I'm needing to combine the area I work-from-home in with a TV / lounging area - so when I'm not working people can sit on a sofa and watch TV / play Xbox. In this new combined office / lounge area we'll have a sofa 3 metres from the wall.
I think my choices are...
a) 50" TV on the wall as low as it can go; my 27" monitor in front of TV; and I tidy away monitor somehow when not working.
b) 50" TV on the wall above my monitor and I leave my monitor out when not working.
c) TV of around 40" that I use as a monitor while working and a TV when not.
The TV will be new in all options.
Anyone doing anything similar have any thoughts? If I do combine what size TV will work? Will a 40" TV be too big to use as a monitor and too small to use as a TV? I'm a computer programmer so will spend all day working here.
I'm struggling to imagine this. I presume there a desk under the TV that you are sitting at to work?
I've heard of people using LG OLEDs as monitors (eg. the C4 is available in 42" and 48"), but I don't think it is ideal - I'm sure I've seen videos on YouTube with people doing this, but can't really remember the conclusions. Bear in mind a 42/48" C4 is pretty much the same price as a 55" C4, as sub-55" for a high-end TV is a pretty niche market. Obvious any solution that puts the center of the TV above eye level when you are seated on the sofa is going to be very annoying.
Yes exactly that - TV needs to go above the desk I'm working at.
TV won't be top of the range. I was planning to get a small TV to use as a monitor rather than large monitor as TV.
We've got a separate lounge and sofa with another TV. This is a secondary space so teenage boys and friends can watch one thing while partner and I watch another so just needs to be good enough rather than ideal.
I used to have a 40" monitor that i used as a TV in my room, it was a little too big as a monitor when sat at it(vertically massive), and missing a load of functions as a tv, ie no native apps etc....
Id definitely be buying a nicer TV, and a suitable monitor separately given the choice, you can get hideaway desks etc that would shut the monitor away when not in use
and just to point out, to use a TV as a monitor it needs to have full chroma support or text will be hideous especially up close
Chroma Subsampling: 4:4:4 vs 4:2:2 vs 4:2:0 - RTINGS.com
this might be old news for modern TV's, possibly not cheaper stuff
My thoughts:
- Will this setup accommodate a sit/stand desk? I rarely sit at all any more when working (but do take breaks from my desk so am rarely standing in that spot for more than an hour at a time)
- I'd find a 'tall' monitor tiring to use so I don't think using a TV is practical as a full-time solution. Ultrawide-screen FTW (much preferred to my old dual monitor setup)
- Where is the window in the room? Being able to have natural light and just to see daylight/gaze out the window from my desk is quite important to me
Will a 40″ TV be too big to use as a monitor and too small to use as a TV?
To my mind its definitely too big as a monitor (although it depends what your actual use case is) but for me sitting slap bang in front of a light source that big would just be unpleasant.
Its only too small as a TV if you think its is. You're only sat 3m away - what do you think you're not going to be able to see? Until a short while ago 27" was bigger than most TVs. If I was facing the same quandary I'd just watch TV on the monitor.
I've never really bothered with big TVs and I make TV for a living.
I would get a monitor and use a Firestick to turn it into a TV when required.
My son went off to uni a few years ago so, just as a test, i stuck his 42" Sony tv on my desk and plugged in my work laptop (HDMI socket)...well it worked fine and he never got his tv back
The problems that I've found (working in TV production so we had lots of PC / TV screen hybrids)
1) focusing on something on the wall then desk, then wall, etc gets tiring. It makes typing feel really unnatural.
2) You're looking up, every workstation ergonomic guide says align the top of your screen with your eyes, looking up hurts. It works for watching TV or console gaming because you're slouched back on the sofa.
3) Where will you put your webcam for meetings?
4) Luminosity / contrast / gamma, TV screens typically have great contrast, which is awful to actually work on. Look at your laptops screen when using Word. The White page is actually a murky grey, the black text is actually pretty grey. It's nicer or your eyes.
5) Reflections, TV's are glossy, most laptops and work monitors are matte so you're not staring at your own reflection all day (or the light, window, etc)
The split in almost every scenario ends up being the TV screen is a "monitor" for monitoring stuff. The actual work gets done on a computer screen at desk height.
If you can setup the image to not be too much of a strain then the best way to do it is to have a 4k TV at desk height and use the lower half of it (a 4-way Multiviewer box is good for this as you can then just plug HDMI inputs into inputs 3 and 4 and it'll appear as two separate virtual HD screens).
TV of around 40″ that I use as a monitor while working and a TV when not.
