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

[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.

My Seiki also broke, but that may have been due to transportation to and from college. The HDMI ports also seemed to be very fussy. I suspect they used cheap solder. I'm debating on whether to fix it for ~$30 or just buy a new monitor since 39" always felt too big / inefficient to use.