I have a Samsung 32" LCD HDTV that was given to me that we do not really have a place for. It would go perfect above my desk in my office. What would be the pros and cons of using it as a computer monitor?

Some TVs are not configured for use as monitors out of the box. Some TVs use interlacing and it provides a very fuzzy image quality on a computer video card without some tweaking. Additionally, you need a graphics card that can support an HDTV, but if you're doing basic stuff (i.e. not gaming) any card should handle it just fine.

It's definitely worth a shot, won't screw anything up

edit: Pros would obviously be having a large monitor with lots of screen real estate and a high resolution so you can multitask on one screen easier

[This message has been edited by UTex09 (edited 6/23/2010 5:21p).]

I have a 32" 1080p Samsung TV that I use as a computer monitor. Overall, it is good.

Two things to note:
--It is very bright if you are sitting there a foot away staring at a white screen. i.e. blank word document

--If it is 720p or 1080i, it probably won't look great up close. 1080p however will be great.

One other thing to consider is the aspect ratio. Monitors that size are 2560x1600 or at least 1980x1200. You might miss the extra height.

To two of the posters above:
-There is no such thing as an interlaced LCD TV
-There is no such thing as a 1080i LCD TV

There are LCD TVs that accept these signals but and internal scaler always changes the signal to the native resolution of the display.

I regularly use my 40 inch Sony as a PC display and it looks great. My brother uses a 26 inch vizio as his display (1366x768) and it looks pretty good, not as good as my 1080p Sony but very usable. If your TV is a 720p model its native resolution is probably 1366x768 or 1360x768.

Keep in ming if the TV has a VGA input using it vs using an HDMI/DVI input won't make much difference when it comes to picture quality, but the TV may severely limit your picture adjustment options when you use it. My Sony will not let me do much of anything other than basic picture controls (no image resizing) when I use the VGA input.

[This message has been edited by getme (edited 6/24/2010 6:11a).]

I use my 55" Samsung LED as my computer monitor and it works great!

Thanks for the input!

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Keep in ming if the TV has a VGA input using it vs using an HDMI/DVI input won't make much difference when it comes to picture quality

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That depends on alot of things that are specific to the tv itself.

Sometimes, the analog(vga) connection can look about as good as the digital(hdmi/dvi) but HDMI is the safer bet.