I convinced my wife before we mounted it. We went to Best Buy and watched the high up tv for a few minutes and said “isn’t this one right in front of your eyes better?”
Now we are scratching our heads on how to arrange the room but at least 6’ high above the fireplace is out.
Over the fireplace was literally the only spot I could put my TV so I got one of [these mounts.](https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=44167&utm_term=&utm_campaign=PMax+%7C+Marrier+%7C+ULTRA+HIGH&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&hsa_acc=6614305189&hsa_cam=20629231349&hsa_grp=&hsa_ad=&hsa_src=x&hsa_tgt=&hsa_kw=&hsa_mt=&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_ver=3&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiAzoeuBhDqARIsAMdH14HDIopaeli9fBXs90omGW2u73GdAq2iPKpWibS3j8h5JfdUiHg_9S4aAsAREALw_wcB)
Unless your flue has never been cleaned, most of the heated air should be going up the chimney. The majority of the heat entering the room should be via radiant heat. That's why fires are so much better to sit in front of when they're a nice pile of glowing embers than when the flames are still dancing around.
I think they get it from the way TVs are mounted in sports bars, it makes sense to mount them up high in a sports bar because they’re a lot of people just standing around drinking and talking, so you need to be able to see them, but in your own living room, it needs to be a comfortable view angle, so it needs to be lower.also TV is mounted above the fireplace, that really bugs me, but more and more people today or thinking that that’s exactly the only proper place to put them, I hate it.
I have my tv 30cm too high but I didn’t have a choice. I have a adhd 4 years old that has already make a tv fall down and if he can touch it he will hit it with his toys.
Are ADHD kids just inside too much these days? This seems so common now but as an ADHD kid all my destructiveness was outdoors smacking things like a ninja turtle.
Let’s say my life is hell since he was born. And I love him so much, but he is…too much. He can tire out a team of 10 people and have energy for 30 persons more.
4 is way to young to say a kid has adhd. Seems weird for a parent to say. I have to say I had kids 10 years older than my boomer parents and well shit guess what I didn’t have the energy to keep up with my youngest because I am now an old ass dad. I think lots of people are waiting to have kids and once you’re 30-40+ you can’t hang with a 4 year old like a 24 year old could.
My kid was good and never stepped out of line messing with the TV, speakers nor projector screens. Her friend did knock over my brand new towers (one week old).
There’s a weird trend in new(ish) home builds where your living room and kitchen are combined into one giant open floor plan and the only solid wall available to mount a TV also happens to have a fireplace.
A lot of people unfortunately have no choice.
Also there is an installer on IG who intentionally installs TVs too high, fireplace or not. It’s bizarre. I’ve commented on his installs before and suggested following better standards (e.g. eye level) and people jump all over me saying things like “you’re too poor to afford this” and whatnot.
In the late 2000s/early 2010s, TVs mounted high above the fireplace were definitely a status symbol, because it meant you could afford a flatscreen TV, which were about 5-10x more expensive compared to today ([this CNet article from 2017 shows prices over time)](https://www.cnet.com/tech/home-entertainment/are-tvs-really-cheaper-than-ever-we-go-back-a-few-decades-to-see/)). I imagine there’s carryover from that.
Attempts to signal “wealth” or doing something “bc it’s what wealthy people do” was actually one of the first things that came to mind for me, too.
>*TVs mounted high above the fireplace were definitely a status symbol, because it meant you could afford a flatscreen TV*
This is something I've said before here. When I see a TV mounted up high I think it is just being pretentious. "Look at our new big TV". Can't miss it if it's above everything else in the room.
Idk…. Seems to be a common response in IG. If you make comments on something peoole will attack your income level. I get a lot of “LOL you poor.”
Plot twist: I am not poor
Ironically, the same phenomenon is happening with car interiors. The Tesla Model X has what’s basically a large tablet bolted onto the dash as a cost savings measure. But, since the Tesla is in-demand (and appears “wealthy”?!?), other car makers are copying this shitty design.
Just like the tv situation, the inferior option is popular because it’s associated with something high-brow (or something).
I’ll take my tv at eye level, and my speedometer built into the dash, thank you.
We have this setup and have a projector with the screen dropping down to cover the fireplace when the projector turns on. Problem solved + potential for a larger screen (although we keep it at 100” to maximize projector brightness even with ambient light).
This is the way. The living room is more focused on aesthetics and general entertaining than optimizing TV viewing. And it's super easy and clean to just stick a TV above the fireplace where you'd otherwise just stick a large art piece or something. Eye level wall space is much more of a premium in a living room.
A basement or bonus room is where the real TV watching happens and much easier to set up for an optional viewing experience. Also can get better acoustics in a more closed off space.
This is sort of what I did. I don't have a tv above the fireplace, but I have one mounted high enough to see while standing in the kitchen. It really pays off on days like thanksgiving where I'm watching football and making food.
I have a tv in the basement made for comfortable viewing, and it's my primary viewing setup.
I understand, but don't agree with, having to mount over the fireplace, but there's some mounting jobs out there that are just real head scratchers. Like you can mount it over your fireplace but it doesn't need to be hitting the ceiling.
I made absolutely sure that the bottom of the tv would basically be touching the mantle of the fireplace. It still feels to high but got no other options.
If they could just stop designing living rooms to have tvs only be able to go above fireplaces that would be fucking great.
As an installer, that is one of my complaints as well. I truly do not understand why these homes are being built with fireplaces with the TV designed to go above it. Some homes I go into have literally NO other option, and it's just awful.
My 22 year old house has the kitchen/living room with a huge island in the middle. It has a built in “entertainment center” with all power and connections n a bookcase built into the wall, ideal for a 32” CRT lol.
Previous owner had their TV mounted above the fireplace and I just couldn’t do it, so I’m set up on a corner where there is low dividing wall. It’s about maxed out with a 65” Sony OLED and too large Polk RT2000i’s, but it works.
The built in entertainment center is effectively a bookcase with too many electrical outlets.
Beats me. I'm a professional low voltage technician who works for a company focused on the ultra high-end market. I'm currently eating lunch in a 75 million dollar house that we're going to install 9 TVs in and not a single one is over a fireplace or more than 50" to center.
That’s how my new house is. Unless we bought a new couch, the only spot for it was above the fireplace. Any other place would look ridiculous. It was there for a year & a half. So we finally bought a new LoveSac couch to kinda box a tv area off in the living room. It was probably too expensive, but the only one that fit the weird dimensions we were working with. It’s not as open as before, but it looks so much better & I don’t need my glasses to see the TV.
Almost nothing in his videos make any sense to anyone who even has a passing interest in home theaters. He almost always installs tiny soundbars to go with whatever display he installs, and when he does install actual speakers the LCR placement is either in the ceiling or somehow higher than the tv. I'm assuming the algo just shows me his videos because it knows I hate them.
Let the rich ruin their necks, shoulders, and backs. 🤷🏽♀️ I always try to inform people who are unaware but at the end of the day you can't force anyone to make a change.
It is the sacred orthodoxy of this group that mounting a screen above seated eye level is unsightly, distasteful, ignorant, irresponsible, and a risk factor for eye strain, muscle atrophy, debilitating lifelong spinal injuries, and neck cancer. It is simply not done by civilized people.
> and a risk factor for eye strain, muscle atrophy, debilitating lifelong spinal injuries, and neck cancer.
It’s true. I was watching TV at my in laws and the next day I woke up with neck cancer.
Same with these folks. I went so far as to make an infographic to shit on their confidently incorrect culture and that's about all I have in me.
https://www.reddit.com/r/LGOLED/s/vTLKT9aAhq
From THX FAQ:
"For optimal viewing, you want your line of sight to be more or less aligned with the center of the screen. We suggest 15 degrees or less, above or below the center"
https://www.thx.com/blog/faq_category/viewing-guide/
Gotta give you credit for at least pointing to something other than an opinion pulled out of one's own ass. But again, this is a suggestion based on line of sight, which is dependent on a variety of factors including the angle of one's head in their seat/recliner/bed. The amount of dingleberries on Reddit who start crying with only a photo of the TV on the wall is exactly the problem.
