still limited to 720-ish resolutions.

As luck would have it, we have a few 32" new D series LCDs in the shop today, going at a very reasonable price :P

[Gwilo]

As luck would have it, we have a few 32" new D series LCDs in the shop today, going at a very reasonable price :P

Lucky guy.

You've got a PM, btw......

[Sporky McGuffin]

True enough , but the extra 48 pixels don't make much difference for PC use

Ah - yes, I see what you originally meant now, sorry!

I just got a 22" widescreen for my PC. That's nice.

[Dr Zoidberg]

I have a 20" w/s and a 17" 4/3 - much desktop area goodness

[Moose]

I recently got a 32" LCD for a monitor for the PC as well as the XBOX360. I got a cheapy from ebuyer, Vistron and have to say, I'm impressed. If you are using a KVM, ensure it has a VGA connection, but I'm guessing you knew that anyway.

[Sporky McGuffin]

Mine's an Optiquest, which it seems is Viewsonic's budget range. It's a perfectly decent screen though, fine for gaming. Much better with DVI than VGA though.