WHICH WIDE SCREEN HAS SAME VERT. HEIGHT AS MY 36

Audio_girl--you know the 16:9 aspect ratio, and you know the desired height is 22.5. So, divide desired height by 9 to get 2.5 and multiply by 16 to get desired width of 40. Diagonal screen size is (h^2 + w^2)^.5, or 45.9. You may find a 46" 16:9 fits pretty well.

I respectively recommend that you recheck your vertical height measurement. If the 36 inch Wega has a standard 4:3 aspect ratio, the vertical height would be 21.6 inches. This would be commensurate with a 44 inch (not 46 inch) HDTV. This may be a moot point since screen sizes seem to jump from 42 inches to 50 inches with no choices in between.

Another thought is that most movies are shot in a wider aspect ratio than HDTV's 16:9. Many are shot at 2.35:1. When I watch a movie in widescreen format on my HDTV, I have black "bars" across the top and bottom of my screen; the TV displays the full width of the picture and wastes some of my vertical screen availability. Accordingly, when I bought my HDTV, I was replacing a 35 inch standard tube TV, and I wanted to preserve my vertical image size for movies. As a result, I wound up buying a 55 inch HDTV.

Without going into a lot of math, the conversion for this is 1.62 times the diagonal of the standard screen. For your 36 inch standard screen, you would get a 58 inch HDTV. The industry makes 55 inch and 60 inch HDTVs, so you would have a choice.

This requires use of the pythagorian theorem: a2 + b2 = c2
a =height, b = width, c = diagonal measure
a = 22.5 , b = 40 (16:9, so 22.5 divided by 9 then multiplied by 16 = 40 inches.)

a2 = 506.25
b2 = 1600
c2 = 2106.25

c = 45.89 inches

However, the height of 36 inch 4:3 TV should calculate out this way:
3x = height, 4x = width, 36 inches = diagonal measure.
(3x)2 + (4x)2 = (36)2
9x2 + 16x2 = 1296
25x2 = 1296
x2 = 1296/25
x = 36/5
3x = 21.6 inches

Therefore an equivalent 16:9 TV should be:

a = 21.6, b = 38.4

a2 = 466.56
b2 = 1474.56
c2 = 1941.12

c = 44.06 inches

So, a 4:3 tv of 36" diagnal should actaully be the same height as a 44" 16:9 TV

Esun;

Can you come over and help me with my daughter's math homework? :)

Albertporter,
What size diagonal screen monitor are you using that has a 26 1/2 vertical height?
Thanks.

Audio girl, It's 55" measured diagonally. It's a Sony, Grand WEGA (rear projection) LCD.

It had the best picture for the money. Perhaps third or fourth place behind TV's that cost 6K to 12K (and beyond).

Mine was about $2800.00 and all I could justify for a TV.

Good luck with your search !