big plasma tv = couch potato?

May 12, 2006 9:38 AM

A question for big-ass TV owners.

Did it drastically change your TV viewing habits? I'm about to buy a big-ass TV (42' plasma) myself and I'm afraid it will turn me into a couch potato. I'd simply like to truly enjoy my beloved DVDs, play the very occasional PS2 game. But I've never been a TV junkie (just the news, some sports, and, say, a movie three nights a week on a regular 26' old skool set) and some friends tell me, based on experience, that a big-ass TV and a nice sofa can be a lethal combination. Will I end up getting 99,000 satellite/cable channels and spend all my free time entombed in front of that plasma screen?

posted by PenguinBukkake to technology (30 comments total)

That's less up to the TV than to your sense of discipline. I watch mostly baseball and the occasional series on my TV, and I went from a 28" screen to a 46" plasma not long ago; my viewing habits haven't changed a bit. Sports are way better to watch, DVD's are unbelievably better (I didn't even have a good 28", so that may just be because my old TV was so crap), but normal TV's still normal TV.

Remember - just because "Two and a Half Men" is in HD, that doesn't make it worth watching all of a sudden.

Stick with what you do currently, and you'll be fine - it's not like you're missing anything, or not using the screen to its fullest.
posted by pdb at 9:45 AM on May 12, 2006

I only watch sports and the occasional DVD, so, yes it did. The occasional show I'll watch like ER is great too, and you can always get stupid stoned and watch Discovery HD - Sunrise Earth. Basically, it meant I'd actually tolerate an inning or two of baseball because it's so damned pretty.

No, you won't, but you might for a week or two at first - enjoy that time.
posted by kcm at 9:49 AM on May 12, 2006

We have a 50" and we probably watch less now--mostly because there still isn't much HD content out there. Once you watch HD, you don't like watching non-HD.

As pdb says, outside of the first week, just because it is HD doesn't mean you want to watch it.
posted by deadfather at 9:52 AM on May 12, 2006

Also, standard disclaimer to be careful (and hopefully avoid) playing video games with static elements during the first 100 hours of your set.
posted by deadfather at 9:54 AM on May 12, 2006

We bought a 50 inch, and at first we watched it a lot, now it is back to a normal amount. The biggest change was that we used to watch tv in the office, but now we sit in the more formal living room where the behemoth lives.
posted by stormygrey at 10:01 AM on May 12, 2006

Yes, amazingly so. Though a year plus later, it went down dramatically. For the first 12 months you'll watch for the novelty, especially shows like Lost which take advantage of cool panoramics.

If you get the HDMovieNet or InHD they basically picked the movies that look most amazing on large screens and HD (think Easy Rider, Apocolypse Now, The Last Waltz) -- you'll turn into a film junky. But of course those are actually quality pictures, so you don't feel guilty.
posted by geoff. at 10:13 AM on May 12, 2006

I find mysef watching dismal shows I would never suffer through in LoDef, just because they look so darn purdy...
posted by daveleck at 10:35 AM on May 12, 2006

I have a 9 foot screen (projector) and watch much much less television, even with hd content...it gets fired up three times a week when netflix movies come in...if you're not already a couch potato I doubt you'll turn into one
posted by killyb at 10:41 AM on May 12, 2006

You seem to be asking if there's a correlation between the size of the TV and size of its owners ass...

And according to the above apparently not, perhaps working to earn the TV helps maintain a balance...
posted by scheptech at 11:00 AM on May 12, 2006

42" isnt all that terribly huge anymore in the grand scheme of things. especially since you end up watching a lot of 4:3 content and the 42" tv then becomes the equivalent of a ~32" 4:3 TV.

but anyway, no, i dont think it made me watch more TV and as others have commented once you watch HDTV you really don't want to watch anything else. so that cuts out most of the 500 channels of crap :)
posted by joeblough at 11:12 AM on May 12, 2006

I found that I watch less with a plasma because I like to watch HD on it and basically delisted all my standard def DVR shows except a small handful.

Watching movies suddenly becomes an experience though, and I cherish sitting down once a week after the baby goes to sleep and enjoying a film.
posted by mathowie at 11:38 AM on May 12, 2006

If you avoid cable/satellite, you'll probably be fine. The problem with cable/satellite tv is that while it *might* have more programming worth watching than ordinary broadcast TV, it doesn't have that much more, and what it does have is spread out over 100x more channels. So, whereas with broadcast TV you can tell in 5 minutes or less that there isn't anything worth watching on, with premium pay TV it might take 20-30 minutes to flip through all the channels and by the time you've gotten through them all, you'll have crossed a half hour boundry and will have to check again to see if some new show that's worth watching has started.

If you do find yourself compelled to get pay TV because you absolutely have to see one or two specific programs, I'd suggest spending a little time with the cable box seeing if you can have it skip all the other useless channels when using the channel changer.
posted by Good Brain at 11:38 AM on May 12, 2006

Get a tivo. Make decisions about what shows you want to watch. Then watch only those shows. Do not ever just turn on the tv and watch "whatever's on". You could be watching cool stuff instead of some lame rerun you'd seen 10 times already. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
posted by CrazyJoel at 12:15 PM on May 12, 2006

Probably not. I'm a complete home theater nut, with a dedicated theater and 110" screen. Frankly, I'm lucky if I get in 1 movie a week (usually on the weekend) and we watch a couple of hours of DVR'd tv (HD, of course). Whenever anyone comes over they say, "If I had one of these, I'd never leave."

