Can you use a TV as a Computer Monitor
Can you use a tv as computer monitor, if you are also having this question in your mind than you are at right place. We will help you to decide should you buy a LED TV as your next computer monitor or not; and how to use your existing TV as replacement of computer monitor.
We will also see in detail what are the different pros and cons of using TV as a PC monitor.
You may be of view that working on a big size screen TV is a great idea, but is this really so?
We will see in this post why your TV cannot be a full replacement of your computer monitor.
Table of Contents
Can you use a TV as a computer monitor or not?
Yes, you can definitely use your TV as monitor, but first we must understand the basic differences between computer monitor and TV. Thereafter we will see different technology that affect or prevent to use TV as monitor like resolution, input lag, response time, refresh rate, pixel per inch etc.
You have to review the purposes for which you want to use TV as a PC monitor. For example, if you want to use TV for video conference, online meetings, presentations or media streaming apps like Netflix, Amazon prime, hotstar, YouTube etc. you can easily use TV as monitor replacement.
Using a big size TV like 45 inch, 55, inch or 65 inch will work fine for the above mentioned purposes, as you have to do these tasks from some distance say 6-8 feet.
But if you are thinking to work on TV at your desk on Word processor, spread sheets, browsing, designing etc. type of works than a big size TV like 42 -65 inch would be too big for you to work.
This may cause eye strain and you have to move your neck continuously from one corner of TV to another corner.
For the desk purposes, monitors of sizes 18-24 inch are well suited. A 27-inch monitor will be also fine if you are doing heavy design work like in CAD or doing multi-tasking on various spreadsheets and word files.
That is why for the purpose of desktop generally monitor of size 18-24 inch preferred and manufactured by the PC companies.
For gaming purpose input lag, refresh rate could be a problem in TVs, as most of the gaming monitor having low input lag and high refresh rate but not always available in TVs.
This criterion of gaming does not mean that TV are not suited for gaming. Now modern smart TV are also come with low input lag, high refresh rate for gaming.
You have to check in TV specifications before buying all these aspects. For example, LG 55 inch OLED CX TV, has refresh rate 120 Hz and input lag as 1 milli second along with support of Nvidia G-Sync.
For gaming purpose there is dedicated HDMI port in these TVs.
Price is also a major thing to consider before buying a TV or monitor. A 55-inch size OLED TV price can go up to 1.32 lac ($1800) or higher, however a good resolution gaming monitor with 27 inch size can be bought in Rs. 30,000 ($400) with refresh rate 240Hz and input lag as 1 milli second.
Other thing to mention a higher size monitor may not be available in market but you can always buy a higher size TV as per your desired features (Tv with size 32 inch to 70 inch are easily available).
Now we will discuss all the things that matter for using TV as computer monitor in detail.
Is your TV and computer being fully compatible to work with each other?
To use TV as a computer you should first check what are the ports available behind the TV and your Desktop PC. In case you are thinking to connect your PC with TV.
If you want to connect Laptop to connect with TV, than check the available ports in Laptop.
For answer of “Can you use a TV as a Computer Monitor” First take a look about TV Ports
Ports are very much important to connect your PC with TV and to use TV as a computer monitor.
If both TV and PC are having HDMI ports than you are good to go. Otherwise, you have to invest in various dongles, adapter or converters.
However, some cables like DVI to HDMI, Display to HDMI are not much costly and also work flawless for connecting PC to TV.
Modern LED TV are come with mostly HDMI ports, however in some old TV you may also found DVI, VGA and RCA ports.
Similarly, your PC may have port/s like HDMI, DVI, VGA and Display. You can also check the manual of your TV and PC to see specifications and different available ports.
If you are not sure about what ports your laptop or PC have, search on Google about specification of your PC.
The best part of HDMI and Display port is that both ports support video and audio from the single cable, however VGA and DVI does not support voice transmission along with video.
In case of DVI to DVI or VGA to VGA connection, you have to also connect the audio cable from PC to TV’s audio input port. That is generally 3.5mm headphone female jack if available in your TV.
