With the right settings, an ordinary tv will be ok and text can be cleared up. Of course, HDTV will be better. I have a regular 31 inch tv that I use all the time. I haven't had my monitor hooked up for a long time. Basically, I set resolution to 800 X 600, set font size to Extra Large, and change dpi to 134 (stock is 96). Text is clear at those settings. The easiest thing to get it set up with the larger scroll bar and cursor etc. is to run the Accessibility wizard and go with the options for poor eye sight. Disable the magnifier though. The single most important change I found to get the text clear though was the dpi setting. To change that, right click your desktop, select display properties, then Settings tab. From there, press the Advanced button, and it should be there.
Another thing you are going to want to do is go into Internet Options and press the Accessibility button at the bottom right corner of the General tab. Check the box that says "Ignore font sizes specified on web pages" then hit ok/apply/ok. With that option enabled, font sizes on web pages can quickly be adjusted by holding down the control button while rolling your mouse wheel. This will increase or decrease the font size, depending on which direction you roll the wheel.