TV season is about to be in full swing. We already know the release dates, features, and prices of the first 2022 model TVs. But just as important as which tv to get, is the question of which size tv to get for your dorm and in this review, that’s exactly what we’re going to talk about. Stick around.
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Let’s call this review “TVs Explained”, where we talk about the tech behind how TVs actually work and if it makes them actually worth buying, as well as tips to help you get the most out of them. We already talked about upcoming tv tech like AMG-LED, mini-LEDs, and more. So, in this video we’re going to talk about the size and why it actually matters despite what you may have heard. So, when we talk about tv size, the aim isn’t to have the biggest tv or a tv that fits your space the best, although those factors are important. No, the aim is to achieve a specific viewing angle or rather, how much of your field of vision is occupied by the image on screen. So, what determines that is a combination of your viewing distance as well as the size of the screen. Because think about it, even a small tv can fill your field of vision if you’re close enough to it and even a large tv can disappear in a room if you’re far enough away from it. So, the aim is to strike the right balance of viewing distance and screen size. And since most of us have constraints on room sizes and layouts which directly affects the seating position, the most flexible variable then is the screen size, and since most of us have a budget and can’t just get any size tv we want, then that’s where the balancing between the viewing distance and screen size comes in. So, even if we can’t achieve an ideal balance it won’t result in a screen that makes you say wait that’s it or one that’s too big to the point that it actually overwhelms you although we might think that there’s no such thing as a tv that’s too big, there actually is. Now it’s important to note that with the high resolution 4k and even 8k panels of modern TVs – you can sit much closer than you could with regular HD sets and not see distracting image artifacts and imperfections since 4k has four times as many pixels as 1080p. So, if you’re upgrading from a 1080p tv for example and maintaining the same viewing distance with the new tv, then whatever tv you’re getting should be bigger by default.
And now let’s talk about how much bigger. Now if you’re looking for as much of a cinematic experience as possible, then there are some recommendations that you should heed to get that cinematic experience. You need a display that occupies a good deal of your vision, your field of view. Now we have a vertical field of view of 135 degrees, that’s the number of things we see from top to bottom and a horizontal field of view of 210 degrees, that’s how much we see from side to side. So, the larger the number that means the more things you see in your field of view. Your actual field of vision will vary person to person like with everything else but for the most part that’s the average, and things like visual acuity which is how well you actually see; may also be a factor, but that’s beyond the scope of this review. So, the way I’m going to approach this is to tell you the range of distances you should be sitting based on your tv size and by doing that, you’ll know if the distance you’re sitting away from your tv is optimal or if you need to get a bigger one.
Let’s start at 55 inches because i don’t think that a 4k tv that’s smaller than that is suitable for anything besides specialized viewing scenarios like a pc, monitor, or something of the sort. At 55 inches, a tv being used primarily for watching movies, you should be sitting at a distance of between 4.5 and 8.5 feet away from it. At 55 inches, a tv being used primarily for watching movies you should be sitting at a distance of between 4.5 and 8.5 feet. That’s the THX recommendation. If you’re using your tv primarily for mixed usage though – that’s watching tv programs and movies, then the SMPTE recommends a distance of 7.5 feet. They recommend that you maintain a 30-degree field of view, which is smaller than the THX recommendation of 40 degrees, and i don’t know about you but watching a 55-inch tv from 7 feet away would not make for a very good experience in my opinion, especially with a 4k tv. Plus, the distance that the SMPTE recommends falls within the range of the THX recommendation so we don’t even really need it. So THX, it is at 65 inches. The recommended viewing distance is between 5.5 and 10 feet. 10 feet if you want your distance, and 5 feet if you want those pixels tickling your eyeballs.
A 75-inch tv means the distance you should be sitting is between 6 and 11.5 feet, while at 85 inches: 7 to 13 feet is where you should be. Now i think it’s much easier to move your sofa closer than to pull you up the additional dollars you need to buy a bigger tv. I mean, especially if you’re talking higher in TVs. Have you seen the price of an 88-inch OLED tv recently? yeah as you can see the size ranges overlap so there’s not a set size that’s perfect for just one viewing distance. What i recommend is opting for the larger screen size if you tend to like bigger TVs, and the opposite if you prefer smaller TVs. Me, I like my TVs like I like my woofers, big. So, in essence, if you want the best and most cinematic experience you should stick to the lower end of the distance range and again, that might mean that you may have to sit closer to the tv, even if you aren’t just watching movies because i can say that watching investigation discovery at 100 inches from 10 feet away is pretty fun too, even if that’s only considered mixed usage. That said, having a screen that’s too big is possible and what you don’t want is to be constantly shifting your eyes to see the whole screen because the edges of the screen are in your peripheral vision and not something you can observe entirely while looking forward.
Another important thing to consider when thinking about placement of your tv in relation to your sleeping position is the height of the screen. Ideally, your eyes should be one third of the way up the screen, especially for a larger screen that is so you don’t have to be creating your neck when you’re actually watching it, which could lead to some neck or eye fatigue. With smaller TVs though you can have your eyes up to halfway up the tv but the base of the tv should never be above your eye level. For all of you with your TVs above your fireplaces, i know that sometimes you don’t have a choice but to put it there based on the layout of your room and okay, I understand but for everyone else, stop it, it’s not good for you. Anyways, I hope this helped you to decide on the size of the next tv to get, or even if you should move closer to your existing one or further back, I don’t know. I bet there’s at least one of you out there that that will apply to. And for those of you curious about the math behind it, THX recommends a viewing distance max of 1.8 times the diagonal size of your tv. A minimum of one x the diagonal size and the recommended of 1.34 x the size of the screen. So, if we use the min. and max of those resulting three numbers multiplied by the diagonal size of the tv, we get our range in inches. Pretty straightforward.