To connect HDMI port of PC to TV, simply plug HDMI cable on both of the devices HDMI ports. If your PC have display port or DVI port and does not have HDMI port, you can use following cables available at cheap price on Amazon:
Some laptops doesn’t have HDMI and display ports, have USB type C port for display purpose like in MacBook. In this case you purchase type C to HDMI adapter.
DVI to HDMI and Display to HDMI works in bidirectional for video, however audio may work or not in case DVI to HDMI cable.
If your PC’s graphics card support audio in DVI port also than you can use single DVI to HDMI cable. Otherwise, audio cable also required separately, if audio in port not available in your TV, then you can use Home theatre or external speakers for audio purpose.
In case your PC only have VGA port than you have to purchase a VGA to HDMI converter, or it is better to invest in a cheap graphics card.
Because functionality of VGA to HDMI converter is not fully functional as like DVI to HDMI and Display to HDMI cables.
Similar way monitor can also be used as TV, by using different adapter cables to connect with DTH Set Top Box, Chromecast, Amazon Fire Stick etc.
If you have modern Smart TV with Wi-Fi and screen mirroring equipped than you can you your TV as wireless display to project Laptop screen wirelessly. But this require that your PC should be on Windows 10.
In case your TV is not smart and does not support wireless display than other things like Chromecast , Amazon firestick, Apple TV, Roku , Android Box etc. can be used to connect laptop to TV wirelessly.
Using these devices, you can also convert your normal TV into smart TV, to watch various OTT platform apps on your old dumb TV.
Setup for connecting PC to TV
First you have to plugin the cable in your PC and as well as in TV HDMI port.
Now in computer press Win+P key combination to choose the desired projector settings. Here you will be found options like ”Second screen only, PC Screen only, duplicate or extend” display for more details about how to setup these things you can visit here.
Choose the option that suited to you for example use second screen only.
Setup for TV for connecting with PC
Now in TV you need to select the right input source from the remote. Choose different input source if no signal received on particular HDMI port. Generally, numbers like 1, 2,3, 4 also written near to HDMI input port.
On the TV remotes, where input source button not available like Samsung Smart TV remote, you can press home button and from menu choose right source.
If your TV supports Variable Refresh Rate for gaming mode, choose the dedicated HDMI port for VRR for example in Samsung HDMI port no. 4 support for gaming mode. So, choosing the right port is must for best viewing and gaming experience.
VRR is a feature that can adjust the TV refresh rate based on the matching input source device. This will produce a smoother image with more consistent input lag and no screen tearing.
This feature is more important for the gamers, both AMD and NVIDIA graphics cards support variable refresh rate features.
Things to consider for using a TV as computer monitor
Resolution & Pixel density
Resolution means a greater number of pixels on the same size of image like a 55 inch TV with 4K resolution will have more details and clarity compared to 720p resolution 55 inch TV.
Effect of higher resolution in TV can be identified if we watch from a near distance, from far distances these effects are not much noticeable.
Pixel per inch PPI means how much pixels are in some area say in one inch. As much higher the PPI count as much sharper can clear the picture and will not blur if we zoom the picture.
A 15.6 inch laptop screen with resolution 1920×1080 could have pixel density of 141.21 ppi, however similar resolution 32 inch HDTV could have pip say 80 ppi.
Watching or working on the laptop from the near distance much due to higher PPI as picture, images various texts are clearer to watch from near distance.
However, the images on lower ppi HDTV could be seen blur from the nearby. That is why TVs are generally designed to view from larger distances as these have lesser ppi as higher ppi display will be costlier.
TVs are come generally with resolution like 720p, 1080p, now most smart TV model come with 4K (3840×2160) resolution.
If your PC graphics card supports 4K resolution than you can view PC screen smoother on 4K TVs.
Refresh Rate
Refresh rate means how much times a TV or monitor redraw an image per second. For example, 60Hz refresh rate display can draw or re-construct the image on screen 60 times in a second while 120Hz will draw it twice compared to 60Hz in one second.
