What's with the recent "42 inch class", "46 inch class"

[spidey07]

This seems rather recent looking at the circulars for big box retailers. TV descriptions no longer say 42" or 50", rather "50 inch class TV".

Marketing gimmick or did somebody lawsuit that their 42" TV was only 41.6 inches?
Example

 

[Rike]

Actually, yes, there was a big class action lawsuit in the early 90's, but it was over CRTs. And it was basically over the fact that they would call it a 15" inch screen but it wasn't, sometimes smaller by nearly 2". I think I got $13 back at one point on that one.

I've assumed that since then all monitor makers will just tell you the actual size of the screen. It looks like they are going half way back to their old habits. I'll bet the "class" part covers their bases.

 

[spidey07]

Yeah, but this seems to be a recent trend. And from the quick specs I looked at the TVs are less than 1/8" smaller than 42, 46, 50, 53 inches etc.

And if you read the features of the TVs on the web site one of the big highlights is "measures 41 9/10" from corner to corner". Smaller screens say "22 inch HDTV", look at the features and in big bold print "Measures 22 inches corner to corner!!!"

 

[CalvinHobbes]

I noticed the same thing recently. I just assumed it was due to a lawsuit.

 

[MichaelD]

It's just marketing BS. If the TV's panel has a native res of 1920x1080, then it's a 1080 panel, no matter the size. I.E. the picture will be bigger on a bigger screen but the bigger TV will not necessarily have a "better picture."