Feeling overwhelmed in selecting a new TV? With all the choices these days, you may feel like, “Where do I start?!”

In part 1 of our 5 part article, we discuss the importance (and a quick rule of thumb!) of selecting a screen size appropriate for your space.

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Selecting the correct size TV is an important part of your purchase decision. Many just choose the biggest TV they can afford, but find out later that uncomfortably large—or perhaps even a tad too small!

If you get a TV that is too large for the space, you will not be able to take the whole picture in. More importantly, you may begin to suffer from eyestrain from being too close. Occasionally, people choose a size thinking it will be "fine for their room", later realizing that they are sitting too far away from the screen. Either way, the overall impact of your viewing experience has been diminished.

A quick and easy solution? A good rule of thumb is divide the distance from your eyes to the front of the TV by 2.5. For example, if I were to watch TV and while sittto get a screen size of 43” (9 feet x 12 inches = 108 inches / 2.5 = 43.2” diagonal screen.) Again, this is just a rule of thumb, but should give you a starting point when shopping for a TV.

* Next in Part 2 of this article: TV technologies—plasma, LCD, & DLP

©2005 Architechtronics, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Jennifer Shatos holds a degree in Visual Communications from the Art Institute of Seattle. Jennifer frequently attends educational seminars to keep on the cutting-edge of business, along with trade shows and other events in the home automation and security industry.