Conventional wisdom often dictates that when it comes to plasma TV size, the bigger the better. However, that is not the case.

The most obvious drawback of plasma screen TV size is the cost of the set itself, which increases with size, often quite disproportionately so, with only slightly larger displays costing a whole lot more. But a more hidden cost is the price of the electricity needed to operate your wonderful plasma flat screen TV.

Plasma televisions have gotten a bad reputation for being power hogs. Generally speaking, plasma TV power consumption is higher than that of LCD TVs. But, it’s interesting to note the good old CRT televisions (a.k.a. tubes) are just as power hungry as plasma TVs… per square inch of screen size that is. So the takeaway from all of this is that the larger your plasma screen, the larger your electric bill will be. Therefore, it’s to your definite advantage to not go overboard with the plasma flatscreen size you’re looking to buy.

And besides overreaching beyond your budget, by going overboard I mean getting a screen that’s the wrong size for the room it’s going to be placed in. Plasma flat screen TVs, and other large screen TVs for that matter, have a minimum optimal viewing range. If you get too close the image starts looking pixelated. As a general guideline, the viewing distance should be no less than one and a half times the diagonal size of the screen. So for example, for a 50 inch plasma TV the minimum distance is 75 inches, or 6′3″, for a 42 inch plasma TV it’s 5′3″, and for a big 70 inch plasma TV it is 8′9″. Therefore before you make your purchase, make sure have enough viewing distance.

Large screen TVs also have a maximum recommended viewing distance, beyond which the immersive quality of the large screen starts getting lost. And that distance is roughly three times the diagonal length of the screen.

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Filed under: Buying a Plasma TV

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