The age old question of where to sit in a theater has finally be answered...
HowStuffWorks.com says you should, “Choose a row about two thirds of the distance from the screen to the back of the theater. Try to sit one or two seats from the exact center of the row. The reason is that most sound technicians check the audio levels from the center seat about two thirds back from the screen. Since the sound from right and left speakers are equalized for the center, you want to sit slightly off-center to enhance the stereo effect.”
Sounds good, but doesn't add a virtual experience like that of a dream (where you feel what happens).
The wiki about IMAX theaters talks about the experience throughout the history of IMAX and talks about, “About 5 million visitors viewed the screen, which covered a person's total field of vision when looking directly forward. This easily created a sensation of motion for nearly everyone, and motion sickness in a few viewers.” This points out that people who watch either a HUGE screen or just sit close (like me I guess) are more effected by camera pans and experience more “motion” during the film.
Looks like I was still wrong about the dream thing but this is a good answer as to why one would still like to sit closer.
Lastly, when you build a home theater you need to worry about things like the resolution, viewing angles and how big to build your screen, much like the big screens but on a smaller scale (every bit helps). There is a confusing bit of math that is done to find the best screen size at the distance you want to put your screen, etc... this site has a little graph that shows the industry spec. for viewing distances that allow a theater to be a “certified” theater (either THX or SMTPE) they have to have seats that are within a set distance to the screen, for an average theater that distance is 13’ - 20’ but does not go into detail as to distances after that minimum distance.
The conclusion is the distance YOU enjoy sitting at is really up to you. If you sit back farther then center you experience a sharper over all image and you don’t have to move your eyes or head to see the whole screen, and if you are about 2/3rds back and a little off center you will have the “best” sound. If you want to experience the film’s “Thrill Ride” effect then you need to sit close enough to have the screen fully engulf your field of vision.
Now no one is miss informed.
3 comments:
Where I sit in a movie theatre is usually governed by the lateness of my arrival. In all meetings, I like to sit no more than 1/3 of the way back from the front, and to the side. I have a hard time paying attention from the back.
I would NOT have married my husband if he was the kind of person who wouldn't sit in the front 1/3 of the theater. I'm not kidding. :)
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