26in LED tv, can i play PC games and use it as a monitor?

[nounta1016]

Hello,
I recently bought this.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Insignia%26%23153%3B+-+26%26%2334%3B+Class+-+LED+-+1080p+-+60Hz+-+HDTV/5975302.p;jsessionid=EB0261E4E1F538748589333D7BAB513A.bbolsp-app01-45?id=1218716792876&skuId=5975302&st=insignia%2026&cp=1&lp=1#tab=specifications

I want to use it to hook up my laptop to play games like sleeping dog, guild wars 2, left 4 dead 2. It does not tell me about the response time, only that it is 60hz. Is that good enough?
How do i determine what is good enough?

 

[mouse24]

As long as it has the required plugs that match up with your laptop then yeah it will work fine. Even if it doesn't you can just buy a converter cable.

As for response time. Not sure their is much more that goes into a monitor/tv than response time that makes it feel laggy. I am no expert on monitors and don't claim to be so for this question I will just say that I can't answer that and be fully confident in my ability to not just make stuff up on the spot

 

[nounta1016]

As long as it has the required plugs that match up with your laptop then yeah it will work fine. Even if it doesn't you can just buy a converter cable.

As for response time. Not sure their is much more that goes into a monitor/tv than response time that makes it feel laggy. I am no expert on monitors and don't claim to be so for this question I will just say that I can't answer that and be fully confident in my ability to not just make stuff up on the spot

I have an hdmi cable to connect my laptop. I was just a bit worried because i was reading on some forums of people saying that using a TV instead of a monitor will produce bad picture, lag, and ghosting.

 

[photonboy]

It can be a little tricky.

You have two options to connect:

1) PC VIDEO input + audio input, or
2) HDMI input

The PC input has the advantage that you can change the resolution, such as using 1600x900 etc. When you use HDMI you simply use the HDTV setup such as 1080p60_NTSC which requires you stay at 1920x1080. You may also need to tweak the scaling slightly.

*You MAY see a difference in response/quality playing a game using the PC input. The PC input simply connects to a circuit board that allows you to resize etc and use your HDTV like a regular monitor.

PC AUDIO:
If you use the PC input, the 3.5mm audio would connect to the headphone jack likely so there's nothing to change there.

HDMI AUDIO:
When you do this you likely need to manually select the HDMI output instead of your speakers like this:
- right-click audio icon in Sys Tray (lower right)
- select "HDMI" audio and select as default.

OTHER TIPS:
Since you are gaming, it would be a very good idea to choose the TV as your ONLY SCREEN.

For Sleeping Dogs on a laptop, you'd likely want to setup like this:
1) use the PC input, not HDMI (possibly HDMI->DVI cable? not sure of your setup) + 3.5mm audio

2) drop resolution to 1360x768 or 1600x900 (experiment)

3) use 30FPS VSYNC

4) adjust quality so you don't drop BELOW this using FRAPS

 

[nounta1016]

It can be a little tricky.

You have two options to connect:

1) PC VIDEO input + audio input, or
2) HDMI input

The PC input has the advantage that you can change the resolution, such as using 1600x900 etc. When you use HDMI you simply use the HDTV setup such as 1080p60_NTSC which requires you stay at 1920x1080. You may also need to tweak the scaling slightly.

*You MAY see a difference in response/quality playing a game using the PC input. The PC input simply connects to a circuit board that allows you to resize etc and use your HDTV like a regular monitor.

PC AUDIO:
If you use the PC input, the 3.5mm audio would connect to the headphone jack likely so there's nothing to change there.

HDMI AUDIO:
When you do this you likely need to manually select the HDMI output instead of your speakers like this:
- right-click audio icon in Sys Tray (lower right)
- select "HDMI" audio and select as default.

OTHER TIPS:
Since you are gaming, it would be a very good idea to choose the TV as your ONLY SCREEN.

For Sleeping Dogs on a laptop, you'd likely want to setup like this:
1) use the PC input, not HDMI (possibly HDMI->DVI cable? not sure of your setup) + 3.5mm audio

2) drop resolution to 1360x768 or 1600x900 (experiment)

3) use 30FPS VSYNC

4) adjust quality so you don't drop BELOW this using FRAPS

Thanks for the tips! I was actually planning to use only HDMI, but if vga cable gives better quality, I can try that as well.
I also have a hdmi to dvi adapter.
For sound, i have an audio plug to my own speakers. My laptop's resolution is only 1366 x 768.

My other concern is that I will be using the TV monitor to do work such as word documents. I want letters to be sharp enough to read.

Also i bought a playstation 3d monitor, my plan is to test out both the HDTV and the playstation monitor to see which would provide better quality as a PC monitor. Would it be a better PC monitor than the HDTV?