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Omar Alshaker
Omar Alshaker

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[advice needed] Using a huge distant monitor

My vision is considerably deteriorating due to my lifestyle. Pretty much 80% of my waking time I'm focusing on <2m away objects/monitors/screens.

I'm considering a ~56" TV that I would hang 5m away from me to relax my eyes a bit. But I'm wary of this solution because I have never seen such setup.

Anyone has tried/seen this before?

Any links to stories would be appreciated, too.

Thanks

Latest comments (3)

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oliverobenland profile image
Oliver Obenland

I had the same idea a year ago or so. It was okay but I think I used the wrong TV. You probably have to put the TV a little bit closer to you than those guides for TV viewing distances state. Doing so I had a little bit blurry image and ever character had a bright edge on one side. Very unpleasant to read. I think this is due to the wrong type of panel, but I cannot remember which type it was.
Maybe you should just try it with the TV you already have?
Other than that you should still use a table and a very good chair. A couch is remote but not a good replacement in the long run ;-)

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deciduously profile image
Ben Lovy

I tried this for a bit, using a ChromeCast to edit code from my couch on the living room TV.

I had a hell of a time with it. I probably need new glasses (and a better TV), but I found it slowed me way way down. I already use keyboard-based code navigation which helped somewhat but any mouse-based operation was tricky to get right at a per-character level and I kept having to squint/zoom/get up and look at the TV just to know where I was.

Huge productivity drain for mild eye strain relief - and even that I'm not so sure was really significant. I was still staring at a screen that I found hard to read -it was just further away.

Of course, your mileage may very.

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alshakero profile image
Omar Alshaker

Thanks a million for the elaborate response!