TV Sizes

[Bigbox]

Not that long ago, when LCDs and flat panel screens became more common, the nirvana was to have a 32" and even larger if you were a bit flash with a few quid to spare.

In the main lounge TV market, about four-ish years ago this appears to have grown to 50" as standard (i say standard but i am generalising and am obviously aware that this doesn't apply to everyone), however the chat i am reading nowadays is that 55"-60" is more common.

Question is, how big are 'affordable' (subjective but sub £1k imo) TVs going to get? I am in the process of revamping my lounge and have decided against getting a wall TV unit with a fixed space available for a TV in favour of a 3m wide base unit and maybe something to complement it towards the top of the wall but at the same width.

Anecdotally for a similar brand, quality TV it seems to me that the 50" has been replaced by the 60" this Christmas vs last Christmas

Thoughts?

[toon10]

Whatever size you get will become the norm after a week in your house. We've just splashed out on a 55" Sony Bravia 4k 3D TV over the holidays. It looked huge in our living room (and prompted a few choice comments about council TV from my son). A week later, I can't imagine going back to my old 42" screen. Apart from the fact I get too much screen lag playing on the PS now that is. I'm going to set up a seperate gaming room with a smaller TV. A few months ago I'm told it was around £2000 and we got it for < £1200 with the sales and a further 10% off from a store card.

[robbieduncan]

LG 55" Ultra HD (4k) for £800 in the sales...

[Bigbox]

Sorry, the point i was trying (and failing!) to make was that TVs are getting bigger and bigger - just how big do we think that TVs are going to get?

Can anyone foresee a 100" TV as being the standard £500 new TV purchase??

FWIW the bigger the better as far as i'm concerned

[LordHaveMurci]

Spent new years at a mates house, he now has a 60" Samsung & even in his reasonable sized living room it's f'ing massive! Apparently he's the only one that likes it, even my missus said no when he offered us the other one he has to sell (he's in that industry).

Our 39" is too small but I reckon 46" is probably about right & our living room is bigger than average.

[alock]

Bigbox said:

FWIW the bigger the better as far as i'm concerned

Don't agree with this. There's something wrong about watching a normal program (e.g. the news) where the presenters head dominates your living room.

A feature I want on TVs is one that I have on my computer monitor, the ability to display a lower resolution picture centred in the middle of the screen with a 1-1 pixel mapping. the ability to downscale HD to a smaller virtual picture would be useful as well (but less important).

This has the added benefit of when you do dim the lights and put the big action movie on it becomes more of an event rather than just another program.

[rossub]

Bigbox said:

Sorry, the point i was trying (and failing!) to make was that TVs are getting bigger and bigger - just how big do we think that TVs are going to get?

Can anyone foresee a 100" TV as being the standard £500 new TV purchase??

FWIW the bigger the better as far as i'm concerned

Impossible, unless you make the vast majority of the populations living rooms much bigger!

Our room isn't small, but due to the layout, anything over 60" is going to start getting in the way.

[bigdom]

In the sitting room we have a 50" plasma, with the thinner bezels, we could go to 60" in the same space. That's as much as the configured room layout can accommodate.

Extension being built at present, it could easy fit this http://www.engadget.com/2013/12/29/samsung-110-inc... Although it would look awful.

Will probably look at a 65" for the room, anything bigger a projector would get my vote.

[Viper_Larry]

My Samsung 50" was less than 18 months old (bought in a hurry when I arrived is the USA) but had started to look small. Purchased a 65" JVC last week at Costco for ~£500 and sold my Samsung for £225 so a nice cheap upgrade! I thought 65" would look HUGE, but as someone said, it soon shrinks in size, seemingly weekly.

A couple of weeks ago we were at someone's house who had a 75" Samsung on the wall - looked massive but then again, it was a huge lounge compared to ours. I guess for the general sized lounge, 75" would probably be about the limit, but who knows...

[FlossyThePig]

The room we use most has a 32"Panasonic because that is the size that fitted in the space available. A quick look at the JL site and there doesn't appear to be any size between 32" and 40" now. With bezel size reducing a 40" may fit if the current set dies.

[gizlaroc]

I have gone the other way, I had a 50" Panasonic commercial plasma when most people were still considering the move to a widescreen CRT from a 4:3 set. Had various screens over the year from Panny and Pioneer, all plasma, tried a couple of LCDs and didn't like them.

Then we moved our living room around and I set up my screen and sound system in the other room, however, we preferred that room so ended up in there, I got rid of the chavvy looking TV stand and all the speakers and put the TV on a low down wooden unit to make it look less imposing. This was a 50" Pioneer.

Then decided to swap for a Sony 46" with a thin bezel, sacrificed picture quality for a much nicer piece of furniture. The Pioneer had a big bezel, so the drop to the Sony 46W905 is not subtle, it looks around 50% smaller and makes the room so much nicer.

I don't mind a big screen, but in all honestly I have yet to see one with a picture quality to match the size, sure you can play a reference HD or UHD clip and say "Wow!" but for watching regular TV I think they look crap. Mate has the 65" VT60 Panny, regarded by many as the best flat panel made, and I couldn't live with it, be fine if it was just for Bluray material, but for everyday Sky HD I think it looks pants.

Projector in a dedicated room for films and a nice neat looking 46" for the living room for me.

[gizlaroc]

60" LG for £599, and a Plasma too, so will probably be pretty good image.

http://www.prcdirect.co.uk/products/TV/televisions...

But in a Living room?
Have a bit of self respect!!

[Jobbo]

I had a 2007 old Sony 32" LCD in my living room until just before Christmas. I always thought it was pretty compact for the screen size but a walk through John Lewis showed me that bezels had become minuscule in the 7 years since I bought it. A bit of measuring showed I could get a 42" Sony almost into the same space (1cm taller including stand, but about 14cm wider) so I got one on Black Friday.

My room is about 12' square and has a low ceiling; this new telly looks like the future, where a whole wall will be a continuous screen displaying a lovely view. I tend to leave it on more often now, simply cycling through the Chromecast default images.

[Steve Campbell]

There are optimum viewing distances for the size of the TV..so whilst there is a "bigger is better" culture at the moment, I'd advise sitting and watching the TV from your normal viewing distance. My room is narrow but long (TV on the long wall) so anything above 55" is going to be too big..not for the room, but to watch comfortably.

If you've got a big square room and you want the telly to be a major factor....no problems.