What TV Size for 15×15 Room? [Answered & Explained]

Do you need help finding the perfect TV size for your 15×15 room? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered!

So, here’s the deal: if you want to have the best possible TV-watching experience, you need to make sure you’re sitting at the right distance from the screen.

Thanks to organizations like SMPTE and THX, we now have tables and formulas that provide valuable insights into the optimal viewing distance for various popular TV sizes.

For living rooms and bedrooms with mixed usage, the SMPTE distance is more suitable.
Now, let’s focus on determining the ideal TV sizes for your 15×15 room. If you’re creating a home theater setup primarily for watching movies, or you the most immersive TV watching experience, the THX distance is highly recommended.

Keep Reading to learn:

1. SMPTE Recommended TV Size for 15×15 room
2. How To calculate TV size using SMPTE Table & Formula
3. THX Recommended TV Size for 15×15 room
4. How to calculate TV size using THX Table & Formula
5. Our top recommendation for 75-80 inches

Recommended TV Size For 15×15 Feet Living Room 

In my experience, you can easily maintain a viewing distance of 10-11 feet in a 15×15 room, and based on SMPTE recommendations, you can choose TV sizes like 75-75 inches. The key is to measure the distance from the TV Stand/wall location to your front couch. What if you can maintain a distance of more than 11 feet? Well, You can go with a larger TV size according to your viewing distance on the tables. Select a smaller TV size according to the available distance if your room layout and furniture placements don’t allow you to maintain 10-11 feet.

For example, if your room layout allows you to maintain 9 feet distance from the TV place, you should look for a recommended TV size for 9 feet on the table, which is an 65-inch TV. But if your room allows you to maintain less than 9 feet, 65-inch TV will be too big for you.

But, for the living room or media room, you should always go as big as you can maintain the viewing distance. The research shows #1 reason for replacing old TVs is the smaller sizes. If your room size allows 11 feet distance, you should choose 80 inches over 75 inches. If you go smaller than that, you might regret it later.  

It brings us to an important question if we go with THX 40 FOV distances, can we select a bigger TV size for the same viewing distance? For example, for 10 feet viewing distance, THX recommends up to 100 inches of TV. So should you go for a 100-inch TV for the living room? THX Viewing Distance for Living Room, Yay or Nay?

THX Distances for Living Room: If you are a cinema enthusiast, you want to get an immersive cinema-like presence, you should go for THX recommended distances but not TV sizes. Because for 10 feet viewing distance THX recommends 100 inches TV which can be a very overwhelming TV size. So here is my pro tip for enthusiasts: For een10-11 feet viewing distance, go for SMPTE’s recommended TV size (75-80 inches), but after buying the TV, sit closer as suggested by THX.

What about Bedrooms? Should we go by SMPTE or THX formula? It depends on whether bedroom TV will be your primary entertainment TV or a secondary TV. If it is your secondary TV, you should go with SMPTE. 

Pro Tip: Don’t follow the bigger is better rule for bedrooms strictly. People prefer small TV sizes for bedrooms, from 55 inches to 65 inches mostly. But if you are the big screen guy, go for it.

Here’s How to Find the Right TV Size for 15×15 Room

1- Take a measuring tape and calculate the distance between your TV screen (TV wall or TV stand location) and your seating place. Note the distance in either inches or feet. 

2- Look at the SMPTE table for viewing distance for the LIVING room or bedroom. Look at the THX distance table for the home theater setup, which is best for movies.

For example, in my case the distance between the TV wall and the couch was 11 feet (132 inches) . So according to the SMPTE table, the recommended TV size is 80 inches.

Pro Tip: You should choose a TV size that is closest to your viewing distance, or adjust your viewing distance according to nearest TV size in the table. But you should not overthink it, we can ignore a few inches up and down. Viewing distances are not a hard & fast rule. That is the reason different organizations have slightly different recommendations.

We can calculate the TV size using, SMPTE-based formula as well.

