Easy guide to choosing the right TV size.

With the cold season approaching, a season that is conducive to television purchases, I thought it would be appropriate to offer a technical guide to help you make your decision. Since size is the number one source of initial dissatisfaction, making the right choice will be crucial.

In addition to the format, other characteristics will have to be taken into account such as the image resolution, the refresh rate, the dynamic ratio and so on.

2022 will have been (finally) the year of the implementation of 8K resolution at various content broadcasters such as YouTube and Prime Video. Already in February 2022, a few lucky owners of 8K TV sets were able to watch the Beijing Olympics in all its glory! Since September 2022, Amazon Prime has been offering 8K streaming of The Lord of the Rings "The Rings of Power". Without a doubt, media streaming offers the widest variety of 8K content available today. With global streaming services such as YouTube, Vimeo and other 8K video streams, 8K big screen TVs around the world can instantly enjoy the sharpest 8K video delivered over high-speed network connections.

So 4K or 8K?

Follow the guide 😉

 

What determines the required distance

There are many myths about this, but you should know that brightness does not give you a headache and that your eyesight does not deteriorate from staring at a screen too closely. The real reason for distance is a matter of comfort and immersion in the viewing experience. In the past, we had to be further away from our screens because the image was not clear and our eyes and brains would get tired of trying to focus our gaze. To understand what is happening, look at your hand for a minute and suddenly look away: there will be a delay before you clearly grasp the distant visual. Your eyes will have adjusted. If your screen is blurry, your eyes will be constantly trying to adapt, causing fatigue. Since the introduction of high-definition (HD) television sets in 2005, this problem no longer exists.

With the difficulty of focusing gone, what remains is the desired immersion in the image. In other words, if you are too close you will not see the whole picture and if you are too far away or the screen is too small, you will no longer have the impression of being part of the action.     

Viewing distance versus diagonal format.

When measuring a TV screen, the measurement should be taken diagonally, not width or height. The size of a television refers to its diagonal length, which is derived from measuring from the top left corner of the television screen to the bottom right corner. Most screen sizes are expressed in inches.

Depending on the resolution of your screen, the distance required will vary. In this respect, there has been real progress. For reference, a 55-inch screen used to require a viewing distance of 13.75 feet, whereas a 4K resolution screen will now require a viewing distance of only 5.5 feet!

There are different resolution levels, but only 4K and 8K are currently available with very little full HD and only in small formats. Demonstration of the amount of visual information depending on the resolution.

Terminology

SD stands for "Standard Definition" and has between 480 by 525 lines of pixels on broadcast to 750 by 576 on DVD. This format is discontinuous, think of tube TVs...

HD and Full HD: The former is 720 by 1280 dots or pixels while the latter is 1080 by 1920 pixels. Most of the material offered by traditional cable services falls into this category.

4K offers almost 4000 horizontal lines or 2160 by 3840 pixels/line. This is the most common format and can be found on some cable channels as well as on all digital platforms such as Netflix, Disney, Amazon, YouTube, etc.

The 8K offered now for 4 years offers the best in realism and was in the spotlight during the Beijing 2022 games. 4320 by 7680 pixels will form a screen of more than 33 billion points!

General rule for calculating the distance to your screen.

Old Ratio : SD

We aim for 3.5 to 4 times the diagonal.

32 inches recommended distance of 9 feet

55 inches recommended distance of about 14 feet.

Intermediate ratio Full HD

The best defined HD will be 1.5 to 2 times the diagonal.

32 inches recommended distance of 5 feet

55 inches recommended distance of about 7 feet.

Current 4K and 8K TVs

Samsung NeoQLED 98 inch TV

These super TVs offer performance that approaches natural vision, the ratio required is greatly reduced. That's why the minimum viewing distances are supplemented by an approximate distance at which individual pixels or dots begin to be distinguishable so that you can enjoy a more immersive experience without viewing distance restrictions and look closer without noticing the individual pixels. As you will see in the following table, you can get really close to a 4K or 8K TV before you have a real degradation of the experience.

Recommended distance for modern TV sets.

