Home Theater Seating Distance Guide
You are in the process of building your home theater room and you realize you need to know how far your seats need to be back from your home theater screen. This guide will help you determine that optimal placement of your theater chairs for maximum picture clarity.The first step in determining this seating distance will be to get a few specs from your tv/theater screen.
Is your screen 4:3(regular tvs) or 16:9(widescreen tvs)?
4:3 TV Viewing
With regular(4:3) TVs people usually find it best to sit at a distance that is 3 to 4.5 times the diagonal screen size.
TV diagonal screen size (4:3) |
Min. viewing distance (in feet) |
Max. viewing distance (in feet) |
| 13 | 3.25 | 4.88 |
| 19 | 4.75 | 7.13 |
| 20 | 5 | 7.5 |
| 24 | 6 | 9 |
| 27 | 6.75 | 10.13 |
| 32 | 8 | 12 |
| 36 | 9 | 13.5 |
| 40 | 10 | 15 |
16:9 TV Viewing
With widescreen(16:9) TVs people usually find it best to sit at a distance that is 1.5 to 2.5 times the diagonal screen size. People find sitting closer to widescreen tvs find that you get more detail by sitting closer. If a lot of your viewing is not dvd or hd quality you will find it to be a better picture by sitting further away.
TV diagonal screen size (16:9) |
Min. viewing distance (in feet) |
Max. viewing distance (in feet) |
| 30 | 3.75 | 6.25 |
| 34 | 4.25 | 7.08 |
| 42 | 5.25 | 8.75 |
| 50 | 6.25 | 10.42 |
| 56 | 7 | 11.67 |
| 62 | 7.75 | 12.92 |
| 70 | 8.75 | 14.58 |