LED TV as computer monitor

English Hardware
1

If this is off-topic please highlight and delete this post.

Anyway here goes. Thinking of using a LED TV as a computer monitor to save space (one less computer table) amongst other reason.

Appreciate any recommendations/early-warning that anyone knows of:

  • e.g. will go up in smoke due to weird refresh rate, or
  • e.g. text will never be sharp on LED tv or
  • e.g. I’m already using it … must get a 1080p model and this and that etc.

Thanks in advance.

2

On 2012-07-28 11:56, michalng wrote:
>
> If this is off-topic please highlight and delete this post.
>
> Anyway here goes. Thinking of using a LED TV as a computer monitor to
> save space (one less computer table) amongst other reason.
>
> Appreciate any recommendations/early-warning that anyone knows of:
> - e.g. will go up in smoke due to weird refresh rate, or
> - e.g. text will never be sharp on LED tv or
> + e.g. I’m already using it … must get a 1080p model and this and
> that etc.

I believe it simply works. I have a friend that does just that.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)

3

LED TV’s should work just fine when using HDMI or DVI connections. Some older models don’t always follow protocol on showing their correct parameters to the computer. Depending on your video card, doing a new install can come out strange for instance on a 1080P HDMI connection as I found the font extremely small on the log in screen even as everything else worked fine. If it was me, I would make sure openSUSE was installed properly on a normal PC monitor or LCD/LED monitor and then switch over to the LED TV using a HDMI connection. You can buy DVI to HDMI cables and converters. A DVI connection on a PC should be able to drive another DVI, HDMI or VGA input on a LED TV. I prefer to use the connections on the TV from best to least in the order DVI, HDMI and finally VGA. If you have ANY problems with your video card, consider replacing it before trying to connect to your TV. A bad video card in a PC can harm the HDMI input on a TV. This kind of problem would be considered rare, but it can happen. Make sure your video card is in good working order before trying to connect it to your TV.

Thank You,

4

I had the same problem. I installed on a 1680 x 1050 monitor. Then I hooked up my 1080P 40" LED TV. It went to 1920 x 1080 whether I used the VGA connection or HDMI. But the fonts were microscopic. All the icons and and other stuff was too tiny. I had to manulayy tweak it for a while to get it right. There should just be a theme to set this up properly all at once.

5

Geez. I messed up. The problem was a bad video cable. I replaced the video cable on my HDTV and voila. Perfection.rotfl!

6

For me it just worked. I plugged in the HDMI cable and in the display settings (KDE) I specified that I wanted the displays mirrored (my computer is actually a laptop). Never had a single problem since then.

7

I’m using a relatively cheap Westinghouse LED 1080P 24" television as a monitor and it worked right out of the chute. Eventually when everything’s automated, I hope to be able to unplug it when I need it, and use it in the camper as a regular television & monitor.

8

Hi!

I’ve just installed 13.1 on a haswell based htpc (pentium g3220t, asrock b85m-itx), plugged it into my tv: sharp 32le510e, and to my surprise, in 1080i the max refresh rate is 30hz, in 1080p, it’s 25hz (and i can see the mouse movement being choppy).

Is there any way to have 60hz for 1080p?

Thanks in advance!

9

In KDE you can go to Configure Desktop / Display & Monitor / Size & Orientation / and you should have a Refresh rate you can change. What works does depend on your video chipset.

Thank You,

10

Yes, that’s the issue: only 25hz is offered:

http://i43.tinypic.com/23lcxac.jpg

11

So I do not know why but when the TV is paired with the Video Card KDE only sees 24 HZ as a choice. I have had good success often switching to a VGA input on the TV if the PC had such an output, but otherwise I am not sure you can do anything more.

Thank You,

12

Plugging my laptop -running windows 8- to the TV with the same HDMI cable allowed me to select 1080p, 60hz.
I think this is definitely a bug in maybe the haswell video driver or in xorg somewhere…

http://i44.tinypic.com/9ibn6d.jpg

13

There is a newer Intel Driver and this procedure can get it. You must add in the following repo:

YaST / Sofware / Software Repositories / Add / URL

http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/sumski:/bnc847762/openSUSE_13.1/

In YaST / Software / Software Management, you want to select Options and check Allow Vendor Change. Search for xf86-video-intel and upgrade it and see if it helps. If it is not installed, then it will not help to install I think, but it should already be there. Reboot after the file is upgraded and see if you have a new scan rate.

Thank You,

14

Sadly adding the .906 driver from here via the 1 click install didn’t solve the issue:
software.opensuse.org:
http://software.opensuse.org/ymp/home:sumski:bnc847762/openSUSE_13.1/xf86-video-intel.ymp?base=openSUSE%3A13.1&query=xf86-video-intel

I’ll try the 3.00.99 driver tomorrow. (although I didn’t see any changes made that would fix my issue here: xorg/driver/xf86-video-intel - Intel video driver)

15

Apologies if this was already asked in the thread and I missed it, but did you check the log files to see if your LED TV monitor was correctly identified (assuming of course that such monitors can be identified, as I know very little about this). The first place I would nominally look would be inside /var/log/Xorg.0.log to see what it states.

If it was my monitor with this problem, and if it was incorrectly identified, then I would try to come up with an appropriate mode line to assign that would provide the resolution and frequency that I wanted. There are various threads on this in our forum (albeit possibly for different less relevant setups - I simply don’t know). Commands to try to figure out the mode line would be ‘cvt’ or ‘gtf’. After modeline is figured out, one would then test it with xrandr.

For example (I’m guessing - so use some salt in reading what I type):


cvt 1920 1080 60

which should give something like:


# 1920x1080 59.88 Hz (CVT 2.30MA) hsync: 74.56 kHz; pclk: 193.25 MHz
Modeline "1920x1080_60.00"  193.25  1920 2056 2256 2592  1200 1203 1209 1245 -hsync +vsync

where I completely made up the above. Completely made up, and you need to use the “cvt 1920 1080 60” on your PC to get a modeline (assuming this works for an LED TV - and it may not).

or use gpt


gpt 1920 1080 60

Once one has the modeline, one applies it with xrandr …


xrandr --newmode  "1920x1080_60.00"  193.25  1920 2056 2256 2592  1200 1203 1209 1245 -hsync +vsync

again I completely made up the above. DO NOT use the above on your PC. You need to use the modeline values your PC provides.

Then try to add the mode to the desired output:


xrandr --addmode yyyyy 1920x1080_60

where I do not know what to put for ‘yyyyy’ in your case. Possibly by simply typing ‘xrandr’ first, read what it states, and it may give you a hint as to what ‘yyyyy’ should be, so that you can then use it.

Set the output to run in that mode immediately:


xrandr --output yyyyy --mode 1920x1080_60

again, put the appropriate letters in yyyyy

but there is massive speculation in the above by me, and others can likely correct me if I am heading on the wrong track wrt a recommendation.

Honestly, I don’t know if this is appropriate for an LED TV.

16

My suggestion was for version 299 and not one click. I have no idea what yours will do, but good luck.

Thank You,

17

Worth a shot IMHO Lee.

18

I think it is perfectly fine to use led as monitor. I have also been using it. Even the space acquired is less.
Tech2cool

19

led tv screen too big , a long time affect vision