Reddit Thinks Your TV Is Too High
You probably love your living room. This is the place where you will relax at the end of the day, ready to relax in any home theater you create. However, if you’re looking up , you’re doing it wrong – at least according to the “experts” on Reddit .
The essence of the r/tvtoohigh subreddit is quite simple: subscribers post photos of TV sets, both their own and those they know, and allow commentators to tear the design apart. While you can see your general setup roasting here, there are some particularly outrageous TV placements, such as this ceiling-mounted setup or this “hidden” setup , where it’s not clear if the owner of the home wants people to know they’re own a TV.
As the name suggests, the focus should be on the height of the TV, but that doesn’t stop Redditors from giving their opinion on other aspects of the room, including furniture placement, lighting, and even paint color. However, the most common “violation” in the subreddit is to place the TV above the fireplace, which is a fairly common practice since the flat displays make it easy to set them flush with the space. By default this space is high, way too high if you ask those Redditors.
A subreddit is not what you would call “good”. The commentators here are not shy about words, tearing apart these TVs and the rooms they are in. However, they praise settings that they find acceptable. Consider this post with a title that implies the OP is not 100% sure about their design. Top comment? “Perfect. Just damn beautiful!”
So what passes the r/tvtoohigh test? It’s simple: the TV is at eye level. The subreddit believes that your TV should look into your eyes when you’re sitting on the couch. It should either stand on a medium-height TV stand, or mount lower on the wall than most of us might think. It really is. Of course, I can’t comment on your overall aesthetic, but post a photo of your TV at eye level with a sofa and few people will criticize your placement.
The other side of the coin here is the distance from the TV to your sofa and the size of the TV you buy to make up for that. This metric is slightly more controversial on r/tvtoohigh than the consensus eye level standard, as evidenced by this thread on the subject . The general image shows some recommended TV sizes based on the distance from your sofa, such as a 42-inch TV for a six-foot distance, or an 80-inch screen for a distance of 12.5 to 14 inches.
However, detractors point out that these numbers don’t make much sense, especially now that 4K TVs are the most common TVs these days. In the past, sitting too close to a big screen could be distracting, as you could see the pixels of a 720p or 1080p display. Now that your TV’s resolution is this high, you don’t have much to lose when you get close to a big TV. What’s more important is how the TV fits into your space, to your taste. And, of course, at eye level.
It’s easy to imagine this subreddit as a bunch of mean people looking to rob other people’s houses. Sometimes it is. However, it tends to change the way you look at TV placement. I thought about mounting my TV earlier and always assumed I would place it relatively high on the wall. My instinct was to replicate the “theatrical experience” and felt like I needed to watch TV to do so.
But I can see eye-level placement being more convenient for both TV viewing and the overall design of the room, as it aligns with the usual advice for placing pictures on the wall (again, at eye level). The subreddit, as brutal as it may seem, is also somewhat supportive. After your photo is removed, the commenters will suggest rearranging your TV, furniture, or speakers to create a space that matches their aesthetic.
But again, that’s their aesthetic. Not everyone benefits from TV settings and room design that r/tvtoohigh approves. Some of us have children and pets, and keeping the TV and other appliances away from prying hands and paws is more important than making sure the screen is at eye level. Some of us also like the way our rooms are laid out. If it works for you, it works for you (just ask the subreddit for info).