Using a 4K TV as a Desktop Monitor

[bluto 2050]

The Samung KU 6300 is decent entry level 4K SDR 8 bit panel TV with better blacks than many PC screens .that can not do 4:4:4 pixel Chroma (major handicap trus`me for PC use ) as the author noted .

I have to wonder at 40" if a 4:4:4 1080P is not sufficient least for web content lt. office and 1080p ultra gaming (casual gaming ofc.)we have one for PC gaming @ (1080P ** ) and the drive sims in a dedicated room

I just ordered a new 15." 1080P A us Intel Core i5 laptop
for my away from this desk mid tower PC & mobile use

.The new lappy PC should be here in some days with the obligatory memory upgrade sticks

This TV as we know can not do uncompressed 4:4:4 YbCbr chroma
so it's not goung to much of a general PC monitor IMO .

With the cash flow I would get something genuine 2160p @4:4:4 TV and better like a Samung 4K HDR 1000 TV or my 4K HDR 1000 Samsung 55KS 8000 that can can do 2160p 4:4:4 (**if I used or needed 2160p 4:4:4 (outside of the usual 4:2:0 web browesers .)


With 4:4:4 PC content at 4:2:2 or 4:2:0 panels your`e not really RGB 21060p because of excessive pixel manipulation out of a 4:4:4 panel range and maybe closer to 1080p RGB pixels .


The long and short of it is I agrree with the author get a beter 2160p 4:4:4 TV for 4K PC use outside of 4:2:0 SDR /HD web browsing ,

 

[AntiShill]

"To many monitors" ??

Don't you mean "Too many monitors" ?

Anyone who can't spell "too" has no business publishing anything. They have one concern: getting some remedial English lessons.

What's with the unjustified hostility? Typos happen.

 

[bluto 2050]

What's with the unjustified hostility? Typos happen.

Why are you trolling to incite or belittle others when you have such poor behavior mechanisms like this .
Nobody is impressed with any of this juvenile rubbish
Go learn something for a change or contribute something useful or stay quiet & learn from those of us that actually know something .

An idle mind is a useless mind eh?

 

[bluto 2050]

I've been using a Samsung 50" Ju7100 for over a year now, and have loved every minute of it. Awesome for photo and video editing!

Very Nice TV you have I have ,I have seen them .

I have a retina searing ultra black. ultra clear Samsung QDOT SUHD Samsung UN 55KS 8000 NIT monster for my primary TV in my inner sanctum here .

I have a 17" PC monitor I am using right now on this 2016 core i5 HP mid tower and a today new 15.6" 1080p Acer laptop to use in bed or as a laptop PC anywhere

I have a 2013 40" 1080p 4:4:4 Sony Bravia TV on the workstation in that room its fine for that ( no lt office in there.

1080p Ultra gaming and drive sims , DAWS and videos are fine on the 40" TV .
A 4K 55" SDSR or HDR TV could be interesting in there for sure but my other one is in the family cinema room up to 55" 4K HDR in there on that 2015 edge bleeding Sony that cant touch this Samsung or your picture on either Samsung trus`me

2015-2017 Samsung TV 's process mpeg mangled ,bitstarved TV service provider rubbish and artifacts much better than amt 2015-2017 Sony TV and visibly so ,not hairsplitting better at all and thats what maters unless yoy watch Netflix + ** IPTV and Blue rays and clean content all day , good luck that LOL

Just Samsung electronics at Samsung group is more advanced and 6X way bigger than all Sony inc.with it's perpetual failing movie & TV stupidity and the Sony Bravia TV subsidiarity that ain't mid decade Sony XBR TV quality or innovation anymore LOL

I prefer lots of reading like this forum and other text to actually read a lot of text, MS ,Office , PP & my brokerage paywalls , Excel and some others close up on this 27" PC screen at my desk .

I can push anthing up from this PC at king size on the 4K HDR Samsung @ 2160P from this PC like you probably do with your way cool Samsung TV ,it's all good for content and other things that work well large of if thats what you like in any case .

we all have different configurations and needs ,anyone broadly stating a 40" or 55" screen is to big for anyone doesn't know squat and are overestimating an unqualified opinion and thier abilities at all this anyway ,the pixel density of a 2160p 55" TV panel is almost exactly a 27" 1080p PC or TV screen ,imagine that LOL ☺

I have done it all , they can GO fish they don't know when they generalize like a newbie !