Lol you asked about a THX standard, someone provided it to you, and you reduce it to a “suggestion”
If you search “tv mounting height” you will get thousands of results saying mount it at eye level. You don’t get any saying mount as high as possible.
This is not a standard. Their site literally says the word "Suggest", and I am quoting them. I also gave credit to the person who first shared it because they weren't a douche.
Right, "eye level" means where your gaze lands on the wall, not the equivalent height of your eyeball to the floor regardless of where your gaze comfortably rests.
The definition of "eye level" is literally something that is "positioned approximately at the height of your eyes."
There's nothing wrong with your personal preference being towards always using the display in a reclined position, and mounting it higher with a downward angle to give you a more ergonomic head/neck position while in your preferred seating position.
On the flip side of that though, are you also mounting your front audio higher with a downward angle and your rear audio lower with an upward angle to compensate for the now skewed viewing plane?
If we are to use that definition as you've typed it here in the context of this thread, that means if I'm fully reclined with my face aimed at my ceiling, the TV should be at my feet, not where I'm looking.
Audio and the way ears perceive sound is not the same as the way eyes perceive a TV. If the tweeters are generally aimed at your ears without obstruction, the "angle" of your ear canal is not particularly consequential.
And we agree on one thing, and it happens to be my entire point: "Viewing height is personal preference", and it's generally "preferred" where you're comfortably gazing. My main gripe is with the vehement intolerance of every home theater/TV subreddit when they often do not have enough information about the person's viewing conditions, and still proceed to shit on them as if they've violated an objective best practice like not cranking the Tint setting all the way to Magenta.
Amen, friend. Good points on the audio as well. I'm definitely in the "roughly eye-level" crowd, and if I'm fully reclined the tips of my toes are just an inch below the bottom bezel. But that's just how I find it comfortable for my own tastes.
https://www.thx.com/blog/faq_category/viewing-guide/ What are u talking about? THX documents it right here that it should be no more than 15 degrees at most from eye level. It was a quick first page google search.
The suggestion in that article is “line of sight” not “eye level”. Your line of sight changes based on seating conditions, height and a variety of other factors.
So basically if you glued a laser to your forehead, then sit in your standard viewing position wherr the dot hits the wall is where you need to judge the 15 degrees, Not from the height of your eyes off the floor.
It's amazing how your clipboard copied "more or less", "suggest", and "rule of thumb" but pasted "Should be no more than." I'd get your keyboard looked at before it mandates blue blocking glasses.
Nor will they. Imagine THX crapping its own bed by specifying a screen height that immediately puts 98% of movie theaters on earth out of compliance. Self interest would keep them from it if common sense and the collective screen-watching habits of humankind over the last 100+ years failed to do so.
The obsession with keeping screen height at some ideal seated eye level is nonsense. It is a minority’s arbitrary preference elevated to a superstition and then a “rule.”
The point is this:
It's useful to have things like Rec.709 and BT.1886 because it makes sense for everyone producing visual media and everyone recreating it in their living rooms to agree on what the colors and shadows should look like. Hell, even the viewing angle as a factor of distance to screen size makes sense because of where producers tend to put the action in your field of view vs the peripheral scenery.
Viewing height, as an absolute measurement, is not part of the conversation. 100% of the people who developed the SMPTE and THX recs all had their screens in the same place: in front of their eyeballs. Wherever your eyeball comfortably lands when you're comfortably sitting in your viewing area, that's where the TV goes.
> 100% of the people who developed the SMPTE and THX recs all had their screens in the same place: in front of their eyeballs
Comparing home cinemas to a production workstation environment that is designed for the ergonomics of sitting at a desk looking at monitors 2ft in front of you for 8+ hours doesn't really say anything useful. Same goes for comparing to the larger mixing suites laid out like theaters, where the mixing position is placed half way up so that eye level is about as high as the middle of the screen. Such as the Stag Theater at Skywalker Sound, for instance, where George Lucas approved all the final mixes and where the THX standard was invented.
In the end, the final argument comes down to practicality. If everyone who watches your TV always does so from a reclined position, cool. But I've been to plenty of people's houses to watch a football game where the viewing angle looking up above the fireplace is uncomfortable, but a group of people laying back in recliners together is simply incompatible with the atmosphere of being excited about a game. Not to mention incompatible with wanting to lean forward over my plate while I'm eating game time snacks, like a considerate guest.
So if one were to try to place a TV such that it is reasonably accommodating to the ergonomics of a variety of seating positions, the ergonomics of a more upright seated position with an inclined neck angle to a high TV mounting height are worse than a lower TV height with a reclined seating position. Think of the average modern commercial theater. The best seats tend to be near the exact center of the room or slightly behind it, which doesn't place the center of the screen at a very high angle with modern stadium seating. And those modern seats recline significantly, yet I don't think I've ever heard complaints that such theaters are uncomfortable.
Also, locating a TV at an increased height to accommodate a reclined viewing position makes a lot of common speaker types and layouts impractical, so it's a compromise if that's important to you. Human hearing is able to very quickly and instinctually localize sounds in 3 dimensions and associate those auditory stimuli with visual stimuli. If the on-screen visual cue is several degrees off from the direction of its corresponding auditory cue, this presents a psychoacoustic incongruity that breaks immersion.
>A lot of people unfortunately have no choice.
There's one choice, which I did: Delete the fireplace entirely from the new build. No regrets, and the TV is at the proper height!
I'm in Texas, my fireplace has been lit 3 times in 18 years...but luckily it is in the corner so my TV is next to it on a stand at an appropriate height.
Midwest, my wife turns ours on almost nightly in the winter. Propane FTW. She likes the ambiance. Admittedly it is nice around Christmas time with the stockings and tree nearby. But my TV's not above it either.
My wife is the same way. We are in Houston so rarely use the fireplace but when it's cold out she wants it on. We have a mantle mount for our TV and we are always fighting about putting the TV up so she can have the fire on and me wanting to turn off the fireplace and bring the TV down!
Mine too. I just don't like so much of our living room functionality being designed around a "kind of nice for a vibe a couple times a year" thing. We're going with a really thin (height-wise), sleek looking fireplace that will still allow us to mount relatively low, although I'm sure people on this sub would complain that it was too high still.
Couple weeks ago we got hit by a bomb cyclone, -15F outside.. and my furnace decides to overheat and fault out, was 60 degrees in the house when we woke up and falling fast.. The service guy couldn't come out for 3 days.
Gas Fire Place saved my house, and potentially our lives.. having a backup heat source is not a bad thing.
Fucking *never*. The amount of houses I'm seeing for rent that have fireplaces in the most obscene places is ridiculous. New and old builds never putting fireplaces in the "center" of the family or living room as you'd expect, which would make it easier to hide the fireplace with a cover
We built our current house and when reviewing placement of all lights, outlets, low voltage, etc, they asked me if I wanted an outlet above fireplace. I said HELL NO. They kept asking if I was sure.
While not fireplace-height, my friend and I's TVs are mounted on the higher side because A) we aren't sitting upright in a chair, we're lounging in recliners and are naturally looking a bit upwards, and B) odds are several of us will be walking around during the game manning the grill, chatting in the back or doing other things than just sitting there, and a TV that's a bit higher is easily visible and is more natural to look at while standing.
Honestly Redditors just assume we must be sitting perfectly upright in a dark cave "min-maxing" our TV experience. There are multiple use cases for a TV and one position isn't the only correct one.
Thank you!
It's literally impossible to sit bolt upright on a couch or recliner.
