decent mega-monitor?

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

There is a slow move towards talking about supporting "4k" HD TV.  This 
seems to mean 3840 x 2160 pixels (up from 1920 x 1080).  You hear of 
prices like $20k for TV sets.  Here's a startlingly low price:
<http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7674736&CatId=4717>
Only $1,499.97 for 50" 3840 x 2160 display.

Specs:
<http://static.highspeedbackbone.net/pdf/Seiki%20SE50UY04%204K2K%20LED%20HDTV%20Data%20Sheet.pdf>

That sounds like a lot of money for a monitor but it isn't much more
than a 30" 2560 x 1600.

Does anybody know if this actually makes a good computer monitor for a
conventional desktop?  I've noticed that some TVs look inferior as
computer desktop monitors, even though their specs look appropriate.

The refresh rate is probably not good enough.  The monitor is fed by
an HDMI 1.4 monitor and I understand that the HDMI standard doesn't
have enough bandwidth to drive this resolution at more than 30Hz.
Apparently the next HDMI standard will improve this.  The display can
refresh at 120Hz at lower resolution.  This limitation seems to be
reported in the specs: the top resolution for component and HDMI is
listed as "4k2k 30Hz".  Note: one of the user comments says that it
does work at 120Hz at full resolution.  So I'm confused.

The top VGA resolution listed is 3840 x 2160 (with no mention of
refresh rate).  What VGA interface would drive that?  In my
experience, VGA isn't great for LCDs because the two sides don't share
a clock and this leads to unpleasant artifacts.

This probably uses TN technology since that isn't specified (if it
were IPS, that would be mentioned).  TN makes viewing angle critical
and with a desktop monitor that big, only a portion of the screen
would be in the sweet spot.  Mind you, the specs say 176 degree
viewing angles, horizontally and virtically.

This review damns it with faint praise as a TV.
<http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2418007,00.asp>
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