TV min. viewing distance?

[MB]

Hi everybody,

I've got the hardware part of my cabinet worked out and are getting busy drawing up my cabinet in Sketchup.
One thing I'm not sure about is how close I can stand to my 25" TV before it gets uncomfortable. You know
like sitting on the first row in the cinema. I would like to know the aprox. min. distance between my eyes and
the screen since I don't want my cabinet to be to deep.

Thanks.

[Epyx]

In my opinion you can go up to 27" comfortably. I have used both a 27" tv and a 27" arcade monitor and neither require panning of vision when standing in front.

[DJ_Izumi]

I think peoples tolerances can vary.  If you have doubts, plant the thing on a table and hook a game system up to it, play it at the distance you intend to have it from the player and see if it gives you a headache or something.

[ark_ader]

If your nose is touching the screen you need to back off just a little.

[MB]

I have a very big nose so even then no problem
Thanks for the input. I think I will start playtesting the screen on a table to see.
It's just that my mother warned us not to sit too close to the TV screen as kids because
our eyes would go square. Not quite sure where she got that knowledge from though.
Good thing I don't live with my parents anymore.
BTW. I'm planning to put some smoked plexi in front of it so that should tone things down a little.

[Franco B]

It's just that my mother warned us not to sit too close to the TV screen as kids because
our eyes would go square. Not quite sure where she got that knowledge from though.

You are joking, right? 

In my opinion you can go up to 27" comfortably. I have used both a 27" tv and a 27" arcade monitor and neither require panning of vision when standing in front.

+1. Most candy cabs are 29" (27" US). You are practically sat on top of them and I think its perfect.

[MB]

Well actually, it's exactly what she said to us. But she probably didn't want us to block
the picture. 
I've been playtesting the 25" TV in the kitchen at different distances and I had the feeling
that I had to lean back to see everything, so to do more testing I just picked up a 21" sony TV
with SCART for 10 Euros. Can't really go wrong for that price and it was only a 5 min drive from my home.
People are practically giving them away here.
Small problem with the TV though. It has overscan and when I go into the service menu to adjust the vertical and horizontal
picture I can't seem to adjust the values. I can select them but not change them.

Hmmm....

[BadMouth]

I did a temporary setup to work things like this out.  (still temporary & still working things out  )
 
I'm using a 32" CRT TV and the distance from the middle of the screen to my eyballs is 32".
I started with it a lot closer and kept moving it back until it was comfortable.

27" screen = 27" by Epyx
32" screen = 32" here....

could be a rough formula.....

[Epyx]

27" screen = 27" by Epyx
32" screen = 32" here....

I was referring to what size of screen you can stand in front of (in a cab) comfortably...not distance back in inches

I just go with the advertised diagonal measurement...my sony tv is 27" (Imperial) from bottom left to top right and was advertised as a 27" Sony Wega when I bought it...likewise with my WG D9800 monitor.

[MB]

That formula seems to work pretty good for me. I tried the 25" screen and with my setup
my eyes were about 22" /23" from the screen. That wasn't very good for me so I got the
21" yesterday. I read somewhere that the old games usually had a 19" screen anyway and
that never seemed small to me. Still trying to fix the overscan. I should be getting my ArcadeVGA
today so hopefully that will help.

Thanks again.

[TOK]

I read somewhere that the old games usually had a 19" screen anyway and
that never seemed small to me.

The average TV was 19" back then! I think 25 is the perfect size for a regular standup cab.

[Nataq]

+1 Smoked plexi really help and ease the whole thing!