How-To: Properly Place Your TV For Optimal Viewing

Before you drop all that money on a 46-inch flat panel HDTV you found on sale,
maybe you should make sure there's enough room in your studio apartment for
that bad boy. What, you think that just because it's flat you can fit it
anywhere? As fun as it may seem to turn your apartment into a full-fledged
movie theater, you should know that there are optimal viewing distances that
you should adhere to. The general rule of thumb is to place your TV at a
distance of three times the height of your screen (3 x H) away from your sofa.

http://www.geeksugar.com/2984538

[Note from UCLAN: Since the DIAGONAL length is about twice the height on 16:9
aspect ratio TVs (46" diagonal = 22.53" height), the recommended distance
would be about 1.5 times the diagonal away from the TV.]

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"UCLAN" wrote in message
...
Before you drop all that money on a 46-inch flat panel HDTV you found on
sale, maybe you should make sure there's enough room in your studio
apartment for that bad boy. What, you think that just because it's flat
you can fit it anywhere? As fun as it may seem to turn your apartment into
a full-fledged movie theater, you should know that there are optimal
viewing distances that you should adhere to. The general rule of thumb is
to place your TV at a distance of three times the height of your screen (3
x H) away from your sofa.

http://www.geeksugar.com/2984538

[Note from UCLAN: Since the DIAGONAL length is about twice the height on
16:9
aspect ratio TVs (46" diagonal = 22.53" height), the recommended distance
would be about 1.5 times the diagonal away from the TV.]

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Certified SPAM-free sig

I've seen recommendations like this before but I've never seen a sofa 5½
feet from a 46" flat screen. That's just too close and doesn't allow room
for multiple viewers. The Best Buys don't set up their demo rooms this way.

"UCLAN" wrote in message
...
Before you drop all that money on a 46-inch flat panel HDTV you
found on sale, maybe you should make sure there's enough room in
your studio apartment for that bad boy. What, you think that just
because it's flat you can fit it anywhere? As fun as it may seem to
turn your apartment into a full-fledged movie theater, you should
know that there are optimal viewing distances that you should adhere
to. The general rule of thumb is to place your TV at a distance of
three times the height of your screen (3 x H) away from your sofa.

http://www.geeksugar.com/2984538

[Note from UCLAN: Since the DIAGONAL length is about twice the
height on 16:9
aspect ratio TVs (46" diagonal = 22.53" height), the recommended
distance
would be about 1.5 times the diagonal away from the TV.]

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Certified SPAM-free sig

"Optimal" distance will vary for different people, same as some prefer
up close seating on movie theaters, while other prefer to sit towards
the back. My preference is to be close enough as so the majority of
the screen (about the middle 60%-70%) can be viewed with minimal eye
movement, while the rest can still be seen within my peripheral vision
without missing detail.

With a 73" screen, I prefer my chair that is about 8'-10' away
(depending if it is reclined), while my wife prefers a lounge type
chair that is about 20 ft away, so my preferred distance is close to
the optimal calculated, but my wife prefers to be much further away.

On Tue, 31 Mar 2009 13:07:32 -0700, UCLAN wrote:

Before you drop all that money on a 46-inch flat panel HDTV you found on sale,
maybe you should make sure there's enough room in your studio apartment for
that bad boy. What, you think that just because it's flat you can fit it
anywhere? As fun as it may seem to turn your apartment into a full-fledged
movie theater, you should know that there are optimal viewing distances that
you should adhere to. The general rule of thumb is to place your TV at a
distance of three times the height of your screen (3 x H) away from your sofa.

http://www.geeksugar.com/2984538

[Note from UCLAN: Since the DIAGONAL length is about twice the height on 16:9
aspect ratio TVs (46" diagonal = 22.53" height), the recommended distance
would be about 1.5 times the diagonal away from the TV.]

If the screen is a fixed pixel display (with the sharp pixels that
comes with that), the optimum distance to get the best picture quality
is a but farther off then the above recommendation. (Which by the way
is impractically close to a 46".)

The text doesn't say what resolution in the material and screen panel
is needed or assumed in order for this distance to be the optimum.

Assuming a 1920x1080 panel, the result of the above recommendation is
that a normal sighted person will be able to resolve the pixels in the
panel.
(It is spot on the fameous "1 minute of arc".)
That is not an optimum with respect to picture quality.

The picture will look more natural at a somewhat larger distance where
the picture elements blend together. Some think that not being able to
see all the "1920x1080 detail" is a waste of the HD detail but they
forget that the 1920x1080 details in the panel is quantization noise
that has to be filtered (smoothed).

My rule of thumb is that the optimum distance for maximum picture
quality is about 4000 times the pixel pitch.
For a 1080 panel in 16:9 format that means a factor 3.7 times the
screen height (instead of a factor 3). Or a factor 1.8 times the
screen diagonal.

It is the same principle with digitised audio, we need a much higher
sampling rate than the highest pitched sound we want to reproduce.

Note that if the quality of the material is not at the top, a longer
distance is needed to give the best quality impression.

/Jan