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Want to use a Vizio 1080p for a desk top monitor

TheShinyMac said:
Its sold out, I wouldn't buy Vizio are Best Buy's brand of TV,
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Umm, no. Vizio's are quite good televisions for their price point and are sold practically everywhere. They are an independent company, not "Best Buy's" brand. Not only that, Vizio was ranked #1 in cumulative U.S. LCD HDTV shipments through Q3 2009.

To the OP, I wouldn't recommend a 1080P television as a computer monitor unless you intend to use it from a distance as a media pc. The resolution just isn't there.
 
Darth.Titan said:
Umm, no. Vizio's are quite good televisions for their price point and are sold practically everywhere. They are an independent company, not "Best Buy's" brand. Not only that, Vizio was ranked #1 in cumulative U.S. LCD HDTV shipments through Q3 2009.
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Oh wow guess I was proved wrong! But I read here that alot of people were having problems, my only concern is if the computer has a pc mode that can use hdmi or mini display port. If not you may have to mess with the settings to get a good picture.
 
I suggest you really think about what you are doing here. If you are looking at it as a 32" monitor for cheaper than dedicated bigger screen computer monitors, you might also want to consider pixels (resolution), and related details. An HDTV is 1920 x 1080 at best, whether it's a 25" or 75" screen. On the other hand a 27" iMac screen is 2560 x 1400. Packing in those pixels for computer screen usage gives you more screen real estate- even within that smaller screen size). In comparison to using an HDTV as a screen, you're just blowing up the size of the pixels.

If you don't care about that, you could get an even bigger HD screen for less money than that Vizio by buying an HD projector. That would let you choose how big of a screen you want by simply sliding the projector backwards. With a projector you could have an screen measured in feet instead of inches.

BUT, the actual pixels in that screen (assuming you choose an HD projector) will still be 1920 x 1080 at best.

If this gets you thinking, I would encourage you to try to find a way to compare using HDTV resolution vs. dedicated computer resolutions head-to-head. In that iMac vs. Vizio reference above, all that would really happen is that each pixel on the screen would blow up bigger on the Vizio, and a big chunk of the added screen real estate would get eliminated (2560 down to 1920 and 1400 down to 1080).

The quick & dirty way to somewhat replicate this experience is to go into "display" in preferences on your current computer and choose a fairly significant lower resolution than you currently use. Note how the resulting change still fits the same size physical screen you have now, but the screen real estate (pixels) has simply been reduced (blowing all your on-screen content up to a bigger size).
 
fkntotalkaos said:
Anyone have experience with the Vizio 32" VO32LFHDTV10A? I want to use this with a Mac Mini as a desk top monitor in my office with the mini, use Plex for multi media stuff and the other inputs for PS3 and Wii and HDTV cable.
http://www.vizio.com/flat-panel-hdtvs/vo32lfhdtv10a.html
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Just get one. The people in this thread have no idea what they are talking about. I have a Vizio 37" 1080p with a Power Mac G5 hooked up to it via VGA and it still looks wonderful. I use my wireless mouse and bluetooth keyboard and browse from my couch. I can also hook my 17" MBP up to it via HDMI and the picture remains amazing.

Vizio makes great TVs for the price. Who the heck wants to buy a projector and figure out how to mount it so it can me moved around? NTY.
 
uberamd, not trying to rain on your parade (and if that works for you, great!), but my points were more aimed at suggesting the thread starter thinks through this decision rather than just doing it. I've found that often this idea is driven by one of two things:
  1. A focus on price- as in, I want a big computer screen but I don't want to pay much for it, OR
  2. A focus on trying to kill 2 birds with one stone- I want an HDTV and I want a big screen for my computer. Maybe I can get both in one buy?

The tradeoff in this is exactly what I posted. The projector suggestion was more to just hammer the idea home. If his needs aren't dependent on screen resolutions beyond 1920 x 1080, then this kind of thinking may work well for him (too). However, if anything that he regularly does with his computer depends on fine screen detail, the more pixels the better. 1920 x 1080 is a lot of pixels, no doubt. But dedicated larger-sized computer screens pack even more screen real estate into the same (and even smaller) sized hardware screens.

"Just do it" is fine advice if his needs match your own. But if the above two bullets are mostly driving his thinking, he may want to consider what he trades off to get #1 or #2. A computer screen is something he might use for hours a day for many years. Saving a few hundred doesn't equate to that much savings over time if any of the stuff I've offered matters to that guy.
 
