Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater High Def viewing distances.

Hi,

I normally sit about 8 to 9 feet from my 50-inch 720p Samsung DLP and with good HD material, it looks terrific. As my Axiom colleague JC pointed out, the source material will also influence your viewing distance. Some standard-def (SD) can look fairly lousy, so I move back farther. On the other hand, some standard DVDs up-converted through the Oppo can look very good (episodes of "Lost" on DVD).

Blu-Ray of Lost episodes on a friend's 1080p set looks wonderful, so you could certainly sit closer than 8 or 9 feet with a 50-inch 1080p and good HDTV sources.

With front projection and large images, it really becomes a matter of personal taste. Everyone knows friends who love to sit up close in movie theaters, or midway back or farther to the rear. I don't want film grain from 35mm cinema prints to become too obvious, so that affects where I sit in a cinema and at friend's homes who have front projection LCD or DLP.

Have fun with your big screen!

Regards,
Alan

I hope it lives up to it's hype. But at $1299, I'm not going to judge it harshly.

Hi Alan,
I like the grain if it is part of the original medium. Black and white photography and old movies for example. But I hate it when the grain messes with the processing algorithms and you get weird results.

Hi Lampshade,

Yes, I know what you mean re black and white. I used to have a darkroom and enlarger and worked entirely in black and white and I loved the grain when I did enlargements from 35mm.

Some older movies shot in black and white can really look stunning viewed on an HD screen that's set up to show off the gray scale. I guess what I mean by seeing too much film grain is when I notice too many artifacts and they become distracting. Oddly, it bothers me more in color than in black and white.

Earlier LCD front projectors that had noticeable pixelation also bothered me, but in recent years the better models are really excellent.

Cheers,

Alan

The tv is perfect. It is exactly the right size and very easy to "observe". I could not be happier.

Watching Dark Knight right now with the tv set to its THX picture setting and it is amazing.

I just picked up an 50S1 myself for everyday viewing.

I've had great success with a dozen or so Panasonic products over the years, I have a hard time buying anything else. I bought a Panasonic microwave today, too... hah.