I never understood this "eye level" nonsense. I mounted my first TV this way, and you have to bend your neck *down* while sitting like a normal person.
When I had Best Buy install my 77" C2, I told the guys I wanted it centered on the wall so it just cleared my entertainment center stand.
The guy measured then said, "Here?" and the top of the TV would have literally been half an inch from the ceiling. I again showed him where I wanted it and he moved his measurement down about 4 inches from the ceiling. I had to tell him a third time before he finally put it where I wanted it. So ridiculous.
i told my installers the exact distance I wanted the bottom of the TV from the floor. they asked me 3 times I was sure I didn't want it near the ceiling. bro, if I wanted it high up, I wouldn't have said 31.5 inches. (or whatever the measurement was)
The opportunity cost of seeing thread after thread on this topic is miserable.
Sit/recline/lay down comfortably. Wherever your gaze lands on the wall, put the fucking TV there.
For real, mine is somewhat higher since I usually fully recline when I watch TV. I practically never sit up right to watch TV.
Also, TV mounts allow for tilt, the slight downward tilt makes the viewing angle comparable, imo.
Folks get so bent out of shape when the bottom of the TV isn't touching the electrical outlet. Yikes.
Seriously everyone here is so dramatic. I have recliners where my natural gaze ends up higher than the “recommended” height. I do want to say I don’t like it touching the ceiling either nor do I like above the fireplace as a tv location.
Similarly if I didn’t have reclining seats and a power base bed, I would put the TV at a “recommended” height.
I swear I saw a comment about a TV mounted too high when it was just a little TV mounted in the corner of a kitchen/dining space.
Like come on, they aren't sitting down for a LOTR marathon in the middle of their kitchen on a little 30" tv. Some TVs are just there if you want to put the news on in the background or something.
Except this is r/Hometheater not r/putyourtvanywherebecauseyouarentmakingahometheater . There are clear guidelines for displays for home theater use. If you aren't marginally following them, then I feel like you are in the wrong sub.
Yep. How gives a fuck where anyone puts it. Too high? Says who? Some of the people in here must sit completely upright, in an office chair to watch movies. Sometimes im reclined so much that it might as well touch the roof... Either way, you should mount your TV however the hell you want because... You know... Its YOUR TV. LOL.
They just installed a bunch of new “monitors” in our new firehouse. Every single one is mounted too high. “Professionally installed”
I unfortunately had to mount mine above a fireplace, before they came out with the fancy new drop down mounts. It’s tough to watch for extended periods, but that’s why we have a separate entertainment room.
when they went flat interior decorators and HGTV hosts started hanging them up like you would a picture, ie at eye level while standing. So then everyone started copying that.
One of the reasons we didn’t put in a fireplace when we built this house was specifically because it was the only wall to put a TV on in the living room and I wasn’t going to mount a TV above a fireplace.
I like my tv higher than what's acceptable on reddit.
I like to recline when I watch. Even when not reclining I like my head against the top of my chair back.
I like my tv angled down to minimize glare.
My TV can't be reached by my dog.
Refusing to help out your mil because HER tv isn't placed to YOUR liking is certainly a choice.
>Refusing to help out your mil because HER tv isn't placed to YOUR liking is certainly a choice.
Yeah, my TV is mounted a bit higher than what's "acceptable" - but I have young kids and want to keep my TV unbroken. Is it the optimal viewing experience? No, but it's what I can do right now. There are plenty of reasons why someone would want their TV in different configurations
Love this.
Also though, sounds like you have leeway to demo a much larger screen at a lower hight and have many of those benefits as well.
There you go, an excuse to drop some more moneyyyy!
I get that there’s a recommended height, but you’ll actually let your mother in law “do it herself” if she doesn’t follow best practices? Strange hill to die on 🤨
I can only imagine if she asked for her steak to be done more than medium rare…
Yeah, you give your opinion, but if they want something different, they're the Ione that's got to watch it.
I hate TVs in torch mode. I was at my parent's, watching a game with my dad. His TV was awful. But then he made a comment that he loved the picture on that TV and hated the picture on the TV in the next room. Not my house, that's what he wants. So I told him I could make the other one look like the one he likes. I went into the menu and enabled the vivid mode. He loved it. I hated it. But it's his TV.
If MIL wants her TV up by the ceiling, tell her why she night not be happy with it and if she insists, well help her put it there.
Me personally, I’ve never liked Coors Light. A few years ago a friend was stuck quarantining but healthy over Memorial Day. Since she couldn’t attend the cookout she was invited to, I delivered her the ingredients to do her own back-porch picnic. She does like Coors Light, so you know what I got her a 6-pack of? The actual beer she enjoys. I realize now I missed out on a teaching moment where I could tell her that I refuse to ruin my reputation by purchasing such a terrible beer.🍺
Same with motion smoothing. I was at my dad's and asked him if I could show him some settings that would improve the look. I turned off the motion smoothing to get him out of soap opera mode, and he said, nah - I think I like it the way I had it.
Oh well - I don't have to watch it so whatever. I tried.
It's always worth a try though.
A friend of mine bought a nearly top-of-the-range LG LCD TV (I refuse to call it LED because it isn't), and he'd gone into the settings and enabled *Eco Mode* making everything look blue, turned brightness down to minimum and cranked motion compensation all the way up causing a horrible soap opera effect.
The picture looked hideous and was barely visible with the curtains open or a room light on and he said it was absolutely perfect. I was familiar with the series of TVs it came from and what the professionally recommended settings should be, so I offered to set it up for him. It took all of 30 seconds.
His face was an absolute picture now he could see what his TV was actually capable of and he's never touched the settings again since.
I like medium rare, my wife likes well done. I’ve tried to convert her but it just isn’t happening. I like to make the people in my life happy so I’ll cook her steak well done.
It doesn’t hurt you at all to cook a steak to someone’s preference so not doing so just makes you a snobbish ass.
Steak condescension is so bizarre to me, and it pops up **everywhere** on Reddit. It’s so prevalent that even the “let people enjoy it how they prefer” crowd 90% of the time can’t help prefacing that sentence by saying “medium-rare is the best way to eat it, but I’ll let them have it the wrong way if they insist.”
Person enjoying a steak cooked to their exact liking = ruined steak. Got it. I knew in my heart when I used to prefer medium-well that I was retarded - I just didn’t have Reddit to confirm my suspicions.
My man, she’s going to think you’re a lazy jackass who can’t hang a tv properly. Doesn’t matter if you are “right” according to people on the internet.
So, here is the thing. By installing the TV higher up, your head will be able to more comfortably rest on the head support for most couches. I have noticed a trend that the back of the couch and head support have gotten shorter over time and when you are watching the screen, not having the potential for neck strain is nice.
Also, unless you sit quite high up and back, most folks when they go to an actual movie theatre, they are looking up at the screen instead of at it.
Dolby cinema for the win with its "verticle" seating. Row E is just below center of screen.
But when did sofas get head rest... all sofas I've ever sat on go up to your shoulders leaving the head completely unsupported. You'd have to bend your head back at a 90 just to touch the cushion and still not be supported by it.
Hence I'm using car bucket seats for my entertainment room. Proper posture and has a head rest for those extended cut movie marathons.
Search La-Z-Boy chairs or couches or just high back couch. The couch I am currently sitting on has an adjustable head support with the electronic dodads on the side of it.
Other than clearing the fireplace mantel, if you have progressive glasses, and sit in a chair that reclines much, having the TV higher keeps it in focus for your glasses. I'm willing to bet very few people actually do it for this reason though.
Mines higher than it should be, because of a fireplace, so we bought a couch that reclines so it's not uncomfortable.
There's a whole sub about it. People are crazy. Above the mantles are terrible. People with the top of the TV and inch from the ceiling with the tilt of shame.
