Gaming on a 52" TV

Deathcon51

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I'm switching from a 24" (23.6") Asus monitor to a 52" Samsung 1080p 60Hz. Would gaming be good on a 52"? Will it be too big from 2 feet away? Will it look granular?
 
Solution
Hey,

1) Scaling:
Normally with a MONITOR you can either pre-scale on the graphics card (so it can render a game at 1600x900 but then efficiently scale to 1920x1080 prior to outputting the video) OR you can have the monitor scale itself. I usually set the card to do the scaling (scale on GPU; scale by Aspect).

*However, HDTV's are different unless they have a dedicated PC gaming input which then treats it like a monitor (has an additional scaling circuit). The problem with HDTV's is I believe you have to choose the HDTV format for a signal (1080p_NTSC@60Hz) in the video control panel HDTV section.

When you setup this way, the HDTV is locked to 1920x1080. I don't think you will have any other option when playing a game, however that's...

Deathcon51

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To be honest, I'm not 100% sure about the response time. I have many 52" screens in my house and the one I'm going to use looks more like. 120Hz to 240Hz compared to tr others... But who knows; it's crystal clear. :p. But, mainly, would it cause more CPU and Memory usage? I'm ready using 14% Memory Usage and 0% CPU Usage with nothing open.
 
1) HDTV's are fine for gaming in general (ever heard of an XBOX?) but it's advisable to have that input designated as a GAMING input in the options so no additional video processing (thus lag) is added.

2) I agree on the EIGHT FEET being about as close as you want.

3) If it's a PC, not a gaming console, you'll have to make sure you have the video setup properly in the HDTV section of the video control panel such as:
a) 1080p_NTSC@60Hz, then
b) adjust overscan, then
c) ensure HDMI audio is selected
 
To be honest, I'm not 100% sure about the response time. I have many 52" screens in my house and the one I'm going to use looks more like. 120Hz to 240Hz compared to tr others... But who knows; it's crystal clear. :p . But, mainly, would it cause more CPU and Memory usage? I'm ready using 14% Memory Usage and 0% CPU Usage with nothing open.

No, it will be treated like any other video output from the computer standpoint.
 

Deus Gladiorum

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Television size has absolutely nothing to do with system resource usage. The thing could be a mile long and (assuming the resolution and refresh rate are the same) your PC wouldn't know the difference. Only resolution and refresh rate affect your PC. Other than that, if you were getting 60 fps before, you'll get 60 fps now. That's all there is to it.

But anyway, you might notice more input lag and ghosting since I don't really know of many (or any) TVs that can beat monitors in that department. Input lag is the delay between when your PC sends a signal and when your TV can process it. Ghosting results from high response times. Response time is a separate measurement from input lag. Response time is the time it takes for a pixel to change from white to black. If this is high, then when a monitor processes the signal to display the next frame, you may get ghosting and have a weird motion blur effect that annoys the hell out of you.

Also, good God, man, the thing is 2 feet away from you. As a previous poster said, you'll get whiplash. Don't do it. Also, PCs look terrible on a TV. Plus, a lot of TV's rated at "1080p" are actually something like 1366x768 or 1600x900. You're better off with a good monitor.
 

Deathcon51

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Ok, ok. What if it's 4-6 feet away? Ik, with the tv I have now (not sure if cable can make a difference) but if I move up very close to it I barely see any pixels which I doubt could ruin my experience. Would it look more like a 1920 x 1080 if I am 4-6 feet away and not look like roughly 1600 x 900? also, how does a PC port 1600 x 900 (roughly) on a 1080p tv if the tv is a 1920 x 1080 and my pc also can output at that res?
 

Deus Gladiorum

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At 6 feet away, a 52" television is far more than enough to still appreciate a 1920x1080 resolution over a 1600x900 resolution, so on that front you're covered. Also, 6 feet away should be just enough to take in all (or at least most) of the screen without having to move your head or eyes too much. So with that you should also be fine.

I'm not sure what you mean by "how does a PC port 1600 x 900 (roughly) on a 1080p tv if the tv is a 1920 x 1080 and my pc also can output at that res?" If you're asking how does a 1920x1080 television display a 1600x900 image, well then think about how you view youtube videos. If you're watching a 480p video on a 1600x900 monitor, and you put it to full screen without changing resolution, the image will take up the entirety of your screen, but your monitor is still 1600x900 and the image is still rendered at 480p (853x480). The image is just interpolated, which basically means that your computer performs a series of algorithms to scale the image to fit a larger screen resolution. The same thing would happen if you put a 1600x900 image onto your 1920x1080 screen. However, I'm not sure why you'd be concerned about that at all. Just have your PC start rendering at 1920x1080 and then you won't have to worry about scaling and you'll get a nicer looking image.
 
Hey,

1) Scaling:
Normally with a MONITOR you can either pre-scale on the graphics card (so it can render a game at 1600x900 but then efficiently scale to 1920x1080 prior to outputting the video) OR you can have the monitor scale itself. I usually set the card to do the scaling (scale on GPU; scale by Aspect).

*However, HDTV's are different unless they have a dedicated PC gaming input which then treats it like a monitor (has an additional scaling circuit). The problem with HDTV's is I believe you have to choose the HDTV format for a signal (1080p_NTSC@60Hz) in the video control panel HDTV section.

When you setup this way, the HDTV is locked to 1920x1080. I don't think you will have any other option when playing a game, however that's not necessarily a bad thing since you have a good gaming system so would have no reason to use a different resolution. You can still change all the other settings such as anti-aliasing, Shadows etc.

2) Distance:
This will vary but I think the CLOSEST you should be is 1.5X the diagonal distance of the HDTV.

3) Lag, ghosting etc:
*I repeat, for the HDMI input you choose you need to select the "GAMING" mode which hopefully exists. The purpose of this mode is to NOT do additional video processing. That will resolve some issues.

It's hard to say how much ghosting you'll get without knowing the HDTV specs for response time, but it's probably not a huge deal.

SUMMARY:
a) setup in Video Control Panel-> HDTV section-> 1080p_NTSC@60Hz
b) adjust overscan
c) select HDMI audio
d) change HDMI input on HDTV to use "GAMING" mode
e) recommend sitting about 1.5X the diagonal distance (6.5 feet)
 
Solution