TV viewing distance

TV viewing distance is the tool on this page. The control sits above this text. Use it on the display you want to judge, then read what the result can and cannot mean. The target phrase people search is tied to this job, and the explanation below stays with that job instead of repeating a generic review of every display ever made.

Refresh rate, frame rate, and response time are three clocks. Refresh is how often the panel can start a new picture. Frame rate is how often the game finishes one. Response time is how long the pixels take to change. A 240 Hz panel showing a 60 frame game looks like 60, with headroom it is not using. Frame time is 1000 divided by the frame rate: 144 frames per second is about 6.9 milliseconds. If your frame time spikes above the refresh interval, you feel a stutter even when the average frame rate looks fine.

Display scaling is how the operating system maps a panel pixel to a text pixel. Windows at 150 percent on a 4K 27-inch monitor is a common way to keep text the size of 1440p while keeping the extra sharpness. The calculator divides the panel pixels by the scale factor and shows the logical desktop. It does not change your system. The Windows page says the same thing in the language of that setting.

Viewing distance for a cinema-like 30 degree field is about 1.87 times the diagonal. A tighter 40 degree field, closer to a desk, is a shorter multiple. A 27-inch monitor at 40 degrees wants you nearer than a 65-inch television at 30 degrees. These are geometry, not taste. If you like to sit closer, sit closer. The number stops a 720p television from being placed where the pixels become tiles.

HDR against SDR is a signal and a capability. The picture must say it is HDR, the panel must be bright enough and wide enough, and the browser must pass the signal through. Many browsers do not. Nits are the brightness unit. Peak nits on a small highlight are not the same as full-screen nits. Response-time marketing and a moving block on this site can show smearing. They cannot print the ISO number from the back of the monitor. The settings page turns a use — documents, photos, games, or video — into a short recommendation you can ignore.

Screenz is a set of pictures and arithmetic for the display you already have. The picture is drawn by the browser. The arithmetic is the same formula a spec sheet uses, written out so you can change the inputs. Neither one is a laboratory certificate. A dead pixel you can see is real. A refresh number that does not match the sticker is a clue about the operating system, the cable, the battery mode, or the browser, not an automatic failure of the panel.

Use fullscreen when you are hunting a mark. The address bar, the notch, and the rounded corner all hide the edge, and the edge is where a bad pixel and a fold crease like to sit. On a phone, turn the brightness up and turn off the reading tint. On a monitor, leave the preset you actually use, then repeat the test in the neutral preset if you are judging color. Night shift, f.lux, and vivid modes are fine for the evening and misleading for a test.

Dust sits on the glass and moves when you tilt the panel. A dead subpixel stays dark. A stuck subpixel stays lit, so it shows on black. A crease on a foldable is a hinge in the stack. It is not a dead pixel, and a flat color shows it more honestly than a photograph. Pressure spots and backlight bleed on an LCD change with the angle of your head. OLED black should look off, except at the camera hole and along a fold.

The browser cannot measure nits, cannot read EDID on most pages, and cannot promise that a 10-bit ramp is being sent as 10-bit. If a gradient shows steps, the steps may be the panel, the operating system, or the compositor. If a refresh counter reads 60 on a 144 Hz monitor, check the cable, the power plan, and the display setting before you blame the page. Screenz will say this again because it is the difference between a useful test and a false warranty claim.

Photographing the panel with a second phone adds moiré and makes uniformity look worse than it is. Trust your eye at the distance you actually sit. Move closer only to confirm that a mark is in the pixels rather than on the glass. Then wipe the glass and look again. A foldable should be checked twice, cover display and inner display, because they are different diagonals, different pixel densities, and often different aspect ratios.