Digital Home Thoughts: Is There Such a Thing as a TV That's Too Big?

"For many in the US, their TV screen can never be too large. If you have a 20" set, you want a 32". Tired of that 32-incher, how about a nice 50" rear projection set. The typical living room has at least one 10-foot long wall, so the size of the television is only limited by the size of the wallet. For a growing population of people outside of the US, size does matter...mainly because families in emerging Asian economic markets have smaller living quarters. MIT Tech Review is running an article that concludes that the US hunger for monster TVs does not produce enough demand for companies to invest money into larger and larger TVs. They suggest a worldwide lack of demand for 50" and larger TVs was what led Intel and others to drop out of the LCOS market."

This article brings up an interesting question - is there a logical limit as to how big of a TV consumers want to buy? I've had a 51" for the past five years, and it's a good size for the room it's in - but when it was time to upgrade to a wide-screen HDTV, it was time to go big or go home, so I opted for a 61" unit. Given the size of the room, even that size might be pushing it, so I can't see getting anything bigger. Some friends of ours have a narrow room for their TV, so a 32" is about as big as they can do. What about you?