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Using an 8K TV as a Monitor

daniel.lawrence.lu

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Re: Using an 8K TV as a Monitor

#501

Post by vel0city »

pama wrote: post #500
vel0city wrote: post #492

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I am old enough to recall 100W as the typical single light bulb I'm regularly in a museum where they showcase some of the 1800s/1900s wares of households in my area. One is a kerosene/gasoline powered clothes iron. Just because something was one common doesn't mean it was good. > I still use an electric tea kettle that touches the multi kW range daily How many hours a day is your tea kettle actually using multi-kW?…

Fair enough. Though I didnt live during kerosene times. My tea kettle uses 0.06kWh per session. So one to two weeks of tea for me to reach the energy of a day on such a monitor (see other comment on best guesses on energy use of this monitor). On the other hand, a typical pasta recipe on an electric stove would be 2kWh, so several days of use of such a monitor.

I realize my previous comment might have been a bit more adversarial than expected. Sorry if you took it that way.

And yeah as your comment shows it's really kind of an odd comparison to make in the end. Ultimately I'm of the mind that if the 8K screen really gives you a lot of value then it's probably worth it. You're dealing with that energy cost, and ultimately it's up to society to properly price externalities into the energy costs. You can make the decision whether the energy costs are really offset by the extra value you get.

But like, an 8K screen does use a considerable amount more energy than say a 4K. For a bit back in the day people really started to care about energy use of CRTs as they kept getting bigger and fancier. Then LCDs came out and slashed that energy usage massively compared to an equivalent size. Practically negligible compared to what a decent workstation would use. Now we're finally back to the screen itself using a pretty big fraction of energy use, and IMO consumers should pay attention to it. It's not nothing, it's probably not the single biggest energy use in their home, but it might be around the same as other subscriptions they're questioning in a given month.

And yeah, in the end I think that energy metric should be based on how many kWh you end up using on it in a month or whatever your billing cycle is. Compare it to the value you get for other things. Is it worth a week of tea to run it for a day, cost-wise?

I had a period of time where I bought a car for $3k. I then valued every big ticket thing to the utility I got from a whole car. "That's like .75 Accords, is that worth it?" Kind of an odd way of looking at things but really put a lot of value into perspective.

Re: Using an 8K TV as a Monitor

#502

Post by Lorin »

AceyMan wrote: post #488
nicman23 wrote: post #443

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yeah key binds to move windows around is a must for me

Aquasnap for Windows users has been great (it's a tiling window manager). Worth the ~30USD.

I use a combination of Aquasnap's magnetic border feature with MS Power Toys hotkeys and it has been a treat. Still room for improvement tho', esp. if I can force specific browser tabs into particular windows based on purpose.

Re: Using an 8K TV as a Monitor

#503

Post by kev009 »

hmottestad wrote: post #427
kev009 wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had the Dell 8k monitor you mentioned, the picture quality was great but it died after a few years not long after the warranty expired (a gut punch at the purchase price) and they said too bad so sad... ok that's fine but I will never buy another Dell product again. It was released too early to have proper displayport support and I had to use a custom nvidia-driver X11 config to make it mostly work as two monitors.…

You used to have a 32" 8K monitor and when it died you went for a 43" 4K monitor instead? Isn't that a massive difference in pixel density?

While I would prefer to have a large and HiDPI display in the future, unscaled 4k was more economical and has fringe benefits of not needing special setup/handling. I lost $5-6k with my failed Dell and am hesitant to spend a lot again since it was supposed to be a decade purchase.

Thinking back the only other monitor I've ever lost was a Dell as well.. including 30 years of CRTs and CCFL LCDs never had any issues with other brands :(

Re: Using an 8K TV as a Monitor

#504

Post by kempbellt »

Aurornis wrote: post #348
dabiged wrote: post #330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> RTINGS measured the Samsung QN800A as consuming 139W typical, with a peak of 429W. Can you explain why does a TV's power fluctuate so much? What does peak load look like for a TV? Does watching NFL draw more power than playing Factorio?

