Enter your screen size to find where to sit, or your seating distance to find what size TV to buy. The math is the same cinema guidance used to design theaters, plus a check on whether your eyes can actually resolve 4K from where you sit.
Sit about 1.2 to 1.6 times your TV's diagonal away. For a 65-inch TV, that's about 6½ to 9 feet; for a 75-inch TV, about 7½ to 10 feet.
Working backward: divide your seating distance in inches by 1.2 to 1.6 to get the screen size range. At 9 feet (108 inches), that's a 66 to 90 inch TV. Between two sizes, go bigger.
Assumes a 16:9 screen. Ranges use the THX (40° field of view) and SMPTE (30°) viewing-angle guidelines; full-resolution distance assumes 20/20 vision (about one arcminute of visual acuity).
Distances are measured from your eyes to the screen. The recommended range runs from the THX distance (most immersive) to the SMPTE distance (the minimum for a cinematic feel). Sit anywhere in between.
| Screen size | Recommended range | Full 4K detail within | Full 1080p detail within |
|---|---|---|---|
| 43" | 4 ft 3 in – 5 ft 10 in | 2 ft 10 in | 5 ft 7 in |
| 50" | 5 ft – 6 ft 9 in | 3 ft 3 in | 6 ft 6 in |
| 55" | 5 ft 6 in – 7 ft 5 in | 3 ft 7 in | 7 ft 2 in |
| 65" | 6 ft 6 in – 8 ft 10 in | 4 ft 3 in | 8 ft 5 in |
| 75" | 7 ft 6 in – 10 ft 2 in | 4 ft 11 in | 9 ft 9 in |
| 77" | 7 ft 8 in – 10 ft 5 in | 5 ft | 10 ft |
| 83" | 8 ft 3 in – 11 ft 3 in | 5 ft 5 in | 10 ft 10 in |
| 85" | 8 ft 6 in – 11 ft 6 in | 5 ft 6 in | 11 ft 1 in |
| 98" | 9 ft 9 in – 13 ft 3 in | 6 ft 4 in | 12 ft 9 in |
| 100" | 10 ft – 13 ft 7 in | 6 ft 6 in | 13 ft |
| 115" | 11 ft 6 in – 15 ft 7 in | 7 ft 6 in | 14 ft 11 in |
The two most-cited standards come from cinema. SMPTE recommends the screen fill at least about 30° of your field of view, which works out to sitting about 1.6 times the screen's diagonal away. THX recommends about 40° for a truly immersive picture, roughly 1.2 times the diagonal. Closer than THX and you'll start moving your eyes (or head) to follow action; farther than SMPTE and the TV starts to feel like a window across the room instead of a movie screen.
With 20/20 vision, your eye resolves detail down to about one arcminute. Sit farther away than that limit and neighboring pixels blur together, so extra resolution stops being visible. For 4K, the limit is about 0.8 times the diagonal; for 1080p, about 1.6 times. That's why most people at a normal couch distance can't see a difference between 4K and 8K: you'd have to sit closer than about 0.4 times the diagonal. More on that in our 4K vs. 8K guide.
At typical living-room distances, most people are sitting too far from too small a TV. If your measured distance lands you between two sizes, buy the bigger one. Nobody has ever upgraded and wished the screen were smaller.
The center of the screen should sit close to seated eye level, which is roughly 40 to 42 inches off the floor for most sofas. Mounting a TV high above a fireplace forces you to look up, which gets uncomfortable over a full movie. If it has to go high, a mount that tilts down helps.
A sofa pushed against the back wall sits in a bass buildup zone and makes it hard to place surround speakers. Pulling seating a couple of feet off the wall helps both picture distance and sound. Our speaker placement guide covers where everything goes.
Past the largest TVs, a projector becomes the more affordable way to fill your field of view. Use our projector screen size calculator to see what image size you'd get from a given throw distance, and our projector vs. TV guide for the trade-offs.