At 7 Feet, TV Makers’ Own Guides Range From 46 to 70 Inches

If you sit 7 feet from the screen, the size guides TV makers publish recommend anything from a 46-inch TV to a 70-inch one. Samsung’s and LG’s US buying guides and THX all come out at 70 inches, by dividing your distance in inches by 1.2; Sony’s 30° guidance gives about 52, and Samsung’s own support page about 46.

Most of the gap is one choice: how much of your view the screen should fill.

What each guide recommends

You sit	40° rule: Samsung, LG, THX	30° rule: Sony India	Best Buy, 4K	Samsung support page
6 ft	60 in	44 in	40 in	40 in
7 ft	70 in	52 in	55 in	46 in
8 ft	80 in	59 in	65 in	53 in
9 ft	90 in	66 in	65 in	59 in
10 ft	100 in	74 in	80 in	66 in

How each column is worked out, from the sources’ own words:

• 40° rule. Samsung’s buying guide puts a 55-inch at 5.5 feet and a 75-inch at 7.5 feet, on a diagram marked 40°. LG says to “divide your viewing distance (in inches) by 1.2”. THX says to multiply the distance by 0.835, which is the same rule written the other way round. Column: distance in inches ÷ 1.2.
• 30° rule. Sony’s India support page has a “Recommended Mixed Usage Distance (30°)” column: 7.5 feet for a 55-inch, 8.9 feet for a 65-inch. Column: distance in inches ÷ 1.63, our arithmetic for a 30° view, which reproduces Sony’s rows.
• Best Buy. Its 4K chart gives ranges, so the column shows the size whose range covers your seat: 40 inches at 4–6 feet, 55 at 6.5–7.5, 65 at 8–9, 80 at 10–13.
• Samsung’s support page. Its wall-mounting article says to “take your TV’s size and divide it by .55”, so a 60-inch TV is 109 inches away. Column: distance × 0.55.

Samsung publishes two of the four answers, on two of its own US pages, and they are 24 inches apart at a 7-foot seat.

Why they differ: the angle each one aims for

A viewing angle is how wide the screen looks from your seat. For a 16:9 TV, the distance that gives a particular angle is a fixed multiple of the diagonal, which is what each “divide by” rule encodes.

Rule	Distance as a multiple of the diagonal	Angle the screen fills
Samsung’s and LG’s buying guides, THX	1.2 ×	40°
Sony India “mixed usage”	about 1.6 ×	30°
Samsung support page (÷ 0.55)	about 1.8 ×	about 27°
Sony US 4K minimum (1.5 × screen height)	about 0.74 ×	about 61°

The angles in the last two rows are our arithmetic; the pages give only the formula.

Who says what about SMPTE. LG heads its 40° table “The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers: Recommended Cinema Distance (40°)” and credits SMPTE and RTINGS.com in a footnote. RTINGS’s size-to-distance guide, read on 9 October, attributes a different figure to SMPTE: a minimum of 30° for mixed use. We could not read a SMPTE document to settle which. RTINGS also cites a 62° SMPTE maximum, and when a reader asked in its comments for the source, its staff replied that they were having a hard time finding it.

Who says what about THX. THX’s pages give the 0.835 ratio, not an angle. On a 16:9 screen that ratio works out at 40°. Its room-size page also describes screen size ÷ 0.835 as “the ideal maximum gap” between couch and a 4K set, so THX treats the figure as a farthest seat rather than a closest one.

Resolution moves the closest seat, not the recommended one. Sony’s US page is about how near you can sit: 1.5 times the screen’s height for a 4K TV, three times for HD, because at that distance “the naked eye can’t differentiate individual pixels” on a 4K set. On a 65-inch that is 47 inches. THX made the same point in 2013: a 4K screen lets you sit closer, or buy bigger, before pixels show.

LG’s pages disagree with each other too. Its buying guide uses the 40° rule; its “how to measure” page has a table at the 30° figures (7.5 feet for a 55-inch) and, a few paragraphs later, a 4K rule of 0.07 feet per inch of diagonal, which is 3.9 feet for the same set.

How to pick a size for your room

1. Measure the seat. THX’s wording is the plain one: measure the distance between your couch and where the TV will be, in inches.
2. Pick an angle. Divide by 1.2 if you want the 40° view the makers’ buying guides describe as cinematic. Divide by about 1.6 for Sony India’s 30° everyday figure. Anything between the two is inside the published range. If you are between two sizes, the 30° figure is the smaller choice and the 40° figure the bigger one.
3. Check the width, not the diagonal. LG’s measuring guide gives approximate widths: a 55-inch is about 48.5 inches wide, a 65-inch about 57 inches and a 75-inch about 66 inches. For the exact figure, Samsung says to look under the specs for “Set Size” on the TV’s own product page; the figure with the stand is the one that has to fit on furniture.
4. Check the model number for that size. At Samsung and LG the size can change the panel, as our roundup of the TVs reviewers score highest found, so a review of the 65-inch may not describe the 77-inch. Sale season adds one-retailer model numbers that no review covers.

Size is the first decision, not the last. Once it is made, which TV specs are comparable between brands is the shorter list to work through.

Questions people ask

What size TV should I get for 8 feet away?

An 80-inch TV by the divide-by-1.2 rule that Samsung’s and LG’s buying guides and THX use. About 59 inches by Sony India’s 30° guidance, 65 inches on Best Buy’s 4K chart, and 53 inches by the rule on Samsung’s own support page.

How far should I sit from a 65-inch TV?

Samsung’s buying guide says 6.5 feet. Sony India’s 30° table says 8.9 feet and Best Buy’s 4K chart 8 to 9 feet. Sony’s US minimum for a 65-inch 4K set is 47 inches, just under 4 feet.

How do I work out TV size from viewing distance?

Measure from your seat to where the screen will be, in inches. Divide by 1.2 for a 40° view, the figure Samsung, LG and THX use; THX writes the same thing as multiplying by 0.835. Divide by about 1.6 for a 30° view, the figure in Sony India’s table.

Can you sit closer to a 4K TV than an HD one?

Sony says so: its minimum is 1.5 times the screen’s height for 4K and three times for HD, because at that distance you cannot pick out a 4K set’s pixels. THX says the same in general terms: higher resolution lets you sit closer before the pixels show.

Is a 75-inch TV too big for my living room?

Samsung puts a 75-inch at 7.5 feet and LG at 2.1 to 2.3 meters, about 7 to 7.5 feet. Sony India’s 30° figure is 10.2 feet. So at 7.5 feet it fits the 40° rule, and at about 10 feet the 30° one. LG says it is about 66 inches wide, so check the wall too.

Why do TV size charts give different answers?

Mostly because they aim for different viewing angles. A 40° view, used by Samsung, LG and THX, puts you 1.2 times the diagonal away; a 30° view, used in Sony India’s table, about 1.6 times. Samsung’s support page uses 1.8 times, about 27°.