Which buying decision would you recommend?

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

When I have more time to devote, I’ll try to type up and post my humble perspective about consumer grade TVs and home entertainment with regards to one value feature what I consider to be a significant, but rather underappreciated parameter by some videophiles during their quest in buying a new TV.

I’m referring to ‘realness’ along with the sensation of actually being there (in the time and place of the movie or feeling like you’re present at the sporting venue, etc.) rather than ‘watching’ a screen or device (TV). In a nutshell, SIZE significantly matters and I think it’s afforded relatively little attention by social media video bloggers and TV reviewers…except perhaps by those front projection aficionados.

Viewing a larger image (either by getting a larger TV, or moving your seating closer to a 4K tv) will occupy a greater proportion of one’s retina (http://www.ic-at.org/papers/91117.pdf ) and thusly provide a greater sense of being there, a value feature which is dismissed or at least seemingly downplayed by videophiles in their decision-making process in the purchase of a new TV….despite the evidence of testing from NHK showing the value of this parameter in an increasing fashion up to at least 77 degrees (FOV angle).

Joe6pack might be rather clueless about things like contrast ratios, bit depth, color saturation, etc. (just like consumer forum OLED videophiles and ‘professional consumer TV reviewers’ are rather uninformed as to the effect of narrow spectral emission on the colors of what are considered to be zee very best OLEDs manufactured (Sony professional grade monitors used in post houses) and the inaccurate white point calibration based on probe measurable data producing matching problems between different displays), but technical wherewithal aside, Joe6pack’s eyes don’t lie when it comes to his visceral sense of watching a display device for the best home entertainment experience…..and he/she likes BIG.

Bottom line, before quickly, automatically defaulting to a certain sized TV in your purchasing mindset for your viewing pleasure, if several brands/models of displays are roughly equal in terms of picture quality and you’re not the troubled obsessive-compulsive type that searches for, or mentally over exaggerates the relative video merits and deficiencies of different display technologies and models, I suggest consumers in the market for a new TV put at least a little more thought into more innovative ways to enable purchasing a larger-sized TV…because size does matter.

For example, short of buying a front projector… putting off a purchase a few months in order to save more money to buy a bigger TV, moving the location of/or purchasing a different TV stand, innovative interior decorating directed towards switching around furniture or even buying a new sectional, coffee table, etc.

I know several people (and their wives) who never thought a 70” or 80” TV would ‘fit’ with their living space but once the husband put some effort into trying to make it all work by checking out contemporary furniture showrooms (in one case even hiring an interior decorator from here - http://cantoni.com/modern-furniture-store/ because he felt he needed help) and stopped devoting all their time exclusively to analyzing advertised picture quality TV specs on the internet, they became exceedingly happy with their larger-sized choice and the new, more modern interior decorating look to that room in their home.