The perfect seabass

The first decision when purchasing TV should be, which picture size is maximally in the living room. And this is primarily dependent on the seat spacing. Anyone sitting too far away from the TV can no longer perceive the full image resolution. Anyone who chooses too short a distance detects image errors like the pixel grid. In order to make the decision easier, we give a recommended minimum level in our TV tests.


The resolution of the eye


But the ideal depends on several aspects. For the TV sources, DVD (Scart) and Blu-ray (HDTV), we give three values. The image quality - on the one hand, the resolution and error-freeness of the source signal, on the other hand an intelligent image enhancement of the TV - changes the optimal viewing position


Try instead of rule


It is necessary to bring the maximum resolution of the human eye in relation to the resolution of the reproduced TV signal. Both are, however, quite individual. Even the real sharpness of a good Blu-ray differs from that of a badly mastered, but is still worlds away from the sharpness characteristic for DVB-T reception or analog TV.


Where do I sit properly?


The angular resolution of the eye is indicated by 0.3 to 1 arc minutes, depending on the individual and test material, corresponding to one millimeter of the smallest perceptible structure at three to eight meters distance. The new fictitious shape of the screen = image height x 3 is only a rough guideline for an ideal image source, full HD TV, the best set-up TV and good vision.


We determine the minimum level of our tests by testing in the laboratory. This can be imitated at home: you only need a laptop or computer with HDMI (DVI) output. There, the native resolution of the TV set, that is, 1,920 x 1,080 pixels, and looked at the properly calibrated television - caution with too high sharpness - some Internet pages and the file explorer (illustration: details) with very small font size .


It is amazing how close you have to get to know everything. If you remove yourself from the screen, the small font blurs and you obviously sit too far away. If you approach the screen again, the "fly screen" structures of the display or the individual colored pixels (red / green / blue), from which the image is composed, are visible in surfaces. Then you are definitely too close to the TV.


For the DVD and TV reception you have to sit far away from the TV. So far, that you can not recognize the lower resolution or the disturbing MPEG artifacts (blocks in the picture)


The optimal viewing distance depends not only on the screen size, but also on some other aspects. These are different from TV model to TV model or even change depending on the transmitter.


Screen resolution: The larger the screen, the farther away you should be from the TV.Solution of the image source: The more detailed the images, the closer you can get to the TV. Image Quality: If image errors are well removed, one can still approach a bit closer. ; Vision of the viewer: last but not least the visual strength is absolutely decisive.