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Comment by mankyd | Hacker News Reader

Recently upgraded from a 1080p 40" TV to a 4k 55". According to this, at ~12ft away, we should have bought an 85" TV?!

That's crazy and dumb. Or rather, a misrepesentation.

This article states that we _could_ get away with up to an 85" TV. It is only at that limit that we'd start to see "imperfections" as they call it.

I don't want to see imperfections. I also don't need a TV that will take up my whole field of view while bathing me in light.

The 55" we have already feels quite large, much sharper, and is brighter.

This article may be interesting from an academic point, but people shouldn't misconstrue this to think they should be getting a bigger TV. Get a TV that fits your space and feels comfortable. Bigger is not always equal to better.

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I think it's useful outside of an academic thought experiment. It hasn't encouraged me to get a bigger tv, quite the opposite. My takeaway isn't that I need a bigger tv, it's that I can get by with a smaller screen and lower resolution.

Except that at the very top is a slider that gives you a recommendation of screen distance to screen size. I think a lot of folks will encounter this and stop there.

Maybe, but the article is still useful for people that read it in it's entirety.

> I also don't need a TV that will take up my whole field of view while bathing me in light.

To have an immersive experience, isn't taking up your whole field of view kind of the point? I used to have a 9' projector screen in my living room, and I definitely noticed cinematography and directing a lot more with the more immersive experience.

Except I don't always want that. I can always sit closer to my TV, but I can't get farther away than the opposite wall.

I would love to have a room designed for a cinema experience with comfy couches and a giant screen, (I am working on it), but my living room is not the place for it. It would just be an eye sore (figuratively and literally).

You missed the point.

What is the point then? I feel as though lots of people will read this and say "My couch is 10+ feet from my tv. This states that I _need_ to get a giant tv".

That exact question is addressed almost word-for-word in TFA:

You are probably now thinking something along the lines of "My couch is 10' away from my TV, which according to the chart means I need a 75 inch TV. This is insane!". Yes, if you want to take advantage of the full capacity of higher resolutions, this is the ideal size. This brings us to the main limitation for most people: the budget.

The price of a TV is exponential to its size, as shown in the chart. The chart shows the price range of 2016 LED TVs by their size. As you can see, the jump to a 70 inch TV is quite a big one. For example, check out the price of our picks for the best 70"-75" TVs and the best 80-82-85" TVs. Conclusion

We recommend an angle of vision of 30 degrees for a mixed usage. In general, we also recommend getting a 4k TV since 1080p choices have become quite limited and lack modern features such as HDR. To easily find out what size you should buy, you can divide your TV viewing distance (in inches) by 1.6 (or use our TV size calculator above) which roughly equals to a 30 degrees angle. If the best size is outside your budget, just get the biggest TV you can afford.

Except that, though I can afford a bigger tv than 55" tv, I still am not going to buy one. And buying the 85" they recommend is _enormous_. It might make for a cinematic experience, but it poses additional problems beyond price:

1) You can never sit closer to the TV. I always sit ~12' from my TV, but walking by the tv at close range (between two doors on either side) is going to be jarring for passers-by. If I have friends over for a movie night, we would have to huddle at the far end of the room.

2) It doesn't fit the space, both physically and design wise. I couldn't put that big a tv in the space if I wanted. Even if I did, it's going to be ugly as sin unless the space is very specifically designed for cinema experiences.

3) That's going to be an obnoxious way to watch non-cinema content.

Having a TV at the other end of a 12 foot room is not going to be an uncommon affair. Having a room where an 85" screen is appropriate is another matter all together.

I feel like the article should have a big disclaimer at the top "This is the maximum size you can enjoy, not the maximum size you should necessarily buy".

It really isn't. This quote is just saying that you probably can't afford the size of TV they're going to recommend, so you should "just get the biggest TV you can afford."

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