Use an HDTV as my computer monitor?
A couple of months ago, I had a crazy idea, which I thought might just work: get a 1080p HDTV, a really nice one, and use it as my computer monitor. The advantage: cheaper and bigger than 30″ LCD monitors. I also found a model that I thought couldn’t be beat — one that displayed 10-bit color. If you’re unfamiliar with monitor color depth, you might want to have a look at the following:
- Discerning among LCD monitors
- Where Apple hype shows some cracks
- Apple still not transparent about its hardware specs
- Lots to like about new MacBook Pro
Basically, you should have a monitor capable of displaying 8-bit color or better. Why? Because DSLRs capture 12-bit, 14-bit and 16-bit color, and you’re going to miss out on a lot if you can’t see all those colors when you’re editing the photos.
Laptops display only 6-bit color and use dithering to make up for the difference between 6-bit and 8-bit. Normal displays, including Apple Cinema Displays, have 8-bit color. The more expensive computer displays out there have 10-bit, 12-bit and even 14-bit color. LaCie and Eizo seem to be the only companies that build these sorts of high-end monitors.
The prices start around $1,000 for a 21″ or 24″ monitor at 10-bit color, and go up from there, to $2,000 or even $3,000. So you can imagine my delight at finding an HDTV at 40″ that could display 10-bit color and cost only $1,300. Granted, the resolution was only 1920×1080, and at that size, a computer monitor would have been at 2560×1920 or more, but you can’t have everything, right?
The particular HDTV I found is made by Sony and is from their Bravia series. It’s no longer being made — Sony keeps changing models every couple of months. Apparently HDTVs evolve so fast these days there’s a need to do that. I’d give you the model number, but it doesn’t matter any more. The specs were great though:
- Full 1080p
- 24p True Cinema
- 10-bit color processing and 10-bit color display
- Full digital video processor
- Advanced contrast enhancer
- An assortment of ports (HDMI, PC, S-Video, component and composite)
![](http://raoulpop.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/sony-bravia-hdtv-2.jpg "Sony Bravia 40\")
That’s how it looked on my desk. Did it do everything promised in the specs? Yes. Was the quality of the display as I expected? Yes. Editing photos on it was a stunning experience. I was able to see colors like I couldn’t see them before. Believe me, you don’t know what you’re missing until you see your DLSR photos on a high quality display.
So why am I speaking in the past tense about it?! For a single reason: it was much too bright for my eyes. Therein lies the main difference between TVs and monitors. TVs are built to be much brighter, since they’re meant to be viewed from a distance. Monitors are built with a much subtler level of brightness and contrast, since they’re meant to be viewed up close. This didn’t become apparent to me until I had the TV on my desk, about 2 feet from my eyes. I didn’t have a problem with the size of the screen (although it was bigger than expected), but the brightness killed me. Within a half hour, my eyes started to burn and I got a headache. I tried to tune down the brightness and contrast, but I couldn’t get it where it needed to be; I don’t think the TV could go down that low.
After much arguing with myself, and trying all sorts of things, including stepping back from it as much as possible, I had to come to grips with the fact that it wasn’t the fit I needed. Stepping back to an appropriate distance would have defeated the purpose of using it as a monitor, because at that point, it would have become a TV displaying my laptop’s DVI feed. Although it had the display quality I needed — and not a single bad pixel, it was a perfect display — I couldn’t use it.
If you’re in the market for an HDTV, definitely check out the Sonia Bravia line. They’ve got stunning color. They’re amazing TVs. Just don’t try to use them as computer monitors. It won’t work. To their credit, they’re not intended to be monitors. They’re TVs — really good TVs.
(6 votes, average: 4.17 out of 5)
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I tried an HDTV and noticed the same thing. Ouch!
Comment — May 22, 2008 @ 9:09 am
Nice try with the hdtv display. Unfortunately, if manufacturers talk about 10, 12 or 14 bit, this means most of the times, that somewhere in the processing chain, 10, 12 or 14 bits are being used but you are never sure if the complete chain uses these high number of bits, so be careful out there !!! As far as the brightness is concerned, indeed… much much brighter. Big question here is, if colors are still correct when you reduce the brightness/contrast. Let’s not forget about the color temperature and dynamic video post-processing. Television makers want to sell tv’s and don’t hesitate to ‘rape’ the signal to show a better looking picture.
Comment — May 22, 2008 @ 12:58 pm
Using a TV versus a monitor with the same viewing position isn’t ideal mainly for the points you’ve mentioned, BUT… if your viewing distance is the same as if you were watching tv then it wouldn’t be as glaring. Having just set up a Mac Mini for some limited computer use on my HDTV I still have limited tolerance for true computer work on my TV. I’ll be sticking with specialized monitors for my photo work for the foreseeable future. As for your experiment… at least you tried!
Comment — May 28, 2008 @ 3:13 pm
[...] I haven’t been very successful with my my monitor picks so far. I already tried using an HDTV as my computer monitor, but that didn’t work out. Now using a regular monitor hasn’t worked out either. It [...]
Pingback — August 26, 2008 @ 9:41 am
Did you try using a Spyder to calibrate it through your TV?
Asking as I was thinking about doing the same for photo editing.
Comment — September 9, 2008 @ 3:43 pm
No, didn’t try that. It really boils down to the brightness levels. A TV is meant to be watched from a greater distance than a monitor, thus its brightness is inherently brighter. I doubt a Spyder calibration kit, or some other calibration kit, would have made a difference. I’m not even sure they make them to calibrate TVs. But hey, I could be wrong. If you want to give it a try, do so and let me know how it turns out.
Comment — September 14, 2008 @ 3:26 am
The easiest solution is to buy a TV that lets you control the backlight
Comment — November 10, 2008 @ 7:05 pm
Tom, there was a specific control for the backlight on the TV, but no matter how much I tried turning it down, it was still too bright to view it at the normal viewing distance for a monitor. I’d have needed to step back about 5-6 feet from it, and that was too far for me.
Comment — November 10, 2008 @ 7:20 pm
Wear sunglasses!
j/k, I like that you tried this… I’ve wondered how well it would work. I suppose if you’re not using it for long stretches of time, it may be fine, but if it is used for work primarily where you’re looking at it for 8hrs+ at a time, that would be down-right insane! Better luck next time…
Comment — November 19, 2008 @ 12:16 pm