I read an article in Digital Tv and sound a few months ago. It said to find the optimal viewing distance for a 16:9 image is 3400*(image height in inches)/(vertical resolution). For example if you have a 50 TV with 1280 by 768 resolution then the vertical height is 24.5 inches. So the viewing distance would be 3400*24.5/768 = 108.8 inches. If the Tv were 1080p the viewing distance would be about 77 inches. If the TV were 480p the viewing distance would be 173 inches. Apparently this is the distance to sit to take advantage of the higher resolution. So if you sit 77 inches away from that 1080p display it wouldn't look any better than if it were 768p.
So here is where things get interesting. Within the next few years I imagine many people will have dvd's which are in 480p and high def dvd's in either 720p or 1080p. So what viewing distance do you set up? Do you set up a front row at the right distance for 1080p and the back row for 720p? Or just have one row and simply zoom in and out. I imagine once you go 1080p you won't want anything less.
- Nick
