How to: Buy the Right TV For Your Space
In general, it seems that most people are comfortable at a distance of 3 to 6 times the width of the screen for regular televisions (i.e. square) while for higher resolution wide screen sets, distances of 1.5 times the diagonal distance of the screen will give you an immersive feel and good picture quality.
Of course room size and furniture layout play the biggest part in where you can place your TV, but if you are dead set on getting the ideal viewing distance you can calculate your viewing distance here to get a THX certifiable setup.
-via Lifehacker
Comments (5)
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These recommendations seem a bit bizarre to me. I live in a small house with small rooms (hence my undying love for AT), and I can't imagine living with a TV in the scales recommended.
I just measured my kids' room yesterday, so I'm using that as a mental reference even though I'm not inclined to have a TV in their room. It's 9'x12', so presumably the maximum viewing distance in a room that size would be on the order of 11 feet. A 42 or 47 inch TV in a room that size would be totally overwhelming. Maybe that's what you mean by "immersive feel"? I guess that's not the feeling I want a TV to give me!
view AngieK's profile
I completely agree. I can remember when a 25" tv in a 20' family room was considered enormous--and was where everyone wanted to watch the Superbowl. These are crazy.
view kea's profile
I think these are dead on. I've seen many sources for viewing distances and I would agree with them. I have a 40" TV in the study and 8' is just right. In my loft I have a 61" TV and am back a full 14'.
In a 9' X 12' room, assume that it is set up for additional usage other than just watching TV so 6'- 7' would be reasonable. That equates to a 32" to 37" TV.
Be careful: The number one comment Consumer Reports gets from their annual survey from TV owners is that they wish they gotten a larger screen.
view Chris - Annapolis's profile
I just did a few calculations about this stuff. The screen size is the measurement of the diagonal, and so square screen size isn't directly comparable to rectangular (16:9) screen size.
A 25" square screen would be 18 inches on the horizontal and vertical. A rectangular screen that was 18 inches high (that is, the same height) would be 32 inches wide, and have a diagonal of 36". That's a big TV already!
view AngieK's profile
So apparently I need to replace my 15" tele with a 50". I guess it's time to start saving...
view JohnnySlimane's profile