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Optimal viewing distance for 4K - 65in = 6.4ft (!!!)

Fess

Fess

Member
"Viewing distance

According to the American visual reproduction standard, THX, the best field of view is worked out by dividing the size of your TV screen in inches by .84. For example, if you’re looking at buying a 65in TV, divide it by .84 which equals a viewing distance of 77-inch, or 6.5 feet (1.9812 meters).

Below is a list of the most popular screen sizes. I’ve worked out the best viewing distance for each so you don’t have to get your calculator out.

28in = 33.3in, 2.7ft, 0.82296 meters
32in = 38.09in, 3.2ft, 0.97536 meters
40in = 47.61in, 4ft, 1.2192 meters
43in = 51.19in, 4.2ft, 1.28016 meters
48in = 57.14in, 4.8ft, 1.46304 meters
50in = 59.52in, 5ft, 1.52400 meters
55in = 65.47in, 5.4ft, 1.64592 meters
58in = 69.04in, 5.6ft, 1.70688 meters
60in = 71.42in, 6ft, 1.8288 meters
65in = 77.38in, 6.4ft, 1.95072 meters
75in = 89.28in, 7.4ft, 2.25552 meters
85in = 101.19in, 8.4ft, 2.56032 meters

You’ll see there’s a pattern. Basically, the number of inches the TV is diagonally can be divided by ten to achieve the distance it should be watched from in feet. So the thing to do now is to measure the distance from your sofa to where your new TV will go, and the closest match above gives you an idea of the TV screen size you should be looking to buy."

"HD or 4K

Those measurements above will let you see every detail of a Full HD resolution and you could move back by up to 50% and still make every detail out (presuming your eyesight is good enough). However, for the 4K screen you shouldn't move further away from the display than the distances listed. That's not to say sitting further back will eradicate the benefit of 4K but it will be lessened gradually until you get to around the double the distance stated, then you might as well have a standard TV instead."

http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/tvs-entertainment/1404630/what-size-tv-should-i-buy


Dare I say it? Holy crap! :o

I thought a 65" TV would be perfectly fine for me for 4K resolutions when sitting about 3 meters from the TV, but apparently I should sit around 2 meters away from the TV, or 6.5 feet, to get the full benefit of the 4K upgrade.

At 3 meters, or 9.8 feets, I need a 98 inch TV according to this list. :S

Maybe I should save my money for a 4K projector instead? :/

Edit: Metrics added to the list
 
I always find this stuff to be utter shite. Buy a TV that feels right for your room and where you sit. Everyone and every situation is different.

I like as big as possible as close as possible.
 
my 42" 1080p is roughly 9ft away from where i sit. i do feel it is too small though and when i finally get around to a 4K i'll be getting as large a screen as i can possibly afford.
 
For those really small details i guess the actual view quality of an individual will matter a lot to. I guess not everyone has the same sharpness in his eyes.
 
Well I have a 48in TV, and according to the OP I should be sitting 4.8in away. I normally sit about 3m away (9.84252ft for you imperial users), so that seems a little close to me.

I do feel like maybe a little bit of detail is lost, but not enough to make a huge difference.

FeArTriX said:
Some Metric measurement will be nice.
Click to expand...

+1 what is this non base 10 nonsense
 
Sounds about right. I get the impression GAF sits far too close to their TV screens which is why you're all such image quality uber nerds. Sit further away and say bye bye to jaggies...

/s

Edit. For reference I'm about 6ft away from a 49" 4k
 
I had 55inch 4k tv and sit around 2.5-3m from tv. At first I thought theres not much difference between 4k and 1080p. But the latest everybody's golf you can go to option and easily switch between 1080p 60fps mode and 4k unlocked framerate mode.

I was surprised by how obvious the differences is. Its enough that I choose 4k res and sacrifice the 60fps.
 
FeArTriX said:
Some Metric measurement will be nice.
Click to expand...
I just googled "6.5 feet in meters" for the 65 " TV and Google replied 1.98 meters, which is way too short distance for me.

Seriously, this is just nuts if this list is accurate. I'm seriously thinking about stickng with my 1080p TV. A good 65" 4K TV is expensive enough, going even further in size would be extremely expensive. And at that point I could just as well get a projector and motorised screen instead to not have a TV cover most of the wall.
 
