[wallinbl]

We had a 30" HDTV, which was a great TV and all, but we bought it for a different sized living room. Since we moved, we're sitting 17 feet away from the TV, and my wife complains all the time that she can't read the guide and whatnot. So, after piddling around looking at them for several months, we bought a 50" Samsung. It looks great, but it's freaking huge. We were actually considered a 56" for a bit because it's the largest size that would fit (we're dimensionally constrained to no more than 51.5" in width because of where it sits). Now that I've hooked it up, I'm thinking 50" is too big and I'm half embarrassed for anyone to see that monster thing. They don't look that big in the store.

I'm hoping it's just the immediacy of the comparison to the 30" that makes it seem so huge, but I'm actually considering downsizing, which would have never crossed my mind before.

[goMac]

I was thinking about buying a 42" a few weeks ago. Then I went to the store and saw how big a 42" was, and I decided to just wait until I get a place next year that could fit something that large. As it stands, my only good wall for a TV like that is covered by a shelving system.

[Dark Helmet]

rear projection?

[Jawbone54]

Before I moved out, I convinced my Dad into buying a 43" LCD rear projection Panasonic. It's a georgeous TV, but he's confessed to me that he's felt guilty ever since he bought it. When people come over, he tries to find a way to keep them out of his game room because he's embarrassed. He feels like a preacher shouldn't live "gaudily." He doesn't even have cable (or regular TV, believe it or not). He just uses it for DVDs that he watches.

[Rumor]

If you don't like it, you can send it to me.

[icruise]

Live with it for a few weeks and it'll seem normal.

[MacNStein]

Measure the TV diagonally, you should be sitting 2.5x that distance from the set for optimal viewing (to get an immersive HT experience). So, that's 125", or almost 10.5'. Move closer to the set.

Ideally, for an 18' viewing distance, you'd need a projector and a 7' screen.

So, the best advice would be to sell the TV you have and buy a decent LCD projector. The bonus would be that it takes up much less room, it can be mounted to the ceiling, and retractable screens are pretty inexpensive.

[Jawbone54]

Originally Posted by MacNStein 

Measure the TV diagonally, you should be sitting 2.5x that distance from the set for optimal viewing (to get an immersive HT experience). So, that's 125", or almost 10.5'. Move closer to the set.

Ideally, for an 18' viewing distance, you'd need a projector and a 7' screen.

So, the best advice would be to sell the TV you have and buy a decent LCD projector. The bonus would be that it takes up much less room, it can be mounted to the ceiling, and retractable screens are pretty inexpensive.

If you have $4,500 to blow...this is beautiful.

[Teronzhul]

I have an older 720p Infocus SP5000 that I use for HD content, alongside my old rca 27 inch crt.

The projector doesn't get used all that often, but I did just fire it up for Heroes coming up at 8.

It truly is awesome for high def content. I picked it up refurbed with a screen for $735. Totally worth it.

[Tuoder]

A TV cannot be too big. You, your house, and everthing in it is just too small for the TV.

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by Dark Helmet 

rear projection?

naw... too easy.

[Railroader]

I am thinking of going the front projector route myself for this very reason. I want something that can be hidden into the ceiling and a screen that will retract into some cove molding. Or possibly a panel TV that can be covered with a mirror or painting.

I've noticed that even when the TV is off and guests are over that people's eyes are drawn to the big black screen. I am sure some psychologist some where has a term for that.

[Railroader]

Originally Posted by Kevin 

naw... too easy.

I appreciate your level of rearstraint.

[alligator]

I wish I had your problem. I can't figure out where to put a TV in my poorly designed family room.

[Railroader]

Originally Posted by alligator 

I wish I had your problem. I can't figure out where to put a TV in my poorly designed family room.

That's my problem as well. My house was built in 1900 and there's a door or window smack dab in the middle of every wall. Except the one wall I covered up the redundant/unnecessary doorway. But that's the only one the couch will fit on.

