Using a tv for a computer monitor to help with impaired vision

[bjscheel]

My boss is having a lot of trouble seeing things on his computer monitor as well as he should. He's had cataract surgery on one eye and probably will on the other. His new idea is to use a large flatscreen tv as a monitor so it can be really big. I talked to our IT company and they said it would work- they didn't specify it had to be any special sort of tv.

Boss went to a tv shop and got the impression that it had to be an HD, Smart TV, wireless or something (I'm not clear on the terms and he probably isn't either), and the smallest one was 52".

So now I'm concerned that he wants to put a 52" tv a couple of feet away from his face. I did a little reading too and one article says a tv is not going to have the sharp resolution a monitor does, so I'm afraid it's going to be blurry as well. Not to mention more damaging to his eyes.

Hoping someone here has some experience with this and has some advice.

 

[Christine]

I agree with you on the size and him sitting too close.

How does he predict he will sit? If he sees better from far away, then I guess a TV monitor is the way to go; however, if that's not the case, I'm not sure why a 22" or higher regular LED monitor wouldn't work for him.

I was having issues, also, and I got some very large monitors at home and in my office and they are fine. I still have to wear my reading glasses but it is MUCH better than what I was dealing with. I even have a guy in my office that is close to being declared partially blind and he does well with this size.

 

[Albort]

Some TVs have really bad resolution on them, so i would be careful on that. It may be bigger TV, but its a lot more blurrier on low resolution...

why not just make all the lettering bigger on the monitor? i have my parent's computer set to 150% bigger than normal. They view it pretty well.

 

[Cobern]

My FIL has a 32 inch tv as his computer monitor. It works great!

 

[Imzadi]

I have had eye problems since getting Lasik eye surgery. So I can relate. I've had to enlarge all the font settings in my computer and my browser settings for webpages. But, even better was downloading Firefox which has a feature to enlarge whole pages, not just fonts. So pictures are enlarged too.

I recently bought a 17" laptop. Love it! Once I had enlarged the webpages, some of them don't fit fully on the screen anymore. With a 17" monitor, the whole page fits now. However, this only works while surfing the web. If your boss will be reading work stuff on his computer, he may be limited by the computer or program's ability to enlarge the fonts. So yes, getting a TV for a monitor would come in handy,

He does NOT have to get a 52" TV. I bought a 32" smart TV worked fine 5 feet away from me, once I hooked it up with an HDMI cable. I would think any digital TV would work, as long as your boss can connect an HDMI cable to use the the TV as a monitor.

I later switched to a 40" screen as I mostly use it for TV viewing. But, I still use it to view things larger than on my computer screen. I absolutely LOVE that feature. I watch a lot of Youtube "how-to" craft videos. Some of the details are very tiny, and viewing them on a large screen has been a god send. It is easy to change back and forth between TV to computer screen with 2 mouse clicks. However, as a PP pointed out, the resolution isn't as clear up close as with the 32", even though both TVs are the same exact model. The 40" TV needs to be further away for a sharper picture. It's too pixilated the closer I am to the TV. The larger the TV, the larger each pixel.

This is the model I got:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/32-class-31-1-2-diag--led-1080p-60hz-smart-hdtv/7845041.p?id=1218862093782&skuId=7845041&st=categoryid$abcat0101001&cp=1&lp=8

On some other non-smart TVs, I think you can just hook up an "S-cable" to turn the TV into a monitor. Not sure about that though. Something to research further. Probably a 25" would be fine.

 

[NotUrsula]

There are plenty of 27" monitors available for just about $200, prices start going up only at 29"+

If he needs larger than that even with the font sized up, then yes, a newer set with a newer computer (that has an HDMI outport) will work fine, but at that size he probably will need HD to get the resolution at an acceptable level. However, a "smart" TV isn't at all necessary.

Note that using analog VGA connections (the old red, yellow, white plugs) will cause the resolution to be less than stellar, which would totally defeat the purpose. This needs to be done with HDMI for it to work well.

 

[EMode]

We use a 40 inch TV as our monitor, it is an HDTV but it is not a smart TV.

 

[cgncga]

My boss is having a lot of trouble seeing things on his computer monitor as well as he should. He's had cataract surgery on one eye and probably will on the other. His new idea is to use a large flatscreen tv as a monitor so it can be really big. I talked to our IT company and they said it would work- they didn't specify it had to be any special sort of tv.

Boss went to a tv shop and got the impression that it had to be an HD, Smart TV, wireless or something (I'm not clear on the terms and he probably isn't either), and the smallest one was 52".

So now I'm concerned that he wants to put a 52" tv a couple of feet away from his face. I did a little reading too and one article says a tv is not going to have the sharp resolution a monitor does, so I'm afraid it's going to be blurry as well. Not to mention more damaging to his eyes.

Hoping someone here has some experience with this and has some advice.

We have a computer screen hooked up to my daughter's computer. I'm not sure exactly what size it is--probably in the 32 inch range. It's definitely not a 52 inch screen. It was actually an old TV that my father had so it's probably close to 10 years old now, and it works fine as a large monitor for her. She has vision problems and needs the font on everything enlarged in order to read it.

The funniest story about her using this screen was the night she wanted to read in bed. We angled the TV so she could see it from her bed and then gave her the mouse and mouse pad so that she could flip the pages on the Kobo app. She read a couple chapters this way.

Catherine

 

[ThisIsJason]

I bought a Seiki 39" 4K TV to use a a monitor. Bought it off Amazon early February for around $500. Sure it only has a 30Hz refresh rate over HDMI (which is what I am using), works great for me. I sit around 3 feet from it.

 

[bjscheel]

Thanks for all the tips and info. It is all very helpful!