Recommended 4K TVs That Can Effectively Be Used As Desktop PC Monitors

[erickmendes]

No sub-40" recomendations? : (

 

[Jonny5]

Hello all,

Thanks for the article again Shawn, is there a easy way to determine which screens have chroma 4:4:4 ?

Seems really hard to find any which has chroma in the UK..

 

[i3kingwizardop]

I have a 50" samsung ju7100 on my desk and love it.

 

[Arris]

I used my Sony's first Full HD 46" tv as monitor for a few years. But when sitting closer than the normal viewing distance you really can see individual pixels and sharpness isn't perceived as good as that of a monitor. Generally devices have higher pixel density when you have to view them closer, for instance our smartphones with 400+ ppi. From memory computer monitors are usually around the 100 ppi mark, whereas TVs can be lower. Maybe not as noticeable with 4k resolution devices but you usually have higher ppi with dedicated computer monitors.

 

[gamerk2]

I am waiting for those G-Sync enabled TVs announced earlier this year... hope they won't be too expansive.....

I wouldn't go that route; HDMI 2.1 is adding VRR into the baseline specification. That will almost certainly obsolete both Freesync and Gsync, so you may as well just wait for that at this point.

 

[gamerk2]

How deep are people's desks?! Or rather, how far away are people sitting from these things? I can't even being to imagine sitting up close to a screen anywhere 40" without twisting my neck all over the place constantly to look at the corners. Even 28" is bordering on too large to fit everything into a clear peripheral vision.

If you aren't turning you head, you aren't sitting close enough.

55", sitting maybe three feet away.

 

[energyguy]

I don't recommend 4K TV anymore, that was a great idea when the 4k 38" Seiki's first came out a few years back, but now there are many true 40" 4K monitors out there that cost only a bit more than middle priced TVs.

I have used a Seiki 38" 4k for 10,000 hours till the PSU caught fire (couldn't believe that was happening at the time). A youtube repair video and a replacement PSU board for $12 plus shipping and a few days later was back in business. Never thought I'd try a TV repair, 40 odd screws opens up the back side. Also gained a few new dead pixels, TV must be face down on soft blanket on large flat surface until the job is done.

While the Seiki still works great, I switched to a Samsung 4k 39" model for $300. For some software debugging cases, I might even use both 4Ks side by side, the GT 750 video card I use has DP+HDMI, so a DP-HDMI adapter for the 2nd screen.

I think the Samsung screen is easier on the eyes, less saturated colors, and is 1/3 the weight being all plastic, but the user interface on the setup is horrible. The Seiki has a simple PC bypass mode to lose the DSP filtering on/off. The Samsung has far too much DSP and TV complexity getting in the way. It even thinks it can do 4k at 60hz and 4096 pixels with DSP filtering and it looks terrible with sub pixel and chroma processing.

If you just pick up a 4K TV in the store, you don't really know what your going to experience.

Next time I will upgrade to something like the AOC curved 40" panel to get 4K at 60hz, DP connection, no setup fuss, no smart TV features, and gentle head turning to see all width in focus. Flat screen TV at 40" requires too much side ways body movement, so you can't really use the whole width.

If I saw an office full of engineers working on 40" TV monitors, I'd wonder why the company was being cheap.

 

[Troyzilla]

Thanks for the article, Shawn. I was able to find the Samsung UN40MU6300 you were using for about $280 at Walmart and I hooked it up to my Windows 7 PC running a

GeForce GTX 1070 Ti 8GB 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 Video Card
using a short 3' HDMI cable from monoprice
(Commercial Series High Speed HDMI Cable - 4K @ 60Hz, HDR, 18Gbps, YUV 4:4:4, 32AWG, CL2).

The problem I'm having is I can only get it to output YCbCr 420 color in 60Hz mode and the text is far too rainbowed in that color mode to be readable. I can't get the Samsung to display 444 color unless I'm in 30Hz. Did you have a trick for doing this? or do I need to change to another 4K TV? I'd go with the Sony but I really like the size to be 40" or less because I find it too hard to make out the corners on anything bigger.

 

[Sir Alex Ice]

The author is obviously biased towards SAMSUNG, otherwise he would recommend LG's new 2018 series UK6750 or UK6950.

SAMSUNG TVs lack the brightness and contrast needed for an office room that is obviously much brighter than your living room or bedroom.

 

[Luay]

TCL’s offering also supports 4:4:4 chroma when running at 4K @ 60Hz

Its spec says 4K @ 120Hz. If that's true, then it has no competition in its price range.

