How close should I sit?

[slipd]

Hey guys,

Only a quick question

How close should you sit from your monitor to a.) Remain safe/healthy etc, and b.) To get the most of out the visual quality of your unit?

I've had a bit of a change round recently in my room after buying a 226bw and since then, I can't seem to concentrate on the screen for more than about 30mins

I used to have a 17" tft (1280*1024 @ 80Hz) which I used to view from about a foot away with out problems? The 226bw is about 2 foot away, running at 1680*1050 @ 60Hz...

Any thoughts?

Cheers,

SW.

 

[Greebo]

I know this site is for tvs but if you look at the hdtv results they won't be far off although you could sit a little further back since the res of your monitor isn't as high.

http://www.myhometheater.homestead.com/viewingdistancecalculator.html

So in your case you need to be no further than 2.9 feet away otherwise your eyes fail to resolve the different pixels and you might as well be sat nearer to a smaller and cheaper screen

Makes you wonder how many people with 24" screens sit over 3' away?

And it makes you laugh that people with 40" HD plasmas need to sit closer than 5' otherwise they might as well a non hd tv.

 

[Greebo]

Also you need to look at brightness. Modern tft's can go far too bright for our eyes. The recommended brightness for text/windows desktop is 120cd. My monitor can go as high as 400 but it should be too bright for me.

In general I play games at half the maximum brightness. This may be contributing to your problems.

Eyestrain studies have suggested the perfect distance is 35 inches:

http://www.office-ergo.com/viewing.htm

 

[slipd]

Wow - thanks mate

I'm currently on '30' for brightness and already I think its made a difference?

The viewing distance claculator looks pretty good too!

Cheers,

SW.