Doesn't a flat screen TV over the mantlepiece make your neck ache?

In response to my own question, I have just found this comment:

Television screens are optimized for color and brightness to look best when viewing with the center of the screen at eye level. If you typically watch television from your sofa, this means you should position the screen with the center of the screen at eye level. In addition to best viewing conditions for the screen image, not craning your neck to look at the screen has important longterm health benefits. Now this doesn't mean you need to invest in surveyor's equipment to configure your screen exactly at eye level, but using your best guess of eye level compared to the center of the screen will result in better viewing than placing the screen above eye level.

Perhaps people who have tellies above the fireplace sit on barstools, or stand up to watch them...

just like in the pub!

quote:

just like in the pub!

Having a telly over the mantelpiece can easily makes your room look like the pub if you are not careful. It's certainly not good for you to watch TV looking up.

Nigel

This is of course dependent on the size of the room. TVs are large now. Only a decade a go 32 inch would have been the limits now its the minimum.

Because of the size you tend to have the sofa opposite sides and the consequence is you do not crane your neck. If you are sat right under then yes you would but then you are a numpty for getting such a big screen if its only two feet away.

As Gary says it depends on size and distance. In my old house the TV was at eye height - with its new location we find it much better and very comfortable to watch - the other advantage is that its not cluttering up the room.

James

I can't imagine all that smoke is any good for it either.

I have one of those 50" Pioneer Kuro jobbies and I specifically went for a low-level aka 15" high plasma table rather than wall mounting.

I chose this height both for domestic harmony and because it provided a relaxing eye height of c34" which matches my seated viewing height of c36"

Distance from seat to plasma is c14'

Seems to work well - I wouldn't like it positioned 5ft up on the wall!!

Cheers

Don

I also have a 50" Kuro but mine is... above the fireplace. Viewing is about 3-4 metres away and... it's fine. If a slump on the floor or at angle on the sofa then it is a problem. However, sitting properly on the sofa is hardly a burden.

Mike

...not if you have a reclining chair. I reckon I probably end up viewing at eye height based on reclined angle.

Anyway work out what angle you watch at in the cinema...oh and I suspect the center of the colour optimization comment applies to cathode ray tube TV's and not so much flat panels.

regards
geoff

mine is on a normal eye height stand and i like it that way but isnt there tilting wall brackets available for these screens ?

... whether viewing a big projected image or a flattie, I am very glad that I installed at eye-height (as I am that audio system is at ear height).

Even in flix if you sit in front and look up it is a pain.

We had nowhere else to put ours - we tried it in the corner but it looked awful and there was, of course, no way to sensibly get the front speakers either side.

As you can see we lowered the mantelpiece and could have mounted the TV even lower were it not for the front speaker.

The main sofa is out of shot - directly opposite.

The TV is on a bracket and is tilted down, perhaps 10 to 15 degrees or so. We actually find this a really comfortable viewing position. Most sofas tend to recline you a little so you're not sitting bolt upright looking along a plane parallel with the floor anyway.

I don't feel it's a compromise at all.