Is the Samsung TX-R3079WH a 30" or 32" TV?

Today I went to Circuit City to see the Samsung TX-R3079WH which just came in this week. It is a great looking slim design crt. Circuit City has it listed as a 32" for $999. Now the thing that confuses me is that on the Samsung website they call it a 30", but on their detailed specs of this tv it says it is a 32" CRT measured diagonally. Can somone please tell me if this is a 30" or 32" TV. I might have to go to the store and start measureing all 30 and 32" to figure this out.

The tube is 32", with 30" visible.

Is it the same size viewable as other 32" or 30" widescreens? I like the look of this set a lot, I am thinking of getting this instead of a Toshiba 34". Only if I am just losing 2", not 4". Thanks for the quick reply.

It's a 30" 16:9 screen...the "30" in the model number TX-R3079WH is the key. So while a 32" 4:3 screen has a larger SD image, the 30" screen will have a larger widescreen image. You need to decide what's more important for you...SD 4:3 programming or HD and DVD widescreen content. Personally I'd opt for the widescreen image since that's where everything is heading towards.

Thanks borromini,
I just got back from Circuit City and I went with my tape measure. Your right, it is a 30" 16:9. The thing that bugs me is they have it listed as a 32" in the store, the sales reps insist it is a 32" even when I show that the tape measure says 30". I even did it on other brands of 32" sets and they show a true 32". Told them they should change the listing, but I do not think that is going to happen. It looks like I am going to get the Toshiba 34HF84 afterall.

The way sizes are reported varies around the world... some places use total tube size, in the US we only count the visible part of the tube. It has a 32" tube, of which 30" is visible... so it's a 30" TV in the US.

...and I'm sure the Circuit City the OP's referring to is in the US so it looks like the salesperson just doesn't care about displaying the proper information in the showroom. :)

Because the tube is 32" but only 30" are visible, does this mean that some of the picture will be cut off all the way around the TV? I know that some TVs do this, but 2" seems like a lot. Or is that normal?

I don't think the 2" entirely consists of actual image being cut off but rather just the glass formation of the entire tube assembly. Otherwise you would easily notice the cutoff of news ticker feeds, etc.

There is SUPPOSED to be a portion of the image that is not visible... it's called overscan, and is normal for TVs. PC monitors are normally underscanned, leaving a bit of the screen blank to display the entire image.

The 'extra' is only 1", on all sides...

Normal overscan is about 5%... which would be 3/4 inch on a 30" set.

You guys said HOW the design of this tv looks..but how does the picture on the tv look??!!! Is it a very sharp picture? :confused:

Look critically at the extreme sides... Due to an extreme angle, the pixels might be elongated & a bit blurry there... This is theory, I haven't seen one in person...