[HN Gopher] Using an 8K TV as a Monitor
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Using an 8K TV as a Monitor
        
       Author : ingve
       Score  : 249 points
       Date   : 2024-10-29 16:27 UTC (6 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (daniel.lawrence.lu)
 (TXT) w3m dump (daniel.lawrence.lu)
        
       | Circlecrypto2 wrote:
       | I'm sure a few have tried this before, but no one has given me a
       | good argument for convincing the partner.
        
         | outsomnia wrote:
         | Since a couple of years ago, I spent a year or so like this,
         | with the TV resting on the desk directly.
         | 
         | It looked pretty nice, but it had some problems.
         | 
         | - The only actual 8K modes reported on the HDMI were some
         | variant of YUV, it means you could not select what your OS
         | considered an RGB mode
         | 
         | - Even using it at 4K, with the 55" TV a couple of feet from
         | the back of the desk, my eyes could not keep all of it
         | perfectly in focus.
         | 
         | - The power consumption was much higher than a typical ~30"
         | monitor, and the amount of heat created was also significant.
         | This became hard to deal with in summer.
         | 
         | Eventually I gave up on it and returned to a ~30" monitor.
        
           | porphyra wrote:
           | FYI nowadays 8K TVs support true RGB 8K 60 Hz over HDMI 2.1
           | with no chroma subsampling.
        
         | theredsix wrote:
         | You get the partner something shiny too!
        
         | settsu wrote:
         | Buy once, cry once.
         | 
         | All else being equal, a TV (i.e., TV-sized) unit generally has
         | a broader set of use cases _and_ longer useful lifecycle than a
         | computer monitor _for the original purchaser_ +, which could be
         | argued makes good economical sense.
         | 
         | + in my experience, computer monitors can have a long useful
         | life when factoring in the potentially long tail of
         | "donor/hand-me-down" cases...
        
           | thfuran wrote:
           | But the other potential uses of a TV assume it's not tossed
           | on a desk in my office.
        
       | iamacyborg wrote:
       | At least he has proper speakers to go with that ridiculous
       | screen!
        
       | qntmfred wrote:
       | I use dual 43" 4k TVs as monitors. It's fantastic.
        
         | declan_roberts wrote:
         | ...why?
        
           | ziddoap wrote:
           | Why not?
        
         | RajT88 wrote:
         | My wife asked me how much "huge monitors" cost. I told her 100
         | bucks on Craigslist. Indeed, we got her an old dumb 1080p LCD
         | and she has been super happy with it. It mostly fills the wall
         | of her little cubby hole in our office.
         | 
         | For my money, I have 2x 1080p 24" displays, and a third curved
         | 32" 1080p display which is hooked to a KVM so I can game on it.
         | 
         | I like the 3 monitor setup because they are all at angles from
         | each other, approximating a huge curved display. Plus, this was
         | a cheap setup off woot.com parts.
        
           | gwbas1c wrote:
           | 1080p is a tiny monitor in today's standards. It's also very
           | similar to the old SXGA resolution that was very common in
           | the late 1990s / 2000s.
        
             | bluedino wrote:
             | Ahhh....1280x1024 on a 19" LCD in 2001, it felt like a 4K
             | monitor does today.
             | 
             | 1600x1200 on a 21" CRT was king. though.
        
             | RajT88 wrote:
             | 1080p is good enough for me. I'm not sure buying 3 4k
             | monitors is going to improve my life any, what with my
             | middle-aged eyes and all.
             | 
             | Also, old stuff lacks shady smart features. Bonus!
        
               | atahanacar wrote:
               | I think monitors are like headphones. Unless you actually
               | try the "better" ones, you don't have a clue what you're
               | missing. I know because I had been saying "Dual 1080p 24"
               | is all I will ever need." for a long time until I got a
               | 4K 50". Now I can't imagine going back.
        
               | RajT88 wrote:
               | I checked with my wife and she is unsympathetic to this
               | idea.
        
               | recursive wrote:
               | I usually use a pair of Sennheiser HD280s that I've had
               | for over a decade. I've used some fancier headphones
               | costing more than an order of magnitude more, from brands
               | such as ZMF. After experiencing the high-end advantage,
               | I'm still perfectly happy with the 280s. There are a few
               | things I care about in a monitor, and DPI is nowhere on
               | the list. Every monitor commercially available has more
               | resolution than I care about. My number one concern is
               | consistency across a wide viewing angle. Low latency,
               | retina DPI, gamut accuracy, HDR, curved surface? I don't
               | care about any of them. I have tried all of them.
        
           | stephenr wrote:
           | 1080p at 32"? Dear god man have some self respect. Not
           | everything on a screen is meant to look exactly like Tetris
           | you know.
        
             | recursive wrote:
             | Some people actually don't care. I'm one of them. I express
             | my self-respect in ways other than my screen's resolution.
        
         | atahanacar wrote:
         | May I ask at what configuration? I'm assuming at least one is
         | vertical because I can't think of a way to set 2 43" monitors
         | horizontally without breaking my neck.
        
       | codingdave wrote:
       | I already use a 4K TV for a monitor. 8K would just push a need
       | for a more expensive video card, while decreasing how well people
       | can see when I share my screen. Even on a 4K, I need to blow it
       | up to ridiculous zoom levels to make a screen-share readable to
       | others.
       | 
       | I'm sure not everyone would run into that problem, but it is a
       | fairly strong con to be aware of.
        
         | atahanacar wrote:
         | If you are on Linux, you can divide the entire screen into
         | multiple virtual monitors and share only one of them. This has
         | the benefit of giving you "private" monitors what won't be
         | shared.
         | 
         | Another option could be to temporarily lower the resolution.
        
         | throwaway48476 wrote:
         | I run an 8K monitor on a 240$ GPU.
        
       | E39M5S62 wrote:
       | The list of issues / caveats seems pretty significant compared to
       | "I have a small bezel between my screens".
        
         | lostlogin wrote:
         | The issue with the text rendering would frustrate me a lot.
         | 
         | And if the solution is to sit further away, why not just get a
         | smaller screen and sit closer?
        
           | makeitdouble wrote:
           | There seems to be very few options for HiDPI smaller 8k
           | displays. I only know of the DELL Ultrasharp and it costs way
           | more than 8K TVs
        
             | throwaway48476 wrote:
             | The dell hasn't been updated for dp 2.0.
        
           | porphyra wrote:
           | What's wrong with text rendering?
           | 
           | > TVs may have a different subpixel layout than monitors, so
           | small text may suffer fringing. As of writing the Samsung VA
           | and LG IPS panels such as the QN800A have a conventional RGB
           | or BGR subpixel structure. One may also increase the font
           | size or use hidpi scaling which will eliminate all pixel-
           | level concerns.
        
           | jerf wrote:
           | I believe the discussion about text rendering is referring
           | only to a line of very cheap TVs that do not in fact have RGB
           | pixels. They have half RG and half GB. For "normal" video
           | content, this is a surprisingly low quality drop. For high-
           | contrast text it's total murder. You can see the stippling
           | pattern as clear as day and it can easily render 8-10pt text
           | literally illegible.
           | 
           | IT once accidentally bought such a TV and had it in a
           | conference room. Took us a while to convince the relevant
           | people that, yes, it is _nominally_ working fine, it 's not
           | "broken" in the sense that it doesn't turn on or half the
           | screen won't light up, but it was intolerable for Zoom screen
           | shares.
           | 
           | But you need to be scraping the bottom of the barrel to end
           | up with those screens. I doubt you could find something
           | labelled a "monitor" that has that, and, well, if you're
           | putting a $150 40" TV on to your computer... I mean... what
           | did you expect?
           | 
           | (There are also low-end TVs that are still using some crappy
           | LCD techs with bad viewing angles that may make them
           | difficult to use up close, but I wouldn't call that a _text_
           | rendering problem... those issues just wreck everything. I
           | once had a laptop that when used on a lap, had zero viewing
           | angles; if the vertical middle of the screen was correct, the
           | top and bottom was _extremely_ visibly color shifted. Even
           | the cheapest store brand TVs don 't seem to be that bad
           | anymore, though.)
        
             | jsheard wrote:
             | > I believe the discussion about text rendering is
             | referring only to a line of very cheap TVs that do not in
             | fact have RGB pixels.
             | 
             | It also comes up with _very_ expensive OLED monitors, which
             | do usually have true RGB or WRGB pixels, but their
             | subpixels are usually not arranged in the standard
             | horizontal RGB stripe which breaks most implementations of
             | subpixel font rendering. With a sufficiently high pixel
             | density it doesn 't matter, but with the ~108ppi of a 27"
             | 1440p OLED monitor the text rendering can be quite visibly
             | worse than a 27" 1440p LCD.
        
         | AnthonBerg wrote:
         | From experience with a 55" 4K OLED as main monitor, I can
         | attest that the length if the caveat list is not indicative of
         | the total impact of the caveats. It's more an indication of a
         | thoughtful and thorough person writing the list.
        
           | chown wrote:
           | I am looking for a 55" 4K OLED. Do you have a recommendation?
           | And are there any technical caveats with it? (I use a Mac
           | primarily). Thank you
        
             | AnthonBerg wrote:
             | I went with the LG CX model based on what I read on
             | rtings.com
             | 
             | That's a previous-generation model. I think all of the LG
             | TVs are good.
             | 
             | There are / were technical caveats. I believe all of them
             | are solved by M3 macs that have HDMI 2.1 ports. (M3 or M3
             | Pro or something? The ones advertised as 8K capable.) Out
             | of the box, those will do 4K 120Hz HDR with variable
             | refresh rate and full 444 color. This is what you want.
             | 
             | It is possible to get that going on older machines, except
             | for VRR which is more of a nice-to-have anyway.
             | 
             | I have a 2018 Macbook Pro 15". Disclaimer!: My setup was a
             | "complexity pet", a tinkering project; There are simpler
             | ways to connect a 120Hz 4K HDR HDMI 2.1 display to a non-
             | HDMI-2-1 mac. And! My tinkering project wasn't only about
             | getting the display working correctly. It was more about
             | messing with eGPUs and virtualization and stuff. Definitely
             | a long way round.
             | 
             | On my Intel mac, I use an AMD Radeon 6800 XT eGPU with
             | Club3D or CableMatters DisplayPort-to-HDMI 2.1 adapters.
             | Plus some EDID hacking which is easy to do.
             | 
             | EDID is how the display identifies itself to the OS. The
             | EDID payload can be overridden on the OS side. Mostly it's
             | about copying the display's EDID and deleting the entry
             | that says the display can accept 4:2:0 color. Only then
             | does macOS switch to 4:4:4 color. I also created a custom
             | "modeline" with tighter timing to get 120Hz going fully.
             | 
             | --Please be assured that this was way more complex than it
             | needed to be. It was for fun!
             | 
             | There are much easier ways to do this. Lots of forum posts
             | on it. On the MacRumors forums iirc? User _joevt_ is The
             | Man.
             | 
             | And even then, what I wrote above is actually easy to do
             | once you know it's possible.
             | 
             | Mostly though you really want an M3 Mac that just has HDMI
             | 2.1 and is ready to go.
             | 
             | There are/were also OLED gaming monitors available, such as
             | from Alienware. Those have DisplayPort inputs and are ready
             | to go with almost any older Mac. Might be able to find one
             | for a price equivalent to a TV, idk.
        
