decent mega-monitor?

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

I just got a notice from Amazon.com (not .ca, sadly) that the 39" one is 
$699 and the $50" one is $1,135.48.
<http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DOPGO2G>

The 39" ought to be great as a monitor.  Too bad about the 30 Hz refresh 
limit (due to HDMI bandwidth limitations).

This reviewer even tells how he got an X modeline for it (he loves it):
<http://www.amazon.com/Seiki-Digital-SE39UY04-39-Inch-Ultra/product-reviews/B00DOPGO2G/ref=cm_cr_dp_text?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&sortBy=byRankDescending#R3R4Y6PPZ1QN29>

amazon.ca doesn't sell these.  tigerdirect.ca only sells the 50" model (at 
$1299.97).

| From: D. Hugh Redelmeier <hugh-pmF8o41NoarQT0dZR+AlfA at public.gmane.org>
| Date: Tue, 30 Apr 2013 13:36:11 -0400 (EDT)
| 
| 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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