I figure the 40" TV in that room & 55"TV in here is king for content consumption from anything to watch and also something like a digital content production suites & DAWS and all that menu work outside of a of a critical reference monitor like a $47K Sony Pro EL RGB OLED panel for the good video /movie content digital intermediate critical work like content color,chroma and luma grading and the obligatory cinema to retail media mixing so its not too much data for delivery and playback @ retail TV /MEDIA devices ,linear& DTV /DBS TV thats all a big time consuming mix down and scaling data down from a cinema theater digital package that was never the phaat raw video anyway lol

 

[AntiShill]

Why are you trolling to incite or belittle others when you have such poor behavior mechanisms like this .
Nobody is impressed with any of this juvenile rubbish
...

I don't know if that guy is your friend or not, but being hostile towards the author is NOT justified. If you don't feel like calling out bad behavior, why do want any part of this "juvenile rubbish"?

 

[kelambrad]

I did once use two televisions as monitors they were OK so to speak but id say that a certainly noticed the response time difference when I bought my new proper monitors! Good read!

 

[bluto 2050]

I did once use two televisions as monitors they were OK so to speak but id say that a certainly noticed the response time difference when I bought my new proper monitors! Good read!

right I don't PC game now but my experience is a tv is more for content consumption or a pc program than fast gaming like a decnt pc game panel and thats how I play it here wiyh my new Samsung 4K HDR 1000 QDOT SUHD TV and my Haswell core i5 PC and 27 inch pc panel

 

[Julian Garcia]

Great article. Question: How can I split the screen so I can see TWO computers on one large monitor like the one mentioned here?

 

[Seamus McBride]

Like the author, I have a 40" screen (a 40MU7000 in my case) I'm using as a primary monitor on my desk. I also have a 65" KS8000 across the room that I'm using as a secondary monitor. Either is fine for media consumption, web browsing, and PC/PS4/XBOX gaming (I don't play competitive twitch games, so I can't speak to that). The 40" is so new it feels like it is "too close" to me; however, if I reduce a window to a 32" equivalent, it's too small.

 

[Seamus McBride]

The Samung KU 6300 is decent entry level 4K SDR 8 bit panel TV with better blacks than many PC screens .that can not do 4:4:4 pixel Chroma (major handicap trus`me for PC use ) as the author noted .,

Rtings says the KU6300 can do 4:4:4.

 

[gamerk2]

Some thoughts:

1: You don't need to bother with chroma and the like; you can just set your GPU to output RGB and avoid all that nonsense. That being said, 4:4:4 is probably better if your display handles it.

2: For the love of god, do a Black Level Test. I recently found I had my TV (LG B6) set incorrectly. Whoops *facepalm*.

3: Input lag can be a problem, but some displays in PC/Game mode come in under 16ms for most "normal" modes. Newer ones even do well in HDR mode.

4: On larger (>40") TVs, especially at 4k, increasing DPI is a must. I personally run my 55" at 175% DPI. Course, there's always a few games that aren't DPI aware, but there's a registry fix for that: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...e/0ad8bcf1-9e62-4190-9a3f-1469631ec4c9?auth=1

 

[Wizwill]

Extremely good stuff if the few "spec freaks" are discounted. Way beyond the average for TechSpot.

 

[Nancy Karnes]

How do you get the 6 windows? Is that a 3rd party app? Thanks

 

[Coasterguy11]

But... everything is so SMALL, can you see anything? The letters? I am using a 32inch tv (1080p!) and need to zoom say to +200% on chrome, and I am using the Magnifier (+200% too) to see the letters and stuff and no I don't have eye problems! I am like 2 meters away from the tv that's why probably (if I get even to 1meter my eyes hurt), so on a 40 inch how far do you sit from the tv? Don't your eyes hurt if you are close ?

I've used 2 32" 1080P TVs, at 60Hz, as monitors in the last 3 years and I've had not problem with resolution. Yes, it is not as sharp at a good monitor, but we've used them even for gaming with Steam. I sit maybe 2 feet from the screens, both have been fine..one is a Sony the other a Toshiba. Never had a problem at all, text looks fine even when small. Do you wear glasses? I do need reading glasses sometimes, but not with the TVs. If you don't have glasses I'd suggest getting your eyes checked. We run them at 1080P and it is ok. I can imagine a 4K TV would look great! Right now only my daughter uses the TV with the computer, but I do have a media PC hooked to my 58" 1080P TV, and it looks good at 8 feet away but I do have some trouble reading small text but that would be expected.

 

[TheHillStaff]

"you’re connecting the television to your computer using a quality HDMI 2.0-compliant cable."

Too bad we're still saddled with HDMI, a standard that was designed for CRTs. DisplayPort is the more modern standard and the norm for computers, but heaven forbid that it be introduced to consumer video equipment.

