2. home-theater
  3. 1125090038

TV VIEWING DISTANCE QUESTION

I am in the market for a new TV and I wish to take advantage of the new 1080P technology. My short list includes the Samsung 5678 (56 inch picture 16/9 measured diagonally). I plan to sit about 11 feet 6 inches from the
TV.
Last night I watched a movie at a friend's house on her new 42 inch Sony Plasma TV and I was sitting about 11 feet
from the TV. Today I had a major headache, sort of the way I feel when I am sitting too close in a movie theatre.
In a movie theater I am comfortable near the back.
My research tells me that to really enjoy high def its best to sit 8-11 feet away and most manufacturers say there is no problem sitting 11 feet away from a 56 inch tv.
Anybody have any experience with this and any suggestions
would be welcome. I currently have a 34inch Sony XBR 16/9 CRT which is great, but I wanted a bigger picture. I would hate to spend $4000 on a 56 inch TV and find that its too much tv for the room. Or could it be that I have a particular personal sensitivity to sitting that close?
kjl

Showing 1 response by drew_eckhardt

drew_eckhardt
394 posts
 
About 1.5 screen widths is required to achieve an acceptable sense of immersion. This is no bigger than the subtended field of vision in the farthest seat from the screen within a decent THX certified commercial theater.

I run a 9" CRT projector (no visible projection artifacts) on an 87x49" screen (100" 16:9 diagonal) with seating at 11'. This is small for nice DVD scope transfers, a little large for lower aspect ratios, and the best compromise for a standard screen shape. I'm leaning towards a change to 101x43" constant height.

Also note that it is impossible to visually resolve 1080 line HD sitting beyond 3.3 screen heights (about 1.8 widths).
More to discover