       | 0points wrote:
       | That's simply too big a screen to be sitting right in front of.
       | 
       | I do agree on the basic idea of not running two monitors tho. I
       | used to, and I got neck pains eventually.
       | 
       | My current setup is a single 32" curved QHD monitor and I
       | wouldn't change it for the world. It's just the right size so you
       | can see the whole screen at once, yet large enough to run 3
       | browsers side by side.
       | 
       | Also, I want to suggest people to learn about virtual desktops
       | rather than wasting money on bizarrely huge screens or multi
       | monitor setups.
        
         | leptons wrote:
         | 55" is not too big. Maybe it's too big _for you_ , but I've
         | been using three 32" 4k screens in portrait for many years,
         | combined they are essentially about the size of a 55" screen. I
         | love it and anything less kind of sucks. No, virtual desktops
         | are no substitute for having more screen size. I use virtual
         | desktops on my massive screen(s) and I love that too.
        
           | AnotherGoodName wrote:
           | The 3 32" screens are probably angled around you and the
           | total aspect ratio is extreme widescreen (side to side
           | panning, not vertical neck up down panning). The 3 screens
           | are likely much much better ergonomically.
        
           | cerved wrote:
           | 55" was fine but I'm happy I downsized to 48"
        
         | diggan wrote:
         | > Also, I want to suggest people to learn about virtual
         | desktops rather than wasting money on bizarrely huge screens or
         | multi monitor setups.
         | 
         | If I want to have multiple things open and be able to glance at
         | them at once, how would virtual desktops help with that?
        
           | bluGill wrote:
           | If you have it setup right you can flip to the other desktop
           | quick, see what you want and flip fast. I haven't seen a good
           | virtual desktop implementation since around 1998 though, and
           | have given up.
        
         | porphyra wrote:
         | > Also, I want to suggest people to learn about virtual
         | desktops rather than wasting money on bizarrely huge screens or
         | multi monitor setups.
         | 
         | This sounds a little condescending especially when the author
         | is clearly a technically savvy user who uses a tiling window
         | manager.
        
       | egypturnash wrote:
       | That's a hell of a desk. And counter to the argument that "you
       | could just have the one huge screen for entertainment AND work"
       | because this is not a desk you can easily clear out from in front
       | of the sofa when you stop working.
       | 
       | This is making me want to get some blackout curtains for my
       | living room so I can go back to occasionally working with my
       | laptop hooked to the projector, though. It's about the same
       | resolution as my laptop but it's really nice to be focusing on
       | something across the room for a change.
        
         | atahanacar wrote:
         | I use a 50" 4K TV as my monitor. It's mounted on a long TV
         | mount that can bend at 3 points, one near the wall, one near
         | the TV and one in the middle. Gives me great freedom. One
         | warning to people who want to do the same: make sure your mount
         | has a way to rotate (around the screen's surface normal) the TV
         | as the weight of it will make it sag.
        
       | Helithumper wrote:
       | Reminds me of Michael Stapelberg's 8k Monitor Setup:
       | 
       | https://michael.stapelberg.ch/posts/2017-12-11-dell-up3218k
       | 
       | https://michael.stapelberg.ch/posts/2020-05-23-desk-setup
        
       | PaulRobinson wrote:
       | I upgraded recently, by buying a friends old Samsung Odyssey G9
       | 49" curved monitor off him (he was emigrating). Before that I had
       | 2 x 27" monitors, a setup I had used for ~10 years.
       | 
       | I honestly think the curve is essential when dealing with such a
       | wide display. The alternative would be - as article states - to
       | set it back a little and have a deeper desk so you can actually
       | see the edge of the screen properly. I don't see the point in
       | having a large screen with high pixel density if the edges are
       | not actually easily visible to me without moving my head or body
       | laterally.
       | 
       | The lack of bezels is great though - I'd definitely agree on that
       | front, having 3 web browsers or editors open side by side suits
       | me really well.
        
         | colechristensen wrote:
         | 32" Odyssey G7 is the pick for me, I wouldn't mind an upgrade
         | to the 4k version, but the 1440p version is more than good
         | enough.
         | 
         | I also don't see the point in having a screen so big I have to
         | move my head, or contrarily a screen so big that I have to push
         | it back so the pixel density matters much less.
        
         | AnthonBerg wrote:
         | It's different from person to person!, whether the curve is
         | good or not.
         | 
         | I have a ruler flat 55" OLED TV as main monitor. It's perfect
         | for me. I'm like... 1-1.5 meters from it where I'm closest to
         | it, haha. The edges are further away. It's fine! - imo / ime.
         | 
         | (The need for the curve is also subtly different depending on
         | how the panel was made. I tried a flat 43" IPS 4K monitor,
         | expecting IPS to be good. And it wasn't very good. The IPS
         | features in that panel were large enough to affect viewing
         | angle.)
        
           | jsheard wrote:
           | > It's different from person to person!, whether the curve is
           | good or not.
           | 
           | The amount of curve also varies a lot between models so
           | there's some nuance even within that. The curve might be as
           | strong as 800R or as weak as 2300R depending on the monitor,
           | where the number corresponds to the radius of the circle the
           | panel follows in millimeters.
        
         | spondylosaurus wrote:
         | As weird as the aspect ratio can be on a curved ultrawide, I
         | think it's also more natural and ergonomic to keep your
         | head/eyes at a constant height and just move them side to side.
         | With a monitor that has a lot of verticality you're gonna have
         | to tilt your neck back more.
        
         | jamalaramala wrote:
         | Why are these monitors sold as "gaming" monitors?
        
           | wcoenen wrote:
           | Low response time (i.e. time it takes for a pixel to change
           | color) to reduce ghosting, and a high refresh rate up to 240
           | Hz.
           | 
           | These monitors are expensive and do not have very high
           | resolution. If you're not a hardcore fast reflex gamer, and
           | you spend a lot of time looking at text, then IMO it's better
           | to buy a higher resolution monitor for less money.
        
             | jsheard wrote:
             | 4K gaming monitors do provide a reasonable middle-ground
             | between "extremely fast but only 100-110ppi" and "extremely
             | high res but only 60hz" now though. You can get 163ppi at
             | 144hz without breaking the bank, which isn't quite retina
             | by Apples definition, but it's good enough for me
             | considering the benefit of high refresh rate.
        
             | bufferoverflow wrote:
             | These days you can buy 4K/240Hz displays that have a
             | 1080p/480Hz mode.
             | 
             | Even 240Hz is usually enough for really good players. 480Hz
             | is just for the 0.01% who can take advantage of it.
             | 
             | https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-Swift-Gaming-Monitor-
             | PG32UCDP/dp...
             | 
             | https://www.amazon.com/LG-32GS95UE-Ultragear-DisplayHDR-
             | Dis...
             | 
             | https://www.amazon.com/LG-32GS95UV-Ultragear-DisplayHDR-
             | Dis...
             | 
             | https://www.amazon.com/Predator-Monitor-FreeSync-
             | Premium-100...
        
               | jsheard wrote:
               | Note that these are all 32" panels so the PPI is on the
               | lower side of 4K monitors.
               | 
               | If you want pixel density first and speed second then you
               | should go for a 27" 4K instead.
        
               | outworlder wrote:
               | > 480Hz is just for the 0.01% who can take advantage of
               | it.
               | 
               | I'm skeptical that any human can take advantage of that.
               | Even 240Hz is stretching it.
        
           | diggan wrote:
           | I'm guessing because it allows you to set the Field-of-Vision
           | to be pretty wide?
           | 
           | I mostly play simulation games, particularly flying, and
           | having a wider FoV makes things easier, until you're ready to
           | go to the top step of using VR instead so you also get depth
           | perception and essentially 360 FoV since you can rotate your
           | head.
        
             | thfuran wrote:
             | A curved, very wide fov screws up the camera projection for
             | most games though.
        
               | saltcured wrote:
               | I wonder what the math would look like to properly render
               | 3D scenes onto a curved display. Could it be accelerated
               | as well as the regular matrix operations used for
               | perspective projection onto planar screens?
               | 
               | During the pandemic I did try out my 4K TV as a game
               | monitor. I had a combination of furniture so that I could
               | sit rather close with my eyes approximately half way up
               | the screen, with a keyboard and mouse in a reasonable
               | position. Then, using an older FPS game I got it to where
               | my laptop GPU could hit good frame rates and I adjusted
               | the game's viewing angle to match how the screen fit my
               | field of view.
               | 
               | It was deeply immersive in spite of me being so close I
               | could "see the pixels". The only time I've felt more
               | immersive was demoing Quake in a 3 wall + floor CAVE at a
               | national lab decades ago.
        
               | outworlder wrote:
               | > I wonder what the math would look like to properly
               | render 3D scenes onto a curved display. Could it be
               | accelerated as well as the regular matrix operations used
               | for perspective projection onto planar screens?
               | 
               | The math is pretty simple to account for a curved
               | viewport, even though I don't think any apps actually
               | care about that. Most displays aren't curved enough to
               | make it a meaningful difference.
               | 
               | We don't have fixed function pipelines anymore either so
               | that could definitely be handled by hardware.
        
               | giobox wrote:
               | This used to be much more true, but almost all PC games
               | support 21:9 now and 32:9 support pretty common too.
               | "most games" screwed up is an exaggeration IMO. Even on
               | games that don't officially scale, on PC they almost
               | always have customizable FoV that gets the perspective
               | correct again. Many modern games are even smart enough to
               | rearrange the UI so that the critical info (health bars,
               | ammo counts etc) is in the center of the display and not
               | attached to the edges.
               | 
               | PC games have kinda been forced to support ultrawides
               | whether they like it or not - the 21:9 class especially
               | has exploded in popularity for gaming PCs.
               | 
               | I've gamed in 32:9 for years now - I wouldn't go back.
               | The curve is not exaggerated enough to be a meaningful
               | projection issue on most curved displays and games.
        
         | kennethrc wrote:
         | I have the 57" version, 7680x2160. It's ... indispensable ...
         | all my Konsoles, app windows, etc. all on one screen with no
         | overlaps.
         | 
         | Got it on a Samsung sale for ~$1500 IIRC, one of the best
         | upgrades I'd ever done.
        
       | unglaublich wrote:
       | I dislike TVs for their high input lag; bad image uniformity;
       | unwanted post-processing and a high energy use (hot rooms).
        
         | porphyra wrote:
         | Modern TVs have decent input lag around 10 ms which is on par
         | with professional monitors, but of course it will still be
         | worse than gaming monitors. Lots of people game on their TVs.
         | And most TVs have settings that disable postprocessing.
        
       | ForHackernews wrote:
       | > Having seven evenly-spaced columns would be impossible on a
       | dual 4K display setup due to bezels in the middle.
       | 
       | I know I'm getting into old man yells at cloud territory here,
       | but nobody needs this. Code on a 1024x600 netbook display, it
       | will build character.
        
         | anthk wrote:
         | Either SICP or PAIP, but these with cwm, uxterm and an editor
         | it's mind-changing.
        
         | tonyedgecombe wrote:
         | Like Joey Hess: https://usesthis.com/interviews/joey.hess/
        
         | NoGravitas wrote:
         | I actually kind of agree with this. For me, the more pixels the
         | better (I'm sensitive to fuzzy text, and subpixel rendering
         | makes it worse), but I'd really prefer just one monitor, not
         | too big. 15-19" is fine, especially if it's 4:3. 1600x1200 on a
         | 17" monitor would be really nice.
        
