How Big of a TV Should You Get? Depends on Whom You Ask

I've been casually researching the best TV to get and my living room positions viewers 8 feet from the screen. So how big should my new LCD TV be? Depends on whom you ask. My wife's uncle told me that "people in the know" would recommend going no bigger than 40 inches since at 8 feet a bigger TV would highlight defects in imaging. But CNETsuggests I can go up to 65 inches. 

But the LCD Buying Guide offers a distance-size calculator which at 8 feet suggests a screen of 32 inches, half the previous recommendation. 

But the Practical Home Theater Guide differs, offering the 2-to-5 Principle, stated as thus: "For optimum TV viewing distance, the nearest seating position should be limited to approximately twice the screen width . . . "

Then there's Crutchfield, which offers a guide that agrees with my uncle's 40-inch recommendation. 

Bottom-line is I'd to stick the TV in the living room on a trial basis and see how it looks. If I were so privileged, I'd like to sample various LCD and Plasma models. But my research tells me to get a 40- or 46-inch Samsung LCD 1080 with 120 Hz (which means refresh rate is faster and images look better). Now that I've narrowed down the focus, the fun is gone and I'm content with keeping my Toshiba conventional TV until the Samsung price reduces to a $1,000 or so. 

I've been casually researching the best TV to get and my living room positions viewers 8 feet from the screen. So how big should my new LCD TV be? Depends on whom you ask. My wife's uncle told me that "people in the know" would recommend going no bigger than 40 inches since at 8 feet a bigger TV would highlight defects in imaging. But CNETsuggests I can go up to 65 inches. 

But the LCD Buying Guide offers a distance-size calculator which at 8 feet suggests a screen of 32 inches, half the previous recommendation. 

But the Practical Home Theater Guide differs, offering the 2-to-5 Principle, stated as thus: "For optimum TV viewing distance, the nearest seating position should be limited to approximately twice the screen width . . . "

Then there's Crutchfield, which offers a guide that agrees with my uncle's 40-inch recommendation. 

Bottom-line is I'd to stick the TV in the living room on a trial basis and see how it looks. If I were so privileged, I'd like to sample various LCD and Plasma models. But my research tells me to get a 40- or 46-inch Samsung LCD 1080 with 120 Hz (which means refresh rate is faster and images look better). Now that I've narrowed down the focus, the fun is gone and I'm content with keeping my Toshiba conventional TV until the Samsung price reduces to a $1,000 or so. 

Comments

[Michael Brent]

About a year ago I got a 720P Samsung 42" plasma. Along with a Toshiba up-converter DVD player the picture is stunning to say the least.
I read countless articles on watching distance and the one consistant thread in all of them was that when watching a 50" or less HD TV from more than 8' away
the human eye cannot resolve the difference between 1080P and 720P.
I know there is alot of hi-tech quasi-religious hoo-ha that goes along with the discission of HD TV.
But according to science that is the fact of it.

[¾ Blind]

Whatever TV you get I recommend adjusting the picture to reproduce the image as close to ATSC standards as you can get. One can pay ~$300 for a professional ISF calibration. Or do as I did on the cheap: Visit avsforum.com and find the thread discussing your TV model. Some members post their picture settings to what they believe to be "correct" vis-a-vis accepted calibration standards. For the videophile hobbiest one can purchase a consumer grade light meter (~$150) and TV calibration software and do it yourself. See the thread on video calibration. Since I am more radiophile than videophile I have not pursued the do-it-yourself route. When visiting avsforum be forewarned that those posters are every bit as OCD about video as some of us at Herculodge are about radio; they can be rough towards newbies.

[Angelo]

Right now, I'm still quite happy with our standard 27" JVC television housed in an entertainment center with VCR, DVD, piles of videos, etc. My wife has been bugging me to look into a flat panel because it's more space efficient. But what do we then do with the VCR, DVD, piles of kids tapes, etc? Still need some piece of furniture and will still have wiring/cables, right? For the record, I'm not opposed to the modern flat panel in theory, but for the money, I really don't know if it's worth the upgrade---and I suspect that as time goes by, they will become much better and much cheaper.