Distance to TV: Bigger and closer is usually better when it comes to choosing the perfect TV for your room.
The size is not only the biggest factor that affects the price of a TV, but it also has a huge impact on the perceived picture quality.
Since the resolutions found today are almost exclusively 4K Ultra HD, it requires a very large TV that you watch from a very close-up to be able to see shortcomings related to the resolution. Because of this, you can sit much closer to new TVs than you could before.
Think of it as a cinema, the more a TV fills your vision, the more captivating the content becomes. Of course, this does not mean that you should sit half a meter from your TV, moreover, not everyone wants to have as large a screen as possible. The human eye has a viewing angle of about 135 degrees, and although it makes sense to get as large a TV as possible when using it to watch movies. But not all content is produced considering that the entire field of view must be filled.
Official recommendations
The guidelines from the Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers are that you sit at a distance where the screen fills about 30 ° of your field of view as a minimum for a good experience. This generally provides good guidance, but users who use their TVs mostly to watch movies can benefit from sitting a little closer to a more theatrical experience.
The SMPTE reference position for cinemas and the THX recommendation is around 40 °, however, the minimum viewing angle works well for most applications, and sitting at a distance where the screen fills 30 ° of your horizontal field of view should be comfortable for most people.
The image above is based on the 30 ° guideline which is suitable for mixed-use, but you can find distances for different sizes at 40 ° here.
Recommended distance table
Below is a table of calculated distances depending on your TV size and the two recommended guidelines. For example, if you have a 65-inch TV, you should sit at a distance of 2.7 meters if you want mixed-use, but if you have a 55-inch TV, the viewing distance is only 1.7 meters for a cinema feel.
| Screen size | Recommended distance for mixed-use (30 °) |
Recommended film distance (cinema) (40 °) |
| 25 ″ | 1.04 m | 0.77 m |
| 30 ″ | 1.24 m | 0.92 m |
| 35 ″ | 1.45 m | 1.07 m |
| 40 ″ | 1.66 m | 1.22 m |
| 45 ″ | 1.86 m | 1.37 m |
| 50 ″ | 2.06 m | 1.53 m |
| 55 ″ | 2.28 m | 1.68 m |
| 60 ″ | 2.48 m | 1.83 m |
| 65 | 2.69 m | 1.98 m |
| 70 ″ | 2.9 m | 2.13 m |
| 75 ″ | 3.1 m | 2.29 m |
| 80 ″ | 3.31 m | 2.44 m |
| 85 | 3.52 m | 2.59 m |
Angle resolution of a TV
The closer you are, the lower your perceived pixel density will be. A higher field of view was first made possible with Full HD resolutions, but 4K enhances this capability even more. Sitting close to a 1080p TV often makes it appear as if you are watching your TV through a screen door, even though it is playing a high-quality 1080p HD movie. By increasing the distance from the TV, the details will also increase, which gives a better picture. This is the angular resolution: the number of pixels per angle. The farther away, the higher the angular resolution.
Because 4K TVs have such a high pixel density, it is much more difficult for this problem to occur.
The diagram shows that a 4K upgrade is not worth it if you sit more than 1.8 m away and have a 50 ″ TV, your eyes will not be able to see the difference. Ultra HD only makes sense if you want a large screen and you also plan to sit very close to it.
At some point, your eyes are not good enough to distinguish all the details. Studies show that someone with 20/20 vision (or 6/6 in Europe) can distinguish something 1/60 of a degree from each other. That means 60 pixels per degree or 32 degrees for a 1080p TV. With 4k UHD TV, this doubles to 64 degrees. Keep in mind that you can see a single pixel further away (depending on its contrast to the rest of the image).
Distance to TV 4k resolution
For 4K, this distance is often too close for most people and this is because 1080p was designed around the logic of the field of view above. It is the intersection where both the optimal field of view and 60 pixels per degree meet and for lower resolutions, it also meant sitting a little further away than what is preferred, so as not to notice pixels. However, 4K resolutions and higher give you much more freedom. Because of this, visual acuity is not really the best way to find the right distance anymore, and it should instead be used as a way to calculate the nearest point you can sit from a TV without hitting its resolution limit.
Related: Calculate the best viewing angle and height for your TV
How do you interpret the diagram about TV distance?
However, there are some ways to read the chart. For example, let’s say you have a 50-inch TV. Start at the bottom of the chart at 50 ″. Up to about 0.9 m, you are below the blue line. This means you can see the pixels in an Ultra HD resolution. If you go back a bit (at the top of the chart), between 0.9 m and 2 m, Ultra HD resolution no longer matters because you can still not see the extra pixels. However, you are still too close to a 1080p resolution (it will not look perfect).
Above 2 m, the perceived quality will decrease for 1080p because your eye does not see all the details. However, you will notice the difference, if it was 720p. For more than 3 m, however, it does not matter if it is a 720p or 1080p HDTV, your eyes are not good enough to see the difference. You will still see the difference for a standard definition video, however, up to a distance of 5.5 m. In summary, you can see the pixels if you are below the line, but not when you are above.
Maximize your TV’s resolution
If you want to use your TV’s resolution to the maximum, you want to be exactly on the line for your TV dimensions and media resolution.
This takes into account perfect resolution, which is never the case in reality. Even if you are watching a high-definition HD channel, there will be some artifacts due to the compression algorithm. Artifacts can also be displayed in several forms such as noise, blur, or pixelated images. You will also be able to see artifacts further away, so consider the above figures as perfect 1080p media. The numbers show the minimum distance at which you start to lose the resolution advantage. However, 4K TVs are the most common today, and we recommend that you use our FOV chart because the angular resolution is almost not a problem with UHD content.
Table at an optimal distance depending on the resolution
Below is a table of calculated distances depending on your TV size and the two different standard resolutions, 1080p and 4K. For example, if you have a 65-inch 1080p TV, you should sit at a distance of 2.5 meters if you want the optimal distance, but if you have a 55-inch TV with 4K, you should sit at a distance of only 0.98 meters.
| Screen size (inches) | Optimal Distance (1080p) |
Optimal Distance (4k) |
| 25 ″ | 0.98 m | 0.46 m |
| 30 ″ | 1.16 m | 0.52 m |
| 35 ″ | 1.35 m | 0.61 m |
| 40 ″ | 1.56 m | 0.71 m |
| 45 ″ | 1.74 m | 0.8 m |
| 50 ″ | 1.93 m | 0.89 m |
| 55 ″ | 2.14 m | 0.98 m |
| 60 ″ | 2.32 m | 1.16 m |
| 65 | 2.5 m | 1.25 m |
| 70 ″ | 2.72 m | 1.35 m |
Read More: 6 ways to watch TV with headphones
Conclusion TV distance
We recommend a 30-degree angle of view for mixed-use. In general, we also recommend that you get a 4K TV as 1080p choices have become quite limited and lack modern features like HDR. To easily find out what size to buy, you can also follow the tables in this article.
If the best size is out of your budget, you should only get the largest TV you can afford.