         | lynguist wrote:
         | In the mid 90s professional video game programmers used
         | typically a 1920x1080 display, just to have a larger code
         | canvas and display sharper text.
         | 
         | From the 90s on 1600x1200, 1920x1080, 2048x1536 were
         | resolutions one could find on professional displays.
         | 
         | From the 2010s on resolutions increased tremendously and
         | 3840x2160 became the norm for consumer and professional
         | displays.
         | 
         | When working with code you essentially work with text. You just
         | want a big canvas and crisp text, thus high resolution.
        
           | ForHackernews wrote:
           | I guess. I think the important thing is getting the program
           | in your head, not on the screen. If the code is too
           | complicated to hold it all in your mind then more columns of
           | crisp text will not save you.
        
       | Zaskoda wrote:
       | I'm not a fan. Large ultra-wide curved screens are fantastic.
       | With large flat screens that are meant to be viewed across the
       | room, you get a distorted image when you sit up close. Your eyes
       | have to focus further away as you look at things closer to the
       | edge of your screen and the viewing angle for that part of the
       | screen is different from the center of the screen. It also
       | requires more effort for your eyes to look up and down rather
       | than left and right. We're hard wired for that horizontal plane.
       | This makes ultrawide screens a really comfortable option.
        
         | leptons wrote:
         | I almost bought an 8k 55" screen for use as a monitor, but I
         | tested a 55" 4k screen for a week and the flatness is what
         | turned me off to it. I've been using three 32" 4k screens in
         | portrait, arranged in a "curved" config on my desk (2 monitors
         | on each side are mounted at an angle), which I really like. But
         | switching to a large single flat screen was not fun.
         | 
         | For me the holy grail of monitors is a 55" 8k _curved_ screen.
         | Not  "ultrawide", I want the full width and height and I want
         | it curved, with full 8k resolution. Maybe someday, but I'm not
         | getting my hopes up too high.
        
           | thfuran wrote:
           | Spherical or cylindrical?
        
             | hatthew wrote:
             | I'm not the guy you asked but I have a similar opinion on
             | flat screens. Personally I'd want spherical. ~15" tall and
             | ~25" wide is about my limit for flat screens, anything
             | beyond that I find that the corners/edges are too
             | distant/distorted. My home setup is multiple independent
             | 27" screens, which I like. My work setup is a single flat
             | ultrawide (34" probably?), and I find myself physically
             | leaning my head/body from side to side when I have two
             | windows open next to each other. I have eye level a few
             | inches from the top of the screen, and the lowest couple
             | inches also seem distant/distorted.
        
       | exitb wrote:
       | After 15 years of having a desk job I find that I'm more
       | sensitive to the position I sit in. My back feels a lot better if
       | I have a single, regular sized screen right in front of me,
       | instead of having additional screen estate on the sides or below
       | (as with a laptop).
       | 
       | At the same time I use virtual desktops that I can switch with
       | both keyboard and mouse.
        
         | appleiigs wrote:
         | The general advice is to have top of monitor at eye level, but
         | it's been wrong advice for me personally. I now put the middle
         | of the monitor at eye level. Keeps my head up and posture
         | better. Leaning back instead of stooping.
        
           | switch007 wrote:
           | Indeed. AIUI your head needs to be back, chin tucked in,
           | which means looking down a bit. If you're looking level or up
           | you're going to be sticking your head out a bit
        
           | coretx wrote:
           | The general advice provided to me, and relayed by me is eyes
           | centered @ 2/3th of the screen. The best advice received and
           | relayed by me regarding posture might surprise you. If you
           | struggle with posture, stop caring about what other people
           | might think about your posture. Changing/Tweaking posture all
           | the time might look bad, but it also tends to mitigate the
           | effects of being frozen in bad posture(!) The health impact
           | is too significant to ignore.
        
             | bee_rider wrote:
             | Yeah I think the only ergonomic advice I believe anymore is
             | that there does not exist a position that is ergonomic to
             | sustain for more than a couple hours. Humans are not
             | evolved to stay stationary, few mammals are really.
        
           | deergomoo wrote:
           | I do this too, though mostly out of necessity. I use a 27"
           | screen a couple feet away. To get the top of the monitor
           | level with my eyes I'd either have to lower it so the bottom
           | of the monitor was almost flush with the desk (which my
           | current monitor's stand won't do anyway), or get a taller
           | chair/lower my desk, both of which would leave my legs
           | rubbing up against the desk underside and my arms at an
           | uncomfortable angle for typing.
           | 
           | Either I have an abnormally short torso, or that advice was
           | written back when most people were using a 14" display.
        
             | wrs wrote:
             | I switched to a VESA arm so I can put the bottom of the
             | monitor flush with the desk and leaned back at a bit of an
             | angle. It's fantastic.
        
         | guardiangod wrote:
         | I used to use dual monitors 50:50 in front of me, but after a
         | few years I started getting neck pain.
         | 
         | Now I put a monitor directly in front of me, and a secondary
         | monitor on the side. No more neck pain.
        
         | criddell wrote:
         | I'm the same. I use a single 27" 4k monitor and use virtual
         | desktops. The best upgrade for me though was getting a computer
         | prescription for some glasses that I keep on my desk.
         | 
         | Sometimes I think about upgrading to a 5k monitor. The Apple
         | Studio Display looks great, but I'm a Windows user and I'm
         | guessing a lot of the nice features of that display are Mac-
         | only.
         | 
         | There aren't a whole lot of options for 5k monitors. Other than
         | Apple I think there's a Dell, but it's too wide. There's a
         | Samsung but I've been burned by Samsung too many times. There's
         | also an LG 5k monitor but it gets pretty weak reviews.
        
           | jjtheblunt wrote:
           | I've got the LG 5K and it's been totally dependably kick ass
           | for the 4 years (i think) since I got it (from the Apple
           | Store). Mostly using it on macOS but have used it with
           | Windows and haven't tried with Linux.
        
           | deergomoo wrote:
           | > The Apple Studio Display looks great, but I'm a Windows
           | user and I'm guessing a lot of the nice features of that
           | display are Mac-only
           | 
           | I can possibly be of some help here. I have a Studio Display,
           | however my work-provided machine is a Dell laptop and so that
           | is what is connected to it most of the time.
           | 
           | Providing your machine can output video via Thunderbolt or
           | USB-C, it will work. That is fairly common these days, though
           | Windows machines capable of driving a 5120x2880 signal can be
           | harder to come across, particularly in the corporate laptop
           | world, though I don't know how much of a concern that is to
           | you.
           | 
           | My last work machine maxed out at 4K which the Studio Display
           | would happily scale up to full screen. I would describe it as
           | substantially sharper than e.g. a 2560x1440 display of
           | equivalent size, but still noticeably less sharp than the
           | full native 5K (obviously). My current machine can do the
           | full 5K, but the performance leaves a lot to be desired
           | (however the thing is a turd anyway, too much corporate
           | security crap bogging it down).
           | 
           | Speakers, camera, and microphone built into the display all
           | work totally fine from Windows. What may be a total non-
           | starter is that you need a Mac or iPad to change the
           | brightness, because there's no physical controls on the
           | display itself and Windows doesn't expose a way to control
           | it. I am lucky/unlucky in that my home office does not get a
           | huge amount of natural light, meaning I've been able to set
           | it to a comfortable brightness from my Mac and then just
           | leave it.
           | 
           | Overall it's a very nice monitor if you can work around the
           | brightness thing. A possibly better contender though is the
           | recent-ish 5K variant of the Asus ProArt[0]. I was using the
           | 1440p version of the same monitor before I got the Studio
           | Display, and I was very happy with it. Good colour
           | reproduction, USB-C Power Delivery for one-cable laptop
           | docking, and a far more adjustable stand than the SD. Worth a
           | look.
           | 
           | [0] https://www.asus.com/displays-
           | desktops/monitors/proart/proar...
        
         | kwanbix wrote:
         | Same for me. I just tried a curved 27 inches monitor and I hate
         | it.
        
           | kevin_thibedeau wrote:
           | That's too small for the curvature to provide any benefit.
        
             | layer8 wrote:
             | I find curved beneficial even on 24", but I'm also quite
             | nearsighted.
        
             | BizarroLand wrote:
             | I have dual 27 flat monitors at home and dual 27 curved
             | monitors at work and the ones at work are far more
             | comfortable to use.
        
         | thefz wrote:
         | Same, and wherever I put the second display, it's going to hurt
         | my neck after a very whort while.
        
         | vikingerik wrote:
         | Same here. I only use and want a single monitor setup. I can
         | alt-tab between windows faster and more comfortably than
         | turning my head to another screen.
         | 
         | Also a dual/multiple setup bothers me for losing the mouse
         | boundaries when it crosses to another screen - I'd rather have
         | the mouse bounded on one screen for faster access to menu bars
         | at the edges.
        
         | zippergz wrote:
         | Agreed. To each their own, but the obsession with the biggest
         | and/or most possible screens is something that is very hard for
         | me to relate to. As soon as I am regularly craning my neck to
         | see all of my screen real estate, it is no longer a positive in
         | my life. I'm glad these solutions exist for people who enjoy
         | them, but they are definitely not for me.
        
       | jnsaff2 wrote:
       | I used a 32" non-curved 4k monitor for a few months once. At some
       | point I realized that I was moving my head around a lot as the
       | corners were at an awkward place. On 28" I don't have this.
       | 
       | So anything above 30-ish inches I would consider either curved
       | (expensive for hidpi resolutions) or two/three 27" screens angled
       | a bit.
       | 
       | I can't imagine how bad it would be on a 65" flat screen.
        
         | bradfa wrote:
         | 30" flat screen at normal desktop viewing distance seems to be
         | my personal limit, too.
        
           | skirmish wrote:
           | How close are you to the screen? With my face about 1 foot
           | away, I can easily scan all corners on the 32" 4k flat screen
           | just by moving my eyes.
        
       | mdrzn wrote:
       | "8K TVs tend to start at around $1500 to $2000 for a 65" one.
       | This is about the same as getting four 32" 4K monitors."
       | 
       | Getting 3 32" 4k monitors is still better than having a single
       | point of failure. But also I'm extremely happy with my single
       | Odyssey G9 55".
        
         | imaginarypedro wrote:
         | You're so right about the single point of failure.
         | 
         | I bought a 30" monitor back in 2008 when that constituted a
         | large monitor. It had a 12 month warranty and died after 13
         | months. :-(
         | 
         | I switched to 2 24-inch monitors which cost less, had more
         | total pixels, and most importantly I no longer had that single
         | point of failure.
        
       | SirMaster wrote:
       | How about a projector? There are no 8K projectors
       | 
       | Well that's not technically true...
       | 
       | https://www.jvc.com/usa/pro/projectors/dla-vs8000g/
       | 
       | But obviously not affordable.
        
         | js2 wrote:
         | Discontinued:
         | 
         | https://www.projectorcentral.com/JVC-DLA-VS8000G.htm
         | 
         | I'm not sure if they ever shipped it to any retail customers.
         | I'm a JVC projector owner so I kinda follow JVC projector news.
         | The higher end JVC PJs are used by Boeing for flight sims:
         | 
         | https://www.boeing.com/defense/support/training/constant-res...
         | 
         | JVC accommodates that use case with things like extra chassis
         | mounting points to allow the projector to be mounted securely
         | in a dynamic environment. This looks like it may have been an
         | early POC in native 8K for Boeing.
        
