How does Room Design Affect TV Size?
12 September 2021
I’ve been thinking about writing something around the correlation of room design and size and placement of TVs. I guess my sign came to finally write a couple weeks ago when (half of) the display went out on the TV in our living room. I was hoping it was an internal part that I could easily replace but unfortunately not the case. For future reference, Best Buy recycles old/broken TVs but there are limitations and even different rules by state so check the website. And in Texas it’ll cost you $30.
Before I just ran out and bought a new one, I went back to our home design plans. This may seem like an unnecessary step to some but the “bigger is better” policy doesn’t apply to home design. We’ve probably all visited friends or family where the TVs were inappropriately sized — either an enormous TV in a tiny room or vice versa. Neither is good and from an ergonomic perspective, unhealthy.
As we have already designed our living room and where the new TV will end up, all I needed to verify the correct size TV was the dimensions of the room and placement of furniture. In the image, I’ve added the locations where Debbie and I will be sitting in the middle of the room when we’re watching TV. Most likely we’ll be sitting in direct line of sight but also mount the TV high enough on the wall to obtain a field of vision 30º to 40º to provide an optimal viewing experience (for most content). Viewing angle is important from an ergonomic perspective but I’ll address that more down the page. By simply looking at the drawing and comparing to the distance chart below it simplifies the decision making for the TV. In our case, we’d be sitting roughly 8–9 feet from the display so a 70” TV is the ideal size.
The chart makes it easy to calculate but there is science behind it. The field of view you experience depends on how far you are sitting from the television. If you know how far you’re going to be sitting, you can use this distance to calculate an “ideal” screen size in inches. For a 30º viewing angle, multiply the viewing distance by 0.6, or to get closer to a 40º viewing angle multiply your viewing distance (in inches) by 0.84. In our case, 108” (9 ft) X 0.6 = 64.8” for 30º viewing angle, 108” (9 ft) X 0.84 = 90.7” for 40º viewing angle. Taking those number, again comparing to the chart and looking at available TV screen sizes is how I came up with a 70” TV being best case for our space.
I can just imagine some of you right now are digging the tape measure out of the drawer and headed to the Man Cave or She Shed to see if you have the right size TV. Or for some, to justify getting a bigger TV since football season has started, baseball and soccer are headed into the playoffs and hockey and basketball seasons are around the corner.
Of course, the alternative is moving the furniture. If you’re happy to adjust your viewing distance based on screen size, you can use a similar calculation to work out how far away from a display you should sit. For a 30º viewing angle, multiply the diagonal screen size by 1.6, or for a 40º angle multiply by 1.2. Again, for us for a 30º viewing angle, 70” X 1.6 = 112” (9 ft 4 in), for a 40º viewing angle, 70” X 1.2 = 84” (7 ft). So our numbers pan out again when you reverse engineer the calculations
If math isn’t your thing there are a variety of online calculators you can use, though there can be some variation in the results since some adhere strictly to 30º while others go a little higher. These include the RTINGS TV Size to Distance Calculator, the Which TV Size Tool, and Inch Calculator.
You may have your own idea of what your preferred angle of view or viewing distance is. Some people like to sit very close to the TV, especially when playing games or watching movies. Be aware that your ability to resolve the image declines when you exceed a 40º viewing angle.
You can use the calculations above to figure out what you’re already used to. For example, if you’re upgrading from a 40” or 50” screen, working out what field of view you are comfortable with can help you pick a larger display that would provide a similar viewing experience.
On a larger display, it’s common to find yourself moving your eyes to capture the whole frame and this is fairly normal. If you find that you are having to move your head (not just your eyes) then this is a good sign that you are either sitting way too close or have a screen size that’s too big for your space. This is a case where you might consider moving the furniture.
At the end of the day, how you feel most comfortable is an entirely personal choice.
One of the best ways of visualizing how a larger TV will look in your living room is to create a cardboard model of the screen size. This won’t simulate what it’s like watching content on the TV, but it will give you a good idea of whether the field of view is too wide, or whether the TV looks ridiculous in a small room. You can move furniture around to suit or see what difference mounting the TV on the wall would make. Debbie actually used this method on a room scale by cutting out cardboard footprints of all the elements in her dream kitchen (refrigerator, dishwasher, sink, cook top, etc.) and arranging them in the garage to make sure she’d have enough space for everything, all the activities and comfortable flow.
As far as TV size and placement, this technique is useful from a home design perspective, but it’s not an exact science. You should be able to see whether the edges of the screen are too wide for comfortable viewing, but you won’t know for sure until you get the TV up in person.
One thing is for sure, even if you are within the 30º to 40º recommended field of view, a new TV can take some time to get used to. It can take anything from a few weeks to a few months to get used to the size of a large display.
In that time you might adjust the height or distance you sit from your display to feel more comfortable. It isn’t unusual to experience cyber sickness with larger displays, especially while playing games. This is like motion sickness but in reverse, where you see movement on the screen but don’t feel it physically.
Provided your TV is mounted around the 30º to 40º field of view mark, you will eventually get used to it and stop noticing the increased size. Turning the brightness down can help you adjust since many models use overly vibrant picture modes out of the box.
In case you didn’t notice, there was a sneak peak above on our floor plan. Debbie and I have been dying to share our floor plan with you all and we’re close to finalizing it. Our work with the architect continues, primarily wrapping up the details on exterior elevation (outside look of the home). I thought the floor plan would be the really difficult part but I’m finding balancing the design, texture of the materials and colors on the exterior to be the real challenge. But we’re making progress so we should have something to show you soon.
Latest news on home building in general has been good. As lumber prices reached record levels this spring, many builders simply stopped buying. At the same time, sawmills were upping production in order to cash in on the record prices. In a matter of three months, lumber has gone from exorbitant to relatively affordable levels. Prior to the pandemic, the price usually ranged from $350 to $500. It’s now at the lower end of that spectrum. So, good news.
Let us know what you think of all the science behind TV placement and viewing. How does your configuration stack up? Have you learned anything here that you’ll use to change up your TV viewing? Drop us a line in the comments, DM or email as we love hearing from you. Until next week …
In full disclosure, I’m not an affiliate marketer with links to any online retailer on my website. When people read what I’ve written about a particular product and then click on those links and buy something from the retailer, I earn nothing from the retailer. The links are strictly a convenience for my readers.
