How High Should You Mount Your TV?
It’s no wonder why no one sits in the front two rows at the movie theater; no one wants to strain their neck at an unreasonable angle for two hours. The same thing applies to TVs in your home. You don’t want to place it too high or low for your family members and guests to sit uncomfortably while trying to relax and enjoy your favorite shows or movies.
The TV is the focal point of the home. It is where family gatherings to watch football games and movie nights take place. According to Nielsen Estimates, 95.9% of homeowners have a television in their home. 119 million US homes have TVs for the upcoming season, which is a .3 million increase from last year. According to a Total Audience Report, Americans age 18 watch an average of about 5 hours a day.
The height and placement of your television is a crucial detail to enjoying your entertainment experience. Especially if you like to host parties, you’ll want your guests coming back for more.
There are several factors that come into play when assessing where to mount to your TV: your height, height of the seat/cushion/couch, distance from your seat to the height of the screen, and the size of the TV. Several other personal factors make a difference as well, such as style, comfort, traffic, and circulation. I would like to add that 4K TVs and the latest 8K TVs allow the viewer to sit much closer to the screen without putting too much strain on the eyes, due to the substantially higher pixel count.
Let’s start with the basics, as a general rule of thumb, the ideal center of the screen should be at the eye level of the viewer. The ideal center of a TV for viewers that are sitting on a couch is about 42 inches above the floor. When it comes to viewing distance, the best measurement is about 2.5x diagonal length of the screen. But like I previously stated, newer TVs allow you to sit a bit closer.
What if you want to mount your TV over your fireplace? Although not always the most optimal spot to mount a TV, there are some factors that make this ideal for specific situations and layouts of houses. For example, if your kitchen area and living room/ family room are adjacent to each other, you can consider that there will be a handful of people that’ll be standing in this area. A TV screen at 60 inches above the floor is perfect for a person standing at 5’6”. Don’t forget about people sitting in barstools. To find the optimal height on barstools, measure the height of the barstool and add 24 inches for the most ideal viewing height. We have been seeing a trend and increasing population in lower fireplaces to accommodate for those who’d like to mount their TV above it.
And now we introduce the greatest invention since sliced bread: motion wall mounts. This might be the answer to all of our mounting problems. Don’t get me wrong the prior solution is still ideal for a more stable seating area, but a motion wall mount could be better for environments where there are a lot more traffic and different eye levels i.e. more people standing in the room or sitting on barstools. Newer tv mounts have incorporated swivel and tilt technology to adjust for perfect viewing angles. These also allow for adjusted viewing distance, extending outward toward the viewer. With motorized wall mounts, you can have your TV adjust to your preferred viewing angle with just the touch of a button via a smartphone or handheld remote.
By: Wendy Wang
