Does Size Really Matter?

We hear men boasting about the size of theirs all the time and how bigger is better. We also hear from some women who say it is not really the size that matters, but it’s more about the quality of the experience that counts.

Of course I am referring to… televisions.

About 3 years ago, I called one of those junk disposal services to come over and haul away my 27 inch tube-style TV. The beast, as I called it, was still a perfectly good TV but was not keeping up with technology that was going digital and HD. Watching HD programs on an old standard TV was like watching shows from another planet as it never fully filled out the screen and would sometimes go wonky on me. Sometimes the image was zoomed in, sometimes it was zoomed out. It made me dizzy. It was time to step it up… technologically speaking.

Let’s not forget as well the beast of a stand it took to support a TV of that weight. The two guys from the junk disposal service were grunting pretty hard as they were dragging it out.
The shiny new TV I bought to replace it was a 40 inch flat screen LED smart TV, weighing considerably less. The new TV was actually more awkward to carry than it was heavy, but still, bringing it and its stand home was a one-man job which I handled easily enough. I felt like Superman carrying a 40 inch TV over the threshold, all on my own.

Given the size and layout of my living room, 40 inches was plenty big to view from any seat in the room, from any angle, even with the eyesight of an almost quinquagenarian.

At that time, of course, there were larger televisions out there, but 40 inches was probably on the cusp between medium and large size at that time. In any case, I have never regretted that choice.

Even though that was just 3 years ago, if you walk into any television dealer, the 40 inch TVs are looking puny when compared to other TVs seemingly up to twice their size now.

The next question is why? Is it gamers that want to feel like they are in the middle of the action? Is it armchair athletes who want to feel like they have a prime spot in the rink, on the court, on the greens or (insert playing surface of your favourite sport here). Or is it people who always wanted to be “in the movies”, and an 80 inch TV is pretty much like they were there?

For myself, if I ever had a TV that big it would probably because I was tired of pausing and running up to the 40 incher, saying “what was that thing again, I missed it?” Not that I have EVER done that, I’m just speculating there may come a day when I could perhaps… maybe… possibly do that.

Where I think it could be good fun would be to watch an awards show and truly feel like I was an honoured guest. Or an international scale show like the Olympics or the Eurovision Song Contest… and really have the best seat in the house, as if I was in the front row myself.

I would have apprehensions about a mammoth big screen and 3D TV all rolled into one. I could just imagine watching The Price is Right with my 3D glasses and feel like I got an eye poked out by an excited contestant.

While I do see the benefit and the fun one can have with a big big big screen TV, there is one problem:

The irony in all this is that we went from a time where big TVs had to be carried by at least 2 guys, to TVs I can lift myself, and now we are back to TVs requiring a team to set up. Seriously, folks?

If I had to make a wish, what I am hoping for is that the next innovation is to make the mammoth big screen TVs as light as a feather so we can go back to one person being able to drag it to their subcompact car, and roll it up like a carpet so it can stick out the window or the trunk for the drive home. Then to come home and hang it like a big poster. Now, that would be innovative!

For now, I will continue to enjoy my 40 inch TV until technology forces me off it. But until then, is bigger really better? It all depends if you think it is OK when it needs two people to get it up… on the wall.

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Have a great day,
André