Need help deciding between 55" or 60" TV, is 60" just too large?

We don't game, so cannot comment from that perspective.

From a Viewing Perspective: 60" at 7 - 8 feet depends upon Content & your own sensitivity to PQ flaws.

We sit 9ft from a 60ST50: Blu-rays and HDDVDs generally look great - but at that distance / size combination, EVERY Flaw in the source becomes readily apparent. With modern material, that is usually not much of a problem, but even on a blu-ray, some older movies reveal significant flaws...

HOWEVER: Streaming sources, SD DVDs, and Most "HD TV" programs, tend to fall far short of "blu-ray" quality, and often look downright horrible.

We have a secondary seating position that helps - at approx 12 foot distance.
Or, we simply watch some "HD" TV programs on our 50" set - at about 10 ft, more-or-less: either the 1366x768 display simply does a better job of handling sub-HD material, and/or the smaller screen makes the flaws harder to spot....

For me, Travis, that close I'd go 55".

For you, it might be different. Try both sizes at the appropriate distance in stores and see what you both like.

Go for the 60". I don't see any reason to go smaller.

Listen to your wife. She's probably right. 55" is huge. I can see the pixels of a 60" panal at 7-8 feet. On the other hand, for a 55" TV, I would have sit 4-5 feet away to see the pixels. It is very distracting for an HDTV.

You can never go too big. It might seem huge at first, but you will get used to it fairly quickly. If you buy the 55″ panel, a few months later you will be wishing you had just spent the extra $300 to get the 60″.
Sorry, but the math doesn’t work out on this one. If you have to be within 5′ of a 55″ screen to see the pixels (43.6° viewing angle) that means you will only see pixels on a 60″ screen within 5.5′ (43.2° viewing angle)


At a 7′ distance, the difference between 55″ and 60″ isn’t that huge anyway. It’s 31.9º vs 34.6º FoV. If a 60″ panel is too big for your wife at that distance, the 55″ will be as well.

Get the 60" - remember that you'll be losing some screen area when watching film content, since they have a wider aspect ratio, so you'll want as big a screen as possible to make up for it.

I sit 8' away from a 55" screen, and already think it's too small.

So Travis, you've heard all sides. What's your decision?

I hope all your viewing is HD, if so go 60"

Too big? I view 65" from 6ft and it is perfect. A 55" will look tiny. It is tiny.