In general, TV-s with 120Hz refresh rate or higher are much better as monitors.

Can't speak for TCL but the Samsung 2018 QLED line & NU8000 are 4k and 120Hz, just not together in the same time.

They are 4k/60Hz or 1080P/120Hz. Deliberate misleading perhaps? Considering your reaction I would say so but hey, you can't sue them for that now can you?

 

[gamerk2]

TCL’s offering also supports 4:4:4 chroma when running at 4K @ 60Hz

Its spec says 4K @ 120Hz. If that's true, then it has no competition in its price range.

In general, TV-s with 120Hz refresh rate or higher are much better as monitors.

Not at 4:4:4; HDMI 2.0 doesn't have that much bandwidth. It's almost certainly interpolated.

 

[Forebode]

Question. Isn't the point of having a smaller (24-27") screen (whether its monitor or tv) with 4k to have tight dpi? so when you blow up the size of it and sit at the same distance you use a standard monitor.. you're negating the purpose of 4k. Like anything above 24" running 1080p.. it looks noticeably bad, at standard distance.. While it sounds great at first, if you like dpi and your eyesight is good.. you wont like using a large 4k tv for a monitor.

As with all things.. there are people that wont upgrade their giant 720p tv's because they don't see the difference. if 4k up close on a giant screen (aka borderless 4x 1080p) works for you.. get it.

 

[Buhaj]

When there are 4K TVs with FreeSync over HDMI in the market, I will do my upgrade.

I think there already are - Samsung NU8xxx TVs and higher.

 

[mat9v]

TCL’s offering also supports 4:4:4 chroma when running at 4K @ 60Hz

Its spec says 4K @ 120Hz. If that's true, then it has no competition in its price range.

In general, TV-s with 120Hz refresh rate or higher are much better as monitors.

All these monitors provide only HDMI 2.0 interface that is maxed out at 4k@60 - so it is impossible to even send anything more to your TV. 120 is always interpolated - unless you find a TV with DisplayPort 1.4, then it may be possible to do more then 60hz. What is more, while these monitors are said to be 10 or even 12 bit color compatible, they can't actually receive this kind of information from PC because again HDMI 2.0 does not allow that. You would have to do 4:2:2 color quality and that kind of loses all gains from higher color depth (said 10 or 12bit color). Or you can actually do 4k@4:4:4@12bit BUT at 30hz - blame HDMI.
I have this monitor and it frustrates me to no end, that the monitor is capable but stupid video port is unable. Grrrr!!!

 

[stevae]

I started using a big screen tv as my computer monitor four years ago. At the time, I hadn't heard of anyone doing this, and was flamed on several sites for recommending it. My initial tv was an old flat panel from a family member. Then two or three years ago, I switched to a Hisense 55" UHD 4k, and it has performed perfectly over the last several years. I recently bought a Samsung Q8FN 65" 4K tv, and it is nothing short of phenomenal! The problem with many of the mindsets here, is that people only consider that you are buying a computer monitor, and push for a cheaper $300-$500 dollar unit. But you shouldn't think of it in this manner. You should think of it as buying your central hub, which is a much more important factor. This tv will handle all of your business, personal computing needs, gaming and entertainment, as most of us have cut the cords from cable companies. So having a unit that can handle everything equally well is vital in your choice. I have a high end gaming computer, Roku Ultimate, Chromecast Ultimate and sound bar all hooked to the tv. I use two wireless keyboards, and a wireless trackball mouse to conduct all of my business and personal activities. It's the perfect setup in mho.

 

[Nero7]

Am I the only one who's tired of motion blur? Its seriously annoying even on monitors with a TN pannel and advertised 1ms delay. Its generally a far worse issue with TVs so yeah as soon as you look at a picture in motion instead of a wallpaper you'll notice.

 

[Tom01]

TVs cannot be used as Gaming-Monitors. Too much Input-Lag.

 

[treetops]

If you don't play FPS type games that require snap response time, then why not. I used to use a 40 inch 1080p TV as a monitor back in 2008. A 300$ scepter tv I bought at walmart, cheapest 40 inch around at the time. I had it about twice as far away as the monitor I replaced. I thought it was pretty awesome. It was convenient, I didn't have to stream or watch blue ray downloaded content on a little monitor. I could go sit on the couch or lay in bed instead of being stuck to a computer chair. And playing games on a giant screen just felt so much cooler.

p.s. You do get what you pay for, mostly. If you compare the specs I am sure you can get a higher quality picture with monitors. This is because tvs only need to be as good as the content they are designed for, movies and tv shows. Whereas monitors can cater to graphically intense programs like computer games.