Alas, although I aspire to be a couch potato grand master, that has not come to pass.
posted by cptnrandy at 12:20 PM on May 12, 2006

I have a projector and 70 inch screen. I watch it a lot less actually. It's more like going to the cinema for special occasions then watching TV. I almost never channel surf on it.
posted by cillit bang at 12:27 PM on May 12, 2006

ditto the last two. Also, let me be the first (!) to urge you to consider a projector rather than a behemoth. Much smaller object, much bigger screen. The main drawback is that it makes you unwilling to watch during the day, but that's a good way to limit your watching anyway, apparently.
posted by Aknaton at 1:02 PM on May 12, 2006

Yes.

My dad got a new ~50" HDTV. He DVRs stuff all the time now, and watches nature documentaries just to see the high definition at work. He never used to turn the thing on.
posted by danb at 1:08 PM on May 12, 2006

"I have a projector and 70 inch screen. I watch it a lot less actually. It's more like going to the cinema for special occasions then watching TV. I almost never channel surf on it."

I agree. Bad TV is worse on a big television - which is a good thing.
posted by nthdegx at 1:31 PM on May 12, 2006

If you play video games, expect to play them a lot more.
posted by Hogshead at 2:03 PM on May 12, 2006

if you watch hockey in HD, you can actually see the puck on that big new screen of yours! its so awesome!

i agree; get a DVR.
posted by saragoodman3 at 3:22 PM on May 12, 2006

I got a big screen (four-yards-diagionally) recently (projectors are cheaper, the biggest downside is that the contrast becomes much lower when the sun is shining, but that's not a problem since sunlight is a subset of my slave working hours :-))

Anyway, it makes me more interested in using it, especially in the first few weeks, but only really for DVDs and games - TV has no surround sound or interactivity, so it... I don't know, kinda feels like I'd be wasting the equipment on inferior material that can't take advantage of it.

It's been a little over a month now, and my viewing habits are returning to normal (ie low - no TV, the odd rare game, and a DVD or two a week). If there is a DVD I want, I'm more likely to get it than before, but overall, I'm not watching more, but I am enjoying it more :)

(Hmm, that sunlight thing will probably kind of help enforce things, if I want to look for a silver lining :)
posted by -harlequin- at 3:45 PM on May 12, 2006

We got a massive TV last year, and still don't really watch TV. We watch mostly DVDs and downloaded US programs and sometimes turn it on for the Simpsons or random irregular viewing like that, but I certainly can't remember ever just watching crap for the sake of it.
posted by jacalata at 4:13 PM on May 12, 2006

Of course, you have to ask yourself: "How many people are willing to admit that they watch a lot of TV?"

I have a 50" DLP (no burn in issues, better contrast) and while I don't necessarily watch more TV, it is turned on and running in the background more often.
posted by o0o0o at 5:44 PM on May 12, 2006

No. The thing that has changed my viewing habits (i.e. watching more TV) was a PVR. No TiVo's in Australia, so it's a Topfield DVB-T PVR. Basically I now condense the good stuff out of each 24 hours and watch it a day or two later in 4 or 5 hours.

One thing I did notice when I bought my first (relatively) large-screen TV a few years ago was that going above a certain threshold size vastly changes the feel of watching TV. For example, back then I went from a 51cm CRT to a 68cm CRT, and it felt so different!

I put it down to the fact that on a 51cm screen your eyes don't have to move to take in the whole picture - but on a 68cm screen you do move your eyes. Upgrading from a 68cm 4:3 to a 76cm WS CRT was less of a difference.

(I didn't buy a LCD, plasma, projector, or RP because, quite frankly, I don't think the picture quality on any of them is anywhere near a good CRT. But, I'm willing to accept that some people don't mind them, so YMMV. I'm probably a little pickier than most...)
posted by Pinback at 6:57 PM on May 12, 2006

We've got a 70" LCD, and it has given a new sense of pride to our family, becuase it is the best tv we've ever seen anywhere. And we watch around 20% more TV.
posted by matkline at 10:43 PM on May 12, 2006

70" LCD? i thought sharp had the biggest at 65".
posted by joeblough at 11:51 PM on May 12, 2006

thanks everybody, this was a great thread.
posted by PenguinBukkake at 6:39 AM on May 13, 2006

Like many others, when i first got my HDTV, I would literally watch anything in HD. I was so absolutely amazed by the picture quality, I would watch PBS for hours on end (the other station that had HD programming 24/7). The excitement wore off after a while and now I am backing to watching just the stuff I really want to watch.
posted by Lexbubba at 9:30 AM on May 14, 2006

re joeblough:

it's a 70" sony grand wega
posted by matkline at 9:59 PM on May 14, 2006

ah... that's a projection TV. Sharp's are direct-view panels.
posted by joeblough at 12:10 AM on May 16, 2006