       | asadm wrote:
       | Is there a plugin for mac to make tiled windowing easier. All the
       | current ones are a bit too hacky. I really liked tiling in PopOS.
        
         | thelittleone wrote:
         | The linked article suggests yabai.
        
         | jamalaramala wrote:
         | Rectangle is pretty good.
        
       | anoncow wrote:
       | I think the questions to ask are:
       | 
       | 1. At what size and resolution are flat screen monitors most
       | useful?
       | 
       | 2. At what size do curved screens start becoming useful?
       | 
       | 3. What is the upper limit for useful screen sizes?
       | 
       | 4. Is there an upper likit for useful resolutions?
        
         | atahanacar wrote:
         | For 1 and 2, I would say it totally boils down to personal
         | preference an distance/size ratio. For 3, again, distance to
         | the screen matters a lot.
         | 
         | The 4th one I've seen the most heated discussions about. In my
         | opinion, highest you can afford (both money-wise and
         | computational power-wise) is the most useful resolution. Even
         | if you can't distinguish the individual pixels (aka screen door
         | effect) aliasing is still an issue.
        
       | vunderba wrote:
       | I use dual 27" 144kHz 4K monitors and am mostly pretty happy with
       | my setup though I have considered moving to an Ultra Wide curved
       | monitor, I'm just not sure if the OCD side of me would be
       | bothered by the curvature.
       | 
       | Unless I'm misunderstanding, one of the advantages of using
       | physically distinct monitors is that it's easier to send things
       | into a full screen mode without affecting the other displays - I
       | guess apps that support "borderless windows" are less of an
       | issue.
       | 
       | Maybe there's some type of cross platform (Mac, Lennox, Windows)
       | virtual display driver software that can allow you to create
       | "picture in picture" virtualized monitors though?
        
         | bradfa wrote:
         | My Dell monitor has a picture-by-picture mode which works very
         | well to simulate 2 distinct displays. Each side uses its own
         | video input. Many higher end monitors can do this, unsure how
         | many TVs can.
        
           | hinkley wrote:
           | I haven't figured out the trick to make OSX use the entire
           | screen on PBP mode. I just get two little screens.
        
         | Suppafly wrote:
         | >Unless I'm misunderstanding, one of the advantages of using
         | physically distinct monitors is that it's easier to send things
         | into a full screen mode without affecting the other displays -
         | I guess apps that support "borderless windows" are less of an
         | issue.
         | 
         | This is one of the reasons I stuck with two monitors instead of
         | one long one when I upgraded a while back. I know there are
         | workarounds and helper programs you can install and whatnot,
         | but I like being able to drag something to the side and full
         | screen it without any additional hoops. Plus the long monitor
         | crowd tend to have things centered on the screen and then have
         | small accessory areas to either side instead of two distinctly
         | large screens. Plus resolution wise, unless you're going with a
         | really wide monitor, you probably have more overall resolution
         | with two screens, especially if price is a factor at all.
         | Standalone 27" monitors are basically the standard and are
         | priced accordingly.
        
       | appleiigs wrote:
       | Does any one else have mouse lag with giant high pixel density
       | monitors?
        
         | gwbas1c wrote:
         | Check your refresh rate. With my 4k TV, the mouse gets laggy if
         | it falls back to 30hz.
         | 
         | I plug my TV directly into my laptop with a USBC -> HDMI cable.
         | Docking stations often fall back to lower refresh rates.
        
         | abhinavk wrote:
         | It might be your port or cable that doesn't support the
         | required bandwidth to drive your hi-dpi display at the selected
         | refresh-rate.
        
         | AnotherGoodName wrote:
         | That's typical of tvs. The signal is delayed by a few seconds
         | because for passive entertainment why not. You will likely have
         | a mode for your tv that does no post processing and has minimal
         | delay Often called pc or gaming mode. Look up "[your tv model]
         | gaming mode".
        
       | zavertnik wrote:
       | This is something I've wanted to do for a while! I wish Samsung
       | still produced their 55" 8K displays-- 8k @ 55" gives you
       | effectively the same PPI as a 27" 4K display. Maybe someday.
        
       | jamalaramala wrote:
       | The biggest problem I see is ergonomics.
       | 
       | The proper monitor height is when the top third of the screen is
       | at or slightly below your eye level when seated or standing
       | upright. This positioning helps prevent neck strain and allows
       | for a comfortable viewing angle.
       | 
       | The top third of a large TV will be much higher than that, which
       | will cause long term discomfort.
       | 
       | That's why large monitors have much wider aspect than TVs.
        
         | AnotherGoodName wrote:
         | Yep a huge monitor sounds good in theory but you end up with
         | neck and eye strain from panning your head constantly unless
         | you place it so far away that it's effectively a regular
         | monitor at a regular distance.
        
         | k4rli wrote:
         | Would recommend a black background Vscode theme for an OLED.
         | The black background with red accents looks beautiful, at least
         | on my smaller XPS 15 4k OLED. I use Dobri Next Black with some
         | customizations but it looks good by default as well.
        
           | satvikpendem wrote:
           | Nice, I use Hyper Term Theme. I'll have to check out the one
           | you mentioned.
        
       | m_ke wrote:
       | I've been using 42" 4K TVs as my monitor for like 10 years now. 2
       | years ago I upgraded to an OLED LG A1 and it has been amazing.
       | 
       | https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/lg/a1-oled
       | 
       | For anyone using a TV I recommend using
       | https://github.com/waydabber/BetterDisplay to properly scale the
       | display.
        
         | steelbrain wrote:
         | Looks great, thank you for sharing. I've been looking for
         | something similar (OLED, for work/gaming) so looked into the
         | one you're using.
         | 
         | > Doesn't support variable refresh rates or HDMI 2.1.
         | 
         | Unfortunately that makes it a deal breaker. The search
         | continues
        
           | kayg04 wrote:
           | The C1/C2/C3/C4 do support HDMI 2.1 and VRR.
        
         | bluedino wrote:
         | I have a 43" LG 4K TV as my main screen for the last two years,
         | it's great. I'd actually like something just a little bit
         | bigger, 50" maybe?
         | 
         | The trick for me was to wall-mount it and get a deep desk. I
         | prefer to be at least 36" away from it.
        
         | tetraodonpuffer wrote:
         | Have you had issues with image retention? I also like the 43"
         | 4K setup for some things, but these days it seems IPS screens
         | in that size are not as easy to find, I've always been wary of
         | OLED due to burn-in
        
       | dekhn wrote:
       | Am I the only person who wants a monitor that's curved in both
       | axes (left/right and up/down) so I can surround myself with a
       | sphere of monitors, and then pivot on a gimbal?
        
         | xnx wrote:
         | Apple Vision Pro would probably accomplish this
        
           | amelius wrote:
           | What are its viewing angles?
        
             | dekhn wrote:
             | it's around 100 degrees while humans can see more like 180
             | degrees (more if you move your eyes; I don't want to move
             | my eyes, I want to gimbal my body to focus on a specific
             | monitor) although outside the center of your vision, you
             | don't have good "resolution". The Vision Pro would be like
             | being inside the sphere, but with a big aperture blocking
             | all the side monitors
        
       | thelittleone wrote:
       | I'd love to do this but always worried (probably incorrectly)
       | that the energy output wouldn't feel great and result in faster
       | fatigue or require more rest breaks.
        
       | jfb wrote:
       | I'd be happy to, but there aren't any 8K TVs at 55" or smaller. I
       | want the pixels, but I'm not going to put a 65" TV on my damn
       | desk -- I have two 27" 4k now, and it's ... fine, I guess? but I
       | want a 42" 8k running at 2x.
        
       | wing-_-nuts wrote:
       | I am excited for 8k monitors in the future, because they give you
       | a _lot_ more options for integer scaling than current 4k
       | displays.
       | 
       | I know this a nerdish hill to die on, but I hate fractional
       | scaling with the blazing fury of a thousand suns. To get a 1440p
       | sized UI on a 27" 4k display, you can't just divide by 1.5x the
       | OS has to 3x/2 for _every_ frame. OS X does this best as they 've
       | had retina displays for a while, but no OS does this well, and it
       | leads to all sorts of performance issues especially when dealing
       | with view ports. Linux is especially bad.
       | 
       | Having said all that, I absolutely will _not_ be using an 8k tv
       | as a display. I 'm currently using a 27" 1440p monitor, and while
       | I could probably handle a 32" 8k display that is the absolute max
       | size I'd tolerate. You start to get into all sorts of issues with
       | viewing distance and angle going larger.
       | 
       | My 27" 1440p is fine for now. I sit far enough away from it that
       | I don't really 'see the pixels' unless I go looking for them. It
       | was also a crazy good deal as it's a 144hz monitor that also has
       | a built in KVM switch that's very useful for WFH.
        
         | zokier wrote:
         | That's why we have so-called 5k monitors in 27" size class?
         | Being exactly 2x pixel density of conventional 1440p
        
           | layer8 wrote:
           | 27" 1440p at 100% is too small for me, so 5K at 200% has the
           | same problem. More generally, the available PPIs combined
           | with integer scaling only yield relatively few options at a
           | given viewing distance. More choice would be nice.
        
           | wing-_-nuts wrote:
           | Yep pretty much, and 6k 32" monitors. Both are fringe
           | monitors mainly used by mac people.
        
         | wilsonnb3 wrote:
         | I am curious as to what OS's you've tried. Fractional scaling
         | is flawless on Windows and KDE6 with wayland in my experience.
        
           | wing-_-nuts wrote:
           | I wouldn't describe any OS as 'flawless', they're all doing
           | what I describe under the hood. QT does have better support
           | than GTK atm. I've also seen bad behavior on windows, esp
           | with older apps. OS X is about the best out there, but even
           | it can have issues with applications that have a view port
           | (i.e. video editors, etc).
           | 
           | I'd prefer to skip all that so I'm happy staying on 1440p
           | until 8k monitors are where 1440p monitors are today with
           | regard to price and quality.
        
             | recursive wrote:
             | It may well be doing what you described under the hood, but
             | I've never seen any evidence of a performance problem as a
             | result.
        
       | itomato wrote:
       | 10 years ago it was the 30" Seiki 4K TV
       | 
       | https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=seiki+4k
       | 
       | Niche no more.
        
       | xnx wrote:
       | Televisions continue to be the best deal going:
       | https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/price-changes-consumer-go...
       | 
       | That chart doesn't even fully account for the increased size,
       | pixel density, color accuracy, contrast, and refresh rates.
        
       | ballerburg9006 wrote:
       | TL;DR: You can't really replace a monitor wall with a single
       | screen because it does not curve to create the right viewing
       | angle, which makes text seriously unreadable at the edges, which
       | forces you to seriously upscale the font size, which steals the
       | largest amount of real estate possible. Of all the compromises to
       | make, reducing the number of screens is one of the worst ones.
       | 
       | 4k screens are already somewhat questionable for productivity for
       | this reason alone. The only serious argument that can be made is
       | 1440p vs 1080p (personally I would argue for 1080p, if using
       | bitmap fonts and having perfect eyesight). A 4k monitor wall is a
       | rather fringe setup, that only works out to an advantage for day
       | traders and weird surveillance applications. And it requires that
       | you constantly do very energetic body gymnastics to change your
       | perspective's location and be able to see all the details. With a
       | single 8k screen without upscaling font size (hence preserving
       | all technical real-estate), the body gymnastics required would be
       | so much worse than a 4k wall, it would be absolutely ridiculous
       | and clown-alike and almost impossible to use while typing.
       | Otherwise people mainly want big 4k/8k screens for dual use as a
       | TV set. But this is just wrong in itself, it creates a paradox
       | for no good reason, like using screwdrivers as chisels. Some
       | things are not meant to be. The only arrangement where 4k makes
       | some sense for common use cases, is maybe above a curved ultra
       | widescreen.
        
