Contemplating a new TV for non-TV purposes

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zandor

Supreme [H]ardness
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I'm tired of sitting at my desk reading and taking notes on my reading for school. I'd like to be able to sit in my recliner while reading and taking notes. Naturally this calls for a hardware solution. I think the best solution is a new TV and a wireless keyboard & pointing device (I'll probably hunt down a keyboard with a touchpad or eraser tip). I'll just park the wireless receiver and a spare power brick for my laptop next to the TV.

The catch is I don't know much of anything about HDTV models currently on the market, so I'm looking for suggestions as to what brand(s) and sizes I should look at.

I expect I'll be sitting about 8-10 feet from the TV. My main purpose is taking notes while reading, so I can bump up the text size without any trouble. What screen size will I need to make using Windows tolerable?

LCD or Plasma? I hear the plasma burn-in problems are mostly solved but LCD is better for use as a monitor.
I'd prefer 1080p... I think. 720p would probably make me crazy as I'm used to 1920x1200. My laptop's 1440x900 screen pisses me off by not having enough pixels.
My laptop doesn't have a DVI connector, so I'll need an HD15 analog input.
I don't currently have cable. An HD tuner is strongly preferred, as otherwise I'll have to use the laptop to watch TV (I have a USB HDTV tuner leftover from work last summer) or buy a tuner. Clear QAM capability would also be nice, as if I get cable I'll likely cheap out and not buy an expensive package. I'd at least like to get the local broadcast stations in HD without having to hook up my laptop (that USB tuner can handle clear QAM).

Cliffs:
I'm mostly interested in what brands and sizes of TVs I should look at for taking notes on a computer using a 1080p HDTV from 8-10 feet away.
 
I'm no expert but as I understand Plasma has a better picture unless you have a lot of light in your room in which case LCD can handle the brightness. Plasma has better blacks, and a better value for your dollar. Manufacturers are beginning to drop Plasma, but plasma is not dead. I'm sure some will disagree with me and I'm okay with that.
 
I sit about 8ft away from my 52" LCD and find it annoying to do any sort of web surfing. Possible but annoying. That is at 1080p resolution. I have to sit about 6.5ft away to get the same relative size as I do with my 20" LCD with 1680x1050 resolution. Getting a 720p screen will help that but the reduced desktop space will get annoying as you said.

You would have to get massively unlucky to buy any HDTV right now that doesn't include the ATSC tuner.
 
Sounds like I'll have to blow up the fonts a bit. Thankfully taking notes doesn't involve as much looking at the screen as surfing the web. That's good, since 52" is out of my price range. 46-47 is more like it. I can drag my chair around if I have to too. I like it where it is, but it's a minor inconvenience to shove it around. It slides pretty well across my wood floors, and the floors in this apartment are already beat to hell and back so no one will notice if I do a little more grinding on them.

I dropped by Best Buy to have a look at a few sets. Plasma is definitely out, as I can see flicker on the plasmas when they show a solid light colored background. Based on my experience with CRTs, this wouldn't bother me for watching TV/movies or playing games but will really piss me off if I try to deal with text on one. I likely would get a plasma if I were just getting it for TV (and possibly gaming) use though.

At the moment I'm thinking about these three displays:
47" LG 47LG50
46" Samsung LN46A550
46" Samsung LN46A530
The LG is S-IPS, while the Samsungs are SPVA. I'm leaning towards the LG.
Anything else I should consider?
The Sonys looked nice, but they cost an extra $500 or so, plus I'm still unwilling to forgive Sony for the rootkit they put on music CDs a few years back.
 
The Panasonic, LG and Samsung TV's have all been heavily scrutinized for PC duty. The Panasonics are also S-IPS and have a couple of great models for PC use (of course i forget which specific models....the LZ series?).

I see those three specific brands compared here constantly: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=166

Note that each brand has it's strengths and weaknesses for PC duties. It's up to you to research the tradeoffs of each, then decide which tradeoffs you can live with. Tradeoffs can potentially include input lag, blurred colored text, less viewing angle, etc etc etc.

And if you're serious about getting the right TV for you, then roll up your sleeves and prepare to do some more research ;)

Good luck, and enjoy your new TV.
 
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