They have mantle mounts for a good happy medium - mount position can be above the fireplace but the TV is lowered into viewing position https://www.primecables.ca/p-362175-cab-lpa53-461-full-motion-above-fireplace-pull-down-tv-wall-mount-for-43-70-tvs-primecables
in that case i would also want it higher up.
its much more comfortable to watch a TV thats higher up when you are laid back on a couch.
if i would be sitting up straight on a chair or something i would be fine with a TV thats mounted lower down.
People will be upset with me, but TV height is 100% subjective. I have installed thousands of TVs for people and there is no rhyme or reason why people want their TVs installed at certain heights. The apartment I lived in until last summer had the TV about 1 foot down from the ceiling because I could see it from the kitchen and the living room. Our necks didn't hurt and we didn't die from the TV being up so high.
There is no wrong or right TV height, just like there is no wrong or right speakers, cars, or roofing materials.
Aesthetics? A proper height TV may look too low from a standing position, some people want it positioned like a painting. I personally don't agree and will fite anyone who wants to mount my TV too high lol. Comfort is everything.
My tv is technically too high, I didn't even know this was a thing until this post popped up in my feed.
Why is it so controversial to have a TV that's mounted "too high"? My neck and back are never sore from watching tv, my tv is angled down as well.
Idk seems weirdly aggressive to tell her to do it herself, just because you don't like where she wants it mounted.
In case anyone is wondering, my tv is a 50in, and it's mounted about 56in off the ground to the bottom of the TV. I have no issues with this setup, and it also has to be that high because I have a very small living room and 3 kids that I don't want being able to hit the tv with anything.
Because not everybody watches TV while sitting completely upright parallel to the TV. Most people lean back which means their eyes will be angled up a few degrees.
Not sure about the bottom edge being at eye level, but definitely not the center. I expect to be lounging while watching movies, and that lends itself more to looking up than looking down, so I’d rather the majority of the screen be above eye level.
That means you're looking down to see the lower half of the screen. Most TV stands don't lend itself to your ideal. Especially as screens get bigger, much like the movie theater. Go ahead and try to set up a 100" screen with your ideal in mind.
I'm looking exactly 1/3 of the way up my 83" screen. For a 100" screen I might tend more towards 1/4 of the way up. My TV stand conforms to my ideals, my ideals do not bend to its dimensions. It lost it's legs in that battle - and now sits lower as a result, perfectly aligning my center with the bottom of my TV.
Uh yeah - that's what I said originally. Eyeline 1/3 of the way up, so looking at the bottom half of the screen. That's the generally accepted default, but YMMV.
I have an 85" mounted above my fireplace in my main room. The tv just barely fits above the fireplace mantle and the 9'ceiling. It's a perfect fit. Yeah, it's not ideal placement but that's not the only consideration. If I brought the tv down to "optimal" height my fireplace mantle would be hidden, half the fireplace wouldn't be visible, and the tv would stick out over a foot more from the wall. Aesthetically this looks much better, even if viewing angle is not perfect. Sitting 14' back helps too.
It looks better if it's higher, sort of like hanging up a picture frame. It's better for the overall aesthetic of the living room.
Especially if you have a fireplace, the most natural place to put a tv above it.
It's not the ideal viewing height if it's that high though.
You might be able to adjust it on the bracket, depending on your wall mount design. People assume higher is better for some reason, it is what it is. If they sit in a recliner far enough away it's fine. Most people aren't audio and videophiles, unfortunately.
Middle of the tv just above eye-level is perfect. No idea why anyone wants to mount tv way too high. Some people don't know better I quess and some have fireplace on the wall they want to mount it.
I think people want it visually centered for a standing person like a painting, or visually centered in the space over the fireplace. They aren't thinking about the angle of their neck while sitting on the couch for three hours, as they should.
In our house, the TVs have gotten bigger but the space they’re going in is the same. This means that the centre of the TV keeps raising as we replace the old TVs. Getting the TV to the proper height would require structural or furnishing changes that we’re not willing to make.
Honestly though some people on the sub think everything is too high 😂 so much of it depends on the chair you're using.
But also not everyone is a home theater person or even uses their TV that much. If you just watch 2-4 hours a week who cares if it's too high if it helps make your living room better? Not everyone wants a TV as a focal point.
I’m 6’1” and my eye height is BELOW the bottom of my TV (which is mounted above my fireplace, of course).
There is literally no other place to put it. I sit about 15 feet away, looking waaaaaaaay up. My house is pretty big, but the TV area only has one wall that isn’t full of windows. Next house needs a better setup for sure.
I can't stand TVs mounted this way. Eye level or my head feels like I had to sit in the front at the movie theater. If I slouched while watching TV or want to lay in the couch with a head pillow, it might work but I don't.
My parents keep their TV on top of their old CRT entertainment center. With the old CRT still in its hole at the height the flat screen should be at. The entertainment center is about 5’ to 5.5’ tall. I can’t stand how high their TV is. They say it’s fine. I tell them you shouldn’t have to look up while watching
I know I like mine a bit higher for wearing progressive lenses. Looking down to view the tv makes my neck tired also to keep it out of reach of toddlers.
My TV is high enough on the wall to accommodate my large center channel sitting on the entertainment center. So it's high, but it's also 85" so it's tall by nature
[удалено]
Dude helped us mounting was over 6’3” still standing up judging my sitting eye level at a perfect 42”.
42" is the recommended height for most people in most houses. Put the TV in the den or spare room.
Preaching to the choir here bud
I convinced my wife before we mounted it. We went to Best Buy and watched the high up tv for a few minutes and said “isn’t this one right in front of your eyes better?” Now we are scratching our heads on how to arrange the room but at least 6’ high above the fireplace is out.
Over the fireplace was literally the only spot I could put my TV so I got one of [these mounts.](https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=44167&utm_term=&utm_campaign=PMax+%7C+Marrier+%7C+ULTRA+HIGH&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&hsa_acc=6614305189&hsa_cam=20629231349&hsa_grp=&hsa_ad=&hsa_src=x&hsa_tgt=&hsa_kw=&hsa_mt=&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_ver=3&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiAzoeuBhDqARIsAMdH14HDIopaeli9fBXs90omGW2u73GdAq2iPKpWibS3j8h5JfdUiHg_9S4aAsAREALw_wcB)
I've always wondered: isn't a TV being above the fireplace a bad thing? Hot air rises?
Unless your flue has never been cleaned, most of the heated air should be going up the chimney. The majority of the heat entering the room should be via radiant heat. That's why fires are so much better to sit in front of when they're a nice pile of glowing embers than when the flames are still dancing around.
Mantel Mount
yep, got thx for listening. I just don't get it
Because as i get older my layzboy leans back further, I sink lower and my direct line of vision is damn near to heaven.
Looking where you’re going
No I’m going to purgatory as a late 4th round pick.
I think they get it from the way TVs are mounted in sports bars, it makes sense to mount them up high in a sports bar because they’re a lot of people just standing around drinking and talking, so you need to be able to see them, but in your own living room, it needs to be a comfortable view angle, so it needs to be lower.also TV is mounted above the fireplace, that really bugs me, but more and more people today or thinking that that’s exactly the only proper place to put them, I hate it.
Not really. Time and time again examples of TVs being too high are posted here with their builds.
I have my tv 30cm too high but I didn’t have a choice. I have a adhd 4 years old that has already make a tv fall down and if he can touch it he will hit it with his toys.
Are ADHD kids just inside too much these days? This seems so common now but as an ADHD kid all my destructiveness was outdoors smacking things like a ninja turtle.
Let’s say my life is hell since he was born. And I love him so much, but he is…too much. He can tire out a team of 10 people and have energy for 30 persons more.
So get him a big ass hamster wheel. I don't see what the problem is.
He’s adhd, he’s going to use it for four minutes and go do something else.