Most likely brightness. Turn the brightness to the maximum value and power will go up a lot.

Power consumption varies significantly based on what's being displayed, on top of brightness settings.

I have a 42" 4k LG OLED. With a pure black background and just a taskbar visible (5% of screen), the TV draws ~40W because OLED pixels use no power when displaying black.

Opening Chrome to Google's homepage in light mode pulls ~150W since each pixel's RGB components need power to produce white across most of the screen.

Video content causes continuous power fluctuation as each frame is rendered. Dark frames use less power (more pixels off/dim), bright frames use more (more pixels on/bright).

Modern OLEDs use Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) for brightness control - pixels switch rapidly between fully on and off states. Lower brightness means pixels spend more time in their off state during each cycle.

The QN800A's local dimming helps reduce power in dark scenes by dimming zones of the LED backlight array, though power consumption still varies significantly with content brightness. It's similar to OLED but the backlight zones are not specific to each pixel.

Dark mode UIs and lower brightness settings will reduce power draw on both QLED and OLED displays.

Traditional LCDs without local dimming work quite differently - their constant backlight means only brightness settings affect power, not the content being displayed.

This explains those power fluctuations in the QN800A measurements. Peak power (429W) likely occurs during bright, high-contrast scenes - think NFL games during a sunny day game, or HDR content with bright highlights. For gaming, power draw is largely influenced by the content being displayed - so a game like Factorio, with its darker UI and industrial scenes, would typically draw less power than games with bright, sunny environments.

Re: Using an 8K TV as a Monitor

#505

Post by kennethrc »

bbor wrote: post #338
kennethrc wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have the 57" version, 7680x2160. It's ... indispensable ... all my Konsoles, app windows, etc. all on one screen with no overlaps. Got it on a Samsung sale for ~$1500 IIRC, one of the best upgrades I'd ever done.

Same, though I'm also on 49" (5120x1440). They're selling them for extra cheap on Amazon with extended (36mo) warranties because they're prone to breaking, but I had the Samsung contractors out here this month and they did a great job fixing mine that randomly died one day -- for free! If you're a chill soul, I'd say it's worth the risk. I sound like a shill, so Samsung plz hmu. $999 for a beautiful OLED monitor that…

> OLED

I use mine for productivity only (I don't game at all) and it seems the consensus is OLED's no good for things like Kconsole/xterm (-style) windows and general text readability, though.

Re: Using an 8K TV as a Monitor

#506

Post by ashepp »

canuckintime wrote: post #350
ashepp wrote: post #185

I love my 65" LG GX OLED as daily driver for work and gaming. See https://www.theshepreport.com/p/the-shep-report-holiday-tech... I came from an ubutto revolution cockpit setup with 4 monitors, the ergonomics were awful. With the LG I'm about a meter or less away from screen and use window management tools to pull focus to the center lower section for any focused work. I run Win 11 from an RTX3080 card with a 2.1 HDM…

Do you foresee any AR/VR headset/glasses replacing your monitor within the next year?

Not for my use case. Even as someone who's been active in the AR/VR industry for 10 years plus, it's more comfortable for me to look at a screen than it is to wear glasses. I've tried working in xreals, quest 3, with virtual desktop, etc. They're pretty good - just not as good as a monitor or in this case TV. I'm confident over time things will improve and eventually might be on par but there's plenty of use cases where you might want a screen and that will likely persist. Thanks for the question!

Re: Using an 8K TV as a Monitor

#507

Post by bonestamp2 »

vladvasiliu wrote: post #418
bonestamp2 wrote: post #393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You may want to look at the Samsung 5K monitor. It can often be had for $700. The sharpness of text is beautiful, especially if you're using a mac since it's optimized at 218ppi to avoid scaling. But, it might be smaller than you want. Apple also makes one that is nearly identical, except for the price. PS - I have seen Dell go downhill as well. I returned the last Dell laptop I bought. My wife was sitting next to me…

> You may want to look at the Samsung 5K monitor. Which Samsung are you talking about? We got some new screens at work, Samsung S9 something or other. 27", 5K, thunderbolt 4. As you say, the text is very sharp, and colors seem fine enough. But that's about it, and I would not recommend them at all. The worst issue is that the viewing angles are ridiculously bad. I'm sitting at arm's length, and the borders are very d…

Yes, that's the one (Samsung only has one 5K monitor). Most reviews I've seen have been pretty positive about it, but it's good to hear a dissenting opinion as well.

