26" or 32" display?

[ssjaronx4]

Hi,
Ive been looking into buying an LCD for my room and have decided on the Samsung LExxR41BDX as ive heard good thing about it and its got a great price. Now, my only problem is which size to go for. I sit about 7 - 8 feet away from the screen and will be using it as a PC display, for movies (through dvd\comp) and games (Consoles and PC). For games and movies, i think a 26" will be perfect but im not sure about being able to view my pc through a 26" display. I dont know whether ill be able to read whats on screen on a 26" and whether ill need to go upto a 32". I dont currently run my pc at a high resolution (1024x768) on a 17" LCD and would probably keep the resolution at that size for basic windows tasks (internet etc) and increase the resolution for games or when watching an avi. I was wondering if anyone out there has a similar situation to me and could offer some advice on whether a 26" is going to be big enough or whether i should shell out the extra £250 for a bigger display.

Thanks to anyone who can help.

Aron Johnson

 

[cooperda]

Hi,
I was wondering if anyone out there has a similar situation to me and could offer some advice on whether a 26" is going to be big enough or whether i should shell out the extra £250 for a bigger display.

Thanks to anyone who can help.

Aron Johnson

I have the 26 Freeview LCD which is HD Ready 1366x768 with DVI input. The only concern I have is that the picture - with DVD via a Samsung 125 HDMI upscaling DVD recorder - is so good I doubt the screen could look better when High Definition comes out ie. I think it will be screen sizes 30 and above that will be needed to take advantage of the extra pixels.

So if you are looking to HD then I'd move up to 32in if you can affort it. Alas for me the 26 was at my price limit.

Cheers, Dave C

 

[Spangle2k5]

I use my PC on a 26" LCD running 1280x720 (same text size as 1024x768 for the sake of comparison) ad sit 7ft away on a sofa and can read text fine in apps such as media player and MSN. Desktop icons in Win XP can be a tad hard to read because of the lack of contrast with my desktop background.

The missus finds the text hard to read at this distance, however, and needs the picture stretching to fill the screen to be able to make stuff out (and even then she leans forward). Depending on your eyes you may wish to go for a 32" for the distance at which you are sitting, it would certainly reduce the risk of eye strain...

Speaking for myself I am happy with using a 26" at 7ft.

Will also reiterate cooperda's comments that the picture is that good with current material at this size that HD demos being run through the PC are not as jaw-dropping as one might expect, so if you plan on going HD the 32" may give you better value!