Monitor for a dining area wall

[Wingsley]

My elderly parents have an old, Intel 13-inch MacBook Pro, which I'm hoping we can get replaced with an Apple Silicon laptop some time in 2024. They no longer have cable or satellite TV. They frequently turn to YouTube for news, information (how-to) and entertainment. The laptop's speakers don't reach well around the dining table in the living room, which is where the laptop usually resides on a small folding desk next to the table.

The 13-inch display on the laptop works surprisingly well, but can be annoying. I've thought about getting a TV or monitor that could be plugged-into the laptop and offer better viewing and hopefully better sound. We could mount the display on the wall a couple feet behind where it is now. But how can we balance visibility, sound, connectivity and price? We might only need something about 27 to 32 inches diagonal; larger would not fit the space. Any ideas? Thanks.

 

[Rnd-chars]

Since they tend to use the laptop from one location, have you considered replacing it with a 24" iMac? It would offer them a nicer experience when they're sitting at the desk (and presumably easier on the eyes) and avoids a bit of the complexity of having a separate monitor/speakers/TV.

And at <4.5kb\10lbs it might be portable-ish enough if they wanted to occasionally move it around the house.

Otherwise, if they don't plan using the keyboard/mouse a lot on this display, I'd probably be inclined to go with a small TV and either use AppleTV (either through built-in software or a physical device) or AirPlay to it from the laptop. Here's a list of TVs that offer AppleTV via software here, including Samsung's The Frame (32") which can rotate through art and is designed to blend into the background. There may be better prices, but aesthetically that seems like an appropriate choice for a dining area.

 

[Wingsley]

I've thought about using desktop, but that would not work. There are many times when the laptop is used as a laptop and not as a "TV". It does get moved around the room (and the house, and taken elsewhere), so it would have to be a laptop.

 

[Arctic Moose]

A tv with AirPlay support sounds like just what they need.