I believe the viewing angle problem you're talking about is due to the anti-glare finish. It's a trade off for sure (one that some people would not want). I assume that's why Apple offers their consumer 5K monitor with or without that finish.

Apple also has a Pro 5K monitor. LG also has one older 5K, and those are the only 5K monitors currently on the market.

Re: Using an 8K TV as a Monitor

#508

Post by pama »

vel0city wrote: post #501
pama wrote: post #500

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fair enough. Though I didnt live during kerosene times. My tea kettle uses 0.06kWh per session. So one to two weeks of tea for me to reach the energy of a day on such a monitor (see other comment on best guesses on energy use of this monitor). On the other hand, a typical pasta recipe on an electric stove would be 2kWh, so several days of use of such a monitor.

I realize my previous comment might have been a bit more adversarial than expected. Sorry if you took it that way. And yeah as your comment shows it's really kind of an odd comparison to make in the end. Ultimately I'm of the mind that if the 8K screen really gives you a lot of value then it's probably worth it. You're dealing with that energy cost, and ultimately it's up to society to properly price externalities in…

No worries at all. And thanks for the additional color.

Re: Using an 8K TV as a Monitor

#509

Post by leptons »

zxvkhkxvdvbdxz wrote: post #437
leptons wrote: post #413

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll never understand why some people think multi-monitors involves neck pain. It's a complete non-issue. I have a chair with a headrest, my neck never has to move at all, I can see all parts of the screen just by scanning my eyes. Very rarely does my neck ever move and it's usually to see the 65" Tv a few feet over - and even then my chair has a swivel and if I'm watching the Tv more than the computer, my chair will…

> I'll never understand why some people think multi-monitors involves neck pain. It's a complete non-issue. I can only speak from my own experience, and from what I heard others expressing online over the years. For me, it was absolutely real and I thought for a while I had some other medical condition. My issue was that I spent too much time of the day reading of the monitor to my left, twisting my neck while doing…

what are we talking about here, is your head twisted to face a monitor at 90 degrees or what? With my 55" equivalent screen setup the left and right monitors are about 10 degrees rotated from the main center screen, there's practically no rotating my neck at all. None. So I'm not sure what you're doing but if you're having to twist your neck to see your monitors, there's something not optimal about your setup. I have tons of screen real estate and never have to turn my neck.

Re: Using an 8K TV as a Monitor

#510

Post by defrost »

throwaway2037 wrote: post #466
defrost wrote: post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just don't let Bezos attach the legs .. by all accounts he was a shitty carpenter at best and the wobble factor was high. Nothing wrong with doors as desk, just get the framing solid. https://www.aboutamazon.com.au/news/workplace/how-a-door-bec... Half inch thick solid kiln dried door sized jarrah hardwood is even better .. but that's likely not to hand for most and expensive to order if not.

I had to lookup "jarrah". Ref: https://www.wood-database.com/jarrah/ Is this available outside of Australia? Your suggestion seems oddly specific.

It's a dense hardwood, near the top of those attributes on wood scales.

> Your suggestion seems oddly specific.

Hardwoods make great table tops, I've always had jarrah workbenches and general desktops and used other woods for 'fancy' tables .. but then I'm in W.Australia and used to recover treefall for slabbing in sheds and using in Brady Drums etc. (I knew Chris Brady back in the day https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55SXxWz0Vpg)

> Is this available outside of Australia?

Significant tonnages of it were blocked, shipped to England as ballast and used to pave the streets - as a consequence quantities are still kicking about the UK after being recovered and repurposed.

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