How large you want your HDTV screen to be is largely governed by the space you have available in your living room or home theater area, how much you want to spend on a television and whether or not you intend on purchasing a 720p or 1080p set. Still, let’s just come right out and say it: you want to buy the HDTV with the biggest screen size that you can afford. But with HDTV sizes ranging a diagonal spectrum from between 19 inches to 70 inches and above, that makes a firm recommendation of screen size a difficult proposition.

Still, we can lay out some ground rules. The first thing to keep in mind is that the larger a screen is, the bigger its pixels will be. What that means is that a 60-inch 720p display will look blockier than a 50-inch 720p display. If you are intending to stick to a 720p display, you’d probably do best to stick to a screen size no greater than 42 inches for maximum clarity.

The other thing to consider is where you will be sitting. The optimum HDTV viewing distance is a contentious subject, but HDTV manufacturers themselves recommend that a viewer be situated at a point where the HDTV occupies the widest view angle for that individual, ie: where most of the viewer’s field of vision is occupied by the full width of the television display.

The most popular recommendation for calculating the distance you should be from your television to achieve this effect is to multiply the screen’s diagonal measurement by 2.5. What this means is that if you have a 60 inch set, you should be sitting 150 inches away.

To calculate your ideal HDTV screen size, then, you need to first figure out where you’re going to put your new set, and what seat you will be using to view it. Measure the distance between the two points, and divide by 2.5. Therefore, if you are sitting 125 inches away from your television set, you should probably consider a 50 inch set. On the other hand, if you’ll be sitting only 55 inches away, the ideal set would be 22 inches, diagonally.

Obviously, this is just a recommendation, and a lot will be decided by personal preference: those who want to feel like they are in the front row of a movie theater would do well to consider fudging the numbers.

How large you want your HDTV screen to be is largely governed by the space you have available in your living room or home theater area, how much you want to spend on a television, and whether or not you intend on purchasing a 720p or 1080p set. Still, let’s just come right out and say it: you want to buy the HDTV with the biggest screen size that you can afford. But with HDTV sizes ranging a diagonal spectrum from between 19 inches to 70 inches and above, that makes a firm recommendation of screen size a difficult proposition.

Still, we can lay out some ground rules. The first thing to keep in mind is that the larger a screen is, the bigger its pixels will be. What that means is that a 60-inch 720p display will look blockier than a 50-inch 720p display. If you are intending to stick to a 720p display, you’d probably do best to stick to a screen size no greater than 40 inches for maximum clarity.

The other thing to consider is where you will be sitting. The optimum HDTV viewing distance is a contentious subject, but HDTV manufacturers themselves recommend that a viewer be situated at a point where the HDTV occupies the widest view angle for that individual, IE: where most of the viewer’s field of vision is occupied by the full width of the television display.

The most popular recommendation for calculating the distance you should be from your television to achieve this effect is to multiply the screen’s diagonal measurement by 2.5. What this means is that if you have a 60-inch set, you should be sitting 150 inches away.

To calculate your ideal HDTV screen size, you need to first figure out where you’re going to put your new set, and what seat you will be using to view it. Measure the distance between the two points, and divide by 2.5. Therefore, if you are sitting 125 inches away from your television set, you should probably consider a 50-inch set. On the other hand, if you’ll be sitting only 55 inches away, the ideal set would be 22 inches, diagonally.

Obviously, this is just a recommendation, and a lot will be decided by personal preference: those who want to feel like they are in the front row of a movie theater would do well to consider customizing the numbers.