When I Buy a "32 Inch" TV, What Am I Really Getting?

If you've been confused by the sheer number of TVs all claiming to be a particular size but all having many different shapes and sizes in real life, then maybe this will help shed some light on your problem.

For years, the major TV manufacturers have agreed on a single way to measure their screen sizes. That method was to measure the diagonal of the screen in inches and use that as the main figure quoted for the television size.

Now, that sounds easy, but what was happening in reality was that they were measuring the diagonal of the maximum size of the front of those big old cathode ray tubes that used to be in the telly. What that did was give them a lot of leeway in the actual size that you, the customer, could actually see because the tube itself was wrapped in a frame (to hold it in) that often ate into the size you could really see. So, televisions with a small surround often delivered more of a 32 inch screen than others.

All this gets even more complicated now we have 32 inch widescreen TVs. The old diagonal measure is still being used but the frames have got a bit smaller since LCD screens are easier to hold. The new problem comes from the fact that we have all gone widescreen.

Imagine the old style screen having a 32 inch diagonal....now rotate that diagonal a bit so that it goes across a new widescreen TV. Doing that has made the screen fit the new 16:9 (that is 16 across and 9 down) kind of shape but has flattened the diagonal a bit. So in fact what you have now is a TV with a slightly smaller height, a slightly larger width and the same 32 inch diagonal as before.

That is why folk moving to a widescreen TV from a traditional 4:3 screen often buy the next bigger model up, as they are used to the picture having a certain height from where they are viewing.

If you are looking for in-depth 32 inch LCD reviews and more information about the technology behind them, click through to http://32inchwidescreentv.co.uk for everything you will need.

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