Oh how the times have changed

[cam]

I sold my house and purchased another that will have room for a theater room. I move in Oct.29. I will be sitting about 9-10 feet from the screen. Me and the wife were at the Sony Store and I was showing her the 55a2000 1080p tv. This thing is beautiful. The 55 was in the middle flanked by the 50 to the left and the 60 to the right. I was really trying to sell the wife on the idea of getting the 55 because you know women, they always try to say that it is way to big. I thought she was going to say that the 50 would be plenty big but to my surprise, she looked over to the 60 incher and said, I think you should get this one. Well me and the sales guys mouths dropped. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I am all set to get the Sony 60a2000 SXRD after I move in but will the 60 be too big for my 9-10 ft viewing distance. I stuck my face almost right up to the screen before I could see any kind of pixel structure, unlike RPLCD's and RPDLP's that I have seen. What do you think, 60 or 55?

[elapsed]

Hi Cam - according to Sound and Vision Magazine, the ideal viewing distance for a 60" 1080p set is 8 feet. :)

Article: http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/tips/1137/maxing-out-resolution.html
Graph: http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/assets/download/0602_tech_talk2_large.jpg

"Watching a 60-inch screen from 11 feet puts you well above the 1080i/p HDTV trace, meaning that a 1080i program can produce more detail than you can actually make out at that distance. You could even move closer, to around 8 feet, before your ability to see details in the image will max out."

"Say you're limited to a seating distance of around 10 feet and a screen width of 50 inches. In this case buying a 1080i/p set won't get you better resolution than a 50-inch 720p set (the 10-foot/50-inch point lies above the 1080i/p trace). You might be able to save some money by choosing a 720p model. Then again, all screen sizes seem to be switching over to 1080i/p pixel counts, and eventually 720p sets may be hard to find."

[paul_pci]

Crutchfield's article recommends 12.5 feet. I've sat too close to a large screen before and it's not an enjoyable experience.

http://www.crutchfieldadvisor.com/S-dm76zqiiD5U/learningcenter/home/tv_faq.html#viewing_chart

[elapsed]

For 1280 x 720p sets I agree with Crutchfield's equation: 60" x 2.5 / 12 = 12.5 feet. However, in order to take advantage of the higher 1920 x 1080p resolution on Cam's new set I'd recommend sitting much closer: 60" x 1.6 / 12 = 8 feet.

Read through the above Sound and Vision article, and audition a 1080p set at your local retailer, you'll be pleasantly surprised!

[edtyct]

Remember every fixed-pixel display is filling the screen with pixels regardless of the resolution of the source, either natively or by scaling. The point is that at a certain distance, a 1080 source on a 1080p set will be indistinguishable from a 720 source scaled to 1080 because the eye will not be able to resolve what should be the extra sharpness. Thus, at a certain distance, a 1080p set's resolution will not be distinguishable from a 720p set's resolution, all other things being equal. The same applies to 720p vs. 480p under these conditions. Seating can be too distant for HD on a 720p set to look markedly better than 480p on it. The viewer needs to get closer to tell the difference. If viewing is too tight, however, certain kinds of inconveniences and discomforts are possible, like SDE or even compromised speaker placement.

One of the nice things about SXRDs is that their pixels are closer together than the typical LCD pixels are, allowing a shorter viewing distance without distraction by the picture elements. The sheer size of front projection, however, is a big advantage so far as 1080p resolutiion is concerned, since it allows seating at a more comfortable distance. On a smaller scale, you might have to work a little harder to find the sweet spot, which might not be identical for everyone or free from other sorts of compromises.

[shokhead]

Crutchfield's article recommends 12.5 feet. I've sat too close to a large screen before and it's not an enjoyable experience.

http://www.crutchfieldadvisor.com/S-dm76zqiiD5U/learningcenter/home/tv_faq.html#viewing_chart

You mean having a 60" in a 10X12 room might not be a good idea?:nono:

[kexodusc]

My 51" is as big as I could go in my room, I'm 9.5 feet away - at the time, the 57" models lost picture quality as I got closer, no formula applied, just my eyes - but HD was in short supply a year and a half ago...go with whatever you floats your boat I guess.
I think 55" might be the better compromise - a lot of lower res sources will be more forgiving, and I suspect you'll still do the bulk of viewing using 480p or lower for quite some time.

[cam]

As Edtyct said, these SXRD's pixels are packed really tight together. I really couldn't see any pixel structure even at 3 ft away. Of course that was on a hi-def program. I have another 1 1/2 months till the move so I still have more time to think about it. The 60 will be about $3700 and the 55 will be about $3200. the $500 savings is not a big deal for me. I just want to have a enjoyable theater like experience everytime I turn it on. I'm leaning on getting the 60 unless someone can convince me that my 9-10 ft viewing distance is not enough for a 60 1080p display. Elapsed even said I could go as close as 8 ft. on a 60 1080p LCOS tv's. And I sure don't doubt that one bit after seeing these tv's myself.

[Javier]

Go for it i own the 60 sxrd sony and my viewing distance is about 10ft ( or the 55 if you want to use the saved dough in a toshiba a1 hd dvd player) the PQ is stunning you wont regret.

[AVMASTER]

we did a little experimenting in our showroom for best viewing distance with a 60" Sony xbr, a Sony 55" sxrd, 61" JVC 720p HDILA and our prototype HD-DVD player. At 10' they all looked about the same with the XBR slightly sharper. We sold the XBR and the JVC so we moved the theater seats 8' exactly from the displays, added a 56" 1080p JVC HDILA.
PQ was fine at that distance for either model but judging from customer feed-back they all seem to prefer the JVC. Both models are fairly new and have not been ISF calibrated yet, so please don't let me distract you with our fooling around, just thought i'd share