       | catchmeifyoucan wrote:
       | On most monitors I've been using these days, I keep scaling the
       | resolution down. I've noticed that the bigger the text, the more
       | comfortable my eyes feel. I still prefer a good high-res monitor
       | because it scales down with less blur
        
         | deedub wrote:
         | This is what I do too, then I can sit even further away. Feels
         | good on the ole' eyeballs.
        
       | preisschild wrote:
       | I use a single curved 57" 32:9 DUHD monitor (Samsung Odyssey NEO
       | G95NC) for work and gaming. Previously I used 3 24" monitors, but
       | I like this setup a lot more.
       | 
       | I split it into 3 sections (browser for docs, and rest
       | terminal/nvim), but i can easily change this if I want to show
       | slack for example. For gaming I go fullscreen (and use overlays
       | for stuff like VOIP or browsing) because it is a lot more
       | immersive.
        
       | jbverschoor wrote:
       | Nope.. I want to be able to properly split the screen in
       | different inputs because of the lack of proper window / workspace
       | management if you're not using separate monitors
        
         | cerved wrote:
         | I'd suggest getting a better window manager
        
       | vid wrote:
       | I wanted to go down this path some months ago, but couldn't find
       | any options on the market. I ended up with a 42" 4k LG C3, but
       | it's just "ok" because I can easily see pixels. I wanted to use
       | the room as dual use work/watch movies, but without the need to
       | watch movies I'd probably go back to a wide screen curved
       | display.
        
       | bdcravens wrote:
       | > The bezels and gaps in between the monitors introduce
       | distractions and one is limited in how one may arrange terminals
       | and windows across multiple displays.
       | 
       | To me, the segmentation is a feature. It lets me offload
       | information density and focus. For example, I commonly have an
       | editor on one screen, a browser on the second, and something like
       | a chat app, terminal, etc on the laptop screen.
        
         | Arrath wrote:
         | Same, I've never liked spanning a window across multiple
         | monitors. The discontinuity of the bezel is a handy mental
         | break. Often I'll have email and teams on one screen and my
         | main item of work on the central screen.
        
         | dmd wrote:
         | Nobody's stopping you from segmenting one big monitor into
         | different regions; and you get to choose how big those regions
         | are from day to day rather than being forced into it.
        
           | kevin_thibedeau wrote:
           | That's too much extra work. With multiple monitors you can
           | maximize primary apps while still having manual management of
           | smaller supporting apps on another monitor. You also get more
           | edges for rapid snap to the sides of a monitor.
        
             | r00fus wrote:
             | You're not using the best window managers - most have
             | customizable drag points or keybindings to get exactly what
             | you want.
        
               | __MatrixMan__ wrote:
               | Since you seem to know about the best window managers,
               | can you recommend one for MacOS which will let me direct
               | focus to whichever window is left/right/down/up of the
               | currently selected one? i3/sway does this just fine, but
               | my impression is that MacOS's api doesn't allow third
               | party developers to pull it off, but I'd love to be wrong
               | about that.
        
               | daveungerer wrote:
               | Not the person you were asking, but after years of using
               | i3, AeroSpace is the only way I can use a Mac
               | productively, and does indeed have the feature you're
               | describing.
        
               | choochootrain wrote:
               | the article mentions
               | https://github.com/koekeishiya/yabai, which i have been
               | using for a few years to get me to 90% parity with i3.
               | 
               | it has quirks and limitations, some of which can be fixed
               | by disabling system integrity protection but it can
               | definitely handle window tiling and navigating with
               | keybindings when you use the companion daemon
               | https://github.com/koekeishiya/skhd
        
               | creakingstairs wrote:
               | I use yabai which does what you say and more pretty well.
               | It also lets you completely remove spaces transition
               | effect but this will require disabling of SIP.
        
             | jrockway wrote:
             | Even Windows has this with PowerToys.
             | 
             | I use 3 monitors but would switch to 1 if games respected
             | the dimensions and 8k displays could refresh at 360Hz.
        
           | jsheard wrote:
           | Although if that big monitor is an OLED, segmenting it into
           | halves or quarters is kind of begging to end up with a line
           | burned in down or across the middle eventually.
        
             | shric wrote:
             | I'm imagining a tiling window manager screensaver that
             | slowly resizes and moves your window boundaries throughout
             | the day
        
               | John_Cena wrote:
               | Samsung solves this in the TV itself. It can be annoying
               | when the edges of the screen are ever so slightly off,
               | but i'm glad I don't have to worry about it. QCQ90S. I
               | wouldn't recommend it since the tv's gui is glacially
               | slow, but then again all the ones I tried last year were.
        
               | satvikpendem wrote:
               | Many OLED monitors and TVs already do this, it's called
               | pixel shifting.
        
               | accrual wrote:
               | A Panasonic Viera plasma TV I bought around 2012 also had
               | this feature.
        
           | kimixa wrote:
           | They tend to be relatively poorly handled by the software, at
           | least out of the box.
           | 
           | Every modern major OS now has some level of tiling/splitting
           | on a monitor's edges baked into their window manager by
           | default now. Some can be tweaked to split into smaller
           | subgroups, but that often requires less well tested/polished
           | options (some apps just ignore the hints), or even third
           | party extensions.
        
           | 8338550bff96 wrote:
           | I am (*1000*`_')
           | 
           | Continuously micro-manage the layout of individual
           | application windows your window manager is a form of
           | procrastination.
           | 
           | Back to work!
        
           | qingcharles wrote:
           | In theory, that would be the solution. In practice I read
           | about all sorts of weird edge cases and bugs when trying to
           | do that.
           | 
           | Some discussions over here:
           | 
           | https://www.reddit.com/r/ultrawidemasterrace/
        
           | ZYbCRq22HbJ2y7 wrote:
           | Anything fullscreen? How are you segmenting sub displays
           | easily in that scenario?
        
         | jamesyun wrote:
         | I use a single ultrawide at home and dual-monitors at work.
         | 
         | Initially thought having one monitor experience was more
         | seamless, but I do miss implicit window organizational aspect
         | that dual monitors provide. And screensharing on the ultra-wide
         | is a pain.
        
           | vizzier wrote:
           | FancyZones does exist to help with some of this if you're on
           | windows:
           | 
           | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-
           | us/windows/powertoys/fancyzon...
        
           | dadadad100 wrote:
           | My Samsung ultra wide has side by side mode with two input
           | cables. Screen sharing (and Windows) thinks it's two monitors
           | but I can stretch windows all the way across both if I want
           | to since it is an extended set
        
           | r00fus wrote:
           | A decent window management tool (e.g. Rectangle.app) should
           | resolve most of your window management issues - set up many
           | drag points to easily divide windows by half, thirds,
           | quarters, sixths, etc.
           | 
           | Most screen share apps should support sharing by window. Also
           | best for privacy (so your viewers don't see the side channel
           | chat notifications pop up).
           | 
           | Also an ultrawide monitor is preferable for spreadsheet
           | warriors.
           | 
           | I will not give up my 49" 21x9 for anything lesser.
        
           | TheRealPomax wrote:
           | If your ultrawide is anything like mine, it also has a
           | setting that lets it register as two separate monitors
           | (PIP/PBP mode), which is like having two monitors without the
           | bezel, but with the convenience of "there's an edge" in the
           | middle of your screen when doing regular desktop work.
           | 
           | Does require two cables of course, but if you're driving an
           | ultrawide, you're probably using a graphics card with three
           | or four outputs anyway.
        
         | jwells89 wrote:
         | Same. This utility is also multiplied by having a separate set
         | of virtual desktops on each display, which lets one create sets
         | of windows/apps that can be mix-matched between screens,
         | reducing the amount of window-shuffling to almost nothing after
         | initial setup.
         | 
         | This is only possible under macOS and Linux, unfortunately. On
         | Windows virtual desktops are still kind of a weird hack that
         | spans one desktop across all monitors.
        
         | ARandumGuy wrote:
         | Yeah that issue seems weird to me, because I've never found
         | bezels themselves to be that much of a problem. Like sure, less
         | bezel is better. But I have some pretty wide gaps in my work
         | monitors, and I've never found it to be a problem.
         | 
         | This article, and a lot of "productivity" articles, feel like
         | spending a lot of time and effort for marginal-at-best
         | improvements. I don't know their specific workflow, but I'm
         | pretty sure they could get basically the same amount of
         | productivity with a handful of 1080p monitors.
        
         | porphyra wrote:
         | The Dell Ultrasharp 43 4K monitor [1] has a mode where it
         | pretends to be four monitors, one in each quadrant.
         | 
         | > four unique FHD partitions via Internal Multi-Stream
         | Transport (iMST) when connected to a single PC
         | 
         | That's nice for people to organize their windows without
         | needing to figure out a tiling window manager. If only it was
         | 8K instead of 4K...
         | 
         | [1] https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-
         | ultrasharp-43-4k-usb-c-...
        
       | qwertox wrote:
       | > You can even use the same TV for 4K 120 Hz gaming or watching
       | movies as a bonus!
       | 
       | But you can't use the computer at the same time then. With a 3
       | monitor setup I can add an HDMI switch to one of them, and when I
       | want to play, then I can switch that monitor to connect to the
       | PS. This way I have still 2 monitors to use. Then one can be used
       | for TV in the browser and the other one for other stuff.
        
       | lofaszvanitt wrote:
       | A sure sign that someone doesn't know what they're doing is if
       | they use 3 or more monitors for programming.
       | 
       | And also interested in their neck related issues 10+ years later.
        
         | tetraodonpuffer wrote:
         | Huh? One screen for email/slack/.. main screen for the ide,
         | other screen for logs etc. a lot less context switch to glance
         | left/right than to go to another virtual desktop
        
         | hathawsh wrote:
         | I like to think Jeff Atwood has some idea of what he's doing.
         | 
         | https://blog.codinghorror.com/three-monitors-for-every-user/
        
           | lofaszvanitt wrote:
           | People and their need for a "leader". No matter the quality.
           | We had enough "truth tellers" and "follow me men" kinda
           | shills.
           | 
           | Time to realize that not everyone is your friend in the
           | internet. They feed you bullshit all the time and laugh how
           | gullible people are and question nothing, just follow based
           | on perceived merits of an individual.
        
         | bhouston wrote:
         | I've had two monitors since the mid-2000s, and only recently
         | gave them up for one 48". I haven't had neck problems yet in
         | any way.
        
         | Msurrow wrote:
         | One screen for IDE (center)
         | 
         | One screen for documentation/browser
         | 
         | One screen for running the application (being developed).
         | 
         | Please, go ahead a explain to me how I don't know what I'm
         | doing.
        
