What type of TV do you own and how far do you sit from it?

[Lightknight]

With so many discussions about the importance of high screen resolutions on consoles I thought it would be interesting to ask what our average TV user is?

What I'd like to know is the size of TV, the resolution it supports, and how far away you sit from it (preferably in feet but feel free to include dirty ol' easier metrics in your response).

For example, I'll use myself:

42", 1080p, 10 ft.

I was considering making a poll but there are simply too many permutations to account for even if using broad ranges. I'm interested in seeing how many people could actually benefit of 1440p or higher resolutions on their TVs.

http://www.rtings.com/images/optimal-viewing-distance-television-graph-size.png

I would suspect that most of us still have a 1080p TV since 1440p+ TVs are still around $1,500 and up. But I would also suspect that most of us sit further away from our TVs than we may realize were we to actually consider the distance or measure it. Right now the console argument is 1080p or 720p which sounds ridiculous to me because I could easily see 1080p making a difference even if it wouldn't make a difference for me due to my TV size and distance of viewing.

 

[Eleuthera]

I have a 32" Television (720p) in my living room (at 2-5m, 7-16') , a 21" (720p) in my bedroom (at 270cm, 9') but do most of my movie, tv watching and gaming on my PC monitor 23" (1080p) at either 2' or 9'.

Both TVs are 6ish years old, but neither is in need of replacing.

 

[Boolanger]

For my main gaming setup, PC and PS3
50" 720p
sitting about 9' away

Living room HTPC/occasional gaming
42" 1080p
view distance varies from 8'-13' depending on seating

 

[BoogieManFL]

Our biggest flatscreen is a 70" 4k "Ultra HDTV". When I game, I sit about 7 feet away. For that I just like being able to notice small details quickly, especially in fast paced games.

For TV and movies, I sit on the couch which is probably 14ft away. For something that involves less focused viewing the distance feels better. That and the 3D doesn't "feel" as good close up.

 

[Lightknight]

Our biggest flatscreen is a 70" 4k "Ultra HDTV". When I game, I sit about 7 feet away. For gaming I just like being able to notice small details quickly, especially in fast paced games.

Whoa, 7 feet from a 70" 4k TV? Wow.

What do you use to game on it? I assume you're probably a PC gamer in order to get resolutions above 1080p. Is that correct? At 70" anything under 9' away becomes noticeable at the higher than 1080p resolutions. But it looks like resolutions over 1440p may not be noticeable to the average eye until you get to around 6'. Have you done any resolution experiments by chance?

For TV and movies, I sit on the couch which is probably 14ft away. For something that involved less focused viewed the distance feels better and the 3D doesn't "feel" as good close up.

Sounds like your house is the place to be on movie night.

 

[smithy_2045]

About 4-5m away from what I think is a 40' TV.

 

[EHKOS]

I have a pleasant 32" in my bedroom that I sit about four feet away from. Give or take me leaning forward or back. It's 720p and since I'm skipping the Xbone and PS4, I don't see the need to upgrade for a long time. Heck, four years ago I had an old CRT.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

42 inch plasma, we sit around 8 feet away from it. Had it for years, and it's still looking fantastic. The new LEDs are great but it's still hard to beat Plasma for blacks or picture quality in a darker room.

 

[ScrabbitRabbit]

I literally JUST got a 24" 1080p TV that I sit maybe a couple of feet away from because my room is tiny. Just days ago I was still using a 19" VHS combo from the '90s.

I've had a 1080p monitor for a while though and all the other TVs in my house are HD.

 

[Jadwick]

I don't have a TV, and I sit as close to it as possible. There go your statistics op!

 

[Not Lord Atkin]

I have a 32" 1080p Samsung LED TV which I use as a computer monitor (I already had the TV when I was building my new PC so I decided I would just use it in place of a monitor and put the money I saved on buying a new screen towards better components). Which means I sit roughly a metre and a half away from it.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

42" Samsung 1080p LCD. Beautiful TV, and we sit generally 7-8' away. So we're in the optimal range. Also have a Playstation/Sony Brand 3d TV we use as a PC monitor (24") and we sit generally 2-3 ft back. Great monitor btw.

