How big should the TV be?

Since TVs no longer have those huge cathode ray tubes, they are available in a significantly larger variety of sizes. Which one to choose? Of course, it all depends on how far from him we sit.

In principle, the bigger the TV, the better, but we shouldn't overdo it. If we are sitting a meter away from him, there is no reason to buy a two-meter or 80-inch beast, but if we are three meters away from him, of course, a 90-centimeter, 35-inch little one is out of the question. So what to buy? Unfortunately, there is no universal recommendation, but there are a bunch of different suggestions, the authors of which are different professional groups and manufacturers.

For example, the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) recommends that the image should occupy about 30 percent of the field of view, calculated by multiplying the screen size by 1.62. If you have, for example, a small 30-inch (76 cm) model, then according to this recommendation, the optimal distance from it is 1.2 m, but if you have a large 85-inch (216 cm) model, then 3.5 m is optimal.

The THX association, known for its high-quality audio-visual standards, on the other hand, suggests that the screen should cover between 28 and 40 degrees of field of view, which means that the distance from the TV should be between 1.2 and 1.8 times the size of its diagonal. Using the same dimensions as in the previous paragraph, your eyes should be between 0.9 and 1.4 meters away from a 30-inch screen, and between 2.6 and 3.9 meters for an 85-inch screen.

In the table below you can see the recommended distances for TVs, sizes from 76 to 216 cm or from 30 to 85 inches.

But this is far from the end of the suggestions, as TV manufacturers also offer them. The thing with them is that on the one hand it is good to listen to them, as it is the "instructions for use" of their product, and on the other hand Thai dealers want to sell the most expensive devices possible... In addition, manufacturers change the recommendations depending on the screen technology used. For example, Sony suggests 1.5 times the screen height for 4K TV viewing, three times the screen height for HD and Full HD, and six times the screen height for standard definition. Panasonic also has similar recommendations, the French TCL, similar to the mentioned THX, talks about the from-to distance, where it recommends between 15 and 40 percent of the field of view, Samsung adheres to the recommendations of SMPTE, i.e. 40 percent of the field of view, and similar suggestions are also offered by others.

So what to choose? Our suggestion is that you try to stick to the THX recommendations, whereby the higher the screen resolution, the closer we can sit, as it will be harder to see individual dots. Therefore, if you are going to buy an HD or FullHD TV, focus more on the upper limit of the distance, but if you decide on 4K or 8K, you can also be closer. In any case, it is good to go to the store and see the item live before buying. ▪

AI translated