TV viewing distance guide: Choosing the right screen size

How far should I ideally place my new TV? This question has always dominated the minds of consumers often with confusing recommendations or ones that vary depending on the user. The recommended TV viewing distance is an important factor, especially if you are buying a new home, moving home, or just tinkering with your space to find the right TV size.

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The recommended viewing distance for a TV is often considered from your main viewing position for best results. However, you must know that there is no clear science to finding the best viewing distance. There are factors such as screen size, resolution, and even eyesight that decide. Even if you find the ideal viewing distance and screen size, there is a budget that needs to be factored in. Here’s a rough guide to the ideal viewing distance for TVs and the TV size you should consider based on that distance.

TV viewing distance: does it matter?

With the advancement that we have seen in screen technology in recent years, the concept of ideal TV viewing distance has been questioned. There was a time when sitting too close to your TV would lead to you seeing the individual pixels that make up a picture. The solution to this issue was to sit further back from your TV.

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However, this logic of sitting back to disguise seeing individual pixels has led to an ideal viewing distance concept that essentially helps getting the most out of your viewing experience. Let us take a look at the ideal viewing distance for 4K and Full HD TVs and the best size TV for your room.

Recommended viewing distance for 4K TVs

If you are in the market for a new TV then it is more likely that you will be getting a 4K TV. With a 4K TV having a total of about 8.3 million pixels, you would struggle to notice any imperfections even if you sit close to it. This means a big 4K TV in a small room won’t be an issue and will generally result in an immersive viewing experience.

However, you don’t want a TV so big that you are hunting for action and your field of vision is narrower than what the TV offers out of the box. A human has a 180-degree field of view but the central vision is limited to 60 degrees. This central vision is what you see straight in front of you.

The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers recommends that your TV should fill around 30 degrees of your field of vision. In other words, it recommends a distance from which your TV will occupy a 30-degree field of view. This translates to a distance of 1.62 times the size of your TV. For a 55-inch TV, SMPTE recommends a distance of around 89.1 inches or 7.42 feet from your TV.

While SMPTE’s recommendations provide a reasonable viewing distance, they were recommended for cinema. With high-resolution screens found on modern televisions, even Sony recommends a distance of 1.5 times the screen size. Often you would notice that the closer you are to the TV, the more immersive the experience. Yet, we recommend that you sit at a distance that is at least 1.2 times the size of your television.

By that logic, finding the minimum viewing distance for a TV is simple. If you have a 43-inch TV then the minimum viewing distance is 4 feet 3 inches. Similarly, the minimum viewing distance for a 55-inch TV is 5 feet 5 inches. Below is the minimum viewing distance for popular 4K TV screen sizes.

Recommended viewing distance for Full HD TVs

If you have a Full HD TV then we recommend sitting further away from the screen for the best viewing experience. The further away from the screen you are, the less obvious will be the pixels on the screen. A recommended distance for a Full HD screen is between 1.5 and 2.5 times the size of your TV. Here’s a look at the minimum and maximum ideal viewing distance for a Full HD TV.

Recommended viewing distance you should follow

The recommended viewing distance came about at a time when screens were not of the quality they are today. They were also recommended for cinema and not necessarily for home viewing. However, there are clear benefits of watching TV from a right distance since it will allow you to enjoy the immersive experience better than sitting with your nose close to the TV.

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You can always start with the distance recommended for your TV screen size above and then move further away to get the best results. There are factors like the shape of the room, the light filling the room, and the number of people watching that will have an impact on the ideal viewing distance. Take these numbers as a starting point and work your way to finding the best viewing distance that suits you. Do remember that sporting events are best enjoyed by sitting slightly further back from your TV.