TV height calculator

So the center of the screen sits 40 to 44 inches from the floor, which is eye level when you are sitting down. For a 55 inch TV that puts the bottom edge around 28 to 29 inches up. Most TVs hang far higher than that, because empty wall above a console tempts people to fill it.

Almost always. Above most fireplaces the screen center lands well past the 44 inch ceiling of the comfortable range, and a center much above that strains your neck within one movie and reads like a sports bar. If the fireplace wall is the only option, mount as low as the mantel allows and tilt the screen down.

Between 1.5 and 2.5 times the screen diagonal. A 55 inch TV wants a seat roughly 7 to 11.5 feet away; a 65 inch stretches that to about 8 to 13.5 feet. Closer than that and you are watching pixels, farther and the screen loses the room.

Take the distance from seat to screen in inches and divide by 2.5 and 1.5 to bracket the range. At 8 feet that is roughly a 38 to 64 inch screen; at 10 feet, 48 to 80. The calculator runs this check for you when you enter your seating distance.

Six to twelve inches wider than the TV on each side. A 55 inch TV is about 48 inches wide, so its console should run 60 to 72 inches. A TV that overhangs its console reads top-heavy from every seat in the room.