[Jawbone54]

I would go with an HD projector, but my living room has a fan in the middle of the ceiling and nowhere for the the projector. Plus, my wife would freak out if I had a projector hanging from the ceiling in the central room of the house.

[wallinbl]

Originally Posted by Dark Helmet 

rear projection?

dlp

[villalobos]

what's a TV?

[wallinbl]

Originally Posted by alligator 

I wish I had your problem. I can't figure out where to put a TV in my poorly designed family room.

It's on the hearth, next to the fireplace, in a corner of the room. Not exactly the best place, but it's the only place one can go.

[wallinbl]

Originally Posted by Jawbone54 

It's a georgeous TV, but he's confessed to me that he's felt guilty ever since he bought it. When people come over, he tries to find a way to keep them out of his game room because he's embarrassed.

I know how he feels. I actually don't want anyone to come over and see it. I actually considered taking it back to the store because I feel ridiculous about having it.

[Jawbone54]

Originally Posted by wallinbl 

I know how he feels. I actually don't want anyone to come over and see it. I actually considered taking it back to the store because I feel ridiculous about having it.

I say wait and let yourself get over it. Do you play any games or do the HD-DVD/Blue Ray thing? Doing any of that in HD will help you feel justified in your decision. I've been saving up forever just to get a 32" HDTV, and trust me, I'd have no problems getting a 42" if I didn't have to wait significantly longer.

[TheWOAT]

If its any consolation, I would bet $$$ that your 50 inch TV is actuall 49.25 to 49.75 inches in diameter. So its not as big as you think

[Jawbone54]

Originally Posted by TheWOAT 

So its not as big as you think

[TheWOAT]

Originally Posted by Jawbone54 

dude.. a 49.5 inch TV is puny compared to a true 50 incher....

[Goldfinger]

I know how you feel. Return it and get a 37" or 42" LCD or Plasma screen and somehow mount it to a wall. I know it's in a corner your TV set but maybe you could rearrange your furniture ? A TV set isn't the prettiest thing in the house. I wish I could easily hide it bucause they're all ugly, especially those huge DLP/rear projection things.

[Tuoder]

I have a flat-screen CRT TV (2 actually). I think it is next to plasma still the best choice. Viewing angle problems irritate the hell out of me. I was thinking about a projector for that reason. That, and the idea of having a portable 60" TV is intriguing to me.

[wallinbl]

Originally Posted by Tuoder 

I have a flat-screen CRT TV (2 actually). I think it is next to plasma still the best choice. Viewing angle problems irritate the hell out of me. I was thinking about a projector for that reason. That, and the idea of having a portable 60" TV is intriguing to me.

My 30" was an HD CRT. Picture was great. I have to say that I'm very impressed by the DLP picture. I looked at DLP last time I bought and there was no comparison, but this time around, DLP has improved (look at the 1080p models that came out this year - they have much better pictures than the previous DLP models).

[Tuoder]

Originally Posted by wallinbl 

My 30" was an HD CRT. Picture was great. I have to say that I'm very impressed by the DLP picture. I looked at DLP last time I bought and there was no comparison, but this time around, DLP has improved (look at the 1080p models that came out this year - they have much better pictures than the previous DLP models).

The problem that I have with some of the smaller HD sets is that the difference in percieved quality difference is small, but the difference in price is large. The other problem is that the HD ecosystem is not yet completed, if you ask me. I don't get HD programming through DTV (nor will I pay extra for the HD stuff that they have now). I don't have an HD gaming console (I will get a Wii), I don't have a Blu-ray or HD-DVD player (nor will I get one until I think I can figure out how this format war will pan out). The only motivation that I could have to get an HD set is to have a ginormous monitor and to be furture proof. That ain't quite enough for me yet.

[Mastrap]

We took the TV out of the living room and banned it into the, much smaller, den. Best decision we ever made. When it's time to replace the current model we'll be getting a 37" LCD. We don't need anything larger for day to day viewing.

