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Annabel Ashcroft

Faerie [Aether]

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Annabel's REAL life stuff: 4K revisited

Öffentlich
So with this new work policy thanks to the virus, I decided to change up the way I work at home a bit and set up a little workstation in the bedroom.

To do this, I thought about getting a normal monitor or a small 4k TV to use as a screen. Now, obviously a monitor would ultimately be the better choice for many reasons but a decent size one ALSO costs a pretty penny over 30 inches and I did NOT want a small one. So I turned my eye once more to 4k TV's.

Now, you may have read about my foray last December trying one out and not liking it, but this was a different situation. I was looking for something to use as a bedroom workstation and a 3rd screen source for my computer, the other two being the main 55 in TV in the family room and the 120 in projection screen in the gaming house, so I was not looking for anything fancy for this project.

As usual, I did much research into using a smaller tv as a desk monitor and the advantages and pitfalls of doing such a thing. As I was trying to do this cheaply; the main advantage, cost, outweighed the various negatives. And besides, I have been using a TV as a computer monitor since 2005, I was VERY used to doing such a thing.

Reading various reviews I ultimately chose a TCL 43 in TV, which had gotten very good reviews as a monitor substitute and it was only $215. I also picked up a cheap $10 wall mount to mount the thing and a $30 small roll desk so I can move it easily. A 25 ft 4k HDMI cable and a 25 ft USB2 cable ran under the house into the bedroom completed the purchases. Running the cables under the house and into the bedroom meant that the computer could stay where it was and I would get the advantage of a hardwired system to the internet without the main box being in the bedroom. Any needed USB stuff would be plugged into the USB hub connected to the ran USB cable. Also with the screen mounted on the wall, I could position the thing for computer work or watching tv from the bed.

Ok enough about the setup you wordy Blonde ditz, my various hater/fans just LOVE to say, how WELL did it work?


Wellll, it turned out that this required a bit of unexpected work involving computers and HDMI 4K signals to make the whole thing look proper.

Ok, let me put my ditziness aside for a moment to be smart Annabel and educate you about 4K signals.

Now, there is a REASON people prefer display port on their monitors, it gives a better signal than HDMI 2.0, which is limited to 18 GBPS. (note: HDMI 2.1 solves this problem but it is still to new to be widely available yet) This 18 GBPS limitation was not noticeable with 1080P as not that much bandwidth is used for that signal. BUT, with the advent of 4K signals boy does it EVER!

Chroma 4:4:4, know what it is? It is one of the color broadcast spectrum's used by video signals. If you look in your video card settings, you will see a few types. 4:4:4, 4:2:2, etc. Also, DPI (dots per inch), it goes from 8 to 10 to 12, higher the better, but the more powerful video source you need to display it. When you configure a computer's video source, you want it to be 4:4:4 for readable text and hopefully 10 DPI for sharper resolution.

It's all a bunch of silly numbers, but configuring a 4K signal on a computer
can make those numbers be a headache!

Back to HDMI 2.0 18 GBP. When you use a HDMI cable for a monitor connection, you CANNOT
have 4:4:4 and 10 DPI, you just CAN'T! it is IMPOSSIBLE with the pipeline limitations of 18 GBP. This is why people use display port which CAN do it with it's bigger GBP. But of course, NO display port on TV'S!

(And NO people, a display port to HDMI converter from the video card to the TV will NOT give you a better signal, You are STILL limited by the TV's HDMI port.)

So, a HDMI cable with 4K will ONLY give you a maximum using chroma 4:4:4 (and remember, you WANT to use 4:4:4!), of 8 DPI and a maximum of 60 mhz signal. (note: 60 mhz is normal max for TV's) Now 8 DPI is ok for use, but 10 IS better if you can get it, but that is in the domain of monitors, not TV's, as is higher mhz, so it is kind of a moot point and not worth complaining about.

Ok, enough of that crap. Believe me, I could talk about the difficulty of actually GETTING that 60mhz signal without it defaulting to 30 mhz all the time, but I WON'T go there!. ;p

The point is, it was FINALLY all working properly. But, now here is where it gets tricky. When I was looking at monitors I was intrigued by the 21:9 ones. You had wider viewing to show windows longer and have more immersive game play. They were not cheap though, costing more than normal sized monitors.

Interestingly enough though, I found on the internet that with some settings changes there was a way to have a 43 in TV display in 21:9 format. Sure you would lose some of the TV screen but lets face it, 43 in is a LOT of screen real estate to be looking at up close, so losing some is no terrible loss.

And the result?





That is FF14 being run on a 21:9 screen format at a 3840 x 1620 resolution with NO stretching!


That is a 40 inch 21:9 screen, which is slightly bigger then the 38 inch 21:9 monitors you can buy. Sure it is only running at 8 DPI and 60mhz, but to achieve this on a $215 TV is pretty good compared to what it would cost for one of those monitors.

Yes people, it WORKS and it is GLORIOUS!

I mean seriously, 21:9 is amazing and so much better then 16:9. You see sooooo much more on the screen at once and it really IS more immersive, especially at that size sitting up close in a desk situation. And videos, well, I have a chrome plugin that removes the black bars that allow a 16:9 image to letterbox a video image. Doing this on a 21:9 image means that the video plays at FULL 21:9 on the screen with no bars and it looks AMAZING, like you are in a movie theater.

Now, yes, I know that doing video letterboxing on a 16:9 screen pretty much achieves the same thing as a pure 21:9 resolution on the TV. But if you are running the video on a 21:9 screen, you will STILL get the letterboxing normally resulting in a even smaller picture. So you need the plugin to remove the bars to fill the screen. And of course having the TV like that will allow windows to be wider and games to be played in 21:9.

The only bad thing is watching streaming, you will get less screen real estate using 21:9 since the shows will be in 16:9 But I got two other screen sources when I want to do that, so I don't bother watching shows on this setup, though it's easy enough to alter the settings to get full 16:9 screen size again if I wanted to.

So there you go, my little office setup. It works FAR better then I thought it would and it has made me a convert to 21:9.








Kommentare (3)

Mahdi Draaken

Faerie [Aether]

wait..not just a room...you have a separate "house" for gaming!?

amazing!

Annabel Ashcroft

Faerie [Aether]

LOL, I have mentioned it several times dear, I even posted a blog of the projection screen. ;p

Yes, it is a 350 sq foot mini house with windows and even a chimney in the back yard. It was used as a workshop but I converted it into a place to play board and video games. It has modular furniture to make many different sized tables all the way to 8ft by 4ft, a futon for sitting, kitchenette, mini fridge, shelves for games, places for the VG consoles and of course, the projector and screen.

Mahdi Draaken

Faerie [Aether]

neat!
i woulda used it as a Jam space for my band! :D
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