           | mromanuk wrote:
           | I normally work with a 40", I'm using a a hammerspoon to
           | divide the screen, but normally I end using one main window,
           | with some smaller window at the side and cmd-tabbing between
           | info. How do you manage the distraction of so many
           | information at the same time? Do you switch between apps? use
           | the mouse? don't you loose track of where the focused window
           | is?
        
           | lofaszvanitt wrote:
           | There are always good exceptions. But it's a rare sight.
        
         | recursive wrote:
         | A sure sign that someone doesn't know what they're doing is if
         | they can judge someone's competence by how many monitors they
         | use for programming.
        
       | nickreese wrote:
       | I just bought the EU version of this in 55inch and candidly wish
       | I got the 65. The 55 I have to run it scaled and my mac crashes
       | daily to it.
        
       | throwaway48476 wrote:
       | The checkerboard pattern is from not using VRR. You need to
       | enable game mode and select VRR as the refresh rate in the OS
       | settings.
        
       | jrflowers wrote:
       | I love this blog post.
       | 
       | "It can display seven equally spaced vertical columns of text
       | (critical importance), has driver issues (minimal importance),
       | wake issues (who cares), it costs as much as four smaller
       | monitors (this is good), I need a huge desk (hell yeah), there
       | are multiple image quality issues (well it's not like I have to
       | look at it all day)..."
       | 
       | It is like "I spent fifteen hundred dollars on a multitude of
       | hassles due to purchasing the wrong type of display, but due to
       | the lack of bezel this is a prime efficiency move "
        
         | dingnuts wrote:
         | yeah but I kind of get it..
        
           | jrflowers wrote:
           | Absolutely. I remember watching Swordfish and wanting
           | Stanley's setup
        
         | throwaway48476 wrote:
         | Once you no longer see pixels you'll never want to go back.
        
           | stephenr wrote:
           | I think you'd have to sit further back than is otherwise
           | natural (and then have the issue of legibility/lost
           | workspace) to achieve "can't see the pixels" on this.
           | 
           | Sure it's 8K but it's 65", it's only got a PPI of 135. For
           | comparison Apple (computer) displays and a handful of third
           | parties that target Mac use are generally 200-220 PPI. That
           | is can't see the pixels density, even if you smash your face
           | against it.
        
             | throwaway48476 wrote:
             | I have a 55" 8K and I can't see the pixels while sitting
             | 2ft away. Everything is crisp and I have a huge workspace.
             | For mac I use 4k native so 2x integer scaling.
        
           | Toutouxc wrote:
           | I went back from using different displays in HiDPI to using a
           | single 43" 4K screen set to 100 % scaling. Screen estate
           | trumps invisible pixels [for me, at the moment].
        
           | bluGill wrote:
           | I'd give a lot to go back to my 20 year old eyes that could
           | see pixels without special glasses. Sure I can't see pixels
           | (well maybe I still could on an janky third party CGA monitor
           | from 1983), but it isn't worth it. (I'd say save your
           | eyesight, but realistically I'm not aware of anything you can
           | do to keep it past about 45)
        
           | recursive wrote:
           | I've used both. I quite honestly don't care. I've heard many
           | people that share your sentiment. But some of us just don't.
           | Visible pixels are totally fine for me.
        
         | porphyra wrote:
         | > Multiple image quality issues
         | 
         | Only the first one (dirty screen) is a real issue, but it is
         | subtle and irrelevant to programming; the second one
         | (checkerboard), as the post explains, is solved by toggling an
         | option in settings.
         | 
         | > Driver issues
         | 
         | The post explains that it works perfectly with current NVidia
         | drivers on Linux, and on Windows both AMD and NVidia on Windows
         | have had driver support for HDMI 2.1 for years.
        
         | dylan604 wrote:
         | I didn't see any mention of how many times he has to pick up
         | his mouse when it gets to the edge of the pad to get the mouse
         | from one edge of the screen to the other.
        
           | bravoetch wrote:
           | With all that text, I'm hoping their religion is keyboard
           | shortcuts.
        
             | shric wrote:
             | i3/sway was recommended in the post, so yes.
        
           | bee_rider wrote:
           | Maybe they use a marble mouse or something like that.
        
           | dllu wrote:
           | Author here: I use a Logitech G Pro X Superlight but also I
           | use the i3 window manager and rely on keyboard shortcuts for
           | a lot of the navigation. I have the mouse sensitivity set so
           | that the cursor can traverse the width of the screen when
           | moving the mouse about 13 cm, without any acceleration. This
           | is still precise enough that I can move the mouse pixel by
           | pixel if needed.
        
           | LargoLasskhyfv wrote:
           | Who needs a pad? And who needs the mouse to move more than 2
           | to 3 cm max, with dynamic acceleration? I'm just doin' 0.5cm
           | twitches most of the times.
        
           | satvikpendem wrote:
           | That's easily solved with mouse sensitivity settings, it
           | doesn't matter the size of the screen if you set it properly.
        
         | chankstein38 wrote:
         | I chuckled at "The 8K display is only $1500 at BestBuy!" the
         | "only" lol I spent $400 on my projector that I use for my main
         | screen and it works great. But when I did that I had previously
         | only bought $200 projectors. So even that was not an "only" for
         | me.
        
           | dakiol wrote:
           | May I ask what projector? I'm thinking about getting one as
           | well
        
           | guerrilla wrote:
           | Is it a dumb projector?
        
           | Workaccount2 wrote:
           | Reality warps when you and everyone you know pulls $200k+
           | annually.
        
         | dllu wrote:
         | I actually spent $3500 on mine haha, back in 2021. Early
         | adopter tax...
        
         | outworlder wrote:
         | The example he's chosen is of a ridiculously sized TV. 65" is
         | living room TV size.
         | 
         | There are smaller, OLED displays that would be more
         | suitable(while still rather big). Many are 'just' 4k, but the
         | smaller sizes should give one a decent pixel size.
        
       | bhouston wrote:
       | I use a 48" OLED with my MacBook Air M3 and for me that is a near
       | ultimate web development experience both on desktop and when
       | travelling:
       | 
       | https://bsky.app/profile/benhouston3d.bsky.social/post/3l7li...
       | 
       | I mentioned this here on Hacker News just yesterday, but most
       | respondents were appalled that it was only a 4K monitor:
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41988340
        
         | cerved wrote:
         | Same. I used to have a 56" OLED but it was a tad large. 48 is
         | perfect. The hardest part was buying a good desk mount.
         | 
         | It doesn't work great with an all white screen but I use dark
         | mode for most things
        
         | porphyra wrote:
         | You might have posted a wrong link for the second link, which
         | is the same as this HN post.
        
           | bhouston wrote:
           | Thx. Fixed it!
        
         | wilsonnb3 wrote:
         | 48 inches at 4K is such a low pixel density, are you not
         | bothered by how bad text looks compared to high DPI screens?
        
       | prmoustache wrote:
       | I didn't even knew 8K TV and monitors existed.
       | 
       | I am still on dual fullhd display and was considering a single 4K
       | or 5K display vetween 27 and 32".
        
       | thefz wrote:
       | > 8K TVs may be driven at 8K 60 Hz with no chroma subsampling by
       | using HDMI 2.1, which is available on all current (Nvidia RTX
       | 4000 series and AMD 7000 series) and previous gen (Nvidia RTX
       | 3000 series, AMD 6000 series) graphics cards. Older computers
       | with GPUs outputting DisplayPort 1.4 may use adapters such as the
       | Club3D one to achieve 8K 60 Hz.
       | 
       | Isn't "plain" DP 1.4 confined to HBR3 - thus its maximum refresh
       | rate is 8K-30Hz?
       | 
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DisplayPort#Resolution_and_ref...
        
         | vbernat wrote:
         | He mentions this adapter: https://www.amazon.fr/Club3D-CAC-1087
         | -DisplayPort-4K120Hz-8K.... With DSC 1.2, you should get 8K at
         | 60Hz.
        
       | RecycledEle wrote:
       | I am using a pair of 43", 4k TVs. The 2x43" configuration has
       | been my working setup for about a decade. I love it.
       | 
       | Anything bigger than 43" diagonal causes neck pain because it is
       | too tall.
       | 
       | I understand three 32" TVs also work.
        
         | mciancia wrote:
         | Seems pretty wide. no problem there?
        
       | okasaki wrote:
       | I use a 4k TV. I've wanted upgrade to 8k for a while, but
       | according to this post AMD on Linux can't do 8k so I guess I'm
       | sticking with my current setup.
       | 
       | My 780M already struggles running GNOME at 4k, so maybe that's
       | for the best.
        
       | physhster wrote:
       | Ultrawide 5K2K is a great sweet spot, at least for what I do,
       | which includes a bit of everything. I never liked dual monitors
       | with a split in the middle. Ultrawides solve that.
        
       | bsimpson wrote:
       | According to https://tools.rodrigopolo.com/display_calc/, a 65"
       | 8K like the one in the article is retina at a 26" viewing
       | distance (136 PPI). For reference, a 27" 4K screen has 163 PPI,
       | and is retina at 21" by the same math. A 27" 5K (like the Apple
       | Studio Display) has 218 PPI and is retina at 16".
        
         | mixmastamyk wrote:
         | The DPI of this screen is too low for all the drawbacks. Would
         | rather have crisper text (150+ DPI, 200 preferable) and/or be
         | able to carry it myself. Needs to be about 42" for that.
        
       | linsomniac wrote:
       | Beware of backlight offsets. TV panels can have smaller
       | backlights, because they're meant to be viewed from further away,
       | and my LG 46 monitor didn't have backlight behind the lower 2-3
       | rows of pixels and a couple pixels on the left and right, when
       | viewed at my desk. This may not impact some people, but I often
       | go full screen text and missing some of the left and bottom
       | pixels was annoying. I ended up able to configure i3-gaps so that
       | it never displayed anything in those areas, solving the problem.
       | It worked great as a huge monitor otherwise.
        
       | valval wrote:
       | I went through a phase of wanting the most possible screen estate
       | to do sick multi tasking gimmicks like having chats,
       | documentation, code editor, and prototype open at once. It was
       | glorious, a 5k2k ultrawide monitor filled to the brim with a
       | mishmash of sometimes related, sometimes unrelated windows.
       | 
       | Then it hit me that I can only focus on one thing at a time since
       | I'm a human being, and having multiple attention grabbing things
       | in front of me is never good. I now run a single Studio Display
       | and have a code editor in full screen, switching to other content
       | through virtual desktops. I'm WAY more productive this way.
       | 
       | Now I might just have a short attention span and that's that, but
       | using a TV as a monitor sounds like hell to me now.
        
       | aftbit wrote:
       | I sorta tried this, using a single one of those large 4k curved
       | monitors at my desk in San Francisco before the pandemic. It was
       | alright, but I always liked having two 2k monitors more. At this
       | point, as an Awesome WM user (there are dozens of us!), I really
       | depend on having two different monitors so I can have two
       | different sets of tiling window tags.
        
       | gosub100 wrote:
       | I'm embarking on a similar geek journey. Just today I bought a
       | used radiology PACS display (barco mdcc-6430) just to see if
       | there is anything novel or cool about the picture or any clinical
       | features. I'm not expecting much but stuff like this is how you
       | find out.
       | 
       | This display is color, however I have considered getting a
       | grayscale only rads display for "ADHD purposes" i.e. the same
       | reason people are interested in e-ink displays (well, one
       | reason).
       | 
       | It will probably be a huge waste of time and money but I'm just a
       | masochist for tech pain I guess...
        