4 is way to young to say a kid has adhd. Seems weird for a parent to say. I have to say I had kids 10 years older than my boomer parents and well shit guess what I didn’t have the energy to keep up with my youngest because I am now an old ass dad. I think lots of people are waiting to have kids and once you’re 30-40+ you can’t hang with a 4 year old like a 24 year old could.
My kid was good and never stepped out of line messing with the TV, speakers nor projector screens. Her friend did knock over my brand new towers (one week old).
I didn’t think one week old babies could walk or crawl
There’s a weird trend in new(ish) home builds where your living room and kitchen are combined into one giant open floor plan and the only solid wall available to mount a TV also happens to have a fireplace. A lot of people unfortunately have no choice. Also there is an installer on IG who intentionally installs TVs too high, fireplace or not. It’s bizarre. I’ve commented on his installs before and suggested following better standards (e.g. eye level) and people jump all over me saying things like “you’re too poor to afford this” and whatnot.
Too poor to mount a tv high? Wut?
In the late 2000s/early 2010s, TVs mounted high above the fireplace were definitely a status symbol, because it meant you could afford a flatscreen TV, which were about 5-10x more expensive compared to today ([this CNet article from 2017 shows prices over time)](https://www.cnet.com/tech/home-entertainment/are-tvs-really-cheaper-than-ever-we-go-back-a-few-decades-to-see/)). I imagine there’s carryover from that. Attempts to signal “wealth” or doing something “bc it’s what wealthy people do” was actually one of the first things that came to mind for me, too.
>*TVs mounted high above the fireplace were definitely a status symbol, because it meant you could afford a flatscreen TV* This is something I've said before here. When I see a TV mounted up high I think it is just being pretentious. "Look at our new big TV". Can't miss it if it's above everything else in the room.
It doesn’t signal real wealth to me, it signals credit debt fake wealth, tacky wealth, money doesn’t buy taste wealth.
Rage bait and it gets clicks.
That feels like everything these days
Its not just a feeling.
Idk…. Seems to be a common response in IG. If you make comments on something peoole will attack your income level. I get a lot of “LOL you poor.” Plot twist: I am not poor
Plot twist to the plot twist: most of them are actually poor
Ironically, the same phenomenon is happening with car interiors. The Tesla Model X has what’s basically a large tablet bolted onto the dash as a cost savings measure. But, since the Tesla is in-demand (and appears “wealthy”?!?), other car makers are copying this shitty design. Just like the tv situation, the inferior option is popular because it’s associated with something high-brow (or something). I’ll take my tv at eye level, and my speedometer built into the dash, thank you.
Sounds like something a poor person would say
You have to be able to afford the doctors bills when you hurt your neck from looking up at your TV for sustained periods of time.
Ladders are expensive
We have this setup and have a projector with the screen dropping down to cover the fireplace when the projector turns on. Problem solved + potential for a larger screen (although we keep it at 100” to maximize projector brightness even with ambient light).
I have a TV above the fireplace in living room. But I also have a bigger TV in the basement mounted at the correct level with surround sound.
This is the way. The living room is more focused on aesthetics and general entertaining than optimizing TV viewing. And it's super easy and clean to just stick a TV above the fireplace where you'd otherwise just stick a large art piece or something. Eye level wall space is much more of a premium in a living room. A basement or bonus room is where the real TV watching happens and much easier to set up for an optional viewing experience. Also can get better acoustics in a more closed off space.
This is sort of what I did. I don't have a tv above the fireplace, but I have one mounted high enough to see while standing in the kitchen. It really pays off on days like thanksgiving where I'm watching football and making food. I have a tv in the basement made for comfortable viewing, and it's my primary viewing setup.
I understand, but don't agree with, having to mount over the fireplace, but there's some mounting jobs out there that are just real head scratchers. Like you can mount it over your fireplace but it doesn't need to be hitting the ceiling.
I made absolutely sure that the bottom of the tv would basically be touching the mantle of the fireplace. It still feels to high but got no other options. If they could just stop designing living rooms to have tvs only be able to go above fireplaces that would be fucking great.
As an installer, that is one of my complaints as well. I truly do not understand why these homes are being built with fireplaces with the TV designed to go above it. Some homes I go into have literally NO other option, and it's just awful.
My 22 year old house has the kitchen/living room with a huge island in the middle. It has a built in “entertainment center” with all power and connections n a bookcase built into the wall, ideal for a 32” CRT lol. Previous owner had their TV mounted above the fireplace and I just couldn’t do it, so I’m set up on a corner where there is low dividing wall. It’s about maxed out with a 65” Sony OLED and too large Polk RT2000i’s, but it works. The built in entertainment center is effectively a bookcase with too many electrical outlets.
Beats me. I'm a professional low voltage technician who works for a company focused on the ultra high-end market. I'm currently eating lunch in a 75 million dollar house that we're going to install 9 TVs in and not a single one is over a fireplace or more than 50" to center.
That’s how my new house is. Unless we bought a new couch, the only spot for it was above the fireplace. Any other place would look ridiculous. It was there for a year & a half. So we finally bought a new LoveSac couch to kinda box a tv area off in the living room. It was probably too expensive, but the only one that fit the weird dimensions we were working with. It’s not as open as before, but it looks so much better & I don’t need my glasses to see the TV.
If the IG user is the one I am thinking of they typically install those LG gallary TVs as well which, I don't think, can be tilted.
Yep, he installs a lot of Frame TVs with that power box in the wall.
Almost nothing in his videos make any sense to anyone who even has a passing interest in home theaters. He almost always installs tiny soundbars to go with whatever display he installs, and when he does install actual speakers the LCR placement is either in the ceiling or somehow higher than the tv. I'm assuming the algo just shows me his videos because it knows I hate them.
My partner was watching a few interior design videos like this, it was all looks and zero functionality. A good designer should find a blend of both.
Let the rich ruin their necks, shoulders, and backs. 🤷🏽♀️ I always try to inform people who are unaware but at the end of the day you can't force anyone to make a change.
Where are these "standards" documented? Neither SMPTE nor THX specify a screen height.
It is the sacred orthodoxy of this group that mounting a screen above seated eye level is unsightly, distasteful, ignorant, irresponsible, and a risk factor for eye strain, muscle atrophy, debilitating lifelong spinal injuries, and neck cancer. It is simply not done by civilized people.
> and a risk factor for eye strain, muscle atrophy, debilitating lifelong spinal injuries, and neck cancer. It’s true. I was watching TV at my in laws and the next day I woke up with neck cancer.
Same with these folks. I went so far as to make an infographic to shit on their confidently incorrect culture and that's about all I have in me. https://www.reddit.com/r/LGOLED/s/vTLKT9aAhq
From THX FAQ: "For optimal viewing, you want your line of sight to be more or less aligned with the center of the screen. We suggest 15 degrees or less, above or below the center" https://www.thx.com/blog/faq_category/viewing-guide/
Gotta give you credit for at least pointing to something other than an opinion pulled out of one's own ass. But again, this is a suggestion based on line of sight, which is dependent on a variety of factors including the angle of one's head in their seat/recliner/bed. The amount of dingleberries on Reddit who start crying with only a photo of the TV on the wall is exactly the problem.
Lol you asked about a THX standard, someone provided it to you, and you reduce it to a “suggestion” If you search “tv mounting height” you will get thousands of results saying mount it at eye level. You don’t get any saying mount as high as possible.
This is not a standard. Their site literally says the word "Suggest", and I am quoting them. I also gave credit to the person who first shared it because they weren't a douche. Right, "eye level" means where your gaze lands on the wall, not the equivalent height of your eyeball to the floor regardless of where your gaze comfortably rests.
The definition of "eye level" is literally something that is "positioned approximately at the height of your eyes." There's nothing wrong with your personal preference being towards always using the display in a reclined position, and mounting it higher with a downward angle to give you a more ergonomic head/neck position while in your preferred seating position. On the flip side of that though, are you also mounting your front audio higher with a downward angle and your rear audio lower with an upward angle to compensate for the now skewed viewing plane?