Sometime in the future I'd like to get a projector for watching movies.

[Nexus5]

we have some of these in our studio. If you want full HD with realistic colours there is nothin better.

nexus5.

[kikkoman]

Originally Posted by wallinbl 

We had a 30" HDTV, which was a great TV and all, but we bought it for a different sized living room. Since we moved, we're sitting 17 feet away from the TV, and my wife complains all the time that she can't read the guide and whatnot. So, after piddling around looking at them for several months, we bought a 50" Samsung. It looks great, but it's freaking huge. We were actually considered a 56" for a bit because it's the largest size that would fit (we're dimensionally constrained to no more than 51.5" in width because of where it sits). Now that I've hooked it up, I'm thinking 50" is too big and I'm half embarrassed for anyone to see that monster thing. They don't look that big in the store.

I'm hoping it's just the immediacy of the comparison to the 30" that makes it seem so huge, but I'm actually considering downsizing, which would have never crossed my mind before.

Well I have a 50" plasma mounted on the wall. I sit about 9' to 11' away and I wish it were bigger. Is it the size of the screen you have a problem with or the size of the whole tv unit? Strange how people now think DLP rear projection tv's are to bulky. I used to have a 53" rear projection CRT, now that thing was huge. It was about the size of a small armoire and that was just a few years ago. Anyway I'm sure it's just the newness of it. Eventually you'll get used to it and then later you will think it's too small and want something even bigger.

[wallinbl]

Originally Posted by kikkoman 

Well I have a 50" plasma mounted on the wall. I sit about 9' to 11' away and I wish it were bigger. Is it the size of the screen you have a problem with or the size of the whole tv unit? Strange how people now think DLP rear projection tv's are to bulky. I used to have a 53" rear projection CRT, now that thing was huge. It was about the size of a small armoire and that was just a few years ago. Anyway I'm sure it's just the newness of it. Eventually you'll get used to it and then later you will think it's too small and want something even bigger.

It's the screen size. The margins on this TV aren't big at all (1" top and sides, a few inches on the bottom). The TV has less depth than the CRT did and weighs far less. Watching a show last night, my wife and I started laughing at the size of the black box that said 'TV PG' at the beginning of the show. It was bigger than my head.

[Dark Helmet]

Originally Posted by Tuoder 

I have a flat-screen CRT TV (2 actually). I think it is next to plasma still the best choice. Viewing angle problems irritate the hell out of me. I was thinking about a projector for that reason. That, and the idea of having a portable 60" TV is intriguing to me.

LCD's have just started to outsell plasma and with good reason. LCD's have come a LOOOONG way in 2 years as now refresh times are no longer an issue and black levels are very good. They are also getting cheaper.

Plasma's have always been a temporary solution and I knew that early on. They are too hot, too heavy and use a ton of power. More importantly they get burn it so if you play games or watch non-widescreen material it is a really bad idea.

I don't think plasma's will be around at all in 10 years.

[ort888]

It will shrink in time. When I first came home with my 51" TV, I thought it was massive and it wowed me every time I saw it. Now a year later, I have grown accustomed to it, and frequently wish it was larger, since I usually sit pretty far from it.

[Dark Helmet]

Originally Posted by wallinbl 

dlp

Ouch. Which model? (And for the recored it is rear-projection DLP).

[wallinbl]

Originally Posted by Dark Helmet 

Ouch. Which model? (And for the recored it is rear-projection DLP).

SAMSUNG's Digital World - DLP TV | HL-S5087W

[Brien]

Originally Posted by ort888 

It will shrink in time. When I first came home with my 51" TV, I thought it was massive and it wowed me every time I saw it. Now a year later, I have grown accustomed to it, and frequently wish it was larger, since I usually sit pretty far from it.

Same with me. We've got a 51 incher in the room and a 50 incher in the front room. Felt huge two years ago, now we barely notice them.

