Please help to resolve a disagreement I'm having with my nephew.

He believes that if I were to get a 72" television set to replace my 19"
model, that the view available in video games would be enlarged. Not
just a larger version of the same screens, but that the character's
perhipheral vision would be increased, for example.

I do not believe this to be the case, but in the interest of an
impartial response, I've posted this here. Thanks for your time and
consideration.

A 72" set is merely a larger version of the smaller 19" image - - no more,
no less.

Smarty


"Grinder" <grinder@no.spam.maam.com> wrote in message
news:nHvhf.356866$084.19490@attbi_s22...

"Grinder" wrote ...
Same picture. Spread over a larger screen.
Suggest your nephew become better acquainted
with reality.

Richard Crowley wrote:
I told him that I hoped he was pulling my leg with such a theory,
because the alternative was sad. I was disheartened to see a puzzled
look on his face.

On Fri, 25 Nov 2005 03:38:59 GMT, Grinder <grinder@no.spam.maam.com>
wrote:

Actually, potentially true! Your 19" set is probably a CRT, and all
domestic CRT sets deliberately lose a certain amount of picture off
the edge of the tube - typically 5% - 10%. This is called overscan and
is there to hide the fact that it's actually difficult to make a CRT
give a completely geometrically perfect picture, especially when the
brightness of the image is constantly changing.

A 72" set would presumably be some kind of DLP projector or flat panel
(do they go that big?), which doesn't suffer from geometric distortion
and so is likely to be displaying all of the picture.

Steve


The Doctor Who Restoration Team Website
http://www.restoration-team.co.uk

In the past I have observed that SOME small TVs do not display the
entire picture as evidenced on side by side comparison with much
larger TVs, such as in a store. It has been too long to provide any
details except that this was perhaps 10 years ago and the difference
was noticeable, although not tremenous.

The most likely reason is that with the smaller screen manufacturers
feel that it is best to concentrate the available resources to the
center of the action. It is also possible that the smaller screen was
of poorer quality and the edges might have been trimmed to avoid
distortion that might have otherwise been present.

As most storers today usually only display the large and very large
screens it might not help to try to compare in store. Perhaps you
could find some way of taking a digital image pic of a specific screen
with your existing TV and another of the same image on a large screen
in a friend's home or in a store.

............................................


On Fri, 25 Nov 2005 03:38:59 GMT, Grinder <grinder@no.spam.maam.com>
wrote:

"Steve Roberts" wrote ...
Yes, but by the same method, a 2.5 inch LCD (with no overscan)
will show MORE of the picture than an overscanned 37-inch CRT.
Avoid confusing display size with overscan.

The only extra picture area you MIGHT get is if the bigger set shows
more of the overscan area.

You could adjust your smaller set the same way.

You might be able to show some games if they have an option for 16:9
format rather than 4:3.

Otherwise if your nephew was correct I have been missing a lot of the
programming from TV cause I only have a 13" tv. Should I buy a 26" and
get four times the picture area - I don't think it works that way.

Has anyone compared the horizontal view/size of a, for example, xbox
game that supports 1080i (16x9) but is played on a 480 (4:3) set? It
seems that you would get more viewable graphics on the left and right
edges on the 16x9; but, not sure.

On Fri, 25 Nov 2005 10:33:38 -0800, "Richard Crowley"
<richard.7.crowley@intel.com> wrote:

Erm, I wasn't... I was pointing out that a 72" CRT does not exist,
therefore a display that big would have to be a panel or projector and
therefore probably not a display device which overscanned.

Understand?

Steve

The Doctor Who Restoration Team Website
http://www.restoration-team.co.uk