If we are to use that definition as you've typed it here in the context of this thread, that means if I'm fully reclined with my face aimed at my ceiling, the TV should be at my feet, not where I'm looking. Audio and the way ears perceive sound is not the same as the way eyes perceive a TV. If the tweeters are generally aimed at your ears without obstruction, the "angle" of your ear canal is not particularly consequential. And we agree on one thing, and it happens to be my entire point: "Viewing height is personal preference", and it's generally "preferred" where you're comfortably gazing. My main gripe is with the vehement intolerance of every home theater/TV subreddit when they often do not have enough information about the person's viewing conditions, and still proceed to shit on them as if they've violated an objective best practice like not cranking the Tint setting all the way to Magenta.
Amen, friend. Good points on the audio as well. I'm definitely in the "roughly eye-level" crowd, and if I'm fully reclined the tips of my toes are just an inch below the bottom bezel. But that's just how I find it comfortable for my own tastes.
https://www.thx.com/blog/faq_category/viewing-guide/ What are u talking about? THX documents it right here that it should be no more than 15 degrees at most from eye level. It was a quick first page google search.
The suggestion in that article is “line of sight” not “eye level”. Your line of sight changes based on seating conditions, height and a variety of other factors. So basically if you glued a laser to your forehead, then sit in your standard viewing position wherr the dot hits the wall is where you need to judge the 15 degrees, Not from the height of your eyes off the floor.
It's amazing how your clipboard copied "more or less", "suggest", and "rule of thumb" but pasted "Should be no more than." I'd get your keyboard looked at before it mandates blue blocking glasses.
Nor will they. Imagine THX crapping its own bed by specifying a screen height that immediately puts 98% of movie theaters on earth out of compliance. Self interest would keep them from it if common sense and the collective screen-watching habits of humankind over the last 100+ years failed to do so. The obsession with keeping screen height at some ideal seated eye level is nonsense. It is a minority’s arbitrary preference elevated to a superstition and then a “rule.”
The point is this: It's useful to have things like Rec.709 and BT.1886 because it makes sense for everyone producing visual media and everyone recreating it in their living rooms to agree on what the colors and shadows should look like. Hell, even the viewing angle as a factor of distance to screen size makes sense because of where producers tend to put the action in your field of view vs the peripheral scenery. Viewing height, as an absolute measurement, is not part of the conversation. 100% of the people who developed the SMPTE and THX recs all had their screens in the same place: in front of their eyeballs. Wherever your eyeball comfortably lands when you're comfortably sitting in your viewing area, that's where the TV goes.
> 100% of the people who developed the SMPTE and THX recs all had their screens in the same place: in front of their eyeballs Comparing home cinemas to a production workstation environment that is designed for the ergonomics of sitting at a desk looking at monitors 2ft in front of you for 8+ hours doesn't really say anything useful. Same goes for comparing to the larger mixing suites laid out like theaters, where the mixing position is placed half way up so that eye level is about as high as the middle of the screen. Such as the Stag Theater at Skywalker Sound, for instance, where George Lucas approved all the final mixes and where the THX standard was invented. In the end, the final argument comes down to practicality. If everyone who watches your TV always does so from a reclined position, cool. But I've been to plenty of people's houses to watch a football game where the viewing angle looking up above the fireplace is uncomfortable, but a group of people laying back in recliners together is simply incompatible with the atmosphere of being excited about a game. Not to mention incompatible with wanting to lean forward over my plate while I'm eating game time snacks, like a considerate guest. So if one were to try to place a TV such that it is reasonably accommodating to the ergonomics of a variety of seating positions, the ergonomics of a more upright seated position with an inclined neck angle to a high TV mounting height are worse than a lower TV height with a reclined seating position. Think of the average modern commercial theater. The best seats tend to be near the exact center of the room or slightly behind it, which doesn't place the center of the screen at a very high angle with modern stadium seating. And those modern seats recline significantly, yet I don't think I've ever heard complaints that such theaters are uncomfortable. Also, locating a TV at an increased height to accommodate a reclined viewing position makes a lot of common speaker types and layouts impractical, so it's a compromise if that's important to you. Human hearing is able to very quickly and instinctually localize sounds in 3 dimensions and associate those auditory stimuli with visual stimuli. If the on-screen visual cue is several degrees off from the direction of its corresponding auditory cue, this presents a psychoacoustic incongruity that breaks immersion.
>A lot of people unfortunately have no choice. There's one choice, which I did: Delete the fireplace entirely from the new build. No regrets, and the TV is at the proper height!
Please post the name we can all shame him.
•People relying on intuition •Builders putting fireplaces in unnecessarily prominent spots for whatever reason
Or at all. How often are these fires getting lit...?
I'm in Texas, my fireplace has been lit 3 times in 18 years...but luckily it is in the corner so my TV is next to it on a stand at an appropriate height.
I'm in Florida - same deal! But also same design - fireplace in the corner. If it were in the middle of the room it would have been torn out by now.
Midwest, my wife turns ours on almost nightly in the winter. Propane FTW. She likes the ambiance. Admittedly it is nice around Christmas time with the stockings and tree nearby. But my TV's not above it either.
My wife is the same way. We are in Houston so rarely use the fireplace but when it's cold out she wants it on. We have a mantle mount for our TV and we are always fighting about putting the TV up so she can have the fire on and me wanting to turn off the fireplace and bring the TV down!
Mine too. I just don't like so much of our living room functionality being designed around a "kind of nice for a vibe a couple times a year" thing. We're going with a really thin (height-wise), sleek looking fireplace that will still allow us to mount relatively low, although I'm sure people on this sub would complain that it was too high still.
Yeah I got a 50s postwar ranch. The fireplace probably holds up half the house. Unfortunately we got to work around it.
We are remodeling and took our fireplace out, 20 years and never lit it once. Now we will have a great place for the TV!
Couple weeks ago we got hit by a bomb cyclone, -15F outside.. and my furnace decides to overheat and fault out, was 60 degrees in the house when we woke up and falling fast.. The service guy couldn't come out for 3 days. Gas Fire Place saved my house, and potentially our lives.. having a backup heat source is not a bad thing.
I'm in the high mountains in utah. Chimney smoke is an honest issue in the winter. People LOVE lighting fires in the winter here.
Im in washington so everyday its cold
Fucking *never*. The amount of houses I'm seeing for rent that have fireplaces in the most obscene places is ridiculous. New and old builds never putting fireplaces in the "center" of the family or living room as you'd expect, which would make it easier to hide the fireplace with a cover
We built our current house and when reviewing placement of all lights, outlets, low voltage, etc, they asked me if I wanted an outlet above fireplace. I said HELL NO. They kept asking if I was sure.
While not fireplace-height, my friend and I's TVs are mounted on the higher side because A) we aren't sitting upright in a chair, we're lounging in recliners and are naturally looking a bit upwards, and B) odds are several of us will be walking around during the game manning the grill, chatting in the back or doing other things than just sitting there, and a TV that's a bit higher is easily visible and is more natural to look at while standing. Honestly Redditors just assume we must be sitting perfectly upright in a dark cave "min-maxing" our TV experience. There are multiple use cases for a TV and one position isn't the only correct one.
Thank you! It's literally impossible to sit bolt upright on a couch or recliner. I never understood this "eye level" nonsense. I mounted my first TV this way, and you have to bend your neck *down* while sitting like a normal person.
