“Do you have a tape measure?”

A man down the television aisle from me was calling out to a sales clerk.

I had been sizing up the 32-inch TVs in the electronics store, noticing that they’d dropped in price.

With the Super Bowl just around the corner and Jayhawk basketball getting into full stride, I was checking out TVs, feeling an itch to get a bigger screen to replace the old 27-inch screen TV in my basement.

I had been looking at the tech side of it: Should I go standard definition again or high definition? A curved tube or flat screen? A plasma, liquid crystal display (LCD) or digital light processing (DLP) screen?

But the customer’s question made me wonder about something more basic: What TV size would fit into my 1990s-era home entertainment cabinet.

I headed home to do some measuring. And what I found was surprising.

Super-sizing

But let’s go back. Ed Hawkins, the audio-video manager at Kief’s Audio Video in Lawrence, says a few years ago he was at a Sony trade show where new TV models were being unveiled.

Hawkins noticed Sony had come out with a relatively new design — putting speakers on either side of the screen, facing forward. The idea was to provide a better stereo sound.

But the speakers on the front also made the TV sets several inches wider. Other manufacturers also changed their designs.

Hawkins said when he first saw the wider sets, he knew there would be some problems. Since that time, he’s been proven correct.

“A lot of people are in a jam when they’re trying to put the same size television into a cabinet that they may have had custom built,” Hawkins said earlier this week.

Moving down

Audio interview with Ed Hawkins, home audio/video manager at Kief’s Will my old analog TV be obsolete when the switch is made in 2006 to high-definition broadcasts? What are the advantages of a flat screen over a curved screen television?

Several years ago, a Sony with a 27-inch (diagonal) screen would be between 26 and 27 inches wide, he said.

Now, a Sony with a 27-inch screen needs 31 inches because of the speakers.

“Having the speakers on the sides has a tendency to make them sound a little bit better,” Hawkins said. “You get a little more stereo separation. But most people would rather have a bigger screen than a little better sound.”

Because of the added width, some people who wanted to upgrade their older televisions have had to downsize their screens — such as going from a 27-inch screen to a 24-inch screen, Hawkins said. A new 24-inch Sony needs a 29-inch space, Hawkins said.

“In some ways that’s not a bad deal because the 24-inch TVs of today are flat — the picture tubes are flat — so they appear to look bigger than the old curved screens in days past,” Hawkins said.

Likewise, some people who own 36-inch TVs have to step down to 30-inch or 34-inch screens unless they want to upgrade their cabinet areas, he said.

Larger screens

The big screens have had dramatic price reductions in recent years.

Now, people who own big screens are moving to even bigger screens as the technology has improved, Hawkins said.

“They’re upgrading their 36 to 40-inch and above,” Hawkins said. “We’ve got a lot of people who are really doing the big screens — 42s, 45s, 50s, 55s, really a lot of big screen. They’re doing high definition. They’re doing home theater.”

Televisions with smaller screens have been fairly level in price, but the technology has improved for the higher-end models, he said.

The biggest difference is that a 27-inch television in the $600 to $700 price range now is capable of taking advantage of high-definition broadcasts, Hawkins said.

Standard definition TVs have 480 vertical scan lines of resolution. In comparison, HD TV has 1,080 vertical lines of resolution, making for a clearer image.

By 2006, TV stations are expected to switch from standard analog broadcasts to HD broadcasts, he said. Starting this spring, all models that are 34-inch screens or bigger must be equipped with a HD tuner to be able to receive the HD broadcast, he said.

But if you’re buying a new analog TV, there’s no need to worry. You’ll still be able to use your analog TV as long as it’s connected to an HD converter box, he said.

Making it fit

I pulled out the tape and took a measurement.

I groaned. My cabinet space was just under 29 inches wide.

My old 27-inch Zenith model, which lost its ability to tell blues from green a few years back, had only about a half-inch of clearance all the way around.

I gave up on the idea of a 32-inch flat screen with a 15:9 aspect ratio with a built-in HD receiver.

I was going to have to settle for an old-fashioned basic box — a 27-inch screen, with a 4:3 aspect ratio.

I checked epinions.com to find the top-rated analog 27-inch screens.

After a little research, I saw that Toshiba was getting top reviews for a good picture and few or no problems. It had 4.5 out of 5 stars. It cost about $250, which was about half of what I had spent on the old Zenith some eight years ago.

As I walked into the TV aisle of the electronics store, I saw another customer pull out a green tape measure and size up one of the 27-inch models.

Grinning, I reached in my pocket and pulled out my own tape measure. I found three sets that would fit. But I settled on the Toshiba brand.

And when I got it home, I didn’t mind the screen not being 32 inches. It actually did seem a little bigger than 27 inches. The picture was clear and the colors bright.

It sort of reminded me of the new Kansas slogan, “as big as you think.”