SMPTE TV Size Calculator Formula

TV Size (inches)= Viewing Distance in (inches)/ 1.6

For instance, in my case viewing distance between TV location and couch is 132 inches. So,

TV Size (inches)= 132/1.6264 = 81 inches TV Approx. ( 80 inches Recommended)

SMPTE Viewing Distance Table 30 FOV

SMPTE Viewing Distance For Living Room (Inches)	SMPTE Viewing Distance For Living Room (Feet)	Recommended TV Size(TV Sizes Diagonal)
52 Inches	4.3 feet	32 inches
70 inches	5.8 feet	43 inches
82 inches	6.8 feet	50 inches
90 inches	7.5 feet	55 inches
103 inches	8.9 feet	65 inches
114 inches	9.5 feet	70 inches
122 inches	10.2 feet	75 inches
131 inches	10.9 feet	80 inches
139 inches	11.6 feet	85 inches

Recommended TV Size For 15×15 Feet Home Theater Room

For home cinema, you should go with THX recommended distances which recommend sitting relatively closer to the TV for watching movies. THX recommends a 40-degree field of view, like in theater, for better immersion and presence.

Since in a 15×15 home theater room, you would like to utilize the room’s length, you can maintain a 9-10 feet distance, and you can go for up to 100-inches large screen if your budget allows you.

Here’s How to Find the Right TV Size for a Home Theater Room of 15×15 Room

1- Take a measuring tape and calculate the distance between your TV screen (TV wall or TV stand location) and your seating place. Note the distance in either inches or feet. 

3-Look at the THX distance table for the home theater setup, which is best for movies. Or use the THX formula.

THX Formula To Calculate TV Size

TV Size= Viewing Distances inches x 0.835

For instance, in my case viewing distance between TV location and couch is 120 inches. So,

TV Size (inches)= 120 inches x 0.835= 100 inches TV

THX Viewing Distance Table For 40 FOV

THX Viewing Distance Inches	THX View Distances(feet)	TV size
38 inches	3.2 feet	32-inch
42 inches	3.5 feet	35-inch
48 inches	4 feet	40-inch
52 inches	4.3 feet	43-inch
60 inches	5 feet	50-inch
66 inches	5.5 feet	55-inch
72 inches	6 feet	60-inch
78 inches	6.5 feet	65-inch
84 inches	7 feet	70-inch
90 inches	7.5 feet	75-inch
96 inches	8 feet	80-inch
102 inches	8.5 feet	85-inch
108 inches	9 feet	90-inch
114 inches	9.5 feet	95-inch
120 inches	10 feet	100

Key Factors For Determining the Right TV Size For Your Room

2 key factors will decide your TV size:

• 1- Available Viewing Distance in your room
•  2-Personal Preferences (including Budget)

We must follow SMPTE & THX recommendations for viewing distances for various TV sizes. SMPTE is based on 30 FOVs & THX has a range of FOVs like (40,36,24). I have listed these distances in the tables above.

Now check how much viewing distance you can maintain in your 15×15 & choose the TV size accordingly.

Note: SMPTE Viewing Distances were initially recommended for 1080p, but they have been widely adopted for 4K resolutions as well. But THX 40 FOV is suitable for 4k only.

Personal preferences also matter when deciding the TV size. Since THX recommends smaller viewing distance for more immersion, so if you want really immersive cinema-like experience you can go according to THX seating distance.

TV Placement & Height Must Be Accurate

Another aspect to consider is the wall space where you plan on placing your TV.

• 1- Your wall should easily accommodate the TV
• 2-You should be able to maintain 42 inches height from the ground to the center of your TV

If you have limited wall space, an 75-inch TV might not be feasible, but it can be a perfect fit if you have enough space and viewing distance.

Our Top Recommendations For 75-80 inch TVS

Samsung QN90C 75-inch TV

I recommend Samsung Q90B TV because it is feature-rich and performs better in every department. You get a 4k QLED screen with superb picture quality due to high contrast ratios, wide color gamut, and viewing angles.

When it comes to gaming, it is a flagship. It supports 120 Hz at 4k with a variable refresh rate. Only a few TVs on the market I have seen can do that. But like any flagship product, it is a high-budget product.

Conclusion

So the perfect TV size for your 15×15 living room is between 75-80 inches size range. First measure the your exact TV Viewing distance, and choose the nearest TV size accordingly from the tables.