[ILUG] [OT] Using HD LCD TV as Monitor

[Niall O Broin]

On 6 Jan 2009, at 14:44, Eoghan Calnan wrote:

> On 6 Jan 2009, at 14:28, Niall O Broin <niall at linux.ie> wrote:
>
>> On 6 Jan 2009, at 14:15, Rory Browne wrote:
>>
>>> I'm considering getting myself a 32" ( or maybe 37" ) HD LCD TV  
>>> for use as a
>>> PC Monitor ( as well as of course watching TV ).
>>>
>>> Has anyone any experience using such a setup, who can provide some
>>> enlightement on how well it works?
>>
>>
>> Most (all ? - my cheapie certainly does) 32" LCD TVs will have HDMI  
>> and VGA inputs. Your best results will be with a DVI-HDMI cable as  
>> you'll skip a D/A and A/D step. It shoud work with Linux just like  
>> any other monitor i.e. more or less automagically with any current  
>> distro (I bet most of you young uns don't even know what a mode  
>> line is)
>>
>>
>> Niall
>
> One important thing to renember is hd tvs don't have as high a  
> resolution as a normal monitor.

Define normal monitor? A HD Ready TV has a native resolution of  
1366x768, and a HD TV has a native resolution of 1920x1080 - there are  
still monitors around with lower resolutions than those. Of course the  
pixels on a TV are larger than on most monitors.

> And if your graphics card can't give the right output you'll end up  
> with a black border.


What you want here is overscan. Might be an option in your driver,  
otherwise remember those mode lines I mentioned earlier . . .


Niall