Does viewing distance really matter?

orcinhell · May 4, 2015

Hi guys.

So I have a question from a long time ago and just remembered it.

About 6 months ago I stumbled into the world of HDTV's. The coverage, reviews and even in depth guides to calibrating them are insane, it really sparked a interest in screen tech. Viewing distance was a big one and depending on the company or the expert a wide range of distances were touted as optimal. Do you feel its important enough to set up correctly or is a by feel/arms length approach good enough?

And as a secondary question how much time do you put into setting up your monitor. When buying a monitor do you just slap it down and adjust the distance and colors going by feel or do you pull out the measuring tape and use proper calibration patterns adjusting settings until you feel its perfect.

RevoltTrain · May 4, 2015

With TVs I see it as put it where you feel it looks best

With monitors I tinker just a small bit in the built in menus, that's about it 5 minutes tops.

Daegun · May 4, 2015

Calibration? I just take it out of the box....

Where I put my monitor on my desk is where It leaves enough room for all the other junk that piles up there, so I don't really pay attention to optimal distance. Pretty much arms length though. If I stretch out my arm from where I sit, the tip of my middle finger just touches it.

orcinhell · May 4, 2015

Yea I think that approach is pretty standard... It's my approach also. I think with technology increasing the old 299 special fix is becoming less of a thing. I like many gamers would fork over thousands of dollars for top of the line computer hardware then spend only a small amount in comparison on the screen, only really looking at things like if its 1080p 60hz and has a good response time with low input lag.

I think gamers are starting to want more out of a monitor, higher resolution, better colors and more frames. I would really love the gaming industry to adopt a industry standard for things like color and sound much like THX and movies (THX also does games but I dont see many... googled THX certified games and top posts were from 2003). While 1000 dollar monitor's with 99.9 percent color accuracy are great it means little if gaming company are making games on out of the box calibrated screens.