       | aftbit wrote:
       | >The AMD on Linux fiasco is because the HDMI Forum has prohibited
       | AMD from implementing HDMI 2.1 in their open source Linux
       | drivers.
       | 
       | I wonder why this didn't stop nvidia.
       | 
       | https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/uoxtsx/the_nv...
        
       | matheusmoreira wrote:
       | I've always wondered why everybody would buy "monitors" for
       | computer use. Isn't it the same thing as a television screen?
       | Back then TVs used to take different inputs but everything is
       | digital now.
       | 
       | That checkerboard effect is certainly interesting. Someone
       | somewhere is going to be nostalgic about this artifact someday,
       | maybe they'll even make a shader to emulate it. I wonder what
       | causes it and why it disappears in game mode.
       | 
       | > on Linux it took about two years for 8K 60 Hz support to work,
       | spawning a salty thread on GitHub
       | 
       | All I see is paying customers asking for support.
       | 
       | > The AMD on Linux fiasco is because the HDMI Forum has
       | prohibited AMD from implementing HDMI 2.1 in their open source
       | Linux drivers.
       | 
       | That's weird since nvidia's open source driver has an
       | implementation.
        
       | bastard_op wrote:
       | I've been using 50" 4K/60 TV's (3x actually) as monitors since
       | 2015, and I love them. Prior from about 2007 on I used 6x 24"
       | LCD's, and in wanting to upgrade, didn't make sense to bother
       | with small LCD's to go vertical with another row for 12x
       | displays. I found Samsung curved 4k LCD's at the time for around
       | $650 each shipped around black friday, so it was a no-brainer.
       | I've never looked back really, or would consider anything smaller
       | now.
       | 
       | I am wondering how 8k displays would look replacing my current
       | samsung 4k's as these are pre-HDR, but I'll probably use these
       | until they start dying with no complaint. Plus no one does curved
       | displays now, which I'll miss from my current TV monitors.
        
         | ponty_rick wrote:
         | If its not too much of an intrusion, can you share a picture of
         | your setup?
        
       | dllu wrote:
       | Author here, ask me anything!
       | 
       | Apart from programming, one of the motivations for getting the 8K
       | display is to look at lidar point clouds. For example the desktop
       | background in my post is a lidar map of Bernal Hill in San
       | Francisco, which I've here downsampled to only 13006 x 7991 px
       | for your convenience [1].
       | 
       | Admittedly, when I bought it at first, I didn't realize there
       | would be so many random issues, as manufacturers all advertised
       | their gear as "8K Ready" even in 2021. As I incrementally fixed
       | the problems, I decided to document my journey in this blog post.
       | 
       | btw I posted this in the past but it got caught by the spam
       | filter and disappeared [2], not sure how to appeal that when it
       | happens. Thanks ingve for posting it again!
       | 
       | [1] https://pics.dllu.net/file/dllu-
       | lidar/tldr_707_all_c_fine_50... (13006 x 7991 px)
       | 
       | [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41102135
        
         | srid wrote:
         | To get retina quality display, you need to match the PPI right?
         | For 5K, 27" is the sweet spot. For 8k, what would be the
         | optimal size of TV?
        
           | dllu wrote:
           | What you really need to match is the angular resolution in
           | microradians from your eye. You can make any screen smaller
           | by sitting farther back. That said, I do wish my TV was only
           | 42". I guess if you really want the ppi to be exactly the
           | same as a 27" 5K screen, then 27 * 7680 / 5120 = 40.5".
        
             | JoshTriplett wrote:
             | This is exactly the reason I intend to stick with 4k for
             | now: I don't want a display that large. I currently have a
             | 48" 4k display, and I'd prefer to have a 42" or 36" one.
             | (Good choices are hard to find, though, particularly if you
             | _actually_ want 4k rather than ultrawide, want OLED, and
             | don 't want to just use a TV.)
        
         | lbrito wrote:
         | Do you have 20/20 eyesight, and how tall are you?
         | 
         | I use glasses (myopia) and can kind of tolerate the edges of my
         | 32" 4k monitor, but I can't fathom craning my neck all the way
         | up to the edges of a 55"+ display. Not to mention font sizes.
        
           | dllu wrote:
           | I have fairly bad eyesight with both myopia and astigmatism
           | (-5 sph, -2 cyl) and I wear glasses. I got glasses with 1.71
           | index lenses, which I greatly prefer over the more common
           | 1.74 index lenses due to the higher Abbe number, resulting in
           | less chromatic aberration.
           | 
           | Anyway, I use browsers at 150% scaling usually, although the
           | text is finer on my terminals. I don't use any scaling for UI
           | elements and terminals. Using the i3 tiling window manager, I
           | put more commonly used terminals on the bottom half of the
           | screen since I find that the top half does require more neck
           | craning.
           | 
           | I'm 184 cm tall.
        
           | satvikpendem wrote:
           | You sit back far enough that the TV encompasses your entire
           | field of view, so at that point there is no need to move your
           | neck at all, only your eyes.
        
           | qingcharles wrote:
           | I had a 55" TV as my main display in 2022. Had it about a
           | foot away from my face. It takes a few days, but your brain
           | and body get used to the size.
           | 
           | I just bought a 39" ultrawide and for the first few days I
           | thought "oh dear, I have to keep turning to see the whole
           | thing," but I've not even thought about it for a couple of
           | weeks now, so I guess I'm acclimated.
           | 
           | YMMV.
        
             | kanbankaren wrote:
             | I have been using a 32" monitor for the last 10 years. I
             | have found that I am using mostly the center of the
             | monitor. The peripheral edges remain unused.
             | 
             | If I sit far from the monitor, then the FOV could be
             | reduced, but then I have to increase the font size
             | defeating the very purpose of maximizing screen real
             | estate.
        
               | xyztimm wrote:
               | This is pretty much what I concluded as well after using
               | my 43" 4K LG monitor for about 3 years. Lately I've been
               | trying out my wife's 27" Apple Studio Display. It's
               | smaller but the PPI is amazing...
        
           | EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK wrote:
           | Isn't it good for a little exercise? Maybe we should have
           | 300" monitors so we jog from one edge of the screen to the
           | other as we type code :)
        
         | FireBeyond wrote:
         | I know your article is on 8K TVs, but it's worth pointing out
         | that the Dell UP3218K is a 32" 8K monitor (but is also not
         | without its own challenges).
        
           | satvikpendem wrote:
           | This is already mentioned in the article:
           | 
           | > _There is also a Dell UP3218K, but it costs the same as an
           | 8K TV and is much smaller and has many problems. So I do not
           | recommend it unless you really don't have the desk space.
           | Sitting further back from a bigger screen provides the same
           | field of view as sitting close to a smaller display, and may
           | have less eye strain._
        
             | dllu wrote:
             | I wish Dell would come out with a refreshed version of the
             | UP3218K that's cheaper and fixes its various little
             | glitches.
        
           | sneak wrote:
           | I have it and love it. The only problems I have with it are
           | related to it needing to be power cycled if I haven't used it
           | for a couple days.
        
         | satvikpendem wrote:
         | Nice to see other people doing the same thing I do, albeit with
         | a 4k OLED instead. I am waiting for an 8k OLED at an affordable
         | price but it seems I will have to continue waiting.
         | 
         | What brand and model of desk do you have? I have a 48" TV but I
         | sit rather close so it probably takes up the same field of view
         | as your 65".
         | 
         | As to your last paragraph, if you email hn@ycombinator.com and
         | explain the situation, they'll sort you out and sometimes put
         | you into a second chance pool, as it's called.
        
           | dllu wrote:
           | I have the Uplift 4 leg standing desk [1].
           | 
           | I got the black laminate desktop in a custom 75" x 42"
           | dimension so the whole thing cost me almost $2000.
           | 
           | [1] https://www.upliftdesk.com/uplift-4-leg-standing-
           | desk-v2-v2-...
        
             | cheschire wrote:
             | I wish deep desks were more common! Modern ultrawide curved
             | monitors sit way too close for comfort for me due to the
             | way their legs have to be angled further back for center of
             | gravity. custom desks end up being so expensive.
        
               | satvikpendem wrote:
               | Any good deep desks that you've found so far?
        
               | phonon wrote:
               | This is a cheap large desk I like.
               | 
               | https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BXH2MZRM
        
             | satvikpendem wrote:
             | How did you get it in a custom dimension? I'm almost
             | tempted to just put two of my current desk back to back to
             | make it deeper, would probably be much cheaper than 2k, but
             | then again, they're not standing desks.
        
               | dllu wrote:
               | Oh I just emailed them, and their rep Jeremy Postma is
               | very nice and responsive.
               | 
               | If you want a cheaper option you could buy an IKEA Karlby
               | Countertop that's 74" x 42" [1] and mount it on the legs
               | yourself.
               | 
               | [1] https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/karlby-countertop-for-
               | kitchen-i...
        
         | marai2 wrote:
         | What do you use the lidar point clouds for?
        
           | dllu wrote:
           | I was previously working at a lidar company and now I am
           | working at a robotics company providing calibration and
           | localization software to customers using a combination of
           | lidars, cameras, and other sensors.
        
         | itronitron wrote:
         | I'm curious how much heat this thing puts off, and whether
         | there are particular display types that generate more heat than
         | others.
        
           | dllu wrote:
           | Yeah it does emit a bit of heat. I think around one or two
           | hundred watts? I haven't measured it directly. I have a mini
           | split air conditioner in my home office.
        
             | seb1204 wrote:
             | Makes sense, also See comment about energy consumption of
             | 8k TV above.
        
         | williamDafoe wrote:
         | You COMPLETELY missed the elephant in the room : 8K TVs have
         | really, really massive CPUs that waste a TON of power (150-200w
         | for the CPU, 300-400w for the TV, often!) Think 8 cores of the
         | fastest arm 64-bit processors available plus extra hardware
         | accelerators! They need this extra processing power to handle
         | the 8K television load, such as upscaling and color transforms
         | - which never happen when you are using them as a monitor!
         | 
         | So, 8K TVs are a big energy-suck! There's a reason why European
         | regulations banned 100% of 8K TVs until the manufacturers
         | undoubtedly paid for a loophole, and now 8K TVs in Europe are
         | shipped in a super-power-saver mode where they consume just
         | barely below the maximum standard amount of power (90w) ... but
         | nobody leaves them in this mode because they look horrible and
         | dim!
         | 
         | If everybody were to upgrade to an 8K TV tomorrow, then I think
         | it would throw away all the progress we've made on Global
         | Warming for the past 20 years ...
        
           | mewpmewp2 wrote:
           | How does it compare to working from home as opposed to
           | driving to the office?
           | 
           | E.g. let's say I drive 10 miles a day to get to the office vs
           | use an 8k TV at home?
           | 
           | If I go out of my way to work from home, would I be ethically
           | ok to use 8k monitor?
           | 
           | Back of the napkin it seems like 8k monitor would be 10x
           | better than driving to the office?
        