 

[koblongata]

How do you do 3 column windows arrangement? it's perfect for 4K

 

[Mugsy]

I can't stand the fact all monitors have moved to the x:9 format (16:9, 22:9). Basically all monitors now are repurposed TV's anyway. Too expensive to make taller LCD's just for the computer market.


I paid an extra $200 for a 2560x1600 30" 16:10 monitor. The extra screen real-estate is worth more than the higher 4K resolution.

 

[Jeff Schmidt]

I have had a 32" 4k Crossover 324k for a year and a half now and still love it. It was only $440 on ebay and is practically a clone of the Dell mentioned in the article. A few months later a friend bought a 40" 4k monitor for just a little over $400. These are Korean panels and work exactly the same as the ones made by Asus/Dell/etc. If people are looking for larger panels for cheaper prices then they need to look at these monitors.

 

[Jyrkz]

If you aren't gaming, it won't matter in my opinion. Most 4k tvs now have pseudo 240Hz appearance so as long as you don't need extremely low input lag, you won't notice it.

Input lagg is totally different then TV Hz. I got 55 4k tv same hz I think but my tv has crazy high input lag. Even if I used hdmi1(fastest hdmi) +gaming modes, remove all settings instill feel the input lagg. For me its unplayable.
This is exactly why we need to know tvs input lagg. Now if im going to buy a new tv im taking my notebook and hdmi cable with me.
My life is too short to have any lagg in it.

 

[Evernessince]

What about Input lag??

If you aren't gaming, it won't matter in my opinion. Most 4k tvs now have pseudo 240Hz appearance so as long as you don't need extremely low input lag, you won't notice it.

Pseudo 240 does not equal real 240 Hz by any measure and to be honest that feature makes me feel sick whenever I'm looking at a TV with it turned on. The TV is generating fake frames.

I can't stand the fact all monitors have moved to the x:9 format (16:9, 22:9). Basically all monitors now are repurposed TV's anyway. Too expensive to make taller LCD's just for the computer market.


I paid an extra $200 for a 2560x1600 30" 16:10 monitor. The extra screen real-estate is worth more than the higher 4K resolution.

Monitors are built from completely different panels than TVs and are held up to computer display standards, which are much more stringent than TVs.

 

[tipstir]

If you have the hardware to support 4K then best to get the 32 inch monitor. I have 27 inch, 23 inch LED monitors. SONY 40, 46 inch are a lot better. Sharp clear and I can read the text on 1080 p with their 60 ps feature. I didn't see mention for 32 inch curve monitor.

 

[gamerk2]

But... everything is so SMALL, can you see anything? The letters? I am using a 32inch tv (1080p!) and need to zoom say to +200% on chrome, and I am using the Magnifier (+200% too) to see the letters and stuff and no I don't have eye problems! I am like 2 meters away from the tv that's why probably (if I get even to 1meter my eyes hurt), so on a 40 inch how far do you sit from the tv? Don't your eyes hurt if you are close ?

You can increase DPI if needed, though certain apps don't have built in support (though you can address this in the Registry if needed). I run a 55" LG OLED55B6P and run with a 175% DPI to make the size equivalent to 1080p on a 27" monitor.

Input lag varies by model; mine is ~16ms on PC or Game Mode inputs, though HDR content increases this to around 44ms or so.

 

[Xabi Granja]

If you have a TV like the one mentioned here that supports 4:4:4, it's pretty much just as sharp as any other 4K monitor at the same size.

I got a 40" KU6290 (same as the 6300 sans bluetooth pairing) for $330 last year and haven't looked back. Great screen, colors, minimal input lag (for a TV) that isn't noticeable while gaming, tons of desktop space at %125 scaling (%100 is too small for me). I sit at a bit more than arms length from it and it's great.

My plan: upgrade in 2019 when LG releases OLEDs in the 40" territory.

 

[TrevorK]

Great read.

I am using Sammy 40MU6290 x3 with GTX 1070. Per RTINGS, they say this TV is a 10-bit panel.

I am not able to get 10-bit @ 4:4:4. I can get RGB and 'looks like' 4:4:4, but I see color banding, so I think I'm only doing 8-bit for RGB.

Anyone able to get 4:4:4 / 60Hz / 10-bit @ 4K resolution?
Or, RGB / 60Hz / 10-bit @ 4K resolution?

 

[NaughtyZoot]

Is there an update to this article with new 40-43" 4K TVs to use as monitors? The links are old and TVs not available anymore. Looking for 4K TV that can handle 4:4:4 / 60Hz / 10-bit @ 4K resolution.