Izuna said:
So who else thinks this stuff is a myth.
Click to expand...

The amount of detail your eye can perceive at a given distance is not a myth. It will vary from person to person based on their eyesight, but it can be measured and used to inform how you configure your entertainment setup.
Whether the data in the OP is useful as a generalization given the variance between indivduals is another question.

Ok, so, let me have a go. Ahem... Who else thinks this thread is / will be packed with confirmation bias?
 
MontyBrown said:
I always find this stuff to be utter shite. Buy a TV that feels right for your room and where you sit. Everyone and every situation is different.

I like as big as possible as close as possible.
Click to expand...

Agreed, but i have found it weird sitting close to a massive TV having to actually turn my head to see things at various ends of the screen. Doesn't quite feel right.
 
The best way to experience gaming is with a gaming PC with 2 Titan X GPUs and a cutting edge Intel CPU, set aside about £3000.

Or buy an Xbox One and do whatever works for you.
 
I sit about six feet away from a 42" screen and I can barely notice the difference between 1080p and 720p video, so I wouldn't be surprised if this was actually accurate for 4K resolution.
 
If you sit away from a 4K screen I guarantee you won't be able to tell. You need to be close to the screen in order to see the sharpness difference. That's why I sit on a beach folding chair 1,5m away from the screen when I game on my PS4 pro, my couch is at least 3,5 m away and you can't see anything from there.

That and the tiny subtitles dumbfuck developers like to put in their games is impossible to read.
 
Yankee Ruin X said:
Hmm I have a 124" screen for a 1080p projector and sit about 12ft away, pic looks awesome to me.
Click to expand...
That the optimal viewing distance going by this list, just get a 4K projector too and you'll make us all jealous. I need a 100" TV going by this list... :/
 
Fredrik said:
I thought a 65" TV would be perfectly fine for me for 4K resolutions when sitting about 3 meters from the TV, but apparently I should sit around 2 meters away from the TV, or 6.5 feet, to get the full benefit of the 4K upgrade.

At 3 meters, or 9.8 feets, I need a 98 inch TV according to this list. :S

Maybe I should save my money for a 4K projector instead? :/

Edit: Metrics added to the list
Click to expand...

It's not a science. The more you rely on the arbitrary nature of these measurements, the less you're going to train yourself to actually pick up on what you should be looking out for when testing displays for yourself.
 
jett said:
I sit about six feet away from a 42" screen and I can barely notice the difference between 1080p and 720p video, so I wouldn't be surprised if this was actually accurate for 4K resolution.
Click to expand...
I currently sit 10 feet from a 46" TV. Can't say that I see Mich difference between 720p and 1080p at that distance.
I bet this list is accurate, I just don't want it to be because buying a 4K TV will be extremely expensive now :(
 
DarkestHour said:
The THX recommendation is for a cinematic experience so your vision is filled primarily with the screen.
Click to expand...
They say that in the article but also explain the distances for 4K:
However, for the 4K screen you shouldn't move further away from the display than the distances listed. That's not to say sitting further back will eradicate the benefit of 4K but it will be lessened gradually until you get to around the double the distance stated, then you might as well have a standard TV instead.
Click to expand...
So in reality you could go further away that the list distances but you won't get the full benefit of the higher resolution.
 
I have set up to be within about + foot and a half of that for my upcoming 65" 4K. The pixel pitch really comes into play for 4K but you got to have additional distance when watching 1080p content.
 
gossi said:
The best way to experience gaming is with a gaming PC with 2 Titan X GPUs and a cutting edge Intel CPU, set aside about £3000.

Or buy an Xbox One and do whatever works for you.
Click to expand...
People always stoff at the prices for a good PC rig, but add the huge 4K TV needed to get the full benefit from that Xbox One X and you'll probably end up paying more for your console rig.
 
It's been known ages that you need to sit insanely close to a 4k screen to fully resolve the extra detail, meaning most people won't be getting the full resolution benefit of their 4k sets (or their 1080p sets, funnily enough).

However, as the imaging science foundation states, the most important aspects of picture quality are 1st - contrast ratio, 2nd - color saturation, and 3rd - color accuracy (with resolution following in 4th), and good 4k tvs are better in these regards than the vast majority of 1080p sets.

