Are there any variable size Televisions?

[Shuvi Tupya]

I sit about 8ft from my 50" TV, which is fine when you are watching HD / Bluray but when you watch standard definition or DVD quality the drop in image quality at that size is very noticable.

So, to the question. All good TV's have different screen sizing options for letterbox/cinema etc but do any large TV have a small TV mode?

I would love to be able to put the TV into 40" or even sometimes 32" mode!

[OldSkoolRS]

You could add an external video processor that would allow you to shrink the image, but whether this would give the result you require is debatable. You would also have to put up with black bars on all four sides of the picture and knowing how some hate these bars then it's not likely to be popular.

Perhaps a better use of the VP would be to use it upscale the SD source as the upscaling built into some TVs can be quite poor, though you are still at the mercy of the low bitrate of some channels (and would also require an external tuner/PVR as a source). I recently saw a friend's 46" Panasonic G15 plasma TV as was surprised by how good SD looked on it, so perhaps just chosing a TV that hands SD well would be a better option?

EDIT: I missed the obvious that for a truely variable size 'TV' you could get a projector.

Edited by OldSkoolRS on Saturday 1st January 12:49

[Shuvi Tupya]

Thanks

I think the upscaling on the TV is probably OK (panasonic Viera TH-50pz81b), but perhaps not for my viewing distance and my discerning eye

Other people think it looks perfectly acceptable. I got one of the last five yr warrantees on it though so I am hoping it dies in a yr or two and the replacement TV will no doubt be much better

[OldSkoolRS]

I'd have thought that the upscaling should be pretty good with that set. Might be a settings issue as with decent (external) upscaling I watch DVDs and limited SD Freeview on my projector which in 16:9 mode is 100" diagonal. It's not as sharp as BluRay but quite acceptable, though I should add that the whole setup is calibrated properly to ISF type standards which helps. This is only applicable to the higher bitrate channels however as the VP can't perform miracles.