Widescreen Gaming Forum

G'Day, not sure if I picked the right forum for this, so please redirect me if it's not.

I tried searching for this but couldn't find anything; anyway.. I have a 32" Samsung I'll run at 1920 * 1080, and I wanted to know the general guidelines for how far away one should sit from screens to keep ones eyes from bleeding. Does it depend on the resolution or the physical size, etcetera?

All help is appreciated.

i say what ever feels right to you but i tend to sit closer then most people

For movies: 24-30 inches away.
For browsing: 16-24 inches away.
For gaming: 14-18 inches away.

Yes, I even got out the tape measure for this. :D

Minimum resolution: 1280x960 for Garry's Mod (recording with FRAPS at half size)

Standard resolution: 1600x1200 for 2007 games (Stalker, Bioshock, Crysis Beta), and for my desktop.

Maximum resolution: 2048x1536 for older/less demanding games.

These include:
Max Payne 2
FEAR (only in Single Player)
Far Cry (x64)
Battlefield 2
Half Life 2: Cinematic Mod (best at high resolutions)


Yes I know, I'm still using Evil 4:3! I still am undecided on what new monitor to buy.

I'm pretty sure his eyes will explode if he sits 14-18 inches from a 32 inch screen. :wink:

For that size, around about 3 to 4 feet I think, maybe even 5. But its all up to your preference. As it is a TV, you could still watch movies and stuff from a fair distance.

As far as gaming goes, I sit far enough away so i dont have to move my head to see the screen edges, just my eyes. (but not to extremes, of course. and BOTH eyes.. )

Browsing- far back but still able top easily read small text.

movies - no matter.. close, far, below, sideways, etc.

Viewing Distance Calculator

So for a 32" TV @ 1920x1080, they recommend sitting about 4-5 feet away from your screen. In the end though, just go with whatever you're most comfortable with.

Old wives tales to the contrary, it will not hurt you to sit close to the screen (CRTs emit some X-Rays, but it is a pretty small dose, and this is not an issue with LCDs.

Depending upon how good your vision is, you may find it more tiring to sit close, as you have to use your eye muscles for close focus.

For first person games, there is a "sweet spot" at which the perspective is correct, with no visible "stretching" at the edges of the screen, and objects appear actual size, as if the screen were an actual window into the game world. The sweet spot distance depends upon the field of view (FOV) of the game and the width of your screen, and can be calculated from the following equation:

distance = width/(2*Tan(FOV/2))

For example if the FOV is 75 degrees, the sweet spot distance is 2/3 the width of your screen. For a FOV of 90 degrees, it is at half the width of the screen. For a FOV of 120 degrees, it is at 29% of the width of the screen.

In practice, you may find this uncomfortably close if the game has a wide FOV, so you may prefer to sit a bit further away and tolerate a bit of distortion.

Hey Sporemaw,

What's the model of your TV?
I thought Sharp was the only one manufacturing 32" 1080P sets.

I played Doom 3 and its expansion all the way through 6'' from the screen with a 130-140 degree FOV.

More recently, i accidentally played Tomb Raider Legend 3/4 of the way through before i realized i was in stretched 4:3 mode (widescreen mode=OFF), sitting about 20" from the monitor. :lol:

Hey Sporemaw,

What's the model of your TV?
I thought Sharp was the only one manufacturing 32" 1080P sets.

It's 1080i. :wink:

Thanks for ya help everyone, I'll settle on 4-6ft.

[quote]Hey Sporemaw,

What's the model of your TV?
I thought Sharp was the only one manufacturing 32" 1080P sets.

It's 1080i. :wink:

Thanks for ya help everyone, I'll settle on 4-6ft.Well, since this is WS Gaming forum, I have to ask, are you aware that it will not actually play games at that res? A 1080i TV displays that res at 2x 30Hz, so it's actually 720p. The best res you'll be able to game at is 1280x720.

Oh, and btw NB, the main flaw in that view distance calculator is there's no input for pixel pitch, which is very important when using a display as a desktop. I've always felt the home theater industry considers an HTPC display something you view from 6-10' away with a wireless keyboard so they don't even think of such things.

