Joe - the 23" seems sharper because it is sharper. You're taking the same number of lines and pixels of information but stretching them out on to a larger 42" display.

It's similar to looking at a picture in the newspaper at arms length, and then holding it up real close where you see all the dots. Look at the 42" up-close and you'll see the dots, or in this case, the pixels. Look at the 23" up-close, which will have much finer dots, or pixels, and of course appear sharper.

Don't know the type (DLP or CRT), or resolution of the rear projection television you had, but "subjective picture quality" can become very complicated when trying to compare various displays.

I went askew on my point. I wanted to ask about screen size. Would a 23" tv viewed from 6 ft seem the same size as a 32" viewed from 12'? Approximately?

No.

At double the distance you would need double the screen size to have the same apparent size.