The most advantageous TV screen size is entirely correlated with the presented watching distance.  Nonetheless, there are other aspects too that ought to be taken into consideration.

Viewing Distance: Is it merely an affair of personal partiality?

Stay extremely close to your extensive screen television and you would be able to notice the picture build-up structure – scanning lines or pixels forming the image, thereby sidetracking your concentration and destroying your home theater experience. Nevertheless, stay extremely distant, and the impact will be gone.

The reality is that there are no systematic rules here. This doesn’t imply that there are no principles that you need to go along with when preparing for a large screen purchase or a possible home theater place.

SMPTE Recommendations and the THX Certification standards:

The Society of Motion Pictures and Television Engineers (SMPTE) advises that the screen dimension for home theater use needs to fill a 30 degrees field of view – in the horizontal plan – for the audience. Then again, the best TV viewing distance needs to be such that the screen width takes up an angle of 30 degrees from the viewing site.

This SMPTE principle is also along the lines of the THX certification principles in that these advise that the rear line up of seats needs to have no less than a 26 degrees viewing angle and while recommending a finest viewing angle of 36 degrees.

So How Does All This Translate In Practical Terms?

A universal rule for the television watching distance based on the SMPTE and visual insight guidelines, is that the nearest television watching distance between you and your big screen TV ought to be limited to about twofold the screen width (more accurate 1.87 x screen width for a subtended angle of 30 degrees), while the farthest distance being not exceeding five times the width of your screen.

But, it is additionally critical to grasp that these maximum and tiniest viewing distances need to be perceived in the light of the video signal definition.

A completely resolved HD TV (1080i, 1920×1080) supports a nearer watching distance than customary analog television. While twice the screen width would be the ideal television viewing distance for a HDTV display, it will be a bit too near for normal television; in the later case, a three times the screen width would be a superior option.

When it tackling the use of regular-size standard definition analog televisions in the home theater, i.e. equal to 36 / 40 diagonal, the best viewing distance range is between 8 feet and 12 feet. TV sets lesser than 36-inches aren’t big enough to be eligible for Home Theater utilization since their smaller screen dimension won’t impart the preferred impact on the viewer.

Vertical Angle of View & Screen Height:

For optimal viewing, the sight of the viewer ought to be parallel with the middle of the screen.

Maximum vertical angle of view: In those home theater set-ups where this is not achievable, the SMPTE guidelines advise that the maximum vertical angle measured at the seated eye height from the front row middle position to the highest segment of the projected picture should not go over 35 degrees.

This doesn’t stand for the most advantageous viewing angle but rather the threshold from which the viewer will be put through an intensified neck strain.

Minimum angle of vision: While there don’t appear to be any certain SMPTE or THX guidelines in this respect, inquiries have proven that if the screen dimension occupies less than 15 degrees of the watcher’s vertical field of view, then that image appears tiny.

Practical Matters:

In a classic home theater set-up, you do not need to actually be anxious on neither the maximum vertical angle of view, nor concerning the minimum vertical angle of vision for an effectual movie theater experience.

If one were to adhere to the suggested television watching distance of two times the screen width (as additionally described above according to the SMPTE guideline of 30 degrees horizontal field of vision), you would automatically be abiding by the minimum angle of vision. The rationale behind that is there is a preset relation between screen height and width in line with your home theater screen aspect ratio of either 16:9 or 4:3.

Taking into consideration that most home theater rooms are almost 10 feet (3m) high, the resulting vertical watching angle is standard well within the maximum of 35 degrees detailed in the SMPTE guidelines, all you must do is merely linger within the two times the screen width principle for your viewing distance.

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