what is appropriate distance from a 65" led tv to where you are seating?

It depends upon who you consult.  Look at the WIKI page to get a feel for various recommendations:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimum_HDTV_viewing_distance

Personally, I go by the rule of thumb of 1.5 times the screen width (not diagonal).  I'd recommend trying various distances based on the above guidelines at Wikipedia and see what works best for you.

- Walter.

My setup still needs some tweaking, so it'll be interesting to see what my final distance is.  My goal is to watch a favorite film and be able to effortlessly visualize being in a particular seating area of a favorite theater.  Right now it takes a moment of concentration to "get there", and I'm still a little too far back in the damned place.

Hey Matt,

I'm roughly 9 and half feet back from my 65" plasma now.  I was around 7 feet to my 57" RPTV and both distances were great.  I have a second row of seating that is around 13 feet and it still looks great from there 

I think you need play around with the distance calculators and figure out what works for you.  Do you like to sit close to your image or do you prefer sitting back.  

With the Berkline chairs you'll also have to keep in mind the reclining angle for how low or high you're going to place your screen.

Cheers!

Andrew

I have always sat 8-9 feet back from my 65" Tv's and have been very happy. I agree that you should try a couple positions and see if you get any eye strain.

don't forget, viewing distance (according to most calculators I've seen) depends on whether you're watching HD content or whether you're watching SD. For the SD to look acceptable, you'll have to sit a bit farther away than you would with an HD input source. I think most calculators estimate twice the screen size (or more) as an appropriate distance if you'll be watching a significant amount of SD programming/content.

Quote:

Originally Posted by AndyMcKinney 

don't forget, viewing distance (according to most calculators I've seen) depends on whether you're watching HD content or whether you're watching SD. For the SD to look acceptable, you'll have to sit a bit farther away than you would with an HD input source. I think most calculators estimate twice the screen size (or more) as an appropriate distance if you'll be watching a significant amount of SD programming/content.

Exactly. And to take it a step further the quality of the SD material watched. If you happen to also like to watch SD shows from the 70's or based on lessor quality prints that can figure in to your final answer as well. I sit 14' back from a 92" screen and some would say that is too far back, but I watch a variety of content of differing video quality and I find this distance a happy median. So don't just break out an HD of Avatar when determining the appropriate distance. Select several examples of content with varying video quality that you prefer to watch on a regular basis.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by smithb 

 So don't just break out an HD of Avatar when determining the appropriate distance. Select several examples of content with varying video quality that you prefer to watch on a regular basis.
 

Exactly. When I was doing my research on TVs (though I was researching for PAL and 1080i/50 compatibility as well as general things like viewing distance), I decided that I had to do some in-store testing with my equipment. You shouldn't have trouble finding a store that will let you hook up your DVD or BluRay player to it (Sears and HHGregg both let me do this). With my player I also took an assortment of "test" discs from various sources. For my needs, I took a couple pre-recorded PAL DVDs (one of film-based material, one of shot-on-video) to see if the TV could natively display PAL without any standards conversion (thankfully, my players can output an unconverted picture).

I also took some PAL off-air burnt discs (from a friend who records shows for me) and I took a 50i-encoded BluRay disc.

For my 'American-standard' tests (which are probably of more interest to you), in addition to seeing how it would handle prerecorded stuff (and how it handled upscaled DVDs), I also burnt a disc with some Match Game that I recorded off of GSN over Dish Network, to see how it was likely to cope with the overly-compressed SD satellite channels. If you get any SD television programming, I'd suggest burning a disc recorded from your cable/satellite provider (if you have the equipment to do so) and at least take that to the store with you, just to see how far back you'd need to stand/sit for the picture to look good enough).

We're sitting 15' back watching a 120"  :D