Big cheap monitors (1 Viewer)

[Dennis Nicholls]

My old monitor is an LCD backlit by flourescent bulbs, which have a finite lifetime. It was getting dim and slow to recover full brightness after sleep mode, so I shopped around for a replacement.


My desktop video supports both VGA and HDMI so I ended up buying a 32" Sharp LED TV, now on closeout at Best Buy for $180 (Sharp is exiting the TV business and has sold its factory to Hisense). I ran the TV on broadcast programming for a day or so to test it then connected it to my PC. Amazingly enough Win10 picked it right up, and lists in its "connected devices" that it's a Sharp LC-32LB370U. Note that it's 1080P, not the 720P that is more common in the 32" televisions.


http://www.bestbuy.com/site/sharp-32-class-31-5-diag--led-1080p-hdtv-black/2351018.p?id=1219539712119&skuId=2351018 ​


This is a much better display than my old dedicated PC monitor - an 8 year old AOC. Much better contrast. Photos on websites are really clear now. I noticed that, unlike Win7, Win10 supports HDMI monitors in portrait orientation. I gave a brief try to this with the new monitor and it works. So I'll shop for a desktop mount with a rotating head. Portrait orientation is much better for reading news websites and online forums.

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

It took me a while to get the audio working. It turns out that my Dell has two complete audio HW circuits: the Intel chipset that drives the HDMI and a separate Realtek AV port that drives the analog audio input and output. So I had to configure the HDMI audio to get sound out of the Sharp TV's speakers. This is a much more convenient setup for a desktop since I no longer need the little PC speakers and associated cabling.

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

This has turned out to be great montor for $180....


My house is wired with a single RG-6 drop to each room. My office uses this for the cable IP service, so I can't hook it up to the large "rooftop" antenna in the garage crawl space. On a whim I hooked up an old set of rabbit ears to see if I could get any reception in the office.


My scan pulled up 35 (thirty five) DTV OTA channels.


This Sharp TV's ATSC OTA tuner is marvelous, much better than my early ATSC tuners from circa 2003. Back then my RCA-DTC100 cost about $600 just for the tuner.

 

[Vibilon]

I also like large monitors, I have a 32-inch LG

 

[Sam Posten]

Dell Ultrasharps and done.

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

The Dell Ultrasharp that size is $1,400.

 

[Ron1973]

I'm using a 32" Element that I bought back in the winter. I had bought my son one with a DVD player for his room, and I liked the picture so much, I just got one for me. Win7 picked it right up without hesitation, and the picture is superb, much better than the old 32" Toshiba I had that was old as the hills.

 

[Sam Posten]

The Dell Ultrasharp that size is $1,400.

Sure if you go 32" and 4k, the 27" is 1/3rd the price.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/con...ap=y&m=Y&c3api=1876,92051678882,&Q=&A=details

I'm running my 50" Vizio P-50 as a monitor, it works great. =)