[Dark Helmet]

Originally Posted by wallinbl 

SAMSUNG's Digital World - DLP TV | HL-S5087W

May the lord have mercy on you.

I had one, ****ing disaster.

[wallinbl]

Originally Posted by Dark Helmet 

May the lord have mercy on you.

I had one, ****ing disaster.

I assume that you realize making a statement like that will cause someone to ask you to elaborate.

[Jawbone54]

Originally Posted by wallinbl 

I assume that you realize making a statement like that will cause someone to ask you to elaborate.

Seconded.

*gets ready for a great story*

[Dakar²]

Turns out the TV was straight and christian [/original]

[MacNStein]

He got a crappy DLP, so now he feels that they're all crappy.

For the money, DLP sets are a good purchase. The main tradeoff: black levels aren't good as a Plasma or LCD set.

[Dark Helmet]

Originally Posted by MacNStein 

He got a crappy DLP, so now he feels that they're all crappy.

For the money, DLP sets are a good purchase. The main tradeoff: black levels aren't good as a Plasma or LCD set.

Nope, you're wrong.

I posted a looong thread about it here at the time.

Long story short:

DLP's with colour wheels are a problem. More than half of DLP viewers see rainbows, me included. It made dark shows unmatchable.

Samsung DLP's ALL have a audio delay problem that is most noticeable with games. You shoot, you hear the sound 1 second after the fact. Newer models try to fix it but it is still there.

Samsung DLP's have had huge reliability problems. Mine rotted to the ground over 10 months and Samsung repair actually made it worse. Many people have the same problems with Samsung DLP, check out the AVS forums.

Now I got a Sony LCD rear projection and everything about it beats the DLP that cost more.

[MacNStein]

Originally Posted by Dark Helmet 

Nope, you're wrong.

I posted a looong thread about it here at the time.

Long story short:

DLP's with colour wheels are a problem. More than half of DLP viewers see rainbows, me included. It made dark shows unmatchable.

Samsung DLP's ALL have a audio delay problem that is most noticeable with games. You shoot, you hear the sound 1 second after the fact. Newer models try to fix it but it is still there.

Samsung DLP's have had huge reliability problems. Mine rotted to the ground over 10 months and Samsung repair actually made it worse. Many people have the same problems with Samsung DLP, check out the AVS forums.

Now I got a Sony LCD rear projection and everything about it beats the DLP that cost more.

I saw the rainbows too, in the first and second generation DLP sets. The new models are much more refined and have superior color w/o the pronounced rainbow effect.

Fact. After setting up and calibrating a friend's new Samsung 56" DLP set, I can say that I was impressed with the quality and value of the unit. It's a great TV for $2200. My only complaint is the unit's black levels could be better. Other than that, It showed none of the characteristics/defects that you are describing.

[Railroader]

I saw rainbows in the first generations of DLPs as well, but a friend just bought a nice one last month and it's rock solid. I can't see rainbows even during black and white footage.

This is the model he bought: SAMSUNG's Digital World - DLP TV | HL-S5688W

No issues in sound sync and the blacks are very deep. Near CRT quality. I was VERY impressed.

I recommend this TV, but it is big and you need a TV stand for it.

[wallinbl]

Originally Posted by Dark Helmet 

DLP's with colour wheels are a problem. More than half of DLP viewers see rainbows, me included. It made dark shows unmatchable.

Don't see it.

Samsung DLP's ALL have a audio delay problem that is most noticeable with games. You shoot, you hear the sound 1 second after the fact. Newer models try to fix it but it is still there.

Don't use the sound from the TV. Can't imagine most people do - if you can spend that much on a TV, you likely have better speakers already.

Samsung DLP's have had huge reliability problems. Mine rotted to the ground over 10 months and Samsung repair actually made it worse. Many people have the same problems with Samsung DLP, check out the AVS forums.

Can't seem to replicate this information in the sources I've looked in (not including AVSForums). Several local specialty retailers all recommend them. Several other websites have quite a number of members that recommend Samsung.

