Selecting a TV for the Living Room 
When selecting a TV for the living room, there’s a certain balance that you’ll want to keep in mind. On one hand, you want a TV that blends in with your décor. After all, your living room is the focal point of your home’s interior design. On the other hand, you want a TV that’s big enough to be visually pleasing for you, your family and friends. 

Flat-panel TVs  
Wall-mounted flat-panel TVs are ideal for living rooms. They take up zero floor space, and can take on the appearance of a painting on the wall. Get a DVD of some famous paintings, put it on continuous play, and you’re guests might not even guess that it’s a TV.

DLP TVs 
If the TV isn’t going to be wall mounted, you might want to consider a DLP projection TV. They’re not as thin as a flat-panel plasma or LCD TV, but nevertheless DLP provides truly spectacular high definition images in screen sizes up to 92". But the biggest advantage that a DLP projection TV has is the price. You simply can’t beat the value they offer. In TVs, “thin may be in,” but “thicker just might be slicker.”

Determining the best screen size
In general, the vast majority of televisions that Ovation installs in living rooms are in the 40” to 65” range. This seems to be the “sweet spot’ for a large enough picture for enjoyable viewing, without overpowering the room’s aesthetics. That being said, there is a formula we use at Ovation that helps us determine the best screen size and viewing distance for a particular room. Here it is:

Viewing Distance = 1.5 to 2.5 x TV screen size

Plugging in a few popular TV screen sizes give us:

Screen Size: 26” Viewing Distance: 3-½ to 5-½ feet
Screen Size: 32” Viewing Distance: 4 to 6-½ feet
Screen Size: 40” Viewing Distance: 5 to 8-½ feet
Screen Size: 46” Viewing Distance: 5-¾ to 9-½ feet
Screen Size: 65” Viewing Distance: 8 to 13-½ feet

Don’t forget the sound
Without great sound, you’re only getting half of the experience. For superior sound in the living room, we usually recommend in-ceiling/in-wall architectural speakers or “invisible speakers.” They sound fantastic and strike the perfect balance between performance and designer aesthetics.

Call us today
An Ovation system designer will come to your home, take the critical measurements, and then work with you and your designers to come up with the perfect television solution for your living room. Just call us or click for help. What do you have to lose?