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what size HD TV?


jbsl

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40-42" screen is perfect, but you might want to go bigger if you have the cash. I think the 40"-42" screen has the best price point. Right now I have a 42" rear projection and I sit 8' away and when that baby dies, I am thinking about getting a 50" plasma or a Lcd Around that size.

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I once read that the viewing screen should occupy most of your field of vision. In other words, you don't want to see anything when viewing the picture, but the picture; similar to a movie theatre.

I agree with the comment that after a few weeks you will say, "I could have gone bigger." I know people that regret not purchasing a larger TV, but I don't know anyone who regrets purchasing too large a TV.

You are absolutely right. What you want is your peripheral vision involved. Here's the geeky way to get the right seat for you in the theater. Walk down the aisle with your arms stretched out straight in front of you slightly wider than shoulder width (centering on the screen). When the edges of the screen match up with your fingertips, that is the right row. Now move to the center seat and let your loved one sit next to you. lol. Don't let on what you are doing or you will be sitting next to their best seat, but hey, that might be close enough anyway.

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Another thing I have to consider is my center speaker is a La Scalas which is 35 inches high. So right now the bottom of the screen on my 34 inch Sony is at around 40 inches. Sitting about 8-10 feet back it is not too high but a 50 inch tv may be too high depending on the base of the tv.

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What the chart shows is that, for a 50-inch screen, the benefits of 720p vs. 480p start to become apparent at viewing distances closer than 14.6 feet and become fully apparent at 9.8 feet. For the same screen size, the benefits of 1080p vs. 720p start to become apparent when closer than 9.8 feet and become full apparent at 6.5 feet. In my opinion, 6.5 feet is closer than most people will sit to their 50" plasma TV (even through the THX recommended viewing distance for a 50" screen is 5.6 ft). So, most consumers will not be able to see the full benefit of their 1080p TV.

However, front projectors and rear projection displays are a different story. They make it very easy to obtain large screen sizes. Plus, LCD and Plasma displays are constantly getting larger and less expensive. In my home, for example, I have a 123-inch screen and a projector with a 1280×720 resolution. For a 123-inch screen, the benefits of 720p vs. 480p starts to become apparent at viewing distances closer than 36 feet (14 feet behind my back wall) and become fully apparent at 24 feet (2 feet behind my back wall). For the same screen size, the benefits of 1080p vs. 720p start to become apparent when closer than 24 feet and become full apparent at 16 feet (just between the first and second row of seating in my theater). This means that people in the back row of my home theater would see some improvement if I purchased a 1080p projector and that people in the front row would notice a drastic improvement. (Note: the THX recommended max viewing distance for a 123" screen is 13.7 feet).

So, how close should you be sitting to your TV? Obviously, you need to look at your room and see what makes sense for how you will be using it. If you have a dedicated viewing room and can place seating anywhere you want, you can use this chart as a guideline. It's based on THX and SMPTE specifications for movie theaters; the details are available in the Home Theater Calculator spreadsheet.

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I once read that the viewing screen should occupy most of your field of vision. In other words, you don't want to see anything when viewing the picture, but the picture; similar to a movie theatre.

With one exception... if you are a gamer (especially first-person shooter type games) then filling your field of vision is a sure way to motion sickness! I'm a boater and DON'T get seasick, but when my brothers kid came over and played Halo 3 on my projection screen I nearly barfed.

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I read a guideline online that said if you sit 8-10 feet from your tv, which I do, then a 40-42 inch tv is a good size for your living room.

My living room is 15 x 15 x 8 so a 50 or bigger is a bit much and cost too much for me. Now if I had valuted celings then I probably could do a 50.

With a 8-10 seating distance, you could easily go much bigger. IE....a 73" wouldn't be too big. It boils down to your budget more than anything else. Also.....do you want a TV in your living room, or a home theater? If you want a theater experience, you'll need to go much larger than 42".

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I would have to sell my house to afford the 150 inch tv.

The most I can afford is $2200 so the sony 40 XBR4($1799-2499) and the sony 50A3000($1499-1799) are the two I'm looking at. Samsung has some that are also continders but so far the Sony's look better to me.

The real problem is my center speaker (a La Scala) being 35 inches high and the celing being 8 feet. Then you have the base of the tv which is probably 5-8 inches high. So the bottom of the tv screen is going to be at least 40 inches high on the 40 inch and the base of the 50 inch tv will be 43 high so the 50 inch tv may be too high up will looking at the screen.

Too bad I don't have a industrial La Scala with the split HF section.

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jbsl, I have owned the first in that series (XBR1) for a while now. It too is 40". I sit about 8 feet from it and it is a FINE LCD.

I would have liked to have gone a little bit bigger, but my space is limited. Anyway, you cannot go wrong with the XBR series.[:D][Y] Very GOOD standard / OUTSTANDING HD. Using Directv.

Take care

Mike

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I am a professional A/V tech for a large electronics company and I just bought a sony kds-60a3000 last week. I can safely say that it is by far the best HDTV I have ever seen, read the reviews yourself.

I would never buy a plasma, they suffer from burn-in and they permanently loose brightness the moment you turn them on. They have made great strides in preventing these problems in the past year or two, but they still exist.

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