I played Doom 3 and its expansion all the way through 6'' from the screen with a 130-140 degree FOV.

rofl..OMG..six inches!!!! Dude I sit three feet from my 23" widescreen. I must be getting old cuz my eyes cannot handle sitting that close at six inches from the screen especially playing Doom 3 and expansion all the way through...OMG you are SICK!!!

When you go watch a movie at the theatre, do you sit in the front row?

I've said it before but often bears repeating. Eye damage usually does not show up until years after daily abuse. When it gets to the point where you experience pain and/or blurred vision, it's too late, the damage is done.

I've said it before but often bears repeating. Eye damage usually does not show up until years after daily abuse. When it gets to the point where you experience pain and/or blurred vision, it's too late, the damage is done.

Eye damage from what, exactly? I know you can strain your eyes, reading print that is too small, or dimly lit, etc, which is what a lot of people are talking about when they talk about "hurting" their eyes, but that is only temporary, it goes away. How can a computer monitor permanently damage your eyes?

Too bright in a too dark room...

[quote][quote]Hey Sporemaw,

What's the model of your TV?
I thought Sharp was the only one manufacturing 32" 1080P sets.

It's 1080i. :wink:

Thanks for ya help everyone, I'll settle on 4-6ft.Well, since this is WS Gaming forum, I have to ask, are you aware that it will not actually play games at that res? A 1080i TV displays that res at 2x 30Hz, so it's actually 720p. The best res you'll be able to game at is 1280x720.

Oh, and btw NB, the main flaw in that view distance calculator is there's no input for pixel pitch, which is very important when using a display as a desktop. I've always felt the home theater industry considers an HTPC display something you view from 6-10' away with a wireless keyboard so they don't even think of such things.

Now the computer is made I am now sadly aware. :(

Too bright in a too dark room...

Yes, Paradigm, but how does that physically damage your eyes?

I've known people who insisted on watching TV with a light on in the room because otherwise they thought it would be bad for their eyes--but this is a total myth. It is just something that people grew up believing, but it isn't true, like a lot of things we believe but have no actual evidence for (like Halloween candy sometimes being poisoned, to pick a topical example ... )

The same is true for the belief that watching a computer monitor in the dark can be permanently bad for your eyes. Temporary eye fatigue, yes, permanent damage, no. See below.

http://www.medem.com/medlb/article_detaillb.cfm?article_ID=ZZZY6CP25YC&sub_cat=0

http://www.medem.com/medlb/article_detaillb.cfm?article_ID=ZZZ8BUZTYIE&sub_cat=0

Yes, Paradigm, but how does that physically damage your eyes?

I'm sure an ophthalmologist would be able to tell you. ;)

It's likely got something to do with light intensities on your retina in an environment where the majority of the eye says that it's dark (which leads to the sensitivity of all receptors being increased) and then the receptors that are exposed to rapidly altering bright light are over-stressed. Prolonged and repeated treatment in this manner will damage them. As repeatedly stressing anything will damage it - sometimes permanently.

[quote]Yes, Paradigm, but how does that physically damage your eyes?

I'm sure an ophthalmologist would be able to tell you. ;)

It's likely got something to do with light intensities on your retina in an environment where the majority of the eye says that it's dark (which leads to the sensitivity of all receptors being increased) and then the receptors that are exposed to rapidly altering bright light are over-stressed. Prolonged and repeated treatment in this manner will damage them. As repeatedly stressing anything will damage it - sometimes permanently.

Nah, this is an old wives' tale, and there is no evidence to support it. It is hard to imagine any physical mechanism whereby exposure to normal visible light wavelengths could damage the retina, short of staring into the sun or a laser beam. Your eye is evolved to deal with a huge range of intensities, from bright sunlight to dim starlight, a dynamic range of 9 orders of magnitude. Compared to that, the range of light intensities you'll experience while playing a game (maybe 3 orders of magnitude or so) is barely a drop in the bucket.

If sitting in the dark in front of a bright monitor would be true, then I'd have been blind years ago as that's all I've done.

I've never been able to have a light on, except maybe a very dim one, behind the monitor and no direct light, only diffuse/ricochet off the walls.

In fact the last 2 times I went to get my eyes checked I actually had improved a couple points.

So use whatever feels better, I get fatigue much faster with other lights around than not. Some others don't.

Kind of like how I rarely need much light to get around the dark, most people I know constantly flare up any light within a 10km radius of their steps, to each his/her own.