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Using an 8K TV as a Monitor

daniel.lawrence.lu

371–380 of 543 posts

Re: Using an 8K TV as a Monitor

#371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Once you no longer see pixels you'll never want to go back.

I think you'd have to sit further back than is otherwise natural (and then have the issue of legibility/lost workspace) to achieve "can't see the pixels" on this. Sure it's 8K but it's 65", it's only got a PPI of 135. For comparison Apple (computer) displays and a handful of third parties that target Mac use are generally 200-220 PPI. That is can't see the pixels density, even if you smash your face against it.

220 ppi output with no subpixel rendering (ie modern Macs) has clearly visible jagged edges in angled lines and letters if you've got good vision or correct your vision to better than 20/20 (my case: I get headaches if I don't).

If you are coming from typesetting world, laser printers from the early 1990s did 600dpi (dots per inch), and that remains sufficient for smooth lines, though newer printers will do 1200dpi too. Going down to 300dpi printouts is crap.

Heck, newer Kindles do 300ppi and that can clearly be improved.

Apple's "retina", like all things in life, does work for 90% of the human population as advertised, but there's still a big number of people who have better angular resolution than what they target.

Re: Using an 8K TV as a Monitor

#372

I love this blog post. “It can display seven equally spaced vertical columns of text (critical importance), has driver issues (minimal importance), wake issues (who cares), it costs as much as four smaller monitors (this is good), I need a huge desk (hell yeah), there are multiple image quality issues (well it’s not like I have to look at it all day)…” It is like “I spent fifteen hundred dollars on a multitude of has…

Once you no longer see pixels you'll never want to go back.

Don't you long for the warm glow of CRT phosphors??

Re: Using an 8K TV as a Monitor

#373
I've long considered going this way myself, but 8k is tricky for a number of reasons:

- I am very sensitive to glare, and all TVs are glossy

- Smallest size you can get is 55" (up to 50" would be good for me as I keep my 32-incher on a custom 8" stand — I am pretty tall — so it would simply be a wider screen that goes to my desk with top being at the same point)

- Connectivity sucks: I am so used to running only my laptop with a single USB-C connection: I had enough with early Dell MST 24" 4k screen that required 2 DP 1.1 connections IIRC (basically the same thing their 32" 8k has).

- I've mostly use Linux (Mac for work though)

So I am waiting for a monitor that can do 8k at 60Hz with an ultraportable that runs Linux and an iGPU that can drive it for productivity (software dev, browsing, video calls — yes, full screen video call is a hog at large resolutions, at least in Linux).

I'll probably sacrifice on the resolution front next (4k at 32" is not enough either) and go with a 4k option at 42-43" people have mentioned elsewhere.

Re: Using an 8K TV as a Monitor

#374
post #57
post #9

That's simply too big a screen to be sitting right in front of. I do agree on the basic idea of not running two monitors tho. I used to, and I got neck pains eventually. My current setup is a single 32" curved QHD monitor and I wouldn't change it for the world. It's just the right size so you can see the whole screen at once, yet large enough to run 3 browsers side by side. Also, I want to suggest people to learn abo…

55" is not too big. Maybe it's too big for you , but I've been using three 32" 4k screens in portrait for many years, combined they are essentially about the size of a 55" screen. I love it and anything less kind of sucks. No, virtual desktops are no substitute for having more screen size. I use virtual desktops on my massive screen(s) and I love that too.

Sounds like a recipe for neck pain.

Re: Using an 8K TV as a Monitor

#375
post #174

Author here, ask me anything! Apart from programming, one of the motivations for getting the 8K display is to look at lidar point clouds. For example the desktop background in my post is a lidar map of Bernal Hill in San Francisco, which I've here downsampled to only 13006 x 7991 px for your convenience [1]. Admittedly, when I bought it at first, I didn't realize there would be so many random issues, as manufacturers…

Interesting. Time to buy a new tv or monitor for programming. Wonder which resolution and size to go. Use 4K 27 for programming and a super wide for my fs2020.

Btw I would use two different glass when I use it as tv or playing fs2020/4 vs when I sit close to use it as programming station.

Re: Using an 8K TV as a Monitor

#376
As a developer who routinely experiments with large OLED panels for programming, a new big monitor has to be:

* Curved (flat is eye strain above ~40 inches)

* 8k.

* Flicker free / PWM free.

* Not glossy.

Otherwise, I'm in!

Ready to retire my fleet of 2560p x 1440p vertical mounts.

Note: Combined these effectively form a curved 5760p x 2650p monitor with vertical bars, heh.

Re: Using an 8K TV as a Monitor

#377

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 480Hz is just for the 0.01% who can take advantage of it. I'm skeptical that any human can take advantage of that. Even 240Hz is stretching it.

I have a 144hz monitor and a 240hz. I can definitely see the difference.

I think at that point it’s not really conscious any more? It always takes me a little while to realize my monitor somehow went to 30hz, and that’s why I’m feeling something is off.

Re: Using an 8K TV as a Monitor

#378

I used a tv as a monitor for a while and it was great -- but there is one problem with single monitor setups -- screen sharing/recording. If the app you're using lets you select a portion of the screen to share, that's great. But something like Slack you either share an app window, or the entire screen. This is very annoying in a single monitor setup. It would be amazing if you could select a part of your screen and…

There's a number of tools on MacOS and Windows that let you do this. Examples: Windows: https://github.com/tom-englert/RegionToShare Mac: https://github.com/Stengo/DeskPad

Oh nice, I was just looking through for WIN32 apis to make something like RegionToShare. This saves me some time!

Re: Using an 8K TV as a Monitor

#379
I’m doing something like this in my current home setup, but the thing I miss most about multi-monitor is screen sharing on Zoom.

I used to be able to just share one entire monitor and could drag windows I wanted to make visible to that display. Now I tend to share single applications, and have to unshare and reshare to change the view.

First world problems and all, but it would be nice if Zoon let you partition off a part of a display (instead of all or nothing). Would love to draw a bounding box of “share everything in this box.”

I don’t think this annoyance is enough to make me go back, but there are times when I’ve considered it.

Re: Using an 8K TV as a Monitor

#380

I’m doing something like this in my current home setup, but the thing I miss most about multi-monitor is screen sharing on Zoom. I used to be able to just share one entire monitor and could drag windows I wanted to make visible to that display. Now I tend to share single applications, and have to unshare and reshare to change the view. First world problems and all, but it would be nice if Zoon let you partition off a…

I can do that in zoom in a mac, you select a box and it shares that specific box.
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