46" or 50" or 52" tv

[HotStuff]

Am thinking about upgrading my tv in the coming 6-9 months and wondering if any of you guys have experience of large screen tv's for watching films/playing games.

It appears that tv's with the most functionality are usually 46" in size. For example panasonic have just released a 42" and 46" tv with something called "intelligent frame creation". I saw it yesterday in shopping centre, it takes the 25 fps of tv and adds frames by pretty accurate guess work/interpolation to get an amazing 100fps from standard tv pictures. In short it looks BLOODY AMAZING! Every moment is fluid smooth (hence more realistic looking) - as we gamers can obviously appreciate. Annoying that it doesn't come in any size bigger than 46".

Am I being too fussy? I currently have a 36" tv and am not sure that 46" is worth the £1700 upgrade.

Anyone got a 50" or above? is it too overwhelming? Is it just fine? Is the bigger the better?

 

[elDiablo]

I've seen a 50" at my better half's parents' house, and it's not too overwhelming as they have a living capable of fitting it. Had I seen it anywhere else, yes, it's just too big. Except maybe in Harrods. But then still!

And a price tag of £1700 for a 46" is a bit too much, in my opinion, especially as you can get top of the range 42" for £900 (nearly half the price), or a HD ready (so, what? 720p?) for £600+. To me, the prices of > 42" HDTVs is just insane at the moment, as the technology is still expensive at larger sizes.

But then, each to his own. If you have the space for a 50", and you REALLY want it, then it is your money, and you can spend it as you wish! I'd get a 42" and a new PC though, personally. If I had £1700. Maybe not a full gaming machine, but it'd be a very nice upgrade. Or even a 32" LCD for the bedroom... Hmmmm... Or actually, I'd buy all the kit for a MythTV set up in my house! Or a gumstix cluster for folding and other useless crap!

 

[Ronin Storm]

Well...

At the point where you're looking at 30" plus displays (of any kind) I think you're probably into a different world of viewing. I'm currently watching DVDs and playing X360 games off a good-quality 20" widescreen monitor, which does the job but, by your standards, is exceptionally small.

So, up at the 46" marker what are you really getting? Just "a bit bigger"? Are you finding that your 36" TV is just too small, really? If so, I guess the size-to-price situation is whatever the market currently dictates.

Unfortunately no practical experience with larger displays, though. Let us know what way you go and how you find it, please.

 

[waterproofbob]

Well my Uncle has a 50 odd inch one, and it is a really nice TV, It does kinda make it the focus of the room it's in but not in a bad way imo.

Another thing to consider is the HDness of it. a handy viewing chart that may be of some use.

If you are comfortable with your current TV I'd say stick with it, but if you feel the need to supersize then it will look amazing.

 

[Traxata]

Well my Uncle has a 50 odd inch one, and it is a really nice TV, It does kinda make it the focus of the room it's in but not in a bad way imo.

Bob you've seen our 42" screen, in the size of the room do you think that looks over powering? I have no idea to be honest because I hardly ever use it

 

[DeZmond]

I'll just throw in the wildcard option, an HD projector. A decent one might cost a pretty penny but damn they are shiny!

Unfortunately don't have any advice for HDTV's of the size you're talking - up to about 36" is my limit.

 

[Gopha]

Yeh my friend has one of them, its awesome! But the thing is that the bulb costs about £100 or more, and you have to change every few months if you use it all the time

 

[BiG D]

Bulbs last thousands upon thousands of hours. If you're needing to replace it every couple of months, you probably need to get out more.

 

[elDiablo]

Bulbs last thousands upon thousands of hours. If you're needing to replace it every couple of months, you probably need to get out more.

I'm using the projector at work 10 hours a day That's a good year's worth of usage, ish. Every few months is leaving it on 24/7!

 

[HotStuff]

Thanks for the advice everyone, it is as I thought, not many people having experience with the very large screens.

Diablo, you are certainly right about good quality tv's available for half the price I am willing to shell out. Coincidently my older brother called me today boasting of his brand new sony 42" bravia which cost him £800. All I can see is the fact that his tv is 50Hz with a 8ms pixel response time.