Really though, a giant screen while gaming has value. Call it the fun factor. Just like watching a TV on a giant screen....

 

[NaughtyZoot]

Can TVs be calibrated?

Review and calibration is here: https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/samsung/nu7100

https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/samsung/nu7100/settings

 

[deemon]

Cool article series. I wish someone made this also for European market TV's, as none of those are for sale here.

 

[NaughtyZoot]

Any update for new TVs for this article?

 

[Rick17]

I am using a Samsung 55" uhd 4k I got at Black Friday sale and it seems awesome, but I am having one issue...I set my windows in all their respective places like I want them and then lock my computer when I walk away like I always have. When I was using dual monitors and they went to sleep I would come back and the windows would all be where they are supposed to. Even if you close them and then open back up right back to where you had them last. With the new tv as monitor whether the tv goes to sleep or I turn it off it does not matter when I bring it back up all the windows are in the top left ??? How can I teach them to stay in their places???

Also my resolution is 3280 X 2160 at 60hz but where do you see the yuv 4.4.4 ? the specs say this tv does it and actually has resolution all the way up to 7680 X 4320 but I cannot find it in the settings?

 

[pyro226]

I tried a 4K 39" TV as a monitor. I wouldn't recommend it. First, text scaling was too small to read at viewing distances reasonable for making use of the entire screen. Zooming in on a webpage defeated the purpose of the large / high res screen. Second, while I could put windows to each corner of the screen, it's never felt like a good use of space. I can understand side-by-side and maybe even 3 vertical windows on Ultrawide. Unfortunately, when snapping to quadrants I feel efficiency is reduced.

A 24" 1080p was too narrow to do side-by-side windows efficiently. I have a feeling that the sweet spot is a 32" 1440p (or 4K with proper scaling).

 

[pyro226]

Question. Isn't the point of having a smaller (24-27") screen (whether its monitor or tv) with 4k to have tight dpi? so when you blow up the size of it and sit at the same distance you use a standard monitor.. you're negating the purpose of 4k. Like anything above 24" running 1080p.. it looks noticeably bad, at standard distance.. While it sounds great at first, if you like dpi and your eyesight is good.. you wont like using a large 4k tv for a monitor.

As with all things.. there are people that wont upgrade their giant 720p tv's because they don't see the difference. if 4k up close on a giant screen (aka borderless 4x 1080p) works for you.. get it.

Hypothetically, you sit similar distance to the 4K screen as you would to a smaller monitor. That way, you have a huge display and can see everything.

In practice, you have to sit far enough away to actually make use of the full screen. Sitting farther back negates the size and resolution advantage of the screen.

I personally think a 32" 1440p (or 4k of scaled properly) will be the sweet spot. 24" 1080 is too narrow for side-by-side windows.

 

[pyro226]

I don't recommend 4K TV anymore, that was a great idea when the 4k 38" Seiki's first came out a few years back, but now there are many true 40" 4K monitors out there that cost only a bit more than middle priced TVs.

I have used a Seiki 38" 4k for 10,000 hours till the PSU caught fire (couldn't believe that was happening at the time). A youtube repair video and a replacement PSU board for $12 plus shipping and a few days later was back in business. Never thought I'd try a TV repair, 40 odd screws opens up the back side. Also gained a few new dead pixels, TV must be face down on soft blanket on large flat surface until the job is done.

While the Seiki still works great, I switched to a Samsung 4k 39" model for $300. For some software debugging cases, I might even use both 4Ks side by side, the GT 750 video card I use has DP+HDMI, so a DP-HDMI adapter for the 2nd screen.

I think the Samsung screen is easier on the eyes, less saturated colors, and is 1/3 the weight being all plastic, but the user interface on the setup is horrible. The Seiki has a simple PC bypass mode to lose the DSP filtering on/off. The Samsung has far too much DSP and TV complexity getting in the way. It even thinks it can do 4k at 60hz and 4096 pixels with DSP filtering and it looks terrible with sub pixel and chroma processing.

If you just pick up a 4K TV in the store, you don't really know what your going to experience.

Next time I will upgrade to something like the AOC curved 40" panel to get 4K at 60hz, DP connection, no setup fuss, no smart TV features, and gentle head turning to see all width in focus. Flat screen TV at 40" requires too much side ways body movement, so you can't really use the whole width.

If I saw an office full of engineers working on 40" TV monitors, I'd wonder why the company was being cheap.

I found the 4K Seiki too big to be efficient. I think a 32" 1440p (or 4K properly scaled) would be the sweet spot.