I’ve bought a big-screen rear-projection HDTV. It has a DVI input and my video card has a DVI out. I talked to one of my computer guru friends who said this was a bad idea because of screen burn-in issues.
Can ayone confirm or deny the practicality doing this? The TV is a Hitachi 57SWX20B. It’s being delivered Saturday, and the answer might change my plans about how to fit the thing into my home.
I’d certainly not use it for the long term. Brief runs of a computer game now and then should be fine.
I’m surprised you didn’t buy a computer projection screen and use that as your TV monitor as well.
Once I get rich, I plan to do that. Then I can sit back and read the SDMB projected across my entire wall.
I think that basically you are back to the days of early monitors when you use projection TVs as monitors. If you leave an image on the screen too long, it’s image will burn in and remain there permanently. If the images change a lot, you will not have any problems. People that look at the same background for long periods of time on a computer (even though parts, but not all of the backg is constantly changing) have more of a worry than somebody that just surfs the internet, with their background changing constantly, with each site.
My advice is to love the TV, but set your screen saver to aggressively turn on when there is no action going on. By the way, Play Station and XBox video games have the same risk. They need to change their backgrounds occasionally when you are playing a game.
It is still rare, though. The problem wasn’t discovered until people started to do the exact same thing on their monitor/TV day after day for months at a time. I personally haven’t seen an example since mono monitors, but I know it still exists.
The key is to understand you don’t want anything to display on you big screen long enough for it to ‘remember’ what it is displaying. Don’t leave anything on your TV while you go do other things and you will probably be fine. Good Luck!
Rear Projection HDTV - I love it… but a few words of warning.
Adjust your “Contrast” back down. Typically the factory setting has this value maxed out to get the most effect from the screen to capture buyers in the stores. It is bad, bad, bad for your screen long term - you will significantly shorten the life of your new set.
Be careful not just with your computer and screen burn. Watch out for “tickers”, channel logos (History Channel, SciFi, etc.) that can also burn into your screen.
Anyway, enjoy!
MeanJoe
I use a VGA to Component video adapater to display my PC on my friend’s HDTV. I’ve done it many times without a problem. Thank goodness, I’ve never left it for any length of time with a static image. If I ruined his TV he would first kill me and then sell my organs to buy a new one.
You know, we can debate this all day long and we’ll just be running around in circles, I think the truly important question here is: can I come over and play Halo?
Got HDTV here (65" Mitsu Diamond) and X-box. But, Halo is not a HD game. It does look good in widescreen mode and 480p though.
Just got the first game that supports HD, Dragon’s Lair, the other day.
Very sharp looking, but could have used more detail in the textures used.
I played Dragon’s Lair too Scott, it does look nice but I don’t have HDTV. In another thread I mentioned that you would have to have the dvd kit to play that game…I think it was because some website several months ago had one of those Dragon’s Lair “choose your own adventure” DVD game listed in the xbox section. Sorry about the misunderstanding.
Muad’Dib I cannot stop looking at that picture. Is there a story behind it or did you just come across it?
Just came across it.
See if you can name all of the consoles shown!
Sigh…
I do wish it was mine. When I showed it on other boards women (in completely unrelated circumstances) asked if I was looking for a girlfriend to play those games with. To have so many ask makes me wonder how joking they really were…
I know that burn-in is a great fear, but I have not had a problem with my projection TVs or computer monitors. Using a screen saver should eliminate most of the risk.
The main issue will be what your HDTV can actually resolve - all will accept a 1920x1080 signal, but will typically resolve much less.
If the set uses CRTs, it may be limited to something on the order of 854 x 480 or 1024 x 576 unless the CRTs are 9 inch tubes.
Are you talking about a cable, or a card with a specialized output. The TV has 2 component inputs, but only one DVI input. Presumably, when I get my HD tuner, I’ll need the DVI for that. (I’ve not gotten an HD tuner yet because there’s not yet enough stuff that I like broadcast in HD.)
Muad’Dib , where can I find these women you speak of? 
The good ones will resolve the full 1920x1080 or very close to it.
The HD calibration image has a section that is very much like an eye chart, line after line of ever smaller text. If you can read the last two rows (the last row will be pretty difficult to make out even on a perfect set) you are there.
DLP based rear projection should be the technology to watch in the near term. I would be surprised if they don’t get the DLP chips up to the full 1080 resolution soon. The great thing on the DLP system is that there will never be screen burn in, and there are pretty much no geometry or convergence issues to deal with. Focus on them is generally razor sharp. Once they have 1080 DLP, I think it will pretty much destroy all the other rear projection technologies.
yojimboguy, before you do that, call the manf of the tv set & ask them if they think that’s okay to do. The nbr should be on the web or in the manual.
Go here to find out everything you need to know and a lot more you don’t need to know about connecting a PC to an HDTV.
scotth, I have a 1080i DLP system. Specs here. I don’t quite get the stated possible resolutions:
1080i/530p user selectable
1080i/720p/540p/480p/480i processing
What is i and what is p (pixels?) ?
Also says 1280 horizontal lines of resolution, which I think is based on the guns scanning horizontally. But there should be some comparable vertical number, which should be higher given a 16:9 aspect ratio, but there isn’t.
yojimboguy,
I have a Sony projection HDTV and here’s what I have learned:
The “processing” resolutions are the different resolutions that content can be broadcast. The “i” and “p” mean “interlaced” and “progressive”, ie the type of scanning/projection used. The numbers associated with these are the vertical lines of resolution.
Apparently broadcasters are able to decide for themselves what resolution they will brodacast things in. What I have found is that the 720p is not used by anyone. I am using rabbit ears and an HDTV decoder to receive over-the-air broadcasts now, and I leave the decoder in 1080i. If something is not being broadcast in HDTV (ie, old Seinfeld reruns), it gets scaled to 480 but still looks really sharp (it is a digital signal, after all). Depending on your screen setup you may have black bars or a complete black box around 480 content.
What I can say is that content broadcast in 1080i looks amazing. Fox is doing all of their NFL games in HDTV, and the Tonight Show is as well. If you want to show your friends how HDTV is supposed to look, turn on the Tonight Show. I am using the component video, and the color is much better than regular coaxial cable.
Since I am using an external decoder box, I have the option of 480,540,720 and 1080 output. If you have an internal HDTV decoder you may only have two settings. I would try leaving it in 1080i and seeing how things work (ie, if something is broadcast in 1080, it will show it, but if you have 540 selected, 540 is the highest resolution you will get, even if the signal is 1080).
Simple enough for the everyday consumer, right? How come my mother doesn’t have HDTV yet?
I set up a data projector to display computer video output and now I have the Windows shutdown screen burnt into my loungeroom wall. 
