TV between speakers: Curved Screen TV, help? Hurt?

Theo, I'm from the same era and do the same thing. Funny that.

A friend of mine has a custom built room designed by Rives (acoustic design/engineering firm). Along the front wall where the speakers are located is a giant floor to ceiling hardwood reflector located dead center on the wall. This reflector is curved, but, the curve is convex, not concave like the new tv sets. If you install the TV set backwards, it might act like the Rives reflector.

Isn't it the general consensus that curved screens are nothing more than a marketing gimmick?

I don't think there is any advantage to the curve, except perhaps for a perfectly centered viewer sitting at precisely the right distance from the screen. Anyone off center will be, at least for the half of the screen closer to the viewer, even further off axis than with a flat screen. Most of the flat screen technologies have issues with off axis performance so curving the screen would exacerbate such problems.

The sets I saw with curved screens also made room reflections much more annoying than a flat screen. Again, one would need perfect viewing conditions (dark room) to avoid this making the picture worse.

I think the curved screen fad may have to do with having that IMAX experience in your own home but the screen would have to be the size of your longest wall to have the same effect.