TV Size Calculator

What size TV do I need for my room?

The right TV size comes down to one thing: how far you sit from the screen. Sit too far from a small TV and the picture feels distant and underwhelming; sit too close to a big one and you cannot take in the whole screen at once. The sweet spot is a screen large enough to fill a comfortable slice of your field of view. In practice, take your viewing distance in inches and multiply by roughly 0.6 to 0.8 to get the diagonal screen size. The calculator above does it for your exact distance and resolution.

TV size chart by viewing distance

The recommended screen size for the distances people actually sit at, for both resolutions.

How far should you sit from the TV?

These are the ideal seating ranges for common TV sizes, from the immersive end (a cinematic 40 degree view) to the comfortable end (a relaxed 30 degree view). If your distance falls in the range for a size, that size will look right in the room.

4K vs 1080p: how close can you sit?

Resolution changes how big you can go. A 4K screen packs four times the pixels of 1080p, so you can sit closer without the image breaking up, which means a larger TV works at the same distance. With a 1080p set, sitting too close reveals the pixel grid, so stay toward the smaller, comfortable end of the range. Switch the resolution toggle in the calculator to see how the recommendation shifts.

What size TV for a living room vs a bedroom?

Living rooms usually seat people 8 to 12 feet from the TV, which suits a 65 inch screen at the near end and 85 to 98 inches at the far end, with 75 inches the popular middle. Bedrooms have a shorter 5 to 8 foot distance, so a 43 to 65 inch TV fits without dominating the wall. A dedicated home theater, seated 11 feet or more back, is where 75 to 85 inch screens earn their keep. Use the room presets above to jump straight to a typical distance for each.

How this calculator works

Recommended size = seat-to-screen distance × 0.7 for 4K, or × 0.55 for 1080p. That figure is snapped to the nearest size TVs are actually sold in: 32, 40, 43, 50, 55, 65, 75, 85 and 98 inches. The range shown either side of the recommendation is just the next size down and the next size up.

The 4K multiplier puts you at roughly a 34 degree viewing angle. That sits between the two standards usually cited: THX recommends about 40 degrees for an immersive picture, which works out to sitting 1.2 times the screen diagonal away, and SMPTE recommends about 30 degrees for comfortable viewing, or 1.63 times the diagonal. The 1080p multiplier is smaller because a 1080p panel starts showing its pixels at close range, so it has to sit further back relative to its size.

Worked example

A sofa 9 feet from the screen is 108 inches away. For 4K, 108 × 0.7 = 75.6 inches, which snaps to a 75 inch TV, with 65 and 85 inches as the sizes either side. Switch to 1080p and 108 × 0.55 = 59.4 inches, which snaps to 55.

What it assumes

• Screen size means the diagonal of a 16:9 panel, which is how TVs are sold.
• Distance is measured from where you actually sit to the face of the screen, not to the wall behind it.
• Metric distances convert at 39.37 inches per metre.

Where it stops

• It sizes for viewing angle alone. It does not check whether the TV fits the wall or the media unit below it.
• Mounting height, glare and off-axis seats all change what the picture is like to watch, and none of them are modelled here.
• The size list stops at 98 inches, past which you are into projector territory.