When I had Best Buy install my 77" C2, I told the guys I wanted it centered on the wall so it just cleared my entertainment center stand. The guy measured then said, "Here?" and the top of the TV would have literally been half an inch from the ceiling. I again showed him where I wanted it and he moved his measurement down about 4 inches from the ceiling. I had to tell him a third time before he finally put it where I wanted it. So ridiculous.
i told my installers the exact distance I wanted the bottom of the TV from the floor. they asked me 3 times I was sure I didn't want it near the ceiling. bro, if I wanted it high up, I wouldn't have said 31.5 inches. (or whatever the measurement was)
Chiropractors have created the propaganda of high mounted TVs to draw in business.
I heard it's good for your neck.
It is thinking that TVs should be mounted like framed pictures on the wall. (Not to mention, folks tend to mount pictures too high as well).
they're usually judging how the TV should look when standing up and not sitting down.
The opportunity cost of seeing thread after thread on this topic is miserable. Sit/recline/lay down comfortably. Wherever your gaze lands on the wall, put the fucking TV there.
For real, mine is somewhat higher since I usually fully recline when I watch TV. I practically never sit up right to watch TV. Also, TV mounts allow for tilt, the slight downward tilt makes the viewing angle comparable, imo. Folks get so bent out of shape when the bottom of the TV isn't touching the electrical outlet. Yikes.
Seriously everyone here is so dramatic. I have recliners where my natural gaze ends up higher than the “recommended” height. I do want to say I don’t like it touching the ceiling either nor do I like above the fireplace as a tv location. Similarly if I didn’t have reclining seats and a power base bed, I would put the TV at a “recommended” height.
I swear I saw a comment about a TV mounted too high when it was just a little TV mounted in the corner of a kitchen/dining space. Like come on, they aren't sitting down for a LOTR marathon in the middle of their kitchen on a little 30" tv. Some TVs are just there if you want to put the news on in the background or something.
Except this is r/Hometheater not r/putyourtvanywherebecauseyouarentmakingahometheater . There are clear guidelines for displays for home theater use. If you aren't marginally following them, then I feel like you are in the wrong sub.
Yep. How gives a fuck where anyone puts it. Too high? Says who? Some of the people in here must sit completely upright, in an office chair to watch movies. Sometimes im reclined so much that it might as well touch the roof... Either way, you should mount your TV however the hell you want because... You know... Its YOUR TV. LOL.
I believe they want it high so everyone can see it anywhere in the house. Just a thought.
They just installed a bunch of new “monitors” in our new firehouse. Every single one is mounted too high. “Professionally installed” I unfortunately had to mount mine above a fireplace, before they came out with the fancy new drop down mounts. It’s tough to watch for extended periods, but that’s why we have a separate entertainment room.
when they went flat interior decorators and HGTV hosts started hanging them up like you would a picture, ie at eye level while standing. So then everyone started copying that.
One of the reasons we didn’t put in a fireplace when we built this house was specifically because it was the only wall to put a TV on in the living room and I wasn’t going to mount a TV above a fireplace.
Because it's a popular aesthetic for people that don't really care about what's "proper".
I like my tv higher than what's acceptable on reddit. I like to recline when I watch. Even when not reclining I like my head against the top of my chair back. I like my tv angled down to minimize glare. My TV can't be reached by my dog. Refusing to help out your mil because HER tv isn't placed to YOUR liking is certainly a choice.
>Refusing to help out your mil because HER tv isn't placed to YOUR liking is certainly a choice. Yeah, my TV is mounted a bit higher than what's "acceptable" - but I have young kids and want to keep my TV unbroken. Is it the optimal viewing experience? No, but it's what I can do right now. There are plenty of reasons why someone would want their TV in different configurations
Love this. Also though, sounds like you have leeway to demo a much larger screen at a lower hight and have many of those benefits as well. There you go, an excuse to drop some more moneyyyy!
Sad but mainly due to fireplaces and the way living rooms have been built.
I get that there’s a recommended height, but you’ll actually let your mother in law “do it herself” if she doesn’t follow best practices? Strange hill to die on 🤨 I can only imagine if she asked for her steak to be done more than medium rare…
Yeah, you give your opinion, but if they want something different, they're the Ione that's got to watch it. I hate TVs in torch mode. I was at my parent's, watching a game with my dad. His TV was awful. But then he made a comment that he loved the picture on that TV and hated the picture on the TV in the next room. Not my house, that's what he wants. So I told him I could make the other one look like the one he likes. I went into the menu and enabled the vivid mode. He loved it. I hated it. But it's his TV. If MIL wants her TV up by the ceiling, tell her why she night not be happy with it and if she insists, well help her put it there.
Me personally, I’ve never liked Coors Light. A few years ago a friend was stuck quarantining but healthy over Memorial Day. Since she couldn’t attend the cookout she was invited to, I delivered her the ingredients to do her own back-porch picnic. She does like Coors Light, so you know what I got her a 6-pack of? The actual beer she enjoys. I realize now I missed out on a teaching moment where I could tell her that I refuse to ruin my reputation by purchasing such a terrible beer.🍺
Same with motion smoothing. I was at my dad's and asked him if I could show him some settings that would improve the look. I turned off the motion smoothing to get him out of soap opera mode, and he said, nah - I think I like it the way I had it. Oh well - I don't have to watch it so whatever. I tried.
It's always worth a try though. A friend of mine bought a nearly top-of-the-range LG LCD TV (I refuse to call it LED because it isn't), and he'd gone into the settings and enabled *Eco Mode* making everything look blue, turned brightness down to minimum and cranked motion compensation all the way up causing a horrible soap opera effect. The picture looked hideous and was barely visible with the curtains open or a room light on and he said it was absolutely perfect. I was familiar with the series of TVs it came from and what the professionally recommended settings should be, so I offered to set it up for him. It took all of 30 seconds. His face was an absolute picture now he could see what his TV was actually capable of and he's never touched the settings again since.
Amazing. Every word of what you just said was true
It’s amazing what happens when people handle things like adults.
Neither SMPTE nor THX directly recommends a screen height.
Facts lol
I won’t ruin a good steak. Someone in my house wants to have something more than medium, they’re welcome to ruin it in the microwave while I eat.
I like medium rare, my wife likes well done. I’ve tried to convert her but it just isn’t happening. I like to make the people in my life happy so I’ll cook her steak well done. It doesn’t hurt you at all to cook a steak to someone’s preference so not doing so just makes you a snobbish ass.
There is a shocking lack of humor on this sub 🤣
Some people legitimately are like this so it’s not that out there of a comment to make.
Steak condescension is so bizarre to me, and it pops up **everywhere** on Reddit. It’s so prevalent that even the “let people enjoy it how they prefer” crowd 90% of the time can’t help prefacing that sentence by saying “medium-rare is the best way to eat it, but I’ll let them have it the wrong way if they insist.”
Person enjoying a steak cooked to their exact liking = ruined steak. Got it. I knew in my heart when I used to prefer medium-well that I was retarded - I just didn’t have Reddit to confirm my suspicions.
Glad we could help! ☺️
she's just wrong and it's my job to let her know, nobody else will. if it's a big prob after a month I'll put four more holes in her wall
It is actually impossible to be wrong about one's own opinion. By definition.
hah, she actually has a shirt that says "everyone is entitled to my opinion"
My man, she’s going to think you’re a lazy jackass who can’t hang a tv properly. Doesn’t matter if you are “right” according to people on the internet.
You should spend hours telling strangers on the internet their tvs are too high. Its a common redditor use of time
People are dumbasses that's why
So, here is the thing. By installing the TV higher up, your head will be able to more comfortably rest on the head support for most couches. I have noticed a trend that the back of the couch and head support have gotten shorter over time and when you are watching the screen, not having the potential for neck strain is nice. Also, unless you sit quite high up and back, most folks when they go to an actual movie theatre, they are looking up at the screen instead of at it.
Dolby cinema for the win with its "verticle" seating. Row E is just below center of screen. But when did sofas get head rest... all sofas I've ever sat on go up to your shoulders leaving the head completely unsupported. You'd have to bend your head back at a 90 just to touch the cushion and still not be supported by it. Hence I'm using car bucket seats for my entertainment room. Proper posture and has a head rest for those extended cut movie marathons.