Now I got a Sony LCD rear projection and everything about it beats the DLP that cost more.

To get a 50" 1080p from Sony, it would cost me much more than I paid.

[Teronzhul]

I have a samsung 5667 and its fine. I can see rainbows but only if I move my eyes very quickly side to side and am intentionally looking for them. For 99.9% of my viewing rainbows are nonexistant, and none of my family members have ever mentioned seeing them.

I haven't had audio sync problems, but like the above, my audio goes through a separate a/v receiver. The only time the Samsung touches the audio is when using the internal atsc tuner, but it too is output to the receiver for processing.

The SDE on Sony 3lcd displays bugged me far more than the rainbow effect of DLP's. The LCoS displays are a different story, but are considerably more expensive.

[Dark Helmet]

Originally Posted by wallinbl 

Don't see it.

Guess that put you in the persentage that doesn't see it

I did a poll on AVS for DLP owners and 75% said they see rainbows weather it bothers them or not. That is super high. Some people also get headaches from DLP's with wheels.

Don't use the sound from the TV. Can't imagine most people do - if you can spend that much on a TV, you likely have better speakers already.

Neither do I. Doesn't matter as it has nothing to do with the internal speakers.

Can't seem to replicate this information in the sources I've looked in (not including AVSForums). Several local specialty retailers all recommend them. Several other websites have quite a number of members that recommend Samsung.

Well, they are there. AVS was rampant with reports of this problem, I knew of them before i even bought it but because I read the forum posts of "Mine is fine, I see no rainbows or audio delays" I gave it a shot. The first movie I watched made me sick from rainbows. Some games were ok, others not as it depends on what the input source is.

In regards to specialty retailers I got mine from Bay Bloor Radio which is only high end and one of the best in Canada. They said they stopped selling ALL Samsung DLP's because so many customers demanded their money back because of service problems and the audio video glitches I mentioned.

My DLP was also NOT first gen. It had a 7 seg colour wheel at a high RPM.

Problems aside I still don't want a wheel in my TV spinning at 10,000 RPM as over its life if there is one part that will go wrong that is it.

Even the latest gen Samsung DLP's that use LED's instead of wheels still have the audio delay problem according to people on AVS.

To make things even worse some DVD's had audio delay on the Samsungs. The last Bond movie was unwatchable on it and my non-technical friends used to compain of the "lip sync being off" with just about every DVD. I never told them it was the TV.

[MacNStein]

I wouldn't trust those monkies at AVS with a $10 Radio Shack SPL meter, much less a $2000 TV. Those were the same guys that felt that a $100+ digital coax cable would reduce jitter.

Fact. Current DLP sets are fine, they're a good value. There is no audio sync problem in the current Samsung DLP sets that I've seen. Spreading FUD that's based on a TV purchased 2 generations ago isn't helping the OP's problem.

[Tuoder]

Originally Posted by Dark Helmet 

LCD's have just started to outsell plasma and with good reason. LCD's have come a LOOOONG way in 2 years as now refresh times are no longer an issue and black levels are very good. They are also getting cheaper.

Plasma's have always been a temporary solution and I knew that early on. They are too hot, too heavy and use a ton of power. More importantly they get burn it so if you play games or watch non-widescreen material it is a really bad idea.

I don't think plasma's will be around at all in 10 years.

Both of the CRTs I have are relatively new, and won't be replaced soon. I know LCDs have come a long way. Heck, I own a MB. In the days of passive matrix displays, I didn't want to bother with getting a laptop. Active matrix was too expensive. Response time still bothers me a little bit on LCDs. Using non-native resolutions suck too, for obvious reasons. This will be less of an issue when OS X is resolution-independent. But yeah, my next monitor will almost definitely be an LCD.

I didn't know Plasma could burn in. How easily? How many hours are we talking about here? Is there a way to fix the problem, as the did (more or less) with CRTs? Do you think there are going to be a lot of upset customers when their DVDs get blackbarred one day?