Using monitor instead of TV?

[Microfiche]

My elderly MIL needs to upgrade to Ignite TV (contract expiring and price goes up a fair bit to keep old hardware) and insists on using a certain piece of furniture to hold her TV, which gives me 26" width. I have been unplugged from these types of services forever so wanted to get confirmation that I can just buy her a 27" 1080p monitor with speakers rather than a TV to use with Ignite TV? She doesn't need a tuner, correct? She is currently using a 16 year old Toshiba 26" TV with 5W of speaker power.

**Labels Added**

[Pauly · Accepted solution]

You should be able to use a monitor, but it has to be a monitor that has the sound support actually built into the circuitry and not relying on external powered speakers.  The reason is, the audio from the ignite box is only output thru the hdmi wire and the monitor must be able to decode the audio.  There are certainly gadgets out there that  can extract the audio so you can send it somewhere else but there not  always compatible and not everyone has been tried and tested with ignite, plus they might cost more than the monitor itself.

[wayner92]

Have you considered buying a new TV.  32" TVs around 28.5" wide, depending on the size of the bezel.  They are also cheap.  Or you could go smaller, like a 28" TV or any size smaller than 32".

If you use a monitor then you might need to use an HDMI audio extracter and speakers.  Or an AVR for the sound. The advantage of that is that you can even put a speaker closer to her chair.  We did this for my grandparents who were hard of hearing.

[Microfiche]

There are not really many options for TVs in that size range any more. Going down to a 24" would be too small.

She has a 16 year old 26" Toshiba that has to sit diagonally in the shelf at the moment in order to fit.

She really likes this piece of furniture 🙄

If I am going to put something in there, a 27" monitor is the ideal size. I am trying to find out which monitors will decode HDMI audio at the moment - but it doesn't seem to be in the specs of many of them.

Not much room for an AVR either - only other thought would be some kind of Bluetooth soundbar? I think I saw some discussions around Bluetooth? But, we are 4 provinces away from her, so I don't see troubleshooting that when it stopped working as fun.

[57]

@Microfiche : There are adaptors that can have HDMI as an input and HDMI, along with optical or analogue audio, as an output. If you can find a powered speaker system (or perhaps a soundbar as you mention) that accepts optical or analogue audio, that may be an option to look into. It may also provide far superior sound to that found in "TV speakers".  If you decide to go that route, make sure the adaptor can handle the video (4K?) and audio quality you need.

PS. I do not have personal experience with IgniteTV and Bluetooth, however, there have been quite a few posts complaining of incompatibility, or lip synch issues.

[Pauly]

If you do your homework you can probably find a reasonable priced display screen which has built in audio and use it for your ignite tv, it can be a pc monitor or a used tv, and you can probably find one for a very decent affordable price if you can not afford a new tv purchase.  I am not rich by any means and have had many great  successes buying used equipment from online marketplaces.  Sometimes simple things make life much easier,  I try to avoid using confusing hdmi audio extractor devices and external speakers and go with the most affordable and simple solutions