             | maccard wrote:
             | I don't think this is an honest question.
             | 
             | There's no "fixed budget" of energy that is ethically ok to
             | use. The parents point was that these devices are woefully
             | inefficent no matter which way you look at them.
             | 
             | The "best" thing to do would be neither, and is usually to
             | just use the device you have - particularly for low power
             | electronics as the impact of buying a new one is more than
             | the impact of actually running the thing unless you run it
             | 24/7/365
        
               | mewpmewp2 wrote:
               | > There's no "fixed budget" of energy that is ethically
               | ok to use.
               | 
               | Not even 0.00001 W? How is it ethical to live in the
               | first place in such case?
               | 
               | > The parents point was that these devices are woefully
               | inefficent no matter which way you look at them.
               | 
               | It's always a trade off, of productivity, enjoyment vs
               | energy efficiency, isn't it? If I find a setup that
               | allows me to be more productive and enjoy my work more,
               | certainly I would need to balance it with how much
               | potential waste there is in terms of efficiency.
               | 
               | > The "best" thing to do would be neither, and is usually
               | to just use the device you have
               | 
               | That's quite a generic statement. If my device is a
               | budget android phone, do you expect me to keep coding on
               | it, not buying better tools?
        
           | seb1204 wrote:
           | Great aspect to consider, thanks for raising it.
        
           | dllu wrote:
           | Anecdotally my house draws 0.4 kW when idle and 0.6-0.7 kW
           | when both my 8K screen and my computer are on. Since my
           | computer draws 0.1-0.2 kW, I surmise that the QN800A doesn't
           | draw 300-400 W total --- maybe 100-200 W.
           | 
           | I run my screen on a brightness setting of 21 (out of 50)
           | which is still quite legible during the day next to a window.
           | 
           | Also, I have solar panels for my house (which is why I'm able
           | to see the total power usage of my house).
        
         | kev009 wrote:
         | I had the Dell 8k monitor you mentioned, the picture quality
         | was great but it died after a few years not long after the
         | warranty expired (a gut punch at the purchase price) and they
         | said too bad so sad... ok that's fine but I will never buy
         | another Dell product again. It was released too early to have
         | proper displayport support and I had to use a custom nvidia-
         | driver X11 config to make it mostly work as two monitors. And
         | there is basically no way to use that kind of DPI without
         | scaling.
         | 
         | I replaced it with an LG 43UN700 which is a 43" 4K display that
         | I use unscaled and although the LCD panel is vastly inferior I
         | love the thing especially at the price point (under $700). I
         | hope manufacturers continue to support this niche of large
         | singular flat displays because they are fantastic for coding,
         | data viewing/visualization and pitch hit at content consumption
         | as your article states although this one would be no good for
         | gaming. And getting a "monitor" or "professional display"
         | firmware load means a lot less problems than a Smart TV load.
        
       | solarkraft wrote:
       | My 4K 55" monitor mostly serves me quite well, but I've been a
       | bit annoyed by the low pixel density. Wonder if my Macbook can
       | drive an 8K one.
        
       | ashepp wrote:
       | I love my 65" LG GX OLED as daily driver for work and gaming. See
       | https://www.theshepreport.com/p/the-shep-report-holiday-tech... I
       | came from an ubutto revolution cockpit setup with 4 monitors, the
       | ergonomics were awful.
       | 
       | With the LG I'm about a meter or less away from screen and use
       | window management tools to pull focus to the center lower section
       | for any focused work. I run Win 11 from an RTX3080 card with a
       | 2.1 HDMI cable. 3840x2160 120Hz.
       | 
       | For gaming I just use windowed mode and use the full width of the
       | 65" but just the lower half usually for COD or FPS games. I don't
       | notice any eye strain or other issues but do run everything I can
       | in dark mode including using the browser with the Dark Reader
       | extension.
        
         | ashepp wrote:
         | Direct Link with photos
         | https://www.theshepreport.com/i/139215541/lg-gx-oled-monitor...
        
       | delduca wrote:
       | I want a 8K 27". Density is important to me.
        
         | vundercind wrote:
         | I want 4k/5k and an 18"-21" diagonal, but all the hi-dpi
         | smaller screens go to laptops and tablets, I guess. No monitors
         | like that. Hell, under 27" and 4k can be tricky to find these
         | days. 24" models exist but are a shrinking category.
         | 
         | I don't want or need my monitor to take up a huge amount of
         | space. But I do want high pixel density. Looks like I'm in too
         | small a market to serve.
        
       | satvikpendem wrote:
       | Heh, I do something similar as well, with a 48" LG 4k OLED, which
       | seems popular with other users as well. I got this over another
       | 4k or 8k TV because 1) OLED simply looks better and 2) 120 hz is
       | nice for gaming, but I do want to get the same type of TV but
       | with 240 hz instead for some of the higher twitch games.
       | 
       | I use Windows and the PowerToys utility which might arguably be
       | the best window manager I've used, even about tiling window
       | managers on Linux, simply because I can specify exactly the
       | layouts I want for every single virtual desktop and every single
       | app.
       | 
       | Overall it works well but for the first little while I did get a
       | headache from sitting too close, but it went away soon after.
        
       | aappleby wrote:
       | 11 years ago, "4K is for Programmers" -
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7035030
        
       | dman wrote:
       | Does a 8K 42 inch option exist?
        
       | prettyStandard wrote:
       | Just got a 32" 4k. I had a 49" 4k in the past, but it broke. My
       | issue with monitors above 49" is it strains the eyes and head
       | looking around. I always had to partition the screen or manually
       | resize, it got annoying. Gonna try 1 4k for landscape and 1 for
       | portrait now.
        
       | sampo wrote:
       | "4K is for programmers" from 10 and half years ago:
       | 
       | https://tiamat.tsotech.com/4k-is-for-programmers
       | 
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7035030
        
       | WalterBright wrote:
       | Back in my daze at Boeing, I had a full size drafting table in
       | addition to the usual desk. I've always wanted a display that
       | big. In fact, I want my entire desk surface to be such a display!
       | 
       | The 8k monitors are progress!
        
       | AtlasBarfed wrote:
       | Main use of 8k is really high pixel density.
       | 
       | In a perfect world I'd have smart glasses that would display
       | arbitrary resolutions that you could move, minimize and expand at
       | will.
        
       | MentallyRetired wrote:
       | Recently tried it. Couldn't find one with a high enough PPI for
       | my liking.
       | 
       | Ended up with two vertical 4k monitors. Side bonus: I can put my
       | web cam dead center in front of me.
        
       | mxfh wrote:
       | Pretty wild that the only reasonably sized 8k Monitor is going to
       | be 8 years old next spring. Nothing coming close was ever
       | released after that.
       | 
       | The Dell UltraSharp UP3218K
       | 
       | That's XBox Scorpio old.
       | 
       | Just hoping for some 32 inch 8k OLEDs driveable @120hz before my
       | eyesight detoriates.
        
       | ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
       | Good show.
       | 
       | The one issue that I have with using TVs as "monitors," is that
       | they are too damn "smart." They play with the images, and it can
       | be a devil to find all the settings, to turn them off. On my
       | Samsung, there's a couple of things that I can't turn off.
        
       | TrevorJ wrote:
       | Coatings that don't cut down on reflections is the biggest issue
       | I've had the various times I have used this route.
        
       | happyraul wrote:
       | For me, the best monitors by far for programming are LG's 28in
       | DualUp, due to the aspect ratio. I have a pair side by side, and
       | it's effectively four 1440p screens in a 2x2 layout, giving lots
       | of vertical space without a bezel as well as horizonal on each
       | screen.
        
       | Kon5ole wrote:
       | I got my 8k 55" tv for under 1000 usd several years ago. Brand
       | new, from a brick and mortar electronics store. So it is
       | definitely possible to make 8k monitors for less than 1000 usd.
       | 
       | A mere 55" with 8K resolution makes no sense as a TV, but it's
       | glorious as a productivity monitor. But instead of becoming
       | commonplace as monitors, the panels seem to just be disappearing
       | even as TV's. At the moment I can't find anything at any price
       | that can replace my current setup.
       | 
       | The market isn't working for monitors. Everything available now
       | is either crap, or costs 10x more than it clearly could. Millions
       | of people are spending years of their lives in front of bad
       | screens because monitor makers don't want to make good ones.
        
         | locusofself wrote:
         | I feel like Apple's 30 inch 6k display would be the sweet spot
         | for me, but its 60 hz and cost what.. $6,000 ? I just use 27"
         | 4k monitors for work. It's fine but I'd definitely like
         | something a bit bigger and even crisper. I have to use windows
         | for work though.
        
       | MaulingMonkey wrote:
       | > TLDR: If your job is to write code all day [...], buy an 8K TV
       | instead of a multi-monitor setup.
       | 
       | Counterpoints:
       | 
       | * All my keyboard muscle memory is setup for multi-monitor
       | setups. Theoretically fixable with the right tiling window
       | manager... which I would presumably have to install, since I do
       | too much Windows stuff to go full time Linux. Or perhaps develop.
       | Buying more monitors is a better use of my time.
       | 
       | * I curve my monitors inwards, intentionally, for better viewing
       | angles. Also lets me hide a tower in one of the corners behind
       | the curve on a straighter desk.
       | 
       | * I do too much multi-machine development (e.g. testing
       | refactoring of multi-platform abstractions.) HDMI switches are
       | super convenient, your TV's picture-in-picture functionality...
       | may or may not be. Dual Windows PCs for testing on nVidia and AMD
       | simultaniously, or remaining unblocked when busy
       | reformatting/reinstalling/compiling/linking/syncing 100GB+ on
       | one? Yes please. It's often interactive enough to want to keep
       | open, yet passive enough to need something else to do. OS X for
       | iOS and Linux for debugging server code? Sure. iOS and Android?
       | Well... those have their own monitors. Consoles don't though, and
       | I've targeted those too..
       | 
       | For an entertainment setup, I can usually scrape by with 2 or 3
       | monitors (1 landscape for fullscreen game, others typically
       | portrait for chat/wiki/etc). Right now, I'm on a 75" 4K chonker.
       | I have good eyes, but 8K would be a waste of pixels, and I'm
       | already close enough that the viewing angles are noticable. Yet,
       | I still hauled out a second monitor: an old 2.5K to exile junk I
       | want to monitor off the main screen.
       | 
       | For a development setup, I've bought or brought a 4 x 27" 4K
       | setup if one isn't provided. A 5th monitor has occasionally been
       | useful (1 landscape for console, 4 portrait for console IDE,
       | devtools, devtools IDE, and docs/wiki/jira/chat/notes. Replacing
       | the 4x portrait with 2x 8K landscape... would probably _work_ ,
       | at least, although I'm not convinced it'd feel like much of an
       | upgrade, if any.)
        
       | omnibrain wrote:
       | At home I use 2 28" 3:2 4k displays and in the office I use the
       | same setup and 2 additional 24" WQXGA-Displays and I like the
       | ability to spatial arrange windows and corresponding tasks. My
       | mind just doesn't work the same with one huge display. I even
       | noticed this back in the day when multiple displays meant 2
       | 17"-19" 4:3 or 5:4 displays and the first colleagues started to
       | use the first 30" displays with 2560x1600.
        
       | Sophistifunk wrote:
       | I'm much more interested in going the other direction, in order
       | to get a TV without all the crapware.
        
       | mastazi wrote:
       | Assuming that those audio speakers are at ear height (I assume
       | they are since those IsoAcoustics stands allow tilting but there
       | is no tilt in the picture) then IMHO the display is placed too
       | high, ideally you want your eyes level just below the upper edge
       | of the screen. I think with this type of screen size, it is
       | challenging to to that.
        
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