Video: TV Screen Size

Julie: Hi. I'm Julie. I'm here in the Crutchfield studio today to talk about TV screen size. Now the saying "bigger is better" is actually a pretty good guideline when you're deciding on TV screen size. Our experience has been that in most situations, you should go with the largest screen your room, your viewing distance, and your budget will accommodate. That's because while we occasionally hear people wishing their TV screen was bigger, we pretty much never hear them wishing it was smaller.

So how do you know how large a screen to get for your room? The key is the relationship between the TV's screen size and the distance you'll be sitting from it. To help people find a good screen size for their room, we use a loose formula to recommend a viewing distance range. Here's how it works: We suggest you sit at a distance that is 1.5 to 2.5 times your TV's screen size for the best picture. So if you're considering a 50" HDTV, your ideal viewing range would be between 6-1/4 feet and 10-1/2 feet. If that sounds really close, keep in mind that you can sit closer to an HDTV and still get an awesome picture. This is especially true if you mostly watch stuff that's in high definition, like Blu-ray discs and HDTV. Then, you can try sitting at the closest end of that range. You can find out more about choosing screen size at crutchfield.com/screensize. And you can always give us a call at 1-800-555-9408