Select the correct viewing distance for your LCD TV

Many enthusiastic consumers and to the largest and most expensive TV they can afford to go. But this kind of approach may backfire as the budget planning is not the only thing to follow, especially if you go for a big screen TV. And 'because there is a direct relationship between the optimal size and viewing distance available.

It is a burden to the viewing distance for LCD TVs, because the distinction between television sitting too close or too far away it feels. Sitting on a nearby TV set and you will be able to see the layout of the screen - scanning lines or pixels forming the image so disturbing your attention and care for your home theater experience. Still sitting too far, and the effects are lost.

There are different opinions about the best way to determine the optimum TV viewing distance for a specific screen size. However, there are some guidelines that we follow.

The Society of Motion Pictures and Television Engineers (SMPTE) recommends that the screen size for home theater use should occupy a 30-degree field of view - in the horizontal plane - for the public. Alternatively, it should be the ideal TV viewing distance that the screen width occupies an angle of 30 degrees from vertical.

The viewing angle of 30 degrees seems to many to be the standard for home theater and the movie have been taken.

THX-certified: The policy is also in line with SMPTE standards of THX certification in the latter suggests that the last row of seats must have at least one viewing angle of 26 degrees, and while recommending an optimum viewing angle of 36 degrees.

It is believed that within these limits of view, the viewer will be immersed in the best film the action.

There is also the question of TV viewing distance of visual acuity. This does not correspond to the optimum viewing distance - rather, it refers to the maximum viewing distance to lose some image detail.

Technically, the visual acuity is a measure of the spatial resolving power of the eye and indicates the angle at which the smallest detail that a person can resolve the visual system.

From the point of view, the TV viewing distance, visual acuity, the point where some of the details of the image will not be solved by the vision system viewer, as it will appear to blend with adjacent image information.

So how do these rules apply in practice?

Here is a rule of thumb that may help put into practice the guidelines above. This rule for TV viewing distance refers to the width of the screen instead of the diagonal of the screen because everything is provided for the angle subtended viewing. Further more, than the width of the screen has a further advantage - namely, that these rules-of-thumb apply to both 4:3 and 16:9 display.

A primary consideration for the viewing distance - based on SMPTE / THX and visual acuity guidelines - is that the distance to the nearest TV viewing should be about twice the width of the screen (exactly 1.54 x width limited to a corner of the screen subtended 36 degrees detailed THX). On the other hand, the furthest distance being no more than five times the width of the screen.

This should be a fairly good approximation for the distance of TV viewing. Note, however, is not necessarily the ideal viewing distance in a home theater system, but it represents the limits within which your TV viewing distance should theoretically from the trouble zone.

In other words, more than double the size of the screen width, and the image scan lines of pixel resolution and any other video artifacts will become too visibly intrusive - leading to distractions that ruin your viewing experience of film. Move further away than 5 times the width of the screen and the vision system will no longer be able to resolve all the details.