“If you sit so close to the television, your eyes will go square!” Who remembers Mum shouting that during every single Saturday morning cartoon session? Well, now you are the boss of your own TV and you could sit with your nose touching the screen if you wished but did you know there are actually optimal viewing distances?
Spoiler alert, your mum was wrong about sitting too close because the perfect viewing distance for HD imaging is a lot closer than she would have allowed. Three times the diagonal screen length of your TV used to be the rule of thumb, but with today’s vibrant HDTV picture you only need to sit about “1.5 times the diagonal viewing distance of your TV”*, so if you have purchased a 47” HDTV, the perfect viewing distance is 5.8 feet (179.07cm) from the screen.
If you are lucky enough to be the new owner of a Full HD or Ultra HD screen, you’ll want to move your seat even closer to the action.
WHY?
Basically viewing distance is about optimising pixel density. Sit too close and your eyes won’t go square but you will notice the actual pixels in the image. When you move back, you’ll notice the pixel density will increase and give you a much better image. However, go too far back you lose the finer details altogether!
That’s why it pays to look at your space and arrange the seating in relation to the size of your TV screen and not just from an aesthetic design perspective.
FIND OUT THE OPTIMUM HDTV SIZE FOR YOUR SPACE
At the end, the distance you sit from your TV is a personal choice. As a guideline we suggest a 1.5x distance ratio as a starting point for you to decide what TV size or viewing distance is right for you.
| SCREEN SIZE (Inches / Centimetres) |
MIN SITTING DISTANCE (Feet / Centimetres) |
MAX SITTING DISTANCE (Feet / Centimetres) |
| 32” / 81.28cm | 4 feet / 121.92cm | 8′ / 242.84cm |
| 39” / 99.06cm | 4.8′ / 148.59cm | 9.5′ / 297.18cm |
| 42” / 106.68cm | 5.2′ / 160.02cm | 10.5′ / 320.04cm |
| 47” / 119.38cm | 5.8′ / 179.07cm | 11.5′ / 358.14cm |
| 50” / 127cm | 6.25′ / 190.5cm | 12.5′ / 380.10cm |
| 55” / 139.7cm | 6.9′ / 209.55cm | 14′ / 419.1cm |
| 58” / 147.32cm | 7.25′ / 220.98cm | 14.5′ / 441.96cm |
| 60” / 152.4cm | 7.5′ / 228.6cm | 15′ / 457.2cm |
| 65” / 165.1 cm | 8.13′ / 252.98cm | 16.26′ / 505.96cm |
*From HDTVtest’s “TV Viewing Distance Calculator”
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So it appears I need to sit a minimum of 8 ft. from my TX-65AX900. Oh wait, I don’t have one yet. My bad. Come on Panasonic! I’m dying to get my hands on one but it remains vaporware. Please hurry!
Hi Tony, thank you for letting us know how keen you are for this model to come to the Australian market. I will ensure your feedback is provided to the relevant departments. MCB