 

[Johnny Impact]

42", 1080p, 6 feet away. Sometimes I sit on the floor maybe 4 feet away but that's uncomfortable and never lasts.

 

[-Dragmire-]

32" 1080p tv/monitor. I sit about 1.5 meters away when either passively watching something or using a controller and about a third of that when using the keyboard and mouse.

 

[Lightknight]

So far I'm actually surprised by the TV size responses more than anything else. Looks like it's hit or miss on sitting distance. 1080p is so far the most common resolution type though. We haven't reached significant numbers yet and I'm sure responder bias (people who respond on the thread may have more interest in TV resolution than those who wouldn't respond, for example) would impact the results anyways as far as legitimacy. But this is interesting to see.

42" Samsung 1080p LCD. Beautiful TV, and we sit generally 7-8' away. So we're in the optimal range. Also have a Playstation/Sony Brand 3d TV we use as a PC monitor (24") and we sit generally 2-3 ft back. Great monitor btw.

Actually, you're just about on the cusp of the difference between 720p and 1080p not mattering depending on if you're closer to 8' than 7'. But 7' would certainly be optimal regarding a 42" display at 1080p resolutions. Far enough so that you aren't beginning to resolve the pixels but close enough so that the full benefit of 1080p can be enjoyed.

This all also assumes that members of your group have at least or at most average eyesight. Variance either way would change the chart specs.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

So far I'm actually surprised by the TV size responses more than anything else. Looks like it's hit or miss on sitting distance. 1080p is so far the most common resolution type though. We haven't reached significant numbers yet and I'm sure responder bias (people who respond on the thread may have more interest in TV resolution than those who wouldn't respond, for example) would impact the results anyways as far as legitimacy. But this is interesting to see.

42" Samsung 1080p LCD. Beautiful TV, and we sit generally 7-8' away. So we're in the optimal range. Also have a Playstation/Sony Brand 3d TV we use as a PC monitor (24") and we sit generally 2-3 ft back. Great monitor btw.

Actually, you're just about on the cusp of the difference between 720p and 1080p not mattering depending on if you're closer to 8' than 7'. But 7' would certainly be optimal regarding a 42" display at 1080p resolutions. Far enough so that you aren't beginning to resolve the pixels but close enough so that the full benefit of 1080p can be enjoyed.

This all also assumes that members of your group have at least or at most average eyesight. Variance either way would change the chart specs.

I'm also a rare person with 20/10 vision, so it probably matters even less for me than the average person. Still its nice to have. More noticeable on the PC though than TV/Console.

 

[Wakey87]

42", 1080p, 6 feet away.

Same here. I remember buying my TV, I went through all the charts and researched so much into the technical jargon I swear I could of got hired at any electrical store on the spot.

 

[Velociferocks]

Not a TV specifically but it's a 27" Asus monitor, 1080p LCD and i sit about 0.8 meters away most of the time, although i occasionally move it around to another position that's maybe 1.2 meters away.

 

[Casual Shinji]

46 inch Samsung LED, and I sit about 6 feet away depending on if I'm sitting up or lying back. At a certain point TV size doesn't matter, since the larger the screen the farther away you have to sit to even take it in.

And eventhough it'll be a long time before I even get a 4k screen, they can bring on the 4k blu-ray masters. I recently bought the 4k master of Men in Black, and that shit looks crazy good. It almost looked like they went back in and redid some of the CGI, it looks so fucking crisp.

 

[DanielBrown]

TV: 46 or 48" LCD, I'd guess 1080p, sitting 280 cm from the screen.
Chart tells me it's perfect!

PC screen: 24" LED(gaming screen), 24" LCD(my designated Netflix screen), 1080p. Sitting 65 cm from the screens while reading, 86 while playing games, 113 cm while using it as a TV monitor.
Only optimal when I use it as a TV apparently... I could still go for a bigger gaming screen tbh. Felt awfully big at first, but I quickly got used to moving my entire head to look around.