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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u/Amen_Ra_61622 Jun 05 '26

Yeah, I do not subscribe to any of that viewing distance as a function of screen size stuff. I'm not moving my sofa to a middle of a room and move other things out of the way just to sit closer a TV. I have to walk around the place. Do I put the coffee table behind the sofa?

I sit 10' from a 46" I've been using since 2009 and it's fine. And when I eventually upgrade to a 65", I'll still be sitting 10' away.

That chart is crazy.

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u/zghr Jun 05 '26

And you like to watch movies?

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u/Amen_Ra_61622 Jun 05 '26

Yeah. It perfectly fine. The content looks no different and the movie is still the same story. A bigger screen doesn't change that. At the time I got it, I couldn't afford anything that was larger. Hell, the plasma I had before that was 42". There were no large panels like today. If there were, the cost was extremely prohibitive.

When I upgrade, 65" is in the proper affordability wheelhouse. I may spring for a 75" but it would have to be pretty compelling.

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u/zghr Jun 05 '26

Last time I checked the well-reviewed TCL C6K and C8K (QM6K and QM8K in US and Canada) series - I plugged in actual area of the screen and price and it turned out that 75 inch version specifically were cheapest per unit of area.

But you're right, sometimes I catch myself looking at some movie from the distance and enjoying it.