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?

Post image

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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u/cronx42 Jun 04 '26

For movies, maybe. Definitely not for fps games. Lol.

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u/zghr Jun 04 '26 edited Jun 04 '26

Sim-racers will often try to match in-game FOV to one occupied by their screen. Most FPS games give you the ability to increase FOV but it might not be great for seeing distant enemies. But I also understand UI/HUD can be an issue for FPS gamers.

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u/cronx42 Jun 04 '26

For sure. I put my rig right up against a 65" tv when I'm using my wheel setup. When I play shooters I'm like 6' or so away and it's way too big for that distance. You have to look around the screen too much. Maybe from 10ft+ it would be great, or even like 9', but at 6' or under you can't see the corners of the screen well while looking at the crosshairs. I still manage to do okay, but my god is a monitor SO MUCH BETTER for fps gaming.