LCD TV as primary display: HDMI/DVI/VGA?

ckkl — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 17:08:24 +0800

Hi all,

Have tried searching forums but most discussions on LCDs is on traditional monitors, and not on LCD TVs.

Need advice on a home setup I'm planning, using an LCD TV as a main display.

Plan is to use "HD READY" LCD TV with native resolution of 1366 x 768 (1080i I think -not too sure). I plan to use this as my media centre i.e. mostly for surfing internet, watching MPEGs/DVDs and basic spreadsheet/word processing as is required. Minimal gaming, if any.

The idea is to use the native 1366x768 resolution but not all combinations of video card/LCD TV will allow this use! Some are limited to 1024x768 due to connection limitation at the TV or video card output.

Few inter-related questions for those who use their HDTVs as their main display:

(1) What is the best digital connection-type to use and why? HDMI, DVI or VGA?
(2) Following this, what kind of basic video card is good to use?
(3) Any LCD TV recommendations? I'm thinking of 37" Toshiba Regza but the VGA input is limited to 1024x768 or compressed 1280x1024 (yuck). I assume I can sidestep this using HDMI output direct from video card to TV.
(4) What else am I missing? like will certain setups be less smooth/laggier than others? (real world use - i don't need to know that in theory a faster video card will produce an imperceptible difference in smoothness. I the techy guys will nitpick!)

Any inputs are greatly appreciated.

Cheers

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LCD TV as primary display: HDMI/DVI/VGA?