As much the higher the refresh rate the picture or video will be smoother and lag free. For gaming purpose higher refresh rates are important. For the general Video and Medea streaming 60 Hz image will also looks good.
Many gaming monitors may support refresh rate up to 240Hz, however smart TVs are supports up to 120Hz refresh rate. So, this parameter may be important to you if you are considering the TV for gaming purpose.
Input Lag
Input lag can be defined the delay or lag when you make some movement in your mouse and the same movement is displayed over the screen. Gaming monitors are having very low input lag compared to Televisions.
For the heavy gamers this might be a drawback as they may face inputs during gaming and can miss moves and actions.
However, many modern smart TV are now come with nowadays very low input lag for example Samsung QLED Q70T have 5.5 milli second input lag.
Response Time
Response time define, that how fast pixels changes their colours when move from once scene to another.
You may have noticed that if you played a 4K movie on an older PC that does not supports 4K content may show you ghost images when changing once scene to another.
You have to also check response time in your TV to use as monitor.
Chroma format 4:4:4
Chroma subsampling is also a major thing you should consider while using TV as PC monitor.
What does mean my chroma subsampling
A video signal has two aspects one is luminance information, and another is colour information. Chroma subsampling means it reduce the colour information to allow more luminance data.
Therefore, the bandwidth used by an image or video can be reduce while transmitting and same time keeping the image clarity better.
The chroma ratio defined like figures 4:4:4 or 4:2:2 or 4:4:0.
A signal with chroma 4:4:4 has no compression and transports both luminance and colour information as it is.
Chroma 4:2:2 has half the colour information compared to chroma of 4:4:4, and 4:2:0 has a quarter of the colour information available. The difference between 4:4:4 & 4:2:0 can be seen by following pictures:
You can found these chroma ratio on rtings.com as consumer websites generally not having that much of information.
Gaming Support like Nvidia G-Sync and AMD FreeSync
Generally gaming monitors have compatibility with both G-sync and FreeSync, you can check these things with technical specification of TV websites or on the rtings.com.
Wireless display support
Suppose you want to work on the TV from some distance say 6-8 feet where HDMI cable connection is not practical. Or you want a hassle-free TV connection to connect Laptop with TV in one go.
Then you should check that your TV is compatible to wireless display or not.
Most of the smart TV now compatible to wireless display using Miracast technology; even if you don’t have wireless router, you can connect TV wirelessly using TV’s inbuilt Wi-Fi direct technology.
For Miracast to work properly your PC or laptop should be on Windows 10 and laptop Wi-Fi card should support Miracast.
If your TV does not support wireless display, you can also opt for Chromecast, Amazon firestick or similar type of media streaming devices.
Microsoft also sells a Miracast HDMI adapter that support wireless display. That we can say a wireless HDMI input connection.
One thing to mention that you may face some lag or sometimes poor display quality in wireless transmission. However, wired connection is always works fine and provide smoother experience.
Other Things to mention
How to use your TV for online meetings
If you want to use TV for online meetings and video conference than you must purchase a webcam with higher resolution and longer USB cable. You can also buy a separate male to female cable for connecting with webcam.
You can mount the webcam over the top of TV and can connect with the Laptop or PC’s USB port.
Your TV is now ready to use for online meetings and work from home assignments.
Use your Samsung Smart TV as a document editor with Office 365 support
Samsung provides Microsoft office 365 support in their smart TVs, using that feature you can edit Word, Excel, Power point files straight from your TV without need of any PC with the help of mouse and keyboard.
All the documents will be saved on the Microsoft OneDrive and there is no need of additional PC for such office works. You can also use your PC inside Samsung TV with remote access feature.
However, to work in document files on big size TVs like 55-65 inch in near distance could results in eye strain or neck pain.
Conclusion
Hope we are able to answer your question “Can you use TV as a computer monitor or not”.
You may have got better perspective on various factor if you are thinking to use Your TV as a PC monitor.
For the Media streaming, Video Conference, Online Meetings, Video Games TV is a better option, however for Office Works, Web browsing, designing, coding it is not suitable.
References