HDTV and Computers
 

I have Insignia 42" HDTV and it supports using the TV as a monitor and speaker but is there any point in doing so? Reason I'm asking is that I once connected the computer's monitor to a different tv and the screen resolution came out distorted, as if it was displaying at 800x600 with low-bit color. So, I was wondering if anyone had a different experience.

My biggest worries is being able to read the text off a such a large "monitor".

Standard televisions have a very low resolution; if I'm not mistaken it's in the 320x240 range. Comparatively, your computer monitor (and your HDTV, for that matter) support resolutions much higher; the standard resolutions for HDTV are 1280x720 and 1920x1080. Note that these are both 16:9 aspect ratios, so while you should be able to get a much cleaner image with them than you would on a standard television, you'll also need to either have a video card that supports 16:9 resolutions or set the television to display as 4:3 instead.

But yeah, it's definitely worth trying it out. You should be able to get a good quality image out of any HDTV.

If you use VGA or DVI->HDMI you'll get pixel perfect results. The uses for this (for me) are primarily to play movie files on the TV, aka home theater PC. I've also got a video capture card/TV tuner, so once I find a good software solution I'm happy with, tada, instant TiVo.

To elaborate on Martian's response, standard def resolution is 640x480. Here's a list of standard resolutions. As others have mentioned, if you use the right video card and connection, you should get a great picture on your HDTV.