Has anyone noticed how low their RPTV is? (1 Viewer)

[Nick B]

Hello All:

I am in the final planning stages of my HT set-up. I had the measuring tape out yesterday and was reading posts about seating distance from the TV. I was able to find only very limited information regarding proper height of the TV.

So I did a bit of measuring. We have what I believe to be your average couch. When sitting, my eye level was significantly above the middle of the screen. In fact, by my calculations, I would need to raise my TV 8" for the middle of the screen to be at eye level.

In case it matters, I have a Toshiba 50" Widescreen RPTV (50H82).

Has anyone shared this experience? 8" seems like a fairly large adjustment. Any thoughts out there?

Nick

 

[John S]

8" above center does not seem even close to bad enough to worry about to me anyways. I will be interested to read what others think.

 

[Anthony_J]

My setup is about the same when I'm sitting upright, but since I'm normally lying down or slouching when I'm on the couch anyway, it all evens out.

I have to stand up or change my viewing angle by more than two and a half feet to really notice a difference. I wouldn't worry about it unless either your couch or TV is going to be up on a stand or elevated surface.

It also depends on your viewing distance (and who said that geometry would never come in handy?). The further you are from the screen, the more viewing height variation you can tolerate. I'm usually between 6 and 8 feet away from a 53" screen and I never had to worry about it.

 

[Steve Schaffer]

As long as your eye level is within the middle 60% or so of the screen you're just fine. Although you lose more brightness with eyelines moved vertically than horizontally from screen center, 8" is really really insignificant.

My eyeline on my 57" Sony is about 8" below center and I sit 13 feet away--no problem.

 

[Mike Wilk]

The current issue of Home Theater mag has a 10 set shoot-off. They included a setup shot showing the candidates. You'll notice the lengths they went to put each set at a height to ensure that all sets had their mid-screen height equal to the others. It seemed to me, eye level was the goal. YMMV

 

[Anthony_J]

...but that was in a 10 set side by side comparison. They just wanted to make sure that they weren't judging one set versus another with incomparible set-ups.

In an absolute situation where you wouldn't have a reference point, I don't think that eight inches vertical would noticeably change brightness or picture quality.

 

[Rick Faldo]

Ya', I agree...otherwise you would have to adjust the height for each viewer who was 8" shorter or taller than the other viewers....seems a bit anal don't you think? Enjoy your set and stop worrying about perfection, there is no such a thing.

 

[Nick B]

Ahhhh...but there is more. Yet another reason to get a bit of a boost: The ability to increase the height of my center channel. Because my center channel is pretty beefy, laying it on top of the TV is not really a good option. Plus it puts the tweeter quite above the tweeters of the mains. I will be placing me center channel on its own stand in front of the TV. By raising the TV 8", I get to raise the stand as much and the center comes more inline with the mains. Voila!

BTW, we have a Chicago phone book for short guests to sit on to give them that little "extra boost".

 

[John S]

I still think you will be ok with it really...

You may not be able to lay on the floor though...

 

[Andy Goldstein]

FWIW, the center of my panny 53 is 37" from the floor. my eye level is 38" when seated on the couch, and 46" when using the computer chair off to the side of the couch. thats 8-9 feet from the screen, and no change in the picture quality.

ag.

 

[Ryan Tsang]

Nick B:

Ah....finally another who places his/her center on a stand IN FRONT of the RPTV. I used to go one step further with my Tosh 50" than raising it: I raised the back slightly more so that it is (safely) tilted towards the seating position. This is much like tilting the center up/down to aim at the listener. I too, raised it 6-8" off the floor.

The front baffle of my mains are 5ft from the back wall. Center channel in front allows LCR placement to follow an arc, equidistant from me, in addition to having tweeters at similar vert level. The result is a seamless soundstage.

It blows my mind when people use in-wall/ceiling speakers or hide speakers in entertainment units and have the system driven by Lexicon/Meridian/Krell gear. What a waste! Decor and audio nirvana can not mix. It's up to the individual to balance the priorties and choose their compromises.

 

[Garrett Lundy]

Mt entertainment center keeps my entire 4:3 set below my head. But then the set-top mounted center channel is just perfect!

PS: Either I'm freakishly tall (at 5'10"), my couch is freakishly tall, or for some reason the entire audio industry seems content with creating speaker stands that leave the tweeter a full 12" below ear level. When I move my surround-sound system into a seperate room (to eliminate windows) I'm going to have to find a beanbag chair or something strange in order to keep the all the speakers at ear level and the HDTV at the proper height.