Does watching TV up close harm your eyesight? This concern is not unfounded and dates back to the days when television screens did emit harmful radiation. Let's see what the optimal distance for watching TV is!
Optimal viewing distance television has changed over the years. The invention of the LCD screen, however, eliminated this danger to the health of the eyes, which is angular. Nevertheless, the question of what is the ideal distance from the TV is still very important, because watching TV from too close can cause eye strain and fatigue.
How close is too close and what is the optimal TV viewing distance?
The old rule was that the ideal distance from the TV should be at least five times the diagonal of the screen we are watching. However, this is long gone, as this rule applied to CRT TVs, which are no longer manufactured and almost no one uses them anymore.
Leading manufacturers believe it should be distance on average twice the diagonal of the screen. However, in addition to the distance, the position of the TV in relation to where you sit is also an important factor in preventing eye strain.
Whether your TV is on a cabinet, table or wall, it should be positioned so that the center of the screen is at eye level when you're sitting – or slightly lower than that. In this way, straining of the neck and eye muscles is prevented, while at the same time a good viewing angle is ensured.
In addition, we can easily prevent fatigue by watching TV from an optimal distance every 20 minutes 20 second break and at this time we "look away" at some distant object through the window.
Ideal distance from a TV with an LCD (LED) or OLED screen
The formula for calculating the optimal distance from the TV is not exact, as the optimal distance also depends on the screen resolution. If you are using a TV device whose screen has a high resolution (e.g. 4K), the pixels that make up the image will not be physically too large, so you will be able to get a little closer to such a screen.
In short, if your TV screen has a Full HD resolution, stick to the aforementioned formulas, which means that the ideal viewing distance is twice the length of the diagonal. On the other hand, you can calculate the ideal distance from a 4K UHD (or even 8K UHD) TV by multiplying the length of the diagonal by 1.5.
Here is a short list that will make it even easier for you to choose the ideal diagonal, i.e. the ideal distance from the TV.
Optimal distance from 4K TV:
43″ – 164 cm
48″ – 183 cm
50″ – 190 cm
55″ – 210 cm
58″ – 221 cm
65″ – 248 cm
70″ – 267 cm
75″ – 286 cm
85″ – 324 cm
98″ – 373 cm
Optimal distance from HD and Full HD TVs:
32″ – 163 cm
40″ – 203 cm
42″ – 213 cm
43″ – 218 cm
50″ – 254 cm
