If you could play on only one, a monitor or TV?

I like both.

My monitor gives me a better desk for the mouse and keyboard, a wider aspect ratio and sharper details. The monitor's gentle 2500R curve keeps the image appearing flat when sitting at the proper distance, whereas the flat TV bulges out at me slightly. No one makes curved TVs, sadly.

But I prefer the TV for several reasons.

1. A monitor actually lets you see TOO much. I first noticed it with TV shows and movies. The imperfections of compression are more obvious up close. The funky digital grain and macroblocks stand out more. Likewise, imperfections in games, such as aliasing, are easier to spot when you're two feet from the screen.

2. Sitting on a sofa or upholstered chair without a desk in the way means your hands with the controller in them will never bump against one. Normally, I rest my palms on the desk as I play with a controller. I do have a solution for mouse and keyboard as well: a small desk on wheels that I can roll to the side when not playing.

3. Nice tower speakers and bookshelf surrounds with a subwoofer. I don't have to wear headphones for good sound. If I wanted to use speakers with a monitor, I would need to move the monitor and desk farther from the wall, to give the speakers the space they need, and the monitor will still block the sound. On the other hand, headphones are more detailed without raising the volume to dangerous levels. But you lose both the sense of space and low frequency.

4. The size. It really does add to the immersion.

My Sony TV is OLED and my Dell monitor only IPS Black. Blacks look much better on the TV, but I won't count that in favor of TVs, since you can obviously buy a good OLED monitor. I just didn't want burn-in with all the static UI elements on my screen. I don't bother with the monitor's crappy HDR.

My monitor is 43 inches, so it's pretty much a TV anyway. Nonetheless I go back and forth between it and my regular TV all the time, but that's just because I divide my gaming time between PC and console, but more PC usually. I hate using actual TVs for monitors.

Nowadays, with OLEDs offering 120/144hz, i'm more than happy on TV. My LG C4 and C3 have both been excellent (though my C4 needed a mainboard replacement) and give freaking beautiful IQ.

A TV. It's difficult to find a huge monitor. As a bonus with a TV you can get motion smoothing, AI upscaling, and de-artifacting for when you're watching videos, you get built in speakers, and ATSC TV.

I have used both OLEDs and LCDs as my main display, and prefer LCDs. They're overall brighter, and don't need to dim for full screen bright scenes like OLEDs do (white flashes can end up looking gray on OLEDs). You're never going to have any scene that is perfectly pitch black and I just prefer the brighter image, still scenes won't start getting dimmed, not having to think about burn-in, and having scenes full of HDR highlights with no dimming.

In FF7 Rebirth there's a scene where you're coming out of the tunnels into the open world, and there's a light at the end of the tunnel. On OLED, as the light gets bigger it also gets dimmer, and by the time you get outside things just look washed out before they normalize as your eyes adjust, instead of being bright AF white and then normalizing like it should be. I mean it might be better on a LG G4 than a C4 but not solved (yes even when fiddling in the secret menus), and the correct solution is an LED backlit LCD TV with a lot of dimming zones and overall brighter full screen for 1/2 the price. I keep testing OLEDs but I prefer LCD time and again.

Only recently have you been able to get HDR support on monitors that begins to approach a decent TV. I really don't care about refresh rates higher than 120, and you can get TVs with 144, but I don't care about that. The latency is great in Game Mode on TVs and while it could be better with a monitor, it would be a minute difference (4ms or less) and I wouldn't want to sacrifice the brightness.

I’ve always been a console gamer and am just used to playing on a tv on my couch.

Monitor for me. I'm not into playing games on a TV these days.

@davillain: What monitor size do you prefer?

TV. I rarely play games on a monitor. Even PC games I play on a TV.

Monitor as it's what I use more often.

oh, tough one. As I switch around a lot.

Games that don't tend to work on ultrawide, and preferably third person I'd like to play on the TV.

First person games feel so much smoother with keyboard and mouse, and you get the additional FOV in ultrawide.

Here's my setup:

@R4gn4r0k: Looks awesome.

You have a flat keyboard like me. I thought I was special.

@Litchie: ever since using the K800 logitech I've never wanted to go back to full sized keys.

Fun fact: I started working at a new company this year, had to learn Apple but all the Apple keyboards are flat too, love it!

@R4gn4r0k: Right? They're just nice. I don't understand why people use keyboards with tall keys that sound a lot. Annoying as hell. :P

TV everyday of the week and twice on Sundays.

TV. My PC screen is a TV. It gets the job done

I have a Dell gaming monitor and 50 inch TV. TV definitely since you can see more of what's on screen. Just depends in what room I am gaming.

Almost every card has three DisplayPort outputs and only one HDMI, to save money, and it seems that players largely prefer it this way for some reason. I need one HDMI 2.1 for my 120 Hz VRR TV and to send sound to the AV receiver. DisplayPort does not carry sound. But I now use my only HDMI for the monitor. If I switch that 5K 120 Hz monitor to DisplayPort, I lose VRR and have to use glitchy DSC (compressed colors) instead of RGB 4:4:4. So I need a new graphics card. Hoping for the Sapphire Pulse 9070 XT in a few months, if the scalpers will stop buying up all the cards with their automated programs.

