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I have an LG Electronics 24LJ4540 (2017 Model) 24" 720p LED TV that I rarely used. I also have a Dell E2020H 19.5" computer monitor. I thought the former might be a good option to use as my computer monitor as I work from home.

However, when I looked at the LG LCD TV while I was completing my regular work on the computer, it hurt my eyes. I even reduced the brightness, and I use the f.lux free 3rd-party software to reduce the intensity, but to the same effect.

Is there something behind the technology of LCD TV screens (even for small LCD TV screens--my LG TV is only 24-inch) that makes it unsuitable for regular use as a computer monitor where it is close to your eyes? If yes, please explain.

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    Go through the TVs controls & switch off everything that's designed to make "watching TV" better; smoothing, anti-flicker, true motion... I've an LG & it has pages of this sh… ermm.. stuff you need to eliminate before you can use it as a monitor. Sometimes you get lucky & you'll find a dedicated "PC" mode.
    – Tetsujin
    Jun 27, 2021 at 7:35
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    @Tetsujin To be fair, most of that sh... well, it doesn't make TV look any better either. Best to turn it all off no matter what you're using the TV for.
    – J...
    Jun 27, 2021 at 13:27
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    @J… Yup, indeed. I actually have different settings for different inputs. The one I have the most control over is my HTPC, which is completely accurately calibrated [and no sh..]. My TiVo box input, less so, because some of it does make 'actual television' slightly better.
    – Tetsujin
    Jun 27, 2021 at 16:02
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    It seems you only have HDMI to connect the computer to the TV. A pity. By the way, check the refresh rate of the computer screen (the output given to the TV via HDMI) and any lack of compatibility with the TV. Usually the higher, the better (in Hz). Use a low brightness level from your TV. Additional light in the room and diffused. Better if from behind the TV. Use a warm color temperature for the settings. Finally, there is a wide range glasses for computer...
    – Hastur
    Jun 27, 2021 at 18:37
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    720p is pretty low density at 24”, by modern standards. The graininess can make your eyes tire, especially on text. Also, TVs typically have dogs hit response time and input lag, which can make you feel a subtle “disconnect” between your input and it’s reflection on the screen state.
    – Alexander
    Jun 27, 2021 at 20:52

4 Answers 4

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We ran a very informal experiment at one of my former workplaces (software engineering) by passing around a couple 37" 4k TV screens that people tried out as monitors. Anecdotally, some people got super ill feeling using them, and some people loved them, there were too many factors to narrow it down beyond that but it was certainly more people that couldn't use TV's as monitors than monitors as monitors.

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The LG 24LJ4540 would make a poor computer monitor because of its very low resolution and pixel density. There is nothing you can do to fix this.

This monitor has a 23.6" (diagonal) panel with 1366x768 resolution. That gives it a pixel density of 66 pixels per inch. Put another way, it has 4409 pixels per square inch.

Your Dell E2020H has a far superior pixel density. It is a 19.5" panel with 1600x900 resolution. So it has 94 pixels per inch, or 8863 pixels per square inch.

This is twice the number of pixels per square inch as the LG 24LJ4540. So everything on the screen is sharper and more detailed, causing less eyestrain.

Now of course this all depends on your eyesight. What distance from your eyes do you place the monitor, and do you have trouble focusing at that distance? Don't use the monitor to test this, take some printed text with very fine print and see if it is easy to read at your monitor distance or not.

If it is hard to read, it may be time for you to get a pair of single vision prescription glasses, adjusted for the distance to your monitor. Let me know if you have the budget for that and I will update with some specifics. Also let me know if you only use separate monitors like these, or if you ever use a laptop with its own internal display.

I hope my questions about your eyesight are not too personal, but I see so many people squinting and straining to read what is on their displays, where a simple pair of prescription lenses would fix this. It was a revelation when I got my first pair; I wished I'd done it years earlier.

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Some backlights do flicker at low brightness settings and the frequency they use might bother you.

I would look at reviews for TVs to use as a monitor at rtings.com as a guide where they do cover lots of details.

The typical things you get with a TV versus a monitor is the refresh rate and dithering of colors or lack of sharpness because they might not do chroma 4:4:4 at some resolutions.

There is no physical harm to your eyes that will occur any differently than looking at a well-lit book at the same distance.

I use a Vizio M437-G0 4K TV as a monitor (43" at 3840 x 2160). It only does 60Hz refresh, but my primary use is infographics and not gaming, so it meets my needs. There are a few colors that are dithered, but black text on white background is perfectly sharp. There was a bit of experimentation with my Nvidia RGB versus YCbCr444 output settings and the TV's input settings I had to fiddle with to get the best picture with perfect text, but it's a great 4K big screen for my computer.

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LCD TVs and LCD monitors use the same technology and can be used interchangeably. Add a tuner to a display and it's a TV, and TVs are fine as displays. That said, 720p is usable resolution, but close-up you'll see the pixels on the comparatively large screen. If you're working with images, e.g., retouching photos, get a monitor with higher resolution to better see what you're doing.

Just test it out -- if you like the TV as a display, great, and if not, no harm done... just use a different display.

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    This is wrong unless you pay for higher-end LCD TVs (and most wouldn't be good) because chroma subsampling will make any text very hard to read and hurtful for the eyes unless it's black on white.
    – Shautieh
    Jun 27, 2021 at 15:09
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    @Shautieh, not in my experience... though perhaps I've always used decent TV's as monitors. Jun 27, 2021 at 19:17
  • Probably, or you never had to read red on blue text (black on white or white on black won't look too bad). I would double check the TV has a chroma subsampling of 4:4:4 (and not 4:2:2), and if it has, it's all good.
    – Shautieh
    Jun 28, 2021 at 9:25

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