As others have mentioned here, center channel is difficult due to many of us having nice TV's rather than projectors.
Good god. The bottom of my 64" plasma is at 20 inches. It is at the perfect height in my recliner and my L and R speakers hit right at the center line of the screen.Just raise the TV so speakers can be properly placed. The bottom of our OLED is at least 5’ above ground, and it’s fine at 12’ listening distance. No neck strain.
I might as well just mount the TV on the ceiling facing down, vs that kind of height. Either way, seems weird to have the center channel emitting voices in front of you while the actor’s face is staring down upon you from the skylight that is the TV.Just raise the TV so speakers can be properly placed. The bottom of our OLED is at least 5’ above ground, and it’s fine at 12’ listening distance. No neck strain.
Just raise the TV so speakers can be properly placed. The bottom of our OLED is at least 5’ above ground, and it’s fine at 12’ listening distance. No neck strain.
Regardless of what height anyone is comfortable with, TV panels necessitate the placement of a centre speaker (if used) above or below the screen, which makes it impossible for voices to sound like they originate from the middle of the screen (the fundamental problem that's addressed by using a phantom centre). I'm all for suspending disbelief while watching a film, but I draw the line at pretending the voices originate from some place they don't.
Good god.
Either way, seems weird to have the center channel emitting voices in front of you while the actor’s face is staring down upon you from the skylight that is the TV.
TV panels necessitate the placement of a centre speaker (if used) above or below the screen, which makes it impossible for voices to sound like they originate from the middle of the screen (the fundamental problem that's addressed by using a phantom centre). I'm all for suspending disbelief while watching a film, but I draw the line at pretending the voices originate from some place they don't.
Yeah. I set my wall mount such that my line of sight is right in the middle of the screen to slightly below. That's pretty important for comfort.However, even if that helped what I'm hearing... the screen's still too high.
Yeah. I set my wall mount such that my line of sight is right in the middle of the screen to slightly below. That's pretty important for comfort.
I think you’re mistaking “in the same plane as your eyes” for “line of sight” here. Maybe if you have some janky eyesore “theater chairs” that contort you into a fetal position then the two are equivalent, but otherwise they won’t be. Besides, watching TV isn’t a sit-ramrod-straight time sink anyway. So in fact the natural eye position is somewhat above the eyes.
In practice the typical high end American home tv-over-the-fireplace-and-mantel is not uncomfortable to view. This placement also confers the benefit that small children or pets walking on the floor won’t obstruct the screen.
It always has been to me, and I cringe every time I see it. tv-over-the-fireplace is antithetical to seated system enjoyment. I will make an exception if the seat is a mattress or other situation where you are laying down, but then you need to mount speakers up much higher as well. In the end it's all about line of sight and comfort. In my recliners there's no way it would work.In practice the typical high end American home tv-over-the-fireplace-and-mantel is not uncomfortable to view.
Can't argue with that.This placement also confers the benefit that small children or pets walking on the floor won’t obstruct the screen.
Ergonomic recommendations are that your eyes hit at the middle 50-66% of the screen height. That is, 50-66% of the screen is below your eye level. That allows for a straight head position and your eyes scan forward and down, which reduces eyestrain as opposed to looking up. In fact just today at work I had to use someone else's workstation. Not wanting to mess up their setup, I left their monitor up overly high as they left it. I now have neck strain and a headache.I actually find the TV above eye level to be more natural. I used to have my TV at eye level, but it always left me with upper back pain after long sessions. Moving my TV up forced my spine and head into a much more natural position, which completely eliminated the pain. I do the same thing with my monitors in my office, now. They sit about a foot higher than they would be on the normal monitor stands.
Ergonomic recommendations are that your eyes hit at the middle 50-66% of the screen height. That is, 50-66% of the screen is below your eye level. That allows for a straight head position and your eyes scan forward and down, which reduces eyestrain as opposed to looking up. In fact just today at work I had to use someone else's workstation. Not wanting to mess up their setup, I left their monitor up overly high as they left it. I now have neck strain and a headache.
For home theater I could allow the screen to be a bit higher. There, my eyes hit at about the 33-40% mark. The screen is 10 feet away and I recline slightly.
Ergonomic recommendations are that your eyes hit at the middle 50-66% of the screen height. That is, 50-66% of the screen is below your eye level. That allows for a straight head position and your eyes scan forward and down, which reduces eyestrain as opposed to looking up. In fact just today at work I had to use someone else's workstation. Not wanting to mess up their setup, I left their monitor up overly high as they left it. I now have neck strain and a headache.
For home theater I could allow the screen to be a bit higher. There, my eyes hit at about the 33-40% mark. The screen is 10 feet away and I recline slightly.
It sounds like your chair could be suspect. Chairs play an enormous role in the geometry they put our bodies in.Must be different based on the individual. For me, the most natural neck position occurs when my eyes are very near the bottom of the screen. Eyes at the top half of the screen leads to bad upper back pain as I start to hunch forward.
It's the "top third" of the screen.Really? Can you send me links to these ergonomic recommendations? I've mostly heard people say that eye height should be at 1/3 of the screen height.
Ergotron goes even further to say your eyes should be near the top of the screen:
https://www.ergotron.com/en-us/ergonomics/ergonomic-equation
As does ViewSonic:
"Getting into the numbers of it all, your screen should be placed anywhere between eye level and thirty-degrees below your line of sight. This range is determined based on the fact that our eyes naturally trend straight ahead and downward when at rest."
"When gazing at a computer monitor, your eyes should be at rest when viewing a browser’s address bar."
https://www.viewsonic.com/library/business/best-computer-screen-positioning/
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Now, I admit I do not put my screen that low because I can't. It's as low as it can go already, with the bottom about an inch off the desk. I do sit back a bit against my headrest in a tall back chair so the angles are a bit different.