Dual Monitor - New Monitor

[Bob D]

I've had a dual monitor set up for a while now. All is well, and would never consider anything but dual monitor.

Earlier this year I was lucky enough to win a Toshiba 20" LCD flat panel digital TV/DVD combo unit (20HLV86). We have been using it in our 3 season room, but now I have brought it in for the winter. So I notice it has a PC option and a VGA input. Tonight I swap out my 17" CRT for this 20" LCD, but I can't seem to get the settings right, or it just isn't a good PC monitor.

Although it is nice and bright, I find the text not very solid. The settings I have are 1024 X 768; color Highest (32 bit). In the advanced options I have Normal size (96 DPI) and in the Advanced/Monitor tab it is set for 85 Hertz. I'm not sure what other settings I can do to make the text look better. It almost looks like a font issue, but I don't know. Any thoughts or ideas I can try?

As for the other monitor, it now pales in comparison. It looks dull and I think I may see some jitteryness, which could be the refresh rate. What is a standard refresh rate for your normal 19" CRT type monitor?

Bob D

[Bobby]

Bob, I am quite sure that 1024x768 is not the native resolution of that display. You need to find out what it is and set your PC display adapter accordingly (Start / Control Panel / Display - Settings tab). LCDs should always be run at their native resolution otherwise you get poorly shaped characters - especially noticeable on small text.

Bob

[Bob]

Bob, I looked up the 20HLV86 and the specs say it has a 1366 x 768 native resolution. Normally, that is what you would set your system resolution to be for best quality if this were a standard LCD monitor. Your manual says to set the refresh rate to 60. This isn't a normal LCD monitor, but I'd give it a try. If you do that, your manual also says (see page 43) you need to set the Picture menu controls to WXGA input "ON" and you may need to adjust the phase and horizontal/vertical position.

The PC connection is standard VGA. So, you are getting a conversion from digital to analog in your video card and another analog to digital conversion in your TV set. Not the best arrangement. The set does have an HDMI input, but the manual says DO NOT use that for a PC connection.

TV's with PC inputs aren't known for providing the best quality when used as a monitor. If you like what you are getting with this unit, I'd recommend getting an LCD unit designed to be a PC monitor and attach it with a DVI connection if your video card provides one (most recent ones do). That way, you'll get the best quality and you can put your TV back into service for what it was designed to do.

[Bob D]

Thanks Bob. That seems to have helped. I'm going to use it for a couple of days, but as you stated, this might not be the best thing for using as a monitor. It doesn't seem as good as my CRT.

Bob D