So you're in the market for a new HDTV, but don't know what size screen to buy. You could go with the "bigger is better" adage, or you can precisely calculate a more suitable size by applying the following formula.
Gadgetwise blogger J.D. Biersdorfer and NYT personal tech editor Sam Grobart demonstrate how to determine the right television size using one simple formula.
According to the duo, the process involves taking the viewing distance from the screen (in inches) and dividing that by the number two. Why two? According to Jude, salespeople will tell you to divide the distance by 1.5 because they want you to buy a bigger set, whereas non-salespersons typically suggest 2.5 as a benchmark. The "pragmatic thing" to do, she says, is to split the difference between these numbers and divide by two instead, which should provide you with a proper screen size.
Check out the above video clip to see the simple calculation in action. If you don't want to hassle yourself with all that inconvenient math (or you just want a more forgiving scale of sizes within maximum and minimum viewing distances (not everyone is sitting exactly the same distance from the TV, after all), this previously covered TV-to-space chart can do the trick, too.
Choosing the Right Size for Your New TV [Gadgetwise]
</img> 
</img> 
</img> 
</img>
Gadgetwise blogger J.D. Biersdorfer and NYT personal tech editor Sam Grobart demonstrate how to determine the right television size using one simple formula.
According to the duo, the process involves taking the viewing distance from the screen (in inches) and dividing that by the number two. Why two? According to Jude, salespeople will tell you to divide the distance by 1.5 because they want you to buy a bigger set, whereas non-salespersons typically suggest 2.5 as a benchmark. The "pragmatic thing" to do, she says, is to split the difference between these numbers and divide by two instead, which should provide you with a proper screen size.
Check out the above video clip to see the simple calculation in action. If you don't want to hassle yourself with all that inconvenient math (or you just want a more forgiving scale of sizes within maximum and minimum viewing distances (not everyone is sitting exactly the same distance from the TV, after all), this previously covered TV-to-space chart can do the trick, too.
Choosing the Right Size for Your New TV [Gadgetwise]