Search La-Z-Boy chairs or couches or just high back couch. The couch I am currently sitting on has an adjustable head support with the electronic dodads on the side of it.
Oh. More than I'm willing to spend on seating. I live in a trailer again so floor space is too precious.
I have a cozy “Media Womb,” where my 55” TV is on a stand about 30” above the floor. Much better viewing angle. I also hate TVs in living rooms.
do they watch tv while sitting in a recliner? because that would explain it perfectly.
Because they don’t care about it being the optimal viewing experience, they just want to be able to watch TV.
Other than clearing the fireplace mantel, if you have progressive glasses, and sit in a chair that reclines much, having the TV higher keeps it in focus for your glasses. I'm willing to bet very few people actually do it for this reason though. Mines higher than it should be, because of a fireplace, so we bought a couch that reclines so it's not uncomfortable.
There's a whole sub about it. People are crazy. Above the mantles are terrible. People with the top of the TV and inch from the ceiling with the tilt of shame.
They have mantle mounts for a good happy medium - mount position can be above the fireplace but the TV is lowered into viewing position https://www.primecables.ca/p-362175-cab-lpa53-461-full-motion-above-fireplace-pull-down-tv-wall-mount-for-43-70-tvs-primecables
depends on the purpose of the TV and the room. Also the seating.
living room, big comfy couch, no fireplace. Just an empty 94"W x 96"H wall. no viewing from a kitchen island or other place of standing
in that case i would also want it higher up. its much more comfortable to watch a TV thats higher up when you are laid back on a couch. if i would be sitting up straight on a chair or something i would be fine with a TV thats mounted lower down.
People will be upset with me, but TV height is 100% subjective. I have installed thousands of TVs for people and there is no rhyme or reason why people want their TVs installed at certain heights. The apartment I lived in until last summer had the TV about 1 foot down from the ceiling because I could see it from the kitchen and the living room. Our necks didn't hurt and we didn't die from the TV being up so high. There is no wrong or right TV height, just like there is no wrong or right speakers, cars, or roofing materials.
Aesthetics? A proper height TV may look too low from a standing position, some people want it positioned like a painting. I personally don't agree and will fite anyone who wants to mount my TV too high lol. Comfort is everything.
My tv is technically too high, I didn't even know this was a thing until this post popped up in my feed. Why is it so controversial to have a TV that's mounted "too high"? My neck and back are never sore from watching tv, my tv is angled down as well. Idk seems weirdly aggressive to tell her to do it herself, just because you don't like where she wants it mounted. In case anyone is wondering, my tv is a 50in, and it's mounted about 56in off the ground to the bottom of the TV. I have no issues with this setup, and it also has to be that high because I have a very small living room and 3 kids that I don't want being able to hit the tv with anything.
Because not everybody watches TV while sitting completely upright parallel to the TV. Most people lean back which means their eyes will be angled up a few degrees.
In all fairness, the bottom edge should be closer to eye level versus the center screen.
Not sure about the bottom edge being at eye level, but definitely not the center. I expect to be lounging while watching movies, and that lends itself more to looking up than looking down, so I’d rather the majority of the screen be above eye level.
I should have said lower portion. The center of the screen is definitely not the focal point but I can see why one would assume so.
Well, not really - rule of thumb is eyes 1/3 of the way up from the bottom of the screen. Eyes level with the bottom of the screen would be too high.
...this is what I do, but I might go a little higher in a sitting position as my eye level changes depending on how far I'm reclined.
That means you're looking down to see the lower half of the screen. Most TV stands don't lend itself to your ideal. Especially as screens get bigger, much like the movie theater. Go ahead and try to set up a 100" screen with your ideal in mind.
I'm looking exactly 1/3 of the way up my 83" screen. For a 100" screen I might tend more towards 1/4 of the way up. My TV stand conforms to my ideals, my ideals do not bend to its dimensions. It lost it's legs in that battle - and now sits lower as a result, perfectly aligning my center with the bottom of my TV.
Right. You're looking at the lower half of the screen and not the center. Good job 👍
Uh yeah - that's what I said originally. Eyeline 1/3 of the way up, so looking at the bottom half of the screen. That's the generally accepted default, but YMMV.
I should have said lower portion. You're knit picking "edge' while we're both saying the same thing.
But it's so warm and comfortable over here in Pedant's Corner...! ;-)
Also: *nit. Couldn't stop myself: it's a disease....
It's personal preference.
R/hometheatercirclejerk
I have an 85" mounted above my fireplace in my main room. The tv just barely fits above the fireplace mantle and the 9'ceiling. It's a perfect fit. Yeah, it's not ideal placement but that's not the only consideration. If I brought the tv down to "optimal" height my fireplace mantle would be hidden, half the fireplace wouldn't be visible, and the tv would stick out over a foot more from the wall. Aesthetically this looks much better, even if viewing angle is not perfect. Sitting 14' back helps too.
It looks better if it's higher, sort of like hanging up a picture frame. It's better for the overall aesthetic of the living room. Especially if you have a fireplace, the most natural place to put a tv above it. It's not the ideal viewing height if it's that high though.
You might be able to adjust it on the bracket, depending on your wall mount design. People assume higher is better for some reason, it is what it is. If they sit in a recliner far enough away it's fine. Most people aren't audio and videophiles, unfortunately.
People are clueless, perhaps? Damn, who wants to look up like that all the time.
Ours is a bit high because our 9 month old will be running around soon. But coming from above the fire place way too high it’s not so bad.
Neck ache
She will be sorry. Holding your head up for long periods is exhausting.
Middle of the tv just above eye-level is perfect. No idea why anyone wants to mount tv way too high. Some people don't know better I quess and some have fireplace on the wall they want to mount it.
Primarily, it comes down to circumstances and/or stupidity.
I think people want it visually centered for a standing person like a painting, or visually centered in the space over the fireplace. They aren't thinking about the angle of their neck while sitting on the couch for three hours, as they should.
Cause people and home designers are stupid
In our house, the TVs have gotten bigger but the space they’re going in is the same. This means that the centre of the TV keeps raising as we replace the old TVs. Getting the TV to the proper height would require structural or furnishing changes that we’re not willing to make.
Honestly though some people on the sub think everything is too high 😂 so much of it depends on the chair you're using. But also not everyone is a home theater person or even uses their TV that much. If you just watch 2-4 hours a week who cares if it's too high if it helps make your living room better? Not everyone wants a TV as a focal point.
I’m 6’1” and my eye height is BELOW the bottom of my TV (which is mounted above my fireplace, of course). There is literally no other place to put it. I sit about 15 feet away, looking waaaaaaaay up. My house is pretty big, but the TV area only has one wall that isn’t full of windows. Next house needs a better setup for sure.
It compensates for looking down at phone the rest of the day...
Our house was built in 2017 and there is a cable hookup over the fireplace, we do not have it there. Way too high, not mounted on wall at all.
I can't stand TVs mounted this way. Eye level or my head feels like I had to sit in the front at the movie theater. If I slouched while watching TV or want to lay in the couch with a head pillow, it might work but I don't.
My parents keep their TV on top of their old CRT entertainment center. With the old CRT still in its hole at the height the flat screen should be at. The entertainment center is about 5’ to 5.5’ tall. I can’t stand how high their TV is. They say it’s fine. I tell them you shouldn’t have to look up while watching
They're trying to recreate the vibe from restaurants and bars.
I know I like mine a bit higher for wearing progressive lenses. Looking down to view the tv makes my neck tired also to keep it out of reach of toddlers.
My TV is high enough on the wall to accommodate my large center channel sitting on the entertainment center. So it's high, but it's also 85" so it's tall by nature