Larger Monitor

[Bioman]

Looking for advice from anyone using a larger monitor size for game play. My seating arrangement for practical reasons does not allow me to sit right on top of my current 24" monitor. So I was interested to see how the sim would look on our TV room Sony WEGA large format 52" backlit LCD, and possibly upgrading my monitor to perhaps a 30" or so at some point.

Pros: * Really liked not having to strain to see train run itineraries
* Larger field of view just looks great, makes sim more engaging
* As long as I was not panning screen game play looked great

Cons: * As soon as I panned an image it got a bit choppy: enough to be annoying.

So my questions is this, is this typical of large format usage or is it likely the latency period of my five yeqar old WEGA is simply outdated compared to todays offerings? Or is something else effecting what I am seeing?

[Hawk]

It might have something to do with the fact that your TV most likely only has a 60 Hz refresh rate, which is typical for LCD TV's.
Computer monitors have higher refresh rate offerings.

[arizonachris]

52"? I hope that's a very high end video card. The choppiness is probably just the card being pushed and it takes time to refresh the screen as you move.

I would say 30" or 32" is probably the biggest you want to go until you get a really high end video card (or two)

[Hawk]

Wouldn't having a refresh rate of 75 or 85 help that?

I saw a couple of the newer TV's yesterday that have a refresh rate of 120 Hz.

[Hawk]

I believe I found the answer to my question above while I was reading reviews for LCD TV's.

http://reviews.cnet.com/tv-buying-guide ... to-ignore/

Note the section about refresh rates.

[_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha]

What about the "internal resolution" of RSC's graphics engine?

At 50 years plus of age, I also prefer a larger display so I went for a 27" monitor to avoid very small letters and eyestrain. I find the 0.25 mm dot pitch just about ideal.
I mostly run TS2012 in a window and have the impression that a 1440 x 900 window displays TS2012 best. Running full screen at 1920 x 1200 just makes everything "larger" but not "sharper", let alone more detailed/defined. Jaggies, blemishes and artifacts are more pronounced even, so you need to raise the anti-aliasing detracting from performance. Running TS2012 on such large screens in the required high settings is way too much for RSC's obsolete graphics engine, TSX or not. High end graph cards don't help much, their noise and heat make them less than ideal for the living room.

So switching to a TV size screen of say 32" to 44" doesn't necessarily give more or a better picture. You can watch and read from a larger distance, but isn't running trains from your couch at bit silly, Raildriver in your lap or mouse/keyboard on the cushion? Multi user family and social games are quite OK, just look at the succes of Wii with its handheld controllers ued by all of the family on the couch.
I have hooked my 37" LCD TV to my computer using HDMI and learned that it cuts off a certain number of pixels all around the desktop, the so called broadcast safe area. This makes using the desktop more difficult. On the VGA input it displays the complete desktop but the picture is slightly fuzzy and instable. Ovbviously, the VGA input bandwith is not quite sufficient for HD resolution. There is also the difference in gamma "contrast" and black levels between TV and computer signals to be taken into account. TV signals don't display the full RGB scale beteen pure black and white.

Hawk is correct, all LCD TV's worldwide are refeshed at 60 Hz, but only expensive IPS panels "with overdrive" are capable of displaying true 60 fps moving pictues. Any single LCD cell has a certain natural response time due to the inherent slowness of the actual liquid crystal. Remember it has to be able to attain one of 16.7 million positions in just 15 milliseconds! So most screens in the domestic prize range can do 30 fps at most, i.e. 30 millisecond full refesh and stable hold and cheaper models fail even this.
Most TV signals are still broadcasted as 29.94 Hz interlaced, HD and all, the bandwith and satellite/cable transmission costs are still prohibitive for true non-interlaced 60 Hz HD. Perhaps with one of those expensive 3D TV's which require you to wear a "shutter glass" and which use 120 Hz refresh allow you to watch 3D Bluray discs and succesfully play computer games.

In case you want to try certain TV sets out, bring a fully charged laptop with HDMI and VGA cables handy to a decent nearby dealership and ask to be allowed to try the TV set's advertised PC capacities.

[Hawk]

Another thing I just read while researching LCD TV's is if the TV you're hooking your computer to isn't 1080p, you're not going to get good results.
This is of course, assuming that you're using an HDMI connection as opposed to a VGA connection, which isn't as good also.

Also as mentioned, most TV's these days refresh at 60 Hz, but some of the newer TV's refresh at 120, with some claiming 240 and even 4k. But from what I've been reading, there's really no discernible difference.

[Bioman]

Should have provided more basic information. I am 55, so smaller is not good. The Sony is 1080 being fed HDMI off the video card which is a EVGA GTX 580 that has the C&$P clocked out of it runing at 890 mhz.

I am connceting to the HDMI from the GTX DVI connector, so I am not totally sure if that is the best way to do this.

I am running my Dell S2209W Monitor (when not hooked up to the main family Sony) at 1980 by 1080.

I think the rest of my hdwr. should not be a limiter as I just built this computer from scratch and have all of the latest device drivers loaded. Although on 3D Mark 11 my overall score shows the system as running overall a bit lower than the norm for this hardware.....score - P6403 with a target of 6700; Physics and GPU scores a bit lower than expected. Need to figure this one out.

CPU - i72600K overclocked at 4.4 Ghz
Corsair H100 water cooler for the CPU
MB - ASUS Sabertooth P67
Memory - Corsair Vengance DDR3 1333; 8 gb
SSD - Vertex 60 gb for operating system
EVGA GTX 580 overclocked
PSU - Corsair 800 W
HD - Hitachi 7200 RPM 500 gb for most executable programs
HD secondaries - (2) Two Terrabyte WD Green
Cooler Master HFA 932 case

Thanks for all the good advise about TV's vs. Monitors. I like the one about bringing a laptop along and doing a comparision. I'll see if Tiger-Direct or Fry's will allow that.
Great advise overall thanks for all of the input.

[_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha]

That kind of hardware should be able to play any game at any quality level without complaint, save for noise and the power bill.

You caught the right snag right away: most shops/dealerships of the cash 'n carry variety hardly know anything about the stuff they sell. Let alone would they allow a discriminating customer fiddle with the plugs and such.

I am not able to give you any advice here, other than to look for the following sentence in the manual: "ability to switch overscan off on the (front) HDMI inputs".
MAKE SURE TO TRY THIS BEFORE PURCHASE, as it is essential for use as a computer display. The entertainment industry with their DRM are the root of all these inhibitations to your customer rights and pleasure.
All things picture quality wise can be adjusted either using the nVidia control panl or the TV's controls. Most name brands have extensive websites which allow you to peruse user manuals and such.
Ask for the secret access code to and features of the hidden "service menu" of your particular interest on specialized fora.
Here in EU computer displays are taxed differently from straight TV's so the overscan is mostly switched off in that service menu and needs to be unlocked illegaly at home. You'll learn a lot from reading in at Samsung, Sony, Philips, LG's official and underground fora. Samsung and LG always seemed good choice for "hardware hacking" since they cater to all of the world, both upmarket and developing. Sony and the other established upmarket brands are more restrictive. Only their top models come with all ports/features unlocked at their usual hefty price.

Good luck with your purchase.