what is the proper height for my tv?
Somewhere around 2002, I got obsessed with home theater. And when I say obsessed I mean I ate, slept and breathed home theater. I immersed myself into forums and books and theory and components and formats and codecs. Let's just say I don't do anything halfway and I learned a lot. A LOT! Not the least of which was where the heck do you put the television? "What", you say, "what the heck do you mean where do you put the television? You put it in front of you. The end."
Yeah. Not so fast, Skippy. Yeesssssss you place it in front of you but how high? I was recently in a friend's home and her television was wall mounted about five feet from the floor. The bottom edge of the television was 5 feet from the floor! When I asked her why the hell her TV was that high she said that it had been professionally installed. I shed a small tear. In order for her to comfortably view this set from her 18" couch (which was maybe 12 feet from the set) she would have to view the set with her head jacked upwards constantly. Like sitting in the front row of a movie theater! Who does that? Wait a minute...she said it was professionally installed but she didn't say what professional installed it! Aha! Her Chiropractor! Genius!
And this is my friend today...
O.K., so you have figured out the TV doesn't go five feet high on the wall. so...
what is the ideal tv height?
42 inches. Yep. The center of your screen should be about 42 inches from the floor. The reason being is that most seating (your sofa, etc.) is about 18 inches high. Taking that into consideration, you want the center of your screen to about level with your peepers. There are a couple of reasons for this:
A: See my goat friend above
B: Today's digital televisions have a picture quality sweet spot.
What is a sweet spot? It's an ideal viewing angle. Have you ever noticed that when you are looking at your fancy LCD screen from somewhere other than smack-dab center the image seems washed out or generally just not as good? Newer sets try to address this, but the phenomena still exists. Usually, a more expensive, better quality set has a bigger sweet spot but my 5K (I know I know - obsessed, remember?) Sharp Elite LCD has one of the worst of them all. Which brings me to exceptions....
exceptions to the tv height "rule"
This is my set up (YOUR HOME THEATER DOESN'T HAVE TO BE UGLY). The TV center is about 53 inches above the floor. Why am I soooooo special? Well, I'm not but you'll notice that humongous Von Schweikert center speaker. Not only is there an ideal TV height to consider, but, if you have a surround set up, there are also speaker heights to consider. Ideally, the center channel should be at ear level. Keeping in mind the same 18' typical sofa height, you can see where this could present a problem. In an ideal world, I would have an acoustically transparent screen with a projector in a dedicated room and the center channel at ear height directly behind the screen. But I don't. So I split the difference. My center channel is a tad low and my set is a bit high. But overall it works.
What about hanging my TV over my fireplace?
Yeah, no. Don't do this. Just don't do this at all. Ever.
Is your TV at the proper height? Have questions about your set up? Post below. I'll respond. Really. I will.
