2.5m from back of sofa to 50″ Plasma here. Nowhere near large enough that you have move your head of even your eyes. Slightly regret not pushing to 55 or 60″ now.

Some Samsungs almost look unnatural showing HD.

I’ve noticed that with a few Samsung sets – they give a weird ‘viewmaster’ false 3D effect that makes everything look overlit and a bit like an 80’s daytime soap. I’ve always assumed it’s a combination of edge enhancement/sharpness and a bit of over saturation. It’s not normally socially acceptable to fiddle with the picture settings at someone else’s house though. (same friend used to stretch and fill 4:3 content and had a 6th ‘rear surround’ speaker that was actually connected to one of the front audio channels)

Watch Wimbledon, You should be able to make our faces in the crowd and see the shape of the ball, not just a yellow blur. Also the sound will be more immersive.

I’ve noticed that with a few Samsung sets – they give a weird ‘viewmaster’ false 3D effect that makes everything look overlit and a bit like an 80’s daytime soap. I’ve always assumed it’s a combination of edge enhancement/sharpness and a bit of over saturation.

It’s a dynamic contrast setting (I think from memory) that just about anyone who knows how to set up a Samsung TV agrees should be turned off.

I have it on a 10yr old set, I know it looks crap, ergo it’s turned off – Samsungs give some of the best pictures out there if you aren’t a bufoon/research setting them up properly.

The real world is not composed like a film or TV show!

yes, it’s a lot wider and fills your whole field of view, so you have to move your eyes and/or head around to notice things like cars approaching your road from the side, and other hazards.

Just like you would at an iMax cinema that filled your field of view.

Maybe you have some defect with your vision – you should go see the optician. Try doing some of those Bates style exercises to keep your eye muscles in decent shape so you don’t object to using them like humans have evolved to be able to do.

Samsungs give some of the best pictures out there if you aren’t a bufoon/research setting them up properly.

they seem to always mess up with skin tones in my opinion – I have yet to see one that I have been impressed with that hasn’t benefitted from being fed a very high quality source (and so every other make of TV also looks impressive) and lots where they make a big mess of processing a non-perfect source.

And whenever I have seen a TV set in a hotel, which are never set up well and very rarely fed a decent source, it is always the Panasonics that seem to make the best of the situation, whereas the Samsungs really screw it up.

Check your settings.

I had switch my Virgin box to 1080p but really 1080i.

Watching footy in 1080i and sound is better too.

HD ready 720p or full HD 1080p? Check your TV specs.

Watched latest Star Wars on Bluray 1080p on my 60″ was awesome. Need a better sound bar though.

I don’t accept the thing about moving your eyes around the screen. You move your eyes around anyway no matter how big or small the screen. You can only focus on one spot at any time so you are moving your eyes to focus on different areas of the screen. IMax is awesome – big TV’s are awesome….but only if you’re into the whole home cinema/movie watching.

Any TV you have to ‘set up properly’ isn’t the best TV around. I’ve had 3 panasonic now, i’ve done nothing to them apart from take them out of the box, plug them in, switch them on, make sure none of the silly ‘TV enhancement features’ are turned on and they work.

I have thought about getting my main TV calibrated, but the picture is so good i’m not sure how much of an improvement i’ll see.