The one I am after (http://www.avreview.co.uk/news/article/mps/uan/1787) has 100Hz screen, a 1ms pixel response time with Intelligent Frame Creation(IFC). Also in terms of percentage increase in screen area from my 36":

42" is 36% bigger than 36"
46" is 63% bigger than 36"
50" is 93% bigger than 36"

I am already used to a 36". To notice an upgrade, I think I would be disappointed if I went any smaller than 50".

I got a reply to my email from Panasonic today, they confirmed that a 50" tv with IFC will be coming out in September. Yes I know it is probably going to be a bit over £2000 but I won't need to upgrade it any time soon.

 

[[THN]Buffalo_Hunter]

Hope you don't mind the electricity bill you'll get - the PZ85 uses 690W of power (double that of a 52" LCD)

 

[elDiablo]

I challenge you to notice a difference in 8ms to 1ms pixel response time That's a lovely statistic, but the noticable difference to a human is just too small to warrant the higher price. As for the difference in refresh rate, I can really comment. I can't notice the difference between 50Hz, 60Hz, 75Hz or 80Hz, whereas I have a friend who feels ill looking at anything less than 75Hz, so if that is a factor for you, then you should consider it

As for the percentage increase in view area, you really will notice the different between 42" and 36". The lovely maths might make you think that you won't even notice it, but the human brain is a very strange device. You will notice the difference. Still, the best thing I can suggest is that you go to a shop with the size screens you are looking at on display, and just walk around. In fact, the best place (for me, for location) is Harrods in London. Don't buy anything there (what with the 3,000,000% mark up) but it's very helpful to walk around and get a sense of what size you would prefer. You'll still need a piece of card hanging on your wall to see what it looks like in your house, but you will see the difference between 36" and 42"

One little draw back is that you'll probably see a 60" and want that too! I did!

Still, these are, of course, just suggestions, so feel free to ignore them. You're the one who's going to have to live with it

 

[HotStuff]

I challenge you to notice a difference in 8ms to 1ms pixel response time


I can't notice the difference between 50Hz, 60Hz, 75Hz or 80Hz, whereas I have a friend who feels ill looking at anything less than 75Hz, so if that is a factor for you, then you should consider it

As for the percentage increase in view area, you really will notice the different between 42" and 36". )

If you watch any fast movement on a tv with a few ms response time, there is definetley image lag. The bigger the screen the more noticeable the lag is. That's why showrooms tend to show videos with little action/movement to demonstrate there HD tv's.

As for screen refresh rate, if you look at a thread I started a couple of weeks ago (http://games.thehavennet.org.uk/showthread.php?t=6520&highlight=ns+-freq) you will see that I couldn't play on 60Hz. It gives me a sore head and irritates my eyes. I don't what you don't see but I can certainly tell you what I see. On a 50-60Hz scrreen, It looks as if the screen is constantly flickering or switching on and off very quickly. My current 36" CRT tv is 75Hz and I don't notice any flicker with that. To me a 100Hz screen looks totally stable, like I am looking at a painting or magazine. I can also watch for hours with very little eye irritation. Once again, the bigger the screen is the more likely low screen refresh rates such as 50Hz display their unsightly characteristics. I notice it more on bright scenes in the films. On dark scenes it is not very noticeable.

I have to give you some latitude with the percentage increase in screen size. When I went from 14" to 28" I thought my tv was huge. 4 years later I went from 28" to 36" it seemed huge again. When I look at 28" tv's now, they look like portables. I think there is definetley a brain perception issue as you have pointed out, but it only lasts for a short period of time and you eventually percieve your tv as "normal" in size again. That's the reason why I have choosen to be quite mathematical about it, numbers do not lie, but our brain can be fooled.

The whole thing comes down to fussiness I guess, I am quite a perfectionist when it comes to audio/visual equipment and one of the main reasons why I haven't bought a HD tv yet is because none of them beat the picture quality on my current 36" which incidentally won an award back in 2002 for the best CRT tv ever manufactured. That was until I saw the Panasonic PZ85 on Sunday, I knew right away it was a low ms response time, I knew it was 100Hz, I knew it had more than the standard 25fps. How did I know this? because it's the ONLY tv I have seen that has picture quality/realism better than the beautful picture I currently have.