85 inches 

Ideal distance: 8.5 feet for maximum immersion.

Maximum distance for satisfactory immersion: 13.4 feet.

Close range without seeing the pixels: 4.9 feet for 4K and 2.5 feet for 8K.

 

75 inches

Ideal distance: 7.5 feet for maximum immersion.

Maximum distance for satisfactory immersion: 11.8 feet

Close range without seeing the pixels: 4.4 feet for 4K and 2.2 feet for 8K

 

65 inches

Ideal distance: 6.5 feet for maximum immersion.

Maximum distance for satisfactory immersion: 10.2 feet

Close range without seeing the pixels: 3.8 feet for 4K and 1.9 feet for 8K

 

55 inches

Ideal distance: 5.5 feet for maximum immersion.

Maximum distance for satisfactory immersion: 8.7 feet

Close range without seeing the pixels: 3.2 feet for 4K and 1.6 feet for 8K

 

43 inch 4K only

Ideal distance: 4.3 feet for maximum immersion.

Maximum distance for satisfactory immersion: 6.8 feet

Close range without seeing the pixels: 2.5 feet  

NOTE THAT BEING A LITTLE FURTHER OR CLOSER IS NOT DRAMATIC!

You will be satisfied as long as the television is of good quality.

One thing to be aware of besides the distance.

You've measured your room and determined where you're going to sit and watch, that's good, but that's not all.

There will be at least two other criteria to look for: HDR and refresh rate.

HDR

The resolution only tells you one thing, the number of dots used to sharpen the edges of the images produced. Let's imagine that these points are about as bright as each other, you won't see much, believe me! Here comes the recent technology called HDR, HDR10+. HDR" stands for High Dynamic Range 10 bits and has to do with contrast and intensity in colors. A TV with this technology will give you a much sharper and more vivid picture which will allow you to watch even more closely, because there will be more to watch.

REFRESH RATE

The second criterion will be to require a 120 Hz capacity versus 60. A 60 hertz TV will refresh the picture sixty times a second while the other will clock in at 120. The more often the picture refreshes, the less blurring there will be in action reproductions in games, sports and other high-speed activities. 

Final consideration: The style of implementation.

Depending on your room, you can decide whether to place the TV on a piece of furniture, on the wall or even on the floor directly. One manufacturer even offers a TV that disguises itself as a painting-like frame when not in use!

The objection that we hear less often now is where a consumer goes without a larger format in order to « fit the TV". in a wall unit. PLEASE Don't deprive yourself of what the big TVs have to offer! Because the resolution is so high nowadays that to reduce the format so that the new TV resides in the same place as before is to deprive yourself of a much more pleasant experience. Moreover, the price difference between formats is a fraction of what it used to cost. Imagine, we are now at around $2500 and more for an 85 inch format!

 The sound bar, essential complement or not? 

Depending on the model you choose and the type of viewing, you may choose to enhance the sound quality to promote an unsurpassed ambience or even better audibility. First of all, if you are looking for a realistic listening experience, you should either buy a sound bar or opt for a better television set. I invite you to ask for a sound demonstration of the TV you want. You'll be surprised to hear a rich, well-balanced sound from a higher-end model compared to a cheaper model. Believe me, it's night and day. The more expensive TV set will not only have a more realistic picture, but will also have a pleasant sound, whereas the Econo models will sound "grumpy". 

However, if you mainly watch action films, you should opt for a sound bar to really be enveloped by the soundtrack. Even better, ask to see and hear a high-fidelity set (cinema sound system) to experience the atmosphere of the cinema at home. This will be the subject of a future column!

The last word.

With today's cinematic advancements, a brand new TV is a guarantee of endless entertainment. Whether you enjoy games, movies or sports on the screen, your home comfort bubble will only be enhanced. Televisions today are constantly and significantly developing as a technological product and like most things, changing models brings with it a sense of wonder! Explore the idea of 8K as well, so you'll be ahead of the curve and have a current technology TV for years to come. Format is an important consideration for seeing and being part of the action, having a bigger TV means seeing for real!

Stay tuned!

- Christian.

The Wall 583 inches by Samsung!