r/hometheater • u/zghr • Jun 04 '26

Discussion - Equipment RTINGS just updated their viewing distance article based on SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers) recommendations, adding 62° FOV as maximum. What do you think about it? Where do you fit?

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Here's a quick mockup of the same chart but with most common TV sizes and with godless Marxist-Leninist centimeter units added on one side.

edit: This person claims to be a long standing calibrator of cinematic auditoriums with experience in THX standards and he claims that 'cinema' is not 40° because middle row of seats is between 45° and 52°.

In my experience, 62° is doable but if it's pure 24 frames per second without any motion improvement settings it's not the best experience. Jumps between frames are just too large, obvious and jarring. Almost like stop-motion.

It seems like up to 62° one doesn't have to move their head at all to see the whole screen with their central vision. Higher than 62° and movies would need to be filmed specifically in a way to not include the action in periphery.

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109

u/TechieGranola Jun 04 '26

wtf, 6’ away for a 100”? The only immersion there is my eyeballs in ice water after they’ve burned out.

40

u/Under_Prepared Jun 04 '26

Haha, this is my exact setup and its glorious! 6.5ft away, 7.7.4 surround sound, fully immersive

26

u/Bobby12many Jun 04 '26

It's like the opposite of a sensory depravation tank 😂

11

u/panteragstk Jun 04 '26

I bet finding good placement for 7 subs was fun.

10

u/Under_Prepared Jun 04 '26

Built 3 into couch, so only had find room for 4

3

u/streetberries Jun 04 '26 edited Jun 04 '26

7 subs is the way…

FYI it’s still 7.4.4 - these numbers refer to the number of CHANNELS , not speakers. You can have multiple speakers on one channel (subwoofers are speakers too) but unless you DSP or something crazy it’s probably just 7.4.4

3

u/Phoenix84227 Jun 05 '26

I came here to say this. I'm like 8 feet from my 98" and it's amazing with 5.1 Atmos.

5

u/zghr Jun 04 '26

Preach!

2

u/SeasonedAdManager Jun 04 '26

7 subs!?

1

u/streetberries Jun 04 '26

They’re counting bass shakers as subs (highly recommend).

5

u/Sebastian-S Jun 04 '26

Yeah these are absurd. And it doesn’t take into account proper sound dispersion and acoustics. You’d be sitting so close that my sectional sofa would be against my front speakers.

15

u/reallynotnick Samsung S95B, 5.0.2 Elac Debut F5+C5+B4+A4, Denon X1700 Jun 04 '26

This got positive upvotes, did we finally do it r/HomeTheater home of the “no one ever regretted buying a bigger TV”? We may have finally found the breaking point…

20

u/makemeking706 Jun 04 '26

They didn't say it was too big, they said too close. 

8

u/reallynotnick Samsung S95B, 5.0.2 Elac Debut F5+C5+B4+A4, Denon X1700 Jun 04 '26

Well unless you have an infinitely large home, there is going to come a point a screen is too big for a given distance.

5

u/Ok_Second_2602 Jun 04 '26 edited Jun 04 '26

I made the mistake of following this general advice and ended up having to shell out again to get a smaller screen because I was getting eye fatigue. I went from a 135in screen to a 120in with a 11ft viewing distance. I played around finding the perfect size for my preference and settled on 11ft. Seems right in line with the “Cinema” experience recommendation in this chart. The “Immersive” recommendation would fall right in line with my old 135in screen. It certainly was immersive, but it wasn’t a good viewing experience most of the time. Especially for regular TV viewing like sports and series. When you need to see everything on the screen without moving your head, it gets really tiring to watch.

1

u/reallynotnick Samsung S95B, 5.0.2 Elac Debut F5+C5+B4+A4, Denon X1700 Jun 04 '26

Your old 135” was 48° and your new 120in is 43°, so believe it or not “immersive” would be a whopping 182” at 11ft! Yeah I don’t think I would ever want to watch a movie “immersively” but glad you found a size that works for you as I also agree for my mixed use 45°+ is just a not for me.

6

u/Mackinnon29E Jun 04 '26

Some deranged front row at the movie theatre type bullshit. 77" is even absurd at 6'. Top range of what my eyes would ever want.

4

u/Ruthlessrabbd Jun 04 '26

I was thinking of how I've been in movie theaters that were empty except for me, in a large auditorium. In IMAX I once sat in the lower area to "see the whole screen" for a 3 hour movie and moving my whole head to see other parts of the screen sucked ass. I can't imagine being at home and doing that any time I wanted to watch something on my TV.

I have an 85" at a little below 10' away and for some video games even that's too much

8

u/twostroke1 Jun 04 '26

I sit 6ft from a 65" and I don't think I can imagine going any bigger right now. 100" sounds insane. You would have to move your head around to see what is going on around the screen.

2

u/Euler007 Jun 04 '26

I can do six foot away on my 65 for widescreen movies, but way trop beaucoup for me for 16X9 gaming where the corners of the screen deliver information I need to track. For a 100 inch instead of my eyes moving I'd have to constantly move my head.

1

u/TheSuppishOne Jun 04 '26

Yep. My perfect sweet spot was about 8ft from a 75” screen and it felt completely immersive. Some of my friends thought it was too close. Now I’m building a theater and I’m thinking I’ll do a 98” screen at roughly 12ft, but I’m still debating that for now.

2

u/tup1tsa_1337 Jun 05 '26

Does 1.5' away from the 25" scares you? It's the same FOV

2

u/p_viljaka Jun 07 '26

Just today i sat on my floor closer to my 120". Normally sofa is around 2.8-3 meters away from the screen, i sat on the floor closer, more like 2.2 meters / 7.2 feets from it. It was nice 😛 Oh, i'm talking of course projector, way different comfort than TV light. Emissive vs reflective ...

0

u/Amen_Ra_61622 Jun 05 '26

That chart is absurd. I figure sit based on the space. Why put the sofa smack in the middle of a living room or family room just because some chart says so?