42" LCD = length x heighth?

[oldjiver]

My wife hates the long thin widescreen tellys, my daughters makes everybody seem short.
Looking at the adverts for 42"LCDs some of them give the actual screen dimensions (e.g. 67cm x 102cm) but a lot just give 42".
Do they vary a lot in height and width?
I would like one as square as possible. (or as square as widescreens get)
It makes buying one off the net difficult if they dont give the actual dimensions of the screen.

[madsod]

sorry i cant see how wide screen can be square , and after a bit you get use to it mine 42" lcd , and i whould not go back no way . i love it

[bob]

Look at it like this, traditional television has a Screen Aspect Ratio of 4x3. This means that a traditional television has a screen that is four units long for every three units in height. Converting these units into inches would result in measurements of 4-inches by 3-inches or 8-inches by 6-inches, and on-and-on.
The Screen Aspect Ratio is 16 units long for every 9 units in height, or 16-inches by 9-inches, 32-inches by 18-inches, etc... A 16x9 screen aspect ratio thus results in a wider image display that a 4x3 aspect ratio. This wider image display allows both movies originally filmed in widescreen and new, widescreen television programming, to be displayed more accurately.

[wowwow]

U COULD GET A PROJECTOR ??? shine that onto a 100inch screen.. if your seeing people looking squashed then i would say the screen format is set incorrectly.. i had a 28"crt widescreen when they 1st came out and never noticed it, i now have 50"plasma and still cant?? nothing looks squased so try the screen format , but then if you have a normal 4:3 CRT TV the picture will be missing some of the picture anyway. or you could buy my 50" so i can get the 63" lol

[TheBadger]

Just done a quick calculation using Excel and your screen dimensions will be approximately:
Diagonal Screen Size Horizontal Dimension Vertical Dimension
23 20 11
26 22 12
32 27 15
37 32 18
42 36 20
45 39 21
50 43 24

[oldjiver]

Thanks for your replys. Obviously all makes have the same screen dimensions for a given size. Its just that when the speakers are on the side the TVs actually look stretched out. Must be an optical illusion. My missus says "dont like that one, too wide etc".
I keep trying the screen format on the one I have now (Technosonic 32") and usually end up with 14.9 as that allways seems to look the most natural.
When I put it on auto I get some really wierd shapes.
My daughters by the way is a CRT widescreen and nothing looks right on that.

[oscar]

oldjiver.
Before I bought my SONY last week I was using a borrowed Bush 30" LCD with speakers on both sides.
This DID give the impression of a very wide TV.
The Sony has the speakers under the panel and does not look anywhere near as "odd" as the Bush did.
The best setting I find on the Sony is "wide".
Regards