optimum viewing distance vs screen size - SD & HD

A contributor to one of these groups wrote an excellent treatise on
this subject - maybe 6 months ago.

I can't seem to locate it, please help.

My own 32" HD TV looks fantastic in HD at ~ 1-2m; but at ~ 4-5m I
can't really tell much difference between HD and a "high quality" (eg
BBC news, studio) SD transmission.

Wish I'd bought a 40" !

TIA

On Sun, 29 Apr 2012 14:22:19 +0100, Fred wrote:

A contributor to one of these groups wrote an excellent treatise on
this subject - maybe 6 months ago.

I can't seem to locate it, please help.

My own 32" HD TV looks fantastic in HD at ~ 1-2m; but at ~ 4-5m I
can't really tell much difference between HD and a "high quality" (eg
BBC news, studio) SD transmission.

Wish I'd bought a 40" !

TIA

Yup - I've a 37" and hankering for 47" or even 55" (LG 3D look good. Saw a
55" from a few feet away and it was sharp).
http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/Article/Ho...ould-I-Sit.php
--
Peter.
The gods will stay away
whilst religions hold sway

On Sun, 29 Apr 2012 14:22:19 +0100, Fred wrote:
A contributor to one of these groups wrote an excellent treatise on
this subject - maybe 6 months ago.

I can't help with respect to the earlier treatise, but it is generally
reckoned that the visual acuity of the eye is approximately one
minute-of-arc. That implies a viewing distance of 6H (six times the
picture height) for SD, 4.8H for 720p HD and 3.2H for 1080p HD. For HDTV
critical viewing the ITU recommends 3H; I believe the BBC tends to use 4H.

So if your screen size is 42" diagonal (20.6" high) 3H corresponds to
about 5 feet (1.6 metres). Of course at this distance you will see every
defect, so if you want to be spared MPEG compression artefacts and the
like you may be wise to increase the distance somewhat!

Richard.
http://www.rtrussell.co.uk/

On Sun, 29 Apr 2012 15:15:08 +0100, PeterC wrote:

On Sun, 29 Apr 2012 14:22:19 +0100, Fred wrote:

A contributor to one of these groups wrote an excellent treatise on
this subject - maybe 6 months ago.

I can't seem to locate it, please help.

My own 32" HD TV looks fantastic in HD at ~ 1-2m; but at ~ 4-5m I
can't really tell much difference between HD and a "high quality" (eg
BBC news, studio) SD transmission.

Wish I'd bought a 40" !

TIA

Yup - I've a 37" and hankering for 47" or even 55" (LG 3D look good. Saw a
55" from a few feet away and it was sharp).
http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/Article/Ho...ould-I-Sit.php

Sorry - replying to my own thread. From Sony's site:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Recommended distance for viewing High Definition picture is 3 times of TV
vertical screen size.

Recommended distance for viewing Standard Definition picture is 5 times of
TV vertical screen size.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

There might be a bit of bias, considering the source, towards selling bigger
TVs. I'd have to sit at 4'6" for HD and 7'6" for SD.
--
Peter.
The gods will stay away
whilst religions hold sway

"Fred" wrote in message
...
A contributor to one of these groups wrote an excellent treatise
on
this subject - maybe 6 months ago.

I can't seem to locate it, please help.

My own 32" HD TV looks fantastic in HD at ~ 1-2m; but at ~ 4-5m
I
can't really tell much difference between HD and a "high
quality" (eg
BBC news, studio) SD transmission.

Wish I'd bought a 40" !

TIA



That original detailed and very well written document (although I
think it was rather more than six months ago) ended with the
maths that, effectively, for 1080p you need 10.8 inches of
diagonal screen size for every metre of viewing distance, and if
there was any discrepancy you should go for the larger size.

Thus for a 32" TV you would expect to be viewing from around 3m
or 10ft. I followed that line for our bedroom TV and it is just
about perfect - albeit ours is SD!


--
Woody

harrogate three at ntlworld dot com

In article ,
Woody wrote:
"Fred" wrote in message
...
A contributor to one of these groups wrote an excellent treatise
on
this subject - maybe 6 months ago.

I can't seem to locate it, please help.

My own 32" HD TV looks fantastic in HD at ~ 1-2m; but at ~ 4-5m
I
can't really tell much difference between HD and a "high
quality" (eg
BBC news, studio) SD transmission.

Wish I'd bought a 40" !

TIA



That original detailed and very well written document (although I
think it was rather more than six months ago) ended with the
maths that, effectively, for 1080p you need 10.8 inches of
diagonal screen size for every metre of viewing distance, and if
there was any discrepancy you should go for the larger size.

Thus for a 32" TV you would expect to be viewing from around 3m
or 10ft. I followed that line for our bedroom TV and it is just
about perfect - albeit ours is SD!

when tv sets first appeared you were recommended to sit 1ft away for every
inch of screen diagonal. So, you'd have to watch your 32" set from next
door.

--
From KT24

Using a RISC OS computer running v5.18

On Sun, 29 Apr 2012 16:31:06 +0100, charles wrote:

when tv sets first appeared you were recommended to sit 1ft away for
every inch of screen diagonal. So, you'd have to watch your 32" set
from next door.

Hum I think I could get a 32' line of sight in this room. B-)

Anyway when TV sets first came out they would have been 405 line not
1050...

--
Cheers
Dave.

On Sun, 29 Apr 2012 16:13:47 +0100, Woody
wrote:
That original detailed and very well written document (although I
think it was rather more than six months ago) ended with the
maths that, effectively, for 1080p you need 10.8 inches of
diagonal screen size for every metre of viewing distance

That's ridiculous - it corresponds to about 7.4H which is a greater
distance even than recommended for SD! One metre of distance for every
10.8" of screen *height* (3.6H) would be about right for HD so perhaps you
misremembered.

Richard.
http://www.rtrussell.co.uk/

On 29/04/2012 2:22 PM, Fred wrote:
A contributor to one of these groups wrote an excellent treatise on
this subject - maybe 6 months ago.

I can't seem to locate it, please help.

My own 32" HD TV looks fantastic in HD at ~ 1-2m; but at ~ 4-5m I
can't really tell much difference between HD and a "high quality" (eg
BBC news, studio) SD transmission.

Wish I'd bought a 40" !

TIA



these guides never take account of the fact that some people want to see
a big picture and some small - i didn't buy a big tv so i could sit
further away and have everything look as before.

--
Gareth.
That fly.... Is your magic wand.

Richard Russell wrote:
On Sun, 29 Apr 2012 16:13:47 +0100, Woody
wrote:
That original detailed and very well written document (although I
think it was rather more than six months ago) ended with the
maths that, effectively, for 1080p you need 10.8 inches of
diagonal screen size for every metre of viewing distance

That's ridiculous - it corresponds to about 7.4H which is a greater
distance even than recommended for SD! One metre of distance for every
10.8" of screen *height* (3.6H) would be about right for HD so perhaps
you misremembered.

By coincidence (presumably), I gave a figure of 10.8" of screen height
per metre of viewing distance in a post to uk.t.d-tv dated 14/12/2009,
and because I evidently hadn't made it clear that I was referring to the
height, I followed up the next day with another post giving the diagonal
measurement...