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elfy

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 26, 2011
336
6
Glasgow, Scotland
Hi all.

I am looking at getting a new TV for the living room and was wondering if it would be feasible to use the current one as a monitor for my late 2014 Mac mini? I currently use a 24" monitor which has the same resolution as the TV (1920 x 1080). I guess I just wanted to know if those extra eight inches of screen stretching out the same amount of pixels would make it too difficult to read, especially smaller text and suchlike?

I know, I could just hook it up and see, and I'm sure I will, but since it's a little while away, and it's mounted on the wall downstairs I thought I'd see if anyone else had tried something similar.
 
I'm sure you could get an image -- but the image you get probably won't be pleasing to look at for any length of time.

For most cases, if you have a computer (you DO -- you have a Mini), you want a COMPUTER DISPLAY to use with it...
 
I currently use a 24" monitor which has the same resolution as the TV (1920 x 1080).

Sit closer to your current 24" monitor. That's what a 32" monitor will look like. It will be the same image with bigger pixels. Only you can decide whether that is acceptable.
 
Sitting closer to your current monitor is a great test as reducing viewing distance is a proxy for increasing screen size. I tried hooking up my mini to a large TV once but could immediately see the gaps between the larger pixels so that was a no go. Text was also harder to read and it just wasn’t as crisp as a computer monitor.

Now, if the primary purpose of the mini is an iTunes server, then that might work.
 
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