I've read a few complaint posts about how poorly text is displaying, is this a common issue or only when used with a HDTV?
It's hit or miss when using the HDMI port. Using a minidisplayport to HDMI adapter does not appear to have this issue. With that said I don't have this issue on my hdmi port on my 2012 mini.
Text display on Macs generally is awful for anyone coming over from Windows. That's caused by the different way that Windows and OSX render fonts.
Windows is focused on good readability, so it nails the font to the pixel boundaries.
OSX focuses on preserving the font's overall looks and doesn't care about pixels. The result is blurry and pixelated rendering, especially of smaller font sizes.
Additionally there's the washed out colors of the Mini. Overall it's a disaster for any Windows user.
Windows alters the size of the text to fit pixels. OS X displays text at the correct size, regardless of pixels. That's one of the reasons that OS X does well in the graphic design industry.Windows is focused on good readability, so it nails the font to the pixel boundaries.
OSX focuses on preserving the font's overall looks and doesn't care about pixels. The result is blurry and pixelated rendering, especially of smaller font sizes.
Windows alters the size of the text to fit pixels. OS X displays text at the correct size, regardless of pixels. That's one of the reasons that OS X does well in the graphic design industry.
Text may display poorly on HDMI, but that's probably because it's a TV. I've never had any problem reading text on a good monitor on OS X.