As more and more directors design TV shows and movies for big-screen viewing, consumers anxiously awaiting the chance to buy cinema-quality TV sets

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Supersize TVs are being served.

Panasonic introduced a 103-inch plasma television at the New York Stock Exchange last week. (The screen measurement is taken on a diagonal; the set measures 7.5 feet wide and 4.3 feet high.)

The high-definition TV, which delivers more than 2 million pixels (if that means anything to you), was on display as a prototype. It’s so new that it doesn’t have a price tag yet, but it will be available by the winter holiday shopping season.

This means that Samsung and LG have been bested by 1 inch. Their biggest plasma sets have 102-inch screens. And so far they’ve been just for show, not for sale.

‘‘These big ones they’re showing are only for bragging rights,’’ says Steve Payette, a sales consultant.

In other words, you can drool, but you can’t buy.

‘‘It’s not available to the public as far as I know,’’ said Russell Rowland, a representative for Samsung, speaking of the firm’s 102-inch plasma-screen set. It made its debut at a Consumer Electronics Show last year.

‘‘They showed it as future technology,’’ Rowland said.

‘‘Ours will definitely be available by next Christmas,’’ said Jeff Samuels, a Panasonic spokesman. But, he added, it will most likely be available only by custom order.

Currently, a 37-inch Panasonic Plasma TV costs about $2,000. A new 65-inch plasma model coming out in June will be close to $10,000, Samuels said. LG’s 71-inch set is priced at $70,000.

But does size really matter?

Indeed it does, especially when you’re watching a movie DVD, says Bob Thompson, a professor of media and popular culture at Syracuse University.

‘‘If you’re going to be watching ‘Titanic’ or ‘King Kong,’ it actually benefits not to be watching on a 19-inch screen,’’ he says.

And TV shows have adapted to make use of larger screens.

‘‘You’ve now got technology that can support this size of screen,’’ Thompson says. ‘‘Did you need 103 inches to watch ‘CHiPs’ or ‘Trapper John, MD’? I don’t think so; sometimes 19 inches was too much. But now, the cinematography of a show like ‘Lost’ really does merit this kind of large-screen viewing.’’

Thompson recently acquired a TV with a 50-inch screen, after relying on the 19-inch Sony his mother bought him as a gift for college graduation in 1981.

‘‘It really is a totally different experience,’’ he says. ‘‘In some cases, it’s kind of creepy — watching a CNN report that isn’t designed for it or an old TV series; there isn’t that much put into the frame.’’