Comments on: Daily Blog – John E. Johnson, Jr. – March 28, 2008: HOW ABOUT A BIG ONE?

By: Tyler

Tyler — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 22:00:13 +0000

I agree. “Overpowering” is not a word in any enthusiast’s vocab. I sit about 9′ away from a 55″ TV. It is not too big or overpowering. What is a living room for if not for entertainment. I actually feel bad for the current consumer. Unless they buy a cheap off-brand, they are having to drop a few grand and up just to get a display over 50″, which still isn’t as good as a calibrated CRT (until you get to the best plasmas).

Frankly, I laugh when I see someone has spent $2k+ for an under 42″ display. I mean, it’s so small!

By: John Johnson

John Johnson — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 23:03:52 +0000

Let’s put it this way. My kitchen HDTV is a 47″ 1080p flat panel LCD. I really don’t have a 30″ in the bathroom, but I do have a 30″ LCD as my computer monitor. I do a lot of HD video editing, and the current setup is getting too slow, so will update next month or so to a faster processor and at least two 30″ flat panel LCD monitors, maybe even three.

By: ovation

ovation — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 21:42:11 +0000

Let’s put it this way. 30″ TVs are for the bathroom.

Not in my bathroom (Just how big IS your bathroom, anyway?)

I’m not sure the average consumer would agree with you–at least in cities with older homes that have smaller rooms. I have several friends in Montreal (I live in a suburb of Montreal) with older houses and they wouldn’t consider anything above 40 inches (they prefer 32 to 37 inches). Of course, I wouldn’t qualify them as home cinema enthusiasts, but I do consider them to be typical consumers.

Even in my house, in the burbs (newer with more open style floor plan on the main floor), anything over 42 inches in our living room would be overpowering and 37 would probably be more proportional (we currently live quite well with our 27 inch SD CRT–soon to be swapped with an identical model but 32 inches from another room). I think below 30 inches is unlikely to be the “ideal” for most people (though it may be that cost limits them to such) but I doubt 37 to 42 will be surpassed as the “sweet spot” for some time to come (outside those who are aiming for a functioning home cinema as opposed to a “nice TV”).