The diagonal of the TV plays a big role when choosing a TV receiver. The comfort of watching video on the screen depends on the correct choice of screen size. And the statement that the larger the diagonal of the TV in cm, all the better.
How much will it be if you convert 1 inch to cm? As is known 1 inch equals 2.54 centimeters. Inch (from the Dutch. duim - thumb) - the name for the unit of measurement of distance in European non-metric systems of measures. Today, an inch is most often understood as an English inch (English inch), equal to 2.54 cm exactly.
It was from 1958 that they decided to accept the value of an inch as exactly 25.4 mm, and before that there were many more signs after the decimal point. The ratio of inches and centimeters is as follows:
- 1 inch = 2.54 cm = 25.4 mm
- 1 cm = 0.3937 inch
- 1 m = 39.37 inches
After the adoption of the international system of units SI, inches are considered an obsolete designation, which should be gradually phased out. But, despite this, inches continue to be used in technology when indicating calibers and form factors, for compatibility with long-established technical solutions. In this case, a double stroke (quotation mark ") is used as the sign of inches.
In television technology, the screen diagonal is expressed in inches, which is measured as the distance between opposite corners of the matrix. For example, 37" means a screen with a diagonal of 37 inches or 37x2.54=93.98 cm.
A simple length converter to convert inches to centimeters and cm to inches:
For example, if you take a 32-inch TV, how much will it be in cm? Using the calculations in the converter, we get that 32 inches in centimeters will be 81.3. Another example, we convert 22 inches to cm, we get 55.9 centimeters. And if we take a diagonal of 42 inches, we get 106.7 centimeters.
TV diagonal in cm and inches, conversion table:
| inches | centimeters |
| 22" | 60 cm |
| 32" | 82 cm |
| 37" | 94 cm |
| 40" | 102 cm |
| 42" | 107 cm |
| 50" | 127 cm |
| 60" | 152 cm |
| 70" | 178 cm |
How to choose a diagonal size
Two factors influence the choice of TV diagonal:
- distancefrom which you will watch a television receiver;
- picture resolution played on the screen.
And this picture resolution depends both on the screen of the device you purchased, and on the video signal supplied to the TV input.
In the picture you see how to measure the diagonal of the TV.
The higher the resolution of the image, that is, the greater the number of points used to form it, the closer you can view the picture on the screen without compromising quality. And the lower the resolution of the picture, the smaller the diagonal of the TV in cm should be, or you need to increase the viewing distance of the TV.
You can check this yourself when choosing a TV receiver. If you look closely at a picture with low quality, for example, terrestrial television, you can notice all the shortcomings of both the image and the video signal processing circuits. And if you step back a little, small errors will become invisible.
For example, if you take a 32-inch TV receiver, then for a signal with 625 lines (terrestrial television), the distance to the screen will be approximately three diagonals 32x3=96 inches or 96x2.54=243 centimeters, which is approximately equal to 2.5 meters. And if the image resolution corresponds to 720p, then the distance to the screen for normal viewing will be already 1.9 meters or more. If the TV is already Full-HD, then it will be convenient to view the video picture from a distance of 1.3 meters or more. This turned out to be the minimum distance to the screen, when viewing from which it will not be visible in the picture of distortion due to the structure of the video signal.
For example, if your viewing distance is approximately 2.2 meters, then when buying an HD Ready TV, you can choose a device with a diagonal of up to 37 inches. If you choose a Full-HD TV, you can increase the diagonal up to 52 inches without compromising picture quality. And new models with 4K (Ultra HD) resolution, with a video conversion module to UHD resolution, will already be more than 60 inches at this viewing distance.
For example, one of these TVs: Samsung UE-65NU7400.
Diagonal 65 inches, 4K resolution, there is an upscaling module that increases the resolution of any video to 4K.
UE-65NU7400
But when viewed from a distance that exceeds the calculated one, there will not be a big difference between TVs with different resolutions. Do not forget that the resolution of the device itself must also correspond to the video signal for the highest quality playback. Therefore, when today almost all Full HD TVs and even models with Ultra HD resolution appear (4 times more than Full HD), then the number of pixels in the video signal must be taken into account.
Terrestrial television still has SD resolution (625 lines). But digital television is already spreading more and more, and there you need to find out the resolution additionally, but it will be more than SD. There are many films in Full HD quality, but there is still very little content with Ultra HD. We can advise you to carry out all calculations for today with the condition that you are watching video in Full HD quality, and you will get the minimum viewing distance. And if you need to increase the distance, for example, installing a TV in the living room, then you will not see any damage to the quality of the picture.
An example of a modern (2018) TV with Full HD resolution: LG 43LK5900.
43LK5900
TV diagonal in cm table
The minimum TV viewing distance and screen diagonal size can be related by the following table:
The diagonals of TVs are presented in inches and centimeters, the table makes it possible to choose the third one according to two parameters. In the table, select the horizontal size of the screen diagonal, vertically select the video resolution on the screen (it depends on the TV and on the input signal), and at the intersection of these values there will be the desired viewing distance in meters.
A 720p quality signal can give out satellite TV programs, games from consoles, copies of BD discs, digital TV.
1080p resolution corresponds to Full-HD TVs and it is better to use such devices if you have sources of such a signal. Although there are circuit solutions for upscaling the signal to 1080p values, such circuits do not always work perfectly. Everything needs to be checked on the spot.
Therefore, it is better to determine the distance to the screen in advance and, accordingly, choose the desired resolution and TV diagonal in cm for comfortable viewing.
