just saw an old 61 incher at a sports bar

I forgot how damn big these were, with more surface area and taller screen height compared to a 60" widescreen, I almost felt like I was watching a projector

sometimes I miss that old school tech...

Yes, I had to get a 73" 16x9 to match my 61"ers 4x3 picture.

73" projection screen?

Yeah, but it depends on what you're watching on that 61" 4:3 display.

The screen on the 4:3 display is 1786 sq in, and a 60" 16:9 display is only 1538 sq in. If you're watching 4:3 content (at 4:3), the 4:3 display is indeed larger (by 55%!). But if you're watching 1.78:1 (16:9 HD TV), 1.85:1 (typical movie), or 2.35:1 (widescreen movie) widescreen content letterboxed on the 4:3 screen, you're really only using 1015-1337 sq in of that big 4:3 screen- which would be ~15% smaller than what you would see on the 60" 16:9 display. If you want to see 4:3 SD content on a really huge screen, the 61" display would be great! If you want to watch a HD movie at its original aspect ratio, the 4:3 screen would still be a step back.

just saw an old 61 incher at a sports bar... I almost felt like I was watching a projector...sometimes I miss that old school tech...

Well yes if you are watching a 4:3 image it looks big but remember if you want to display an entire 16:9 HD image on this set you are going to have black bars top and bottom, in which case the lit surface area will be equivalent to a 50 inch modern HD set.

There are good anthropomorphic reasons for a wide screen, based on the concept that because we live on a horizontal surface our brains are more comfortable with things happening on the sides rather than coming at us from above or below. Although there are inevitably a few sceptics, I think most viewers are comfortable with that.

The broadcasting industry has therefore decided that wide-screen is the most efficient use of digital bandwidth, which makes sense to me.

73" projection screen?
CRT-RPTV.

bleh repeating what above posters said

A awful lot of what's on TV is still 4:3. I've always wondered with 16:9 CRT RPTV, are the tubes 16:9 or are they just giving you a 16:9 screen and scanning less phosphor.

The crt tubes are the same whether 4:3 or 16:9
The image, of course, is the variable.