What is your horizontal viewing angle at your main seating position?

Discussion

Recently, I started looking into home theater layouts and gathering information for a future build. I've come across some good references for recommended viewing angles which represent how much of your field of view your screen takes up. Rtings has a good article here.

The THX spec recommends a minimum horizontal viewing angle of 36 degrees but doesn't seem to specify a maximum. The SMPTE spec suggests somewhere between 33.3 and 61.8 degrees, but the sweet spot seems to lie somewhere in the 40-50 degree range.

There isn't a definitive answer, but I think I would prefer something on the higher side like 50 degrees. So I'm curious, what are your horizontal viewing angles from your main seating positions? Would you prefer you were closer or farther from your screen?

You can use this calculator if you know your screen size and seating distance.

Posted Jan 26, 2021, 3:47 AM UTC

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senior_neet_engineerLG C9 | Revel M105 | Rythmik G25HP | Denon X3700H•5 yr. ago

Mine is 37 degrees. Definitely a compromise for mixed use room. I don't want to sit any closer for gaming. For pure HT I'd probably do 45-50 degree projector.

Wardog555•5 yr. ago

That website claims 50 degrees for me.

discoblu•5 yr. ago

46 degrees if I'm watching 16:9 content 54 degrees if I'm watching 2.35:1

9' away from a 120".

rickraOP•5 yr. ago

A 120" 2.35:1 screen is what I'm shooting for right now. At 54 degrees do you ever feel like you have that front row effect where you can't focus on the whole screen at once?

discoblu•5 yr. ago

no. in fact i used to be 10-11' away, i recently moved the front row forward.

rickraOP•5 yr. ago

Interesting. Thanks for the input!

I need a much bigger TV haha.

rickraOP•5 yr. ago

Haha yupp. My gf thought I was silly to upgrade from 55" to 65" in our living room but that just barely gets us up to the recommended 30 degrees from our couch 9ft away.

I’ll measure tonight because I’m not sure anymore but I think I’m at least 10ft away and I have a 55”. I won’t upgrade anytime soon though. I just bought a LG CX. I would’ve gone bigger but I couldn’t stomach the price for a 65” oled.