Actual TV sizes

Why does gas get sold at 444.9 cents a gallon? Why price things at .99 instead of 1.00? Just assume the diagonal measurement doesn't exceed the number but is within an inch...

With the ole CRT, they said the advertised measurement is the diagonal measurement of the glass tube, not the actual viewing area, so some of the tube is behind the bezel. I don't know whether they are using the same excuse for flat panels. That's why lately they advertise TVs as 47 CLASS, 55 CLASS, NOT 47 and 55" They are sneaky.

But if you want to lose some sleep:

Cars never get the mileage they advertise.

Hard Drive never get the full space they advertised AS AVAILABLE FOR YOU TO USE.

Broadbands - You never get the speed they advertise, the fine prints will always have something else to say.

And on and on and on... welcome to life.

Initially the advertised diagonal measurement of CRT sets was edge to edge measurement of the tube. Sometime in the late 80s or so the FTC said they could only advertise visible screen diagonal in the US. Canada had no such rule so the size on the box would say 32" US, 34" Canada for example.

The "class" thing is not that deceptive in that the actual screen measurement is rounded off to the closest even "inch" measurement. Some sets are actually a fraction of an inch bigger than the advertised "class".

The thing that I find more weird is that sets advertised as 720p are invariably actually 768 vertically and either 1366 (lcd) or 1024 (most "720p" plasmas) horizontally.

Advertised auto mpg in the US is restricted to the numbers attained during the EPA smog certification tests performed in "city" and "hwy" driving cycles which are the same for all cars tested. The tests are performed on dynamometers, not the open road, and because the simulated driving "cycles" are more intended to make sure emmissions requirments are met than to actually accurately simulate road driving the numbers are not representative of what the car will actually do on the road. Since these cycles are very strictly controlled they are very useful for comparison purposes between models even if not indicative of real life mileage. It would be more useful if they just used letter grades for fuel economy "classes" than publishing actual mpg. numbers.