Plus there's the benefits of reduced aliasing in games and higher bitrate streaming 4k video (even though high bitrate 1080p blu rays still looks better than most streaming 4k content, in my opinion).
 
Chao said:
If you sit away from a 4K screen I guarantee you won't be able to tell. You need to be close to the screen in order to see the sharpness difference. That's why I sit on a beach folding chair 1,5m away from the screen when I game on my PS4 pro, my couch is at least 3,5 m away and you can't see anything from there.

That and the tiny subtitles dumbfuck developers like to put in their games is impossible to read.
Click to expand...
Seriously?? I don't have a Pro but that sounds awful. Reminds me of Dead Rising on 360 where the text was tiny. I think they patched it later on but when playing on an SDTV you couldn't read anything after the 360 had been automatically downsampled the picture.
 
Optimal viewing distances completely ignores basic factors like quality of vision.

I wear my glasses when I watch stuff in 4K and I can clearly notice the sharpness over 1080p from a good distance away.
 
Who the fuck is pulling out a measuring tape and going, yeah the optimal viewing distance needs to be considered before purchasing

I get if you sit 10 feet away on a 27"-32" TV might not be a good ratio

But when you have 55"+ sets, I don't think a feet or two in either direction is going to destroy "4K" or any other new features coming

Be hilarious moving your furniture to the optimal lengths just cause it's set by some vague standards which really you can just guesstimate
 
twofoldd said:
It's been known ages that you need to sit insanely close to a 4k screen to fully resolve the extra detail, meaning most people won't be getting the full resolution benefit of their 4k sets (or their 1080p sets, funnily enough).

However, as the imaging science foundation states, the most important aspects of picture quality are 1st - contrast ratio, 2nd - color saturation, and 3rd - color accuracy (with resolution following in 4th), and good 4k tvs are better in these regards than the vast majority of 1080p sets.

Plus there's the benefits of reduced aliasing in games and higher bitrate streaming 4k video (even though high bitrate 1080p blu rays still looks better than most streaming 4k content, in my opinion).
Click to expand...
Is that true for gaming though? 900p and checkerboarding is kind a hot potato both around here and at Digital Foundry and NXGamer etc.
 
piratethingy said:
Home Entertainment Company: "You Should Buy A Bigger TV."
Click to expand...
Anyone probably want a bigger TV, unless they really have a tiny living room. They don't have to sell this.

What they're trying to sell is 4k (which, to be an improvement over 1080p, need a large screen and a quite short distance, or an even larger screen). Mostly because if they don't have something new to sell, the replacement rate is low (TV boomed when flat screen and HD were abordable, 3D wasn't enough appealing, now they try 4k and HDR... I think the latter is more interesting, if they can clean things with respect to the norms)

Will be fun when they try to sell 8k (at this resolution, there's NO place where an eye can see the details on the whole screen... it can be interesting as a working display, but only if you actually move from one place to another)
 
I only got a 50" 1080p TV and I sit 2m away from it.
I wish that I could move my sofa back 1 meter in the room, placing it against the wall, it would open up the room so much, but I'd never be able to afford a screen that big (looking at the numbers in OP)
 
Chao said:
If you sit away from a 4K screen I guarantee you won't be able to tell. You need to be close to the screen in order to see the sharpness difference. That's why I sit on a beach folding chair 1,5m away from the screen when I game on my PS4 pro, my couch is at least 3,5 m away and you can't see anything from there.

That and the tiny subtitles dumbfuck developers like to put in their games is impossible to read.
Click to expand...

Which games suffer from this?
 
GraveRobberX said:
But when you have 55"+ sets, I don't think a feet or two in either direction is going to destroy "4K"
Click to expand...
A feet or two, definitively not. But you have people at twice the distance, and in this case, 4k resolution really doesn't matter.

GraveRobberX said:
Be hilarious moving your furniture to tge optimal lengths
Click to expand...
You'd be surprised by what people are sometimes doing for audio... The rule for the subwoofer is: place it where you sit, look in the room where the sound is the most powerful, and place the subwoofer there (because lower frequency sound has longer wavelenght, so is more subject to interferences when bouncing over walls/objects)...

Since the middle of the dining table isn't always the best solution, the idea is "move the furnitures and try again".

And yes, there's people playing this game...
 
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