I feel the correct viewing distance for a 42" Plasma viewing HD material is between minimum 5.5 feet and a maximum of 14 feet .


I think a general rule of viewing distance of three to six screen widths for video. This corresponds to the point at which most people will begin having trouble picking out details and reading the screen. Probably too far away to be effective for home theater, OK for everyday TV viewing. Most people are comfortable watching TV between this distance and half this distance.

What does anyone think is the correct viewing distance for plasma screens?

This message was edited by Mr Griffiths on 06/25/05 22:31 ET.

I like the SMTP distance. Whatever gives you a 30 degree viewing angle to the edges of the screen. Don't feel like working the numbers at the moment, but I'm guessing about 6-7' for any 42" screen.

I actually have found an easy on line calculator to do this some time ago see here
[Link: myhometheater.homestead.com]

I totally agree with you Spiky .you know when you know something, but many people say you are wrong it gets you questioning yourself ,well i am having one of those moments.

In the UK we tend to have smallish living rooms and people are used to small 4:3 sets or 28 or 32" 16:9 CRT sets (rear projection and other big screen technologies have not been as popular in the UK) because of lack of space.
Now they can buy flat panels but because they are used to small screens they think a 42" is too big for there room etc..


other Forum members on UK forums with little actual experience or knowledge sprout bull that soon becomes accepted fact. advising that a 42" HD ready Plasma is too big for 8ft viewing distance.

I posted here to get a real,honest and truthful response and Remote Central and its members has restored my faith in myself...
cheers Spiky

I like 1.5 x screen width. Here (CRT front proj) that gives us about 13' for an 8.5' wide (or about 10' diag. in W/S) image.

Spiky's response encapsulates the idea that you should be twice as far back as the screen is wide. I have seen this several times.

Incidentally, a while back I made a chart of several different projectors' zoom ranges, and found that while they varied quite a bit in adjustability and exact range, every one of them had twice the screen width within their range. This makes it easy to understand why so many projectors are right above the seating area. Older three-gun models all had shorter throw distances, so those sets were closer to the screen than the viewer was.

I haven't measured it today, but I think my seating distance is something like 1.8x at the moment. I was going to put in a bigger screen than my 90", but if it was any bigger I'd not really see the whole screen at once without moving my eyes or head all around. That's why you don't want to be much closer than 2x, although some people don't mind.