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I think you're right Ken. One of the sets I was looking at was the Sony 34" CRT HDTV. And I remember figuring that it would show a 27" (give or take) 4x3 image.

Hmm. Good to know that such beasties exist. Unlike the rest of you (apparently) I don't think my wife is going to go for a 60" rear projection.

Their new model, the KD-34XBR960, is VERY highly rated, and reputed to have the best PQ available. Of course it weighs 195 pounds, so it has it's downside.

Plus it costs $2000!!! Jeez, get set sizes above 27" and manufacturers just go crazy with the price. Gah. (Yes, I'm cheap.) Nice looking set, though.

Tom,

I couldn't resist your challenge, especially since it doesn't involve calculus.

Since the height of the screen doesn't change when going between 16:9 and 4:3, we'll need to reduce the 16:9 ratio. For ease of calculating, we'll switch the order of the ratios to height:width, so we now have 3:4 and 9:16.

Reducing the second ratio by a factor of 3 (so the heights match), we get 3:5.333

Now we need to determine the diagonals. The 3:4 aspect ratio is easy, because it creates a classic 3:4:5 triangle. We'll need to actually use the Pythagorean Theorem to find the diagonal of the 3:5.333 aspect ratio:

3^2 + 5.333^2 = 37.444, the square root of which is approximately 6.12.

So we now have 5:6.12 as the ratio between the diagonals of the two aspect ratios. Evaluated, this ratio is 0.817.

To figure out the 4:3 diagonal from the 16:9 diagonal, just multiply the full diagonal by 0.817.

Oh, um... QED, and stuff.

I knew I could count on you, Peter!

I'm not in a quantitative phase at work right now, and I just lacked the gumption to do the math. You should give up your geekdom and teach!

Thank You.

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Plus it costs $2000!!! Jeez, get set sizes above 27" and manufacturers just go crazy with the price. Gah. (Yes, I'm cheap.) Nice looking set, though.

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Yeah but last year's model (the 910) cost $2500. And, the year before that it was $2800. So, only 10 more years and it'll be in your budget.

I'm kidding of course. You're young. Prices will continue to come down, and (theoretically) your income should go up, so your wait shouldn't be all that long.

If I were young I'd be waiting too. I get maybe 10 HD channels, and a lot of the programming is not my cup of tea. Some of it (sports, movies, concerts) IS my cup of tea. But, I'm old. I'll probably croak before prices get really reasonable, and programming becomes universal. So, I didn't wait.

Look at it this way. When you get your brand new HDTV with all the current technology, if alive, I'll be watching this antiquated piece of junk with the lousy picture. Be happy!

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Oh, um... QED, and stuff.

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As for you Peter. Oh buzz off!

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As for you Peter. Oh buzz off!

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Never tell a man to turn off his buzz. That's a waste of a good beer!

I prefer my buzz from a nice cold Crown & Coke with a twist of lime! :-)

How about a nice mint julep? Mmmm...