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50" TV -- What is a good viewing distance for my room?

#1
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6/23/09 at 10:43am
  • Joined: June 2009
  • Post Count: 37
My room is 18 ft Long and 13.4 ft wide.
The TV is placed across the "wider" side (13.4).
The sofa is about 2ft thick from the back, and the TV stand brings out the TV about 1 feet from the wall.
Is this a good viewing distance for my 50" Panasonic TCPG10 series TV?

Another question:
I bought this TV after doing research on CNET.com
and they said this ranked the second after Pioneer Kuro Elite. So i was under an impression that i have the second best TV. Now for some reason i keep having double thoughts, because i have seen sony HD tvs and the picture somewhat looks better to me than my TV. should i have got a different TV?
What are your thoughts about my panasonic TV?
Can you guys give opinions so that i know how good/bad of a TV i have.
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#2
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6/23/09 at 1:53pm
  • Joined: March 2000
  • Location: THX/ISF'er By Night - Calgary
  • Post Count: 2,792

Re: 50" TV -- What is a good viewing distance for my room?

Greetings

Did you actually go through the effort to do a calibration of the TV set?

CNET comes to their conclusions after calibration is done ...

Run some test discs through their paces and then see ...

Try looking at a Sony off to one side ...

Seating distance ... 1 to 3 x picture height to see max detail in the display. Any further back and you won't see the 2 million pixels you paid for anymore. You see less. At a certain point, you will see DVD level of detail and nothing more 5 to 7 times image height ... even further back ... and you will think VHS looks comparable to HD.

regards

Michael @ The Laser Video Experience
THX Video Systems Instructor
ISF Calibration Instructor
Lion A/V Consultants Network
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#3
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6/23/09 at 2:07pm
  • Joined: May 2002
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Re: 50" TV -- What is a good viewing distance for my room?

Quote:
Originally Posted by djdownfawl
My room is 18 ft Long and 13.4 ft wide.
The TV is placed across the "wider" side (13.4).
The sofa is about 2ft thick from the back, and the TV stand brings out the TV about 1 feet from the wall.
Is this a good viewing distance for my 50" Panasonic TCPG10 series TV?

I'm not sure I completely understand what you mean by "across the wider side (13.4)". I'll assume you mean that the TV is on the long wall, so that when you sit on the sofa and watch, you're viewing across the shorter distance (13.4 feet). Factoring in the stand and sofa thickness, you're looking at an actual viewing distance of roughly 10 feet. I think that's probably about right, but some online calculators (Viewing Distance Calculator) indicate that you may be able to sit even closer if you'd like.

Quote:
Originally Posted by djdownfawl
Another question:
I bought this TV after doing research on CNET.com
and they said this ranked the second after Pioneer Kuro Elite. So i was under an impression that i have the second best TV. Now for some reason i keep having double thoughts, because i have seen sony HD tvs and the picture somewhat looks better to me than my TV. should i have got a different TV?
What are your thoughts about my panasonic TV?
Can you guys give opinions so that i know how good/bad of a TV i have.

I've been following your other thread, and just like that one, you're asking a very subjective question to which there really is no "right" answer.

Comparing your TV to some Sony TVs that you've seen is hardly a definitive comparison. In what way were the Sony TVs better? Have you taken the time to properly calibrate your display using Digital Video Essentials or AVIA? Were the Sony's you saw running at factory settings or were they properly calibrated, too? A LOT can be done to improve the picture of virtually ANY TV by simply disabling the picture enhancement modes, setting brightness and contrast to proper levels and viewing in an appropriate environment (i.e. NOT a showroom floor).

Honestly, none of us can tell you if you got the right TV or not. The "right" TV depends on many factors, not the least of which is what YOU think of it.

Really, I wouldn't waste time worrying that there's something "better" out there (hint: new stuff comes out all the time, so there's a good chance that there's ALWAYS something "better"), I'd much rather just grab a beer and some pizza and enjoy what I have.

Jason
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#4
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6/23/09 at 3:48pm
  • Joined: June 2009
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Re: 50" TV -- What is a good viewing distance for my room?

I haven't done any calibrations at all.
I dont know where to start and how to start calibrating my TV.
Can you please point me to the right direction?
And exactly where should be my sofa be according to my TV size and Room size, and yes the TV is placed against the longer wall.
Regards.
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#5
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6/23/09 at 4:26pm
  • Joined: February 2004
  • Post Count: 1,598

Re: 50" TV -- What is a good viewing distance for my room?

You need to get a calibration disc such as Avia or Digital Video Essentials. If you don't want to buy one, you can use the THX Optimizer on certain DVD's(Pixar). They come with tutorials and are easy to follow. They allow you to adjust brightness, contrast, color, tint and sharpness. You should be sitting 8'-10' from a 50" TV. But all that matters is where it looks best to you.
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#6
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6/24/09 at 6:33am
  • Joined: May 2002
  • Post Count: 278

Re: 50" TV -- What is a good viewing distance for my room?

One of the first things I would do when calibrating a set, is to see what pre-set video "modes" your TV has. These can usually be found by going into the setup menu of your TV and looking under the "Video" settings. Typical video "modes" include "Vivid", "Sports", "Move", "Pro", and others. Each mode has built in settings for a variety of artificial image enhancement techniques that really, you'll want to disable if possible. On many TVs the "Movie" or "Pro" mode will have most of these disabled, so I would start there.

Also check under the "Video" settings to see if there are any other image enhancement settings that are "On" and try turning them "Off". If your set has a "color temperature" setting, try leaving that set to "natural". Once you've disabled as many of these as possible, then you can proceed to setting brightness, contrast, color, tint, etc.

Of these 4 settings, you'll get the most improvement by adjusting brightness and contrast. A general rule of thumb is that it's "safer" for your set to have high brightness than it is to have high contrast. So begin by bringing your contrast down to a reasonable level and try compensating for the darkness by bumping up the brightness.

Be aware, though, that if you've been watching the TV in an excessively bright and over-processed mode, that as you properly calibrate the TV the picture will look exceedingly dark at first. Give the new settings a solid week at least to let your eyes adjust. Trust me, properly calibrating your display will actually bring out more detail than you ever saw before.
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#7
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6/24/09 at 7:02am
  • Joined: March 2000
  • Location: THX/ISF'er By Night - Calgary
  • Post Count: 2,792

Re: 50" TV -- What is a good viewing distance for my room?

Greetings

You need a test disc with patterns to set the contrast and brightness right. Or else you can just wash out your image with the way you describe things.

Turn the contrast down ... well sure ... how much ... 1% ... 30% ... 80% ... What's too much and what is too little?

Turn the brightness up to compensate for the contrast down? You will wash out your image way faster than getting back any of your light output loss.

End result ... a washed out image ...

you need to use a test disc and follow the easy instructions.

regards

Michael @ The Laser Video Experience
THX Video Systems Instructor
ISF Calibration Instructor
Lion A/V Consultants Network
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