Any valid reason why not to use a 40" 4K TV as PC monitor, cheaper than a 1440p 27-30" monitor?

[Deleted member 13524]

So while the panels are up-to-date and the prices are now satisfatory, the TV makers are basically selling us models that will never work as advertized because they're using outdated connections?

Damn..

 

[London Geezer]

Well if you think that Sony's first few 4k TVs wouldn't actually be able to accept a 4k signal and only took 1080p signals, only to then upscale them to the panel's real resolution, then maybe you begin to understand the state of TV manufacturing these days...

 

[Blazkowicz]

To be fair, that was a Sony product :

 

[Blazkowicz]

So while the panels are up-to-date and the prices are now satisfatory, the TV makers are basically selling us models that will never work as advertized because they're using outdated connections?

Damn..

There might also be the more subtle issue of the scaler not being very good, and that also applies to PC monitors.
Theoretically, a 4K monitor ought to be awesome for playing in non native resolutions (especially if that's a high ppi monitor) but some people may report the result is not very good or not any better than non native on a 1080p screen. [citation needed]

It might be that at 3840 by 2160 and 60Hz, that's quite many megapixels in a second so the scaling and even the interfaces aren't as trivial as we may think. Or the makers were more interested in cost and time to market.

 

[orangpelupa]

how about those Xiaomi TV? http://www.mi.com/en/mitv/

the spec in a glance looks awesome

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

Whats so awesome about it? Thats a normal 1080p tv and I doubt the panel is going the be among the best available. The only semi awesome thing listed on the specs page is that it comes with a snapdragon 600 which might be better than what most tvs come with but in reality its still a 2 year old chip.

 

[orangpelupa]

its 4K TV with LG or samsung panel as stated on the spec. Its also running android something something. Doesnt that should make it have better HDMI capabilities? or at least update-able.

 

[Blazkowicz]

I appreciate that it has a VGA input. Had me think that the TV must be good if they thought they needed to leave it in .
Yes it seems to have a good computer in it (just lacks a SD slot to add a bit of permanent storage), at that point you could use it and forget about the PC. Yet my main concern is about the Android security updates or eventual lack of, what if you buy a TV which should last 10 years but after a year it might be a free-for-all for malware authors to run their code on your TV/computer combo.
In some cases, there's a webcam and mic in the TV, which is eminently useful as it becomes a big and convenient "videophone" with Skype or other. But if security is lacking, random people may be looking at you!

I believe that such ARM computers will eventually have UEFI or ought to, then it'd be much easier to update the OS.

 

[tongue_of_colicab]

its 4K TV with LG or samsung panel as stated on the spec. Its also running android something something. Doesnt that should make it have better HDMI capabilities? or at least update-able.

We use one of the best panels from Samsung and LG to create a 47” 1920x1080 Full HD television with a super slim profile and an 8.4mm frame

Running android is going to make 0 difference for the HDMI capabilities. All smart tv OSes are updatable.

 

[orangpelupa]

they are updateable but are they updateable to support future features?

its like on PS3 where old bluray player keeps missing features while the BR player on PS3 keep getting more feature without the need to get PS3 Hardware Rev B.

about the tv. it also available on 4k with branding of "Xiaomi Mi TV2".
yeah it is weird why they did not brand it as "Xiaomi Mi TV4K".

 

[homerdog]

In response to the OP, I know it's been mentioned but you have to be really careful with input lag when using TV as a monitor. In my experience most televisions still suck wrt input lag and it makes using a mouse practically impossible. "Game Mode" might help on models that have it, but even in game mode most televisions still have too much input lag to use a mouse.

If possible, bring a laptop into the store and see if they'll let you test it out.

P.S. Obviously if the TV only supports 30Hz input you can't use it as a monitor in any meaningful way.

 

[homerdog]

There might also be the more subtle issue of the scaler not being very good, and that also applies to PC monitors.
Theoretically, a 4K monitor ought to be awesome for playing in non native resolutions (especially if that's a high ppi monitor) but some people may report the result is not very good or not any better than non native on a 1080p screen. [citation needed]

It might be that at 3840 by 2160 and 60Hz, that's quite many megapixels in a second so the scaling and even the interfaces aren't as trivial as we may think. Or the makers were more interested in cost and time to market.

Isn't that what GPU scaling is for? I have to think the scaler in a modern GPU is better than the scaler in any TV or monitor.

 

[zed]

In NZ you can buy a 4k monitor for 400-500 euro's (including sales tax), are you saying you can't buy one in europe for that price?
One thing to watch out for win 8.1 (and at the moment win 10 doesnt look much better) doesnt have great support for 4k.
I have a 4k monitor (upgraded from 1920x1200) thus ~3.5x better resolution thus prolly the largest jump in resolution I've ever had in my > 30 years of using computers, but yet this feels the least impressive jump I've had. Webpages though do look brilliant at 4k, reading text etc is so much nicer because of the higher DPI

 

[Silent_Buddha]

its 4K TV with LG or samsung panel as stated on the spec. Its also running android something something. Doesnt that should make it have better HDMI capabilities? or at least update-able.

Some things can be updated if the display module and/or scaler supports them, but they weren't in the official specifications when the device was launched.

Some things are not possible to update as they require hardware features that don't exist on some sets. Like HDCP 2.2 support for example. If the TV doesn't currently support it, it will never support it. It isn't a firmware thing. It either exists or it doesn't exist. Another example would be an HDMI 2.0 port that outputs 4K60Hz at 4:2:0 (YCbCr) chroma subsampling per component will never be able to output 4:2:2 (YCbCr) chroma or 4:4:4 (YCbCr) chroma. This will lead to stuff like color banding with 4:2:0.

Regards,
SB

 

[orangpelupa]

thanks its like directx 9 to 10. hardware wont suoport it so firmware update wont fix it.

 

[Arwin]

In NZ you can buy a 4k monitor for 400-500 euro's (including sales tax), are you saying you can't buy one in europe for that price?
One thing to watch out for win 8.1 (and at the moment win 10 doesnt look much better) doesnt have great support for 4k.
I have a 4k monitor (upgraded from 1920x1200) thus ~3.5x better resolution thus prolly the largest jump in resolution I've ever had in my > 30 years of using computers, but yet this feels the least impressive jump I've had. Webpages though do look brilliant at 4k, reading text etc is so much nicer because of the higher DPI

I'd love it for that reason (better text), but for games I'd now also go with a 5k widescreen setup, after having tried a three monitor seri for games that's better for me, and less processing expensive.

 

[Davros]

5k widescreen ?

 

[homerdog]

Because obviously the problem with modern displays is not enough pixels.

 

[Malo]

He's referring to triple 1680x1050 monitors.

 

[Davros]

Ahh,
@Arwin have you looked at QHD ultrawide ?