HobeSoundDarryl said:
uberamd, not trying to rain on your parade (and if that works for you, great!), but my points were more aimed at suggesting the thread starter thinks through this decision rather than just doing it. I've found that often this idea is driven by one of two things:
  1. A focus on price- as in, I want a big computer screen but I don't want to pay much for it, OR
  2. A focus on trying to kill 2 birds with one stone- I want an HDTV and I want a big screen for my computer. Maybe I can get both in one buy?

The tradeoff in this is exactly what I posted. The projector suggestion was more to just hammer the idea home. If his needs aren't dependent on screen resolutions beyond 1920 x 1080, then this kind of thinking may work well for him (too). However, if anything that he regularly does with his computer depends on fine screen detail, the more pixels the better. 1920 x 1080 is a lot of pixels, no doubt. But dedicated larger-sized computer screens pack even more screen real estate into the same (and even smaller) sized hardware screens.

"Just do it" is fine advice if his needs match your own. But if the above two bullets are mostly driving his thinking, he may want to consider what he trades off to get #1 or #2. A computer screen is something he might use for hours a day for many years. Saving a few hundred doesn't equate to that much savings over time if any of the stuff I've offered matters to that guy.
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He said he wants to use it for a monitor, along with a TV and gaming (Wii and PS3). PS3 is 1080p max, perfect for a TV. The media he will be watching via Plex is likely 1080p max. And he is hooking it up to a Mac Mini, which I believe supports a max of 1920x1200 anyway, so I can't tell him to buy a huge beyond HD screen when the Mac Mini cant support that native resolution anyway.
 
uberamd said:
He said he wants to use it for a monitor, along with a TV and gaming (Wii and PS3). PS3 is 1080p max, perfect for a TV. The media he will be watching via Plex is likely 1080p max. And he is hooking it up to a Mac Mini, which I believe supports a max of 1920x1200 anyway, so I can't tell him to buy a huge beyond HD screen when the Mac Mini cant support that native resolution anyway.
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http://www.apple.com/macmini/specs.html That Mac Mini can display resolutions up to 2560 x 1600. He references using it in an "office" which could imply he has an HDTV in the living room. I know a lot of people who buy the Mac Mini but then tax it for high resolution use.

I appreciate your reasoning about not telling him to by a "huge beyond HD screen" etc, so perhaps you can appreciate mine: I'm not saying he should buy a "huge" screen- my examples actually reference a smaller physical screen size. And I'm not even telling him to buy anything I've "suggested", only to be sure to consider the tradeoffs of one to the other. You're saying "just do it and it'll be great", and I'm saying "before you just do it, you might want to consider...".

1080 HD video plays back excellent on a higher-than-HD pixel count screen too. But the higher detail of those screens when being used as a computer monitor are lost when max screen resolution is at 1920 x 1080. If his decision is not a money thing (or the "kill 2 birds" option), I would definitely give consideration to packing more pixels into the same physical space if I was him.
 
HobeSoundDarryl said:
http://www.apple.com/macmini/specs.html That Mac Mini can display resolutions up to 2560 x 1600. He references using it in an "office" which could imply he has an HDTV in the living room. I know a lot of people who buy the Mac Mini but then tax it for high resolution use.
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Wow, I'm an idiot. I googled Mac Mini Max Resolution and the first thread that came up referenced 1920x1200, I should have looked closer to notice it was dated back to 2007.
 
examples of other who have done this.

HobeSoundDarryl said:
I wouldn't say you’re an idiot. For all we know he has a first generation G4 Mac Mini. Assuming he has the latest generation could have me in the complete wrong.
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Intel 2.0 gHz Mac Mini, but getting a new one. I have the old one connected to my home theater using plex and a media drive.

Graphics/Displays:

NVIDIA GeForce 9400:

Chipset Model:NVIDIA GeForce 9400
Type:GPU
Bus:pCI
VRAM (Total):128 MB
Vendor:NVIDIA (0x10de)
Device ID:0x0861
Revision ID:0x00b1
ROM Revision:3362
Displays:
SyncMaster:
Resolution:1440 x 900 @ 60 Hz
Pixel Depth:32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)
Main Display:Yes
Mirror:Off
Online:Yes
Rotation:Supported
Display Connector:
Status:No Display Connected
 

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