Ideal distance from TV to sitting/viewin position

1.5 screen widths is a nice compromise between immersion and a soft image with high quality NTSC sources (DVD), and is a defacto average seating distance for home theater applications. This translates into the following viewing distances:

Diagonal -> seating distance
42" -> 55"
50" -> 66"
60" -> 79"
70" -> 92"

Relevant foot notes:

1. This is about 1% closer than you are to the screen in the last row of a THX movie theater meeting the 36 degree subtended field of vision recomendation. You need to think in terms of small movies screens not big TVs.

2. This is why one-piece consumer televisions are inappropriate for most home theater installations.

CLoser...

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CLOser Still!!!

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I am more sensitive to having to move my eyes and head to view the whole scene at one time. I tend to get a headache when I am too close. I have a 51" diagonal wide screen and sit about 12 feet away which seems all right now. But like I said, I am more esnsitive than most in this regard. My suggestion is to go to a tv store, sit at certain distances for a while, and see what works for you. good Luck

For TV, probably 3:1 screen widths (not diagonal measurement). So for a 65inch 65/1.15*3/12= 14 feet. You might be able to push that up to 4:1 for regular TV. For home theater, collapse that to 1.5-2.0 screen widths. 65/1.15*1.5/12= 7 feet. To sit farther away will pretty much require front projection. There are a lot of good digital projectors from $800-2000, check the AVS forums.

Well 12ft for a 92 diag. is just right for me. In about 1hr I'm thinking "I can see a little light between---can't we go bigger?" Some movies give me a headache----just never the screen size.