Most people probably already knew, but I’m sort of dense sometimes - I was googling to determine the cost per square inch of a TV I bought, and ran across this chart at ScreenMath.com:

  Old Screen Size (Diag., Inches) Screen Height HDTV Screen Size (Diag.) 21 12.6 26 27 16.2 33 29 17.4 35 31 18.6 38 32 19.2 39 34 20.4 42 36 21.6 44 40 24.0 49 42 25.2 51 50 30.0 61 55 33.0 67 60 36.0 73  

Above: If your old TV has a 34-inch screen, for older programs like I Love Lucy, Seinfeld etc. to be the SAME SIZE on your new HDTV, the new TV should have a 42-inch screen.

What the hell are they watching here? Anyway, after reading an article at NiceTaco.com, of all places, which goes into great detail about screen aspect ratios, Pythagorean Theorem, and why Jennifer Aniston looks fat on some TV sets, I finally concluded that comparing the screens between old and new TV’s is an apples and oranges thing.

BUT they DID have a handy calculator at the bottom to determine the area in square inches- This is what I wanted, I was able to determine that a $350 basic 32” TV costs 80 cents per square inch, and the $500 42” one we wound up with, ran 66 cents per square inch.

Unfortunately, there is one thing I did not consider. The animals on the screen apparently do not look “real” - anyway, my dog doesn’t bark at the TV anymore. YMMV.