I do this on one of our machines. It's not ideal but not a real problem either, I don't even really notice any more. I put it on a holder that I can pull out from the wall so that when we want to sit on the sofa and watch TV we pull it away from the wall and angle it slightly towards the sofa and when I want to use it as a monitor it is pushed right against the wall. The basic height is a little higher than you would have a monitor if it was perfectly placed but not so high you are always looking up. Works just fine if you can touch type but would be less fun if you always need to look at the keys
With my best Father Ted logic, could you not use is 50" TV and just sit further away from it when using it as a monitor?
Though I think I might go for a big monitor (32") with a soundbar and a roku stick.
We had a room that was very occasional work desk, TV watching 'den' and turbo trainer room and used something similar on a long arm on the wall that had a pretty big range of vertical height adjustment or swing it across in front of the bike....and the desk folded down out to the way too so the monitor could drop down further to a proper TV height.
That's lots of great thoughts thank you. I'm going to scrap the idea of combining and go for (somehow) tidying away my monitor when I'm not working. So maybe my new question is 'any thoughts on desks that make it easy to tidy away laptop and monitor when not working?' I don't use a sit-stand desk. I'm wondering about a desk with a fold-up lid that the monitor is mounted to.
If using a separate monitor then having one that can power your laptop via USB C will reduce the amount of cable faff.
In you place I would probably get a decent monitor that stays put and a Firestick as previously mentioned for TV duties (unless you have a games console that can do all that).
This 43" Philips looks like the type of thing I would go for.
Make sure the TV has monitor/gaming mode, otherwise it might be rather laggy. Mine is unusable as a monitor without it (Philips).
Not a cheap solution, but would a mantle mount work where the TV sits above the desk during the day (and above a monitor), and can then be lowered into place to cover the desk/monitor later in the day? Avoiding eye-strain would be paramount to me as a monitor using glasses wearer so use the thing that is made for the job (i.e. a monitor as a monitor and a TV as a TV).
That’s lots of great thoughts thank you. I’m going to scrap the idea of combining and go for (somehow) tidying away my monitor when I’m not working. So maybe my new question is ‘any thoughts on desks that make it easy to tidy away laptop and monitor when not working?’ I don’t use a sit-stand desk. I’m wondering about a desk with a fold-up lid that the monitor is mounted to.
As above, a monitor that will communicate with your laptop via USB-C and also power the laptop means only one cable.
A decent full size wireles keyboard and mouse, with the dongle plugged into the back of the monitor. Bluetooth headset and you can pretty much pack it all way by just putting the laptop and peripherals in a drawer and unplugging the monitors power lead and putting it somewhere else.
My desks only a cluttered mess because I insist on having extras like a separate numerical keypad, USB fans, charging stations etc.
I might make something like this, if I can decide on where best to put it
I work at a desk with a grand total of 18 monitors/TVs. TVs are all at high level as I find the TV good for general overview of what I'm looking at but need a monitor at eye level to really focus on work. The one TV at eye level is split into 4 windows, so it's effectively 4 monitors.
I'm also lazy on a fundamental level so having to get a monitor out every morning and put it away every evening would get right on my tits
Option B all day long.
I might make something like this, if I can decide on where best to put it
Yep I'm thinking something like that - but the issue with folding down to use it is that the wall my desk is against is the only place the TV will fit - so I'm wondering if I can fold the monitor up off the desk. I'm imagining something like a wide school desk where the lid hinges up from the back. My laptop (and assorted crap) lives on the bottom level, the monitor is bolted to the lid. When the lid's open I can work on the bottom level of the desk. When the lid's shut it looks tidy to please everyone else.
I’m also lazy on a fundamental level so having to get a monitor out every morning and put it away every evening would get right on my tits
Same here! Although happy to spend days trying to make something to save a few seconds a day.
Avoid OLED. Oled has a burn in problem, so images on the screen that stay there any length of time get 'burned in' to the screen.
Say for example you have it in computer mode. Things like your task bar that it there all the time will have a residue image on the TV screen as well, so you could be sitting watching a movie, and in the darker areas or parts of the ,movie, you will be able to make out the faint impression of that taskbar. Or anything else that lives on the computer screen like icons etc.
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If the tv is also going to be used as a monitor, then look for QLED, which doesnt suffer from burn in.
Im typing this out on my TV screen, doing much the same, though use it as a monitor 90% of the time. Its a 65" Samsung 'The Frame' and is ideal for avoiding this burn in issue probably a bit more that a standard QLED tv, as the frame is designed to be or at least pretend to look like a big picture with a screensaver.
Whatever you decide upon, check it here first - RTINGS.com
As you can see with mine, its got a good high rating for use as a PC monitor. I picked this Samsung model for precisely the reasons that its going to be a computer monitor most of the time.
https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/samsung/the-frame-2024-qled
we’ll have a sofa 3 metres from the wall.
It doesnt sound like the room is very small, any reason you can't have a work desk, and a sofa & tv?