[cl3537]

Just bought a sony WEGA 40XBR800 4:3 CRT HDTV and set it up in a large 1 bedroom apartment. I am sitting about 10 - 11 feet from the set, and I find I am suffering from some kind of vertigo.


Motion on the TV bothers me (when the videocamera in a dvd moves), when there is a lot of action I seem to get disoriented like sitting too close in a movie theatre. Anybody know what a reasonable distance away from the set should be? The TV looks much bigger than it is I wonder if I will ever get used to the height of it.


Anyone have similar experiences when moving to a much bigger television set?


Anything I can do like changing colours, a friend told me its the ratio of the television to the size of the room.


Anyone know the optimal viwing position for the tv? Minnimum and Maximum viewing distances?

 

[ThumperBoy]

It varies by personal preference, just like your preferred seating in a movie theater may be different from others. If you prefer to sit near the back of the theater, you probably want to watch TV from further away too. If your viewing distance is fixed, your only choice is to use a smaller size set. For many folks 10-11 feet is fine for the 40" but perhaps you would be better off with a 34" 16:9 set like the new Sony 34XBR910.

Regarding motion (like slow pans) on DVD movies - this is sometimes a problem with some DVD players, the more expensive higher quality de-interlacer models are better at it than the cheaper ones.

 

[tuquet]

I don't think it is too big for that distance. Perhaps you are used to smaller screens, that will take time to adjust and eventually you will find 40" is still small. Are you watching it in the dark? Perhaps some light and/or toning down the color adjustment will help.


Or you can switch that for my 32 incher. Good luck.

 

[LEVESQUE]

I,m sitting at 10 feet from my 40XBR800 and 11 feet from my Tosh 65HDX82, and feel ok with both. I think 10-11 feet is ok for the 40, and I feel good at 10 feet from the 65 inches too.

 

[cl3537]

What are the dimensions of your room? I think it possibly because my room is 12 Feet by 60 Ft.


Well I will try to get used to it for a week otherwise it is going back and I'll probably buy a 32" Sony HS510


I am not a big fan of widescreen televisions because I watch a lot of Television movies and really doubt I'd like those annoying grey bars on the sides.

 

[LEVESQUE]

The 40XBr800 sits in a 14x 25 room and the 65HDX82 sits in a 14x26 room.

 

[cajieboy]

I watch my 40"er from approx. 9' away for over 75% of the time. It's perfect for me, and I viewed a 27" XBR from the same distance before I got this Baby Huey. I've since read on this forum that 9-10' is optimum, but like Levesque posted it is more of a personal preference. When on my laptop, like now, I'm more like 15' away and it's OK as well, but not quite as good as at 9'.


During Monday Night Football, I was admiring the extremely sharp HD Broadcast of the game, and started experimenting w/how close I could get to the screen before PQ diminished. About 3' was the limit, but WOW was that a sharp pic! I also backed up more, and my opinion is that even at a greater distance than I normally view the screen, sharp is STILL sharp. The soft SD Broadcast is STILL soft at a distance too, but the PQ is much better on HD even at a distance.

 

[Nick Drake]

If you find the 40xbr800 is too big of a television, try going with the 36XBR800.

 

[Woodrow]

I was playing Grand Theft Auto: Vice City on my 40xbr one time and was using first person view. I had to run to the bathroom and throw up. No kidding. I've never been carsick but then I've never driven that fast in real life. I sit further back now. If I try sitting closer the nausea return's. Crazy.

 

[e vey]

I am a "Luddite" in this regard. I do not like to sit too close. I do not like 5:1 sound. I prefer to watch and not "be in" movies.


It makes me sick to my stomach to sit too close. When I was 10 years old, I sat up front, but not since.

 

[RandyWalters]

Quote:

Originally posted by cl3537 Just bought a sony WEGA 40XBR800 4:3 CRT HDTV and set it up in a large 1 bedroom apartment. I am sitting about 10 - 11 feet from the set, and I find I am suffering from some kind of vertigo. Motion on the TV bothers me (when the videocamera in a dvd moves), when there is a lot of action I seem to get disoriented like sitting too close in a movie theatre. Anybody know what a reasonable distance away from the set should be? The TV looks much bigger than it is I wonder if I will ever get used to the height of it. Anyone have similar experiences when moving to a much bigger television set?