Skip to 6:09.

"Does have two DisplayPort 2.1A and two HDMI. That's gonna be interesting because people that are running triple monitor might not be happy with the fact that they only have two DisplayPort 2.1A outputs. They could run HDMI to DP adapter but in terms of just keeping it simple when it comes to any sort of a surround setup, uh Eyefinity... Anyway, just having three of the same plug is gonna make life easier. So, I'm kind of surprised that they went this route instead of just having... I'm wondering if they could have had three DP 2.1A and then two HDMI. Now, having the extra HDMI is kinda nice. The reason for that is a lot of people like to run sensor panels and stuff now. If you run a sensor panel you usually utilize the only HDMI. But I know that they didn't want to no longer support those people that have HMDs or VR headsets, which are always running HDMI. Some actually moved to DP and such, but, HDMI, having more than one is a nice thing. Kind of complain that we only have one HDMI on most graphics cards now, but I wouldn't wanna give up a DisplayPort for it. So, kind of a trade-off there."

Didn't even talk about the fact that most gaming monitors only have DP 1.4 and the colors are (more) compressed, because, as a "gamer," he only cares about the speed and performance, not the colors. Didn't mention that HDMI 2.1 and DP 1.4 are both far more common than DP 2.1. Eyefinity? I have not used it; didn't even know what it did until now. Who here uses it? I use a third party software to switch between TV and monitor, or did before getting this HDMI 2.1 monitor. What's the benefit in doing it with the AMD feature that, apparently, according to him, works better if all displays are DP?

"Now, having the extra HDMI is kinda nice. The reason for that is a lot of people like to run sensor panels and stuff now."

No, they don't. I don't believe him. Can't even remember seeing it. Probably I did, but can't remember. It's important for monitors and TVs foremost. Why would he name this niche of niche reason first?

@R4gn4r0k said:

oh, tough one. As I switch around a lot.

Games that don't tend to work on ultrawide, and preferably third person I'd like to play on the TV.

First person games feel so much smoother with keyboard and mouse, and you get the additional FOV in ultrawide.

Here's my setup:

That setup is similar to mine, only the other way around, TV is on the left.

My TV is an OLED though, so I switch the screen over entirely, rather than having duplicate screens. I work from home twice a week so I can have the TV on (or 'Telly' as we call it over in the UK lol) at the same time as when I'm working - well as long as I'm not on the phone.

My monitor has a built in KVM, so I can use my work laptop with the same Keyboard and mouse.

Like playing strategy games with the monitor, and everything else on the TV.

Tv but can see the appeal for monitors for highly competitive games.

LG Oled TV, it has 120hz and Gsync/Freesync compatible

What about a projector? I’ve been researching projectors for the new house, and there‘s some pretty good stuff out there! And you really can’t beat the size. I’m “only” going 120” to start, with the intention of going 150” when I fully renovate the theater space. I’d choose that over a 27” monitor any day…

Looked at ultra-short throws, but dunno how they do in the daytime, or how they compare to a quality OLED black. My brother is adding an extension and wants a big TV wall and in-wall speakers, and told him to give them a look.

TV all day and it isn't even close. I'm rocking a Sony A95L at 65 inches.

Was curious about projectors, but options look pretty disappointing. Super expensive! 4000 dollars for something that doesn't even come close to a mid-range TV and twice that to see darker details that the Epson LS11000 is incapable of. Wouldn't even have looked if they still made ultra wide TVs with slight curves for scope movies that appear more distant on 16:9 displays.

A tv. I don't play video games on my PC, so that's an easy question.

1440p/165hz 27" monitor. What can I say, I'm easy to, please...but not 30fps. Yucky Yuck! (Always 27")

@ghostofgolden: I got an old one from when our meeting room was just going to toss an old one in the garbage. I wouldn't have bought one but I thought it was fun to try out for free. Works great and runs retro games with analog connects very well with low latency, and it handles 240p well (up to 1200p)!

And of course...

I don't use it much but now and then we will make popcorn and watch a movie with it. It's just not convenient when you have to darken a whole room and in my case clear stuff away from the only empty full white wall I have without windows or whatever else.

For older games up to the 6th gen it's easily crts those scanlines were made for those noticeable pixels

TV for me. The last time I played games on a monitor, it weighed 30 lbs and was monochrome.

“82” Samsung tv. I don’t game on a monitor.

As a console gamer who prefers to game on the couch in the living room it’s TV for me.

My monitor is very impressive and has many features, I'd still take the TV though. I guess I'm just more of a console gamer than anything.

@R4gn4r0k: I like your setup, it says you're a person of art and culture. I'd post mine, but it is just shameful. It's not even really much of a gaming setup as it's just a small corner of the basement I play games in... le sigh.

Mine started as a basement too! Never let it stand in the way of your grand ambitions :)

OLED monitor