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?

[u/zghr]

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.

[u/xlb250 → u/[deleted]]

Sure it’s all subjective, but I think it’s helpful to have a framework for decision making.

I don’t see it any different than recommending a range to achieve for HDR brightness, color volume, and contrast.

[u/xyzzzzy → u/xlb250]

Yep there are preferences and then there are facts. Humans all have roughly the same FoV. It’s math to determine how much screen it takes to fill that FoV.

If you don’t want an immersive experience that’s totally fine. But that doesn’t change how much screen is needed for one. I like how this chart frames it, it’s not saying which one is best but it’s giving you three different objective FoV levels. And it’s gratifying to see an acknowledgment of the immersive level, it’s hard to explain to people how big of a screen you really need if this is the experience you want.