I recently went through a similar situation, only on a smaller scale. I've been watching my old 27" Sony Trinitron at an 8 foot distance for 13 years (no matter how i rearrange my living room) but when i recently replaced it with a 32" 4:3 Superflat screen TV i got the vertigo thing and felt downright dizzy at times (but never carsick though In addition to the larger diagnonal size it had a problem with the TV being so much taller than my old one but it was simply that i was accustomed to looking slightly downward at my old TV where the new TV required that i now look straight ahead to slightly upward now. Seems silly but old habits die hard


It took about 3 weeks before i started getting comfortable with the new TV's big imposing screen size but once i got used to it it eventually felt just right and now i love it. I had considered sending it back but gave it a chance and i'm glad i waited. Some people sit 11 feet from screens larger than 40 inches and like it just fine, so hopefully you'll get accustomed to your 40 soon enough to make a final decision on keeping it or returning it.

 

[DNINE]

When Sound & Vision did a review of 4 different sets last year they mentioned that one of the models they were reviewing made someone nauseous, I think it was the Phillips. The Higher quality of the sets could

give you motion sickness. It made sense to me cause my wife gets that way if we watch a movie with alot of moving and action scenes. I am surprised more people don't make comments on this subject.

 

[gigaguy]

Very unique size room you are viewing in, 12x60??

Anyway, I prefer the widescreens because they are more in tune to the way your eyes view, in a wide mode. The much higher height of 4:3 ratio, and esp a 40" model in 4:3 makes the eyes focus more on the up and down view, which is why Imax makes you feel like your in the scene.

We naturally see more width than we see up and down. The eyes are set side to side.

A theater screen in the ratio of your 40" 4:3 set would seem like an Imax, whereas widescreens give a wider natural side to side view.


I'm getting a Sony 34" widescreen as soon as my budget allows. It's much more pleasing to watch IMO.

 

[mizer]

A lot has to do with the lighting also.

Did you calibrate the TV yet? This will correct the colors and soften the picture some to look more realalistic. The brightness in tourch mode or as they call it vivid is to bright. Adjust it in pro mode with Avia or VE.

Now you have to adjust the lights properly to reduce the strain on your eyes. Never watch TV with the lights off. I leave mine at the bottom of my dimmer slide bar.


Good Viewing

Mizer

 

[irwincur]

Maybe the fact that you bought a Sony and the realization that you paid a $500 premium is making you sick.

 

[gigaguy]

Sony makes great tubes, esp in their higher end. Worth the price over many other brands IMO.

 

[tuquet]

On the same line, just wonder what is the size of projection image of a TV screen relative to one's normal reading distance is? I may not put it right but say my normal reading distance is about 10", when I look at my computer monitor which is about 10" high at 25" away, it appears to be 4" high. With my 36" (21.6" high) at 9' away, it appears to be 2". The funny thing is I have no problem with the relative 4" computer screen, even with fast motion, but I definitely have a problem when I experiment cutting my TV viewing distance to 4.5' (to make it relative 4" high, 1080i OTA HDTV programs). Does that mean the depth of the field actually play some part in this as well? Any speculation/scientific explanation?

 

[cajieboy]

tuquet, a question like the one you posted deserves a slide rule. Since I gave mine up in college, I will simply say that proper viewing distances are more of individual preferences than anything "scientific". Period.


As for the 40XBR being too big, giving you car sickness like symptoms, making you do cartwheels in the parking lot....well, realism has that affect on some folks. Either take adranamine, or buy only tiny tube TV's...heh,heh

 

[ThumperBoy]

Your example calculates correctly tuquet.

10inch/2feet = 5.0

21.6inch/9feet = 2.5

So the 36" TV at 9feet would appear 1/2 the height of the monitor at 2feet.


I think your problem watching the TV real closeup like 4feet is due to the larger pixels on the TV compared to the computer monitor which is smaller and finer dot pitch. I bet if you watched a new Sony 34XBR910 (super fine pitch) HDTV screen you could watch closer more comfortably or a high resolution plasma flat screen for a larger display at your current distance.