Ecoustics has information on optimal HDTV size and viewing distances. The formulas and tables are based on the work of Bernard J Lechner who was an EE and VP at RCA. For 1080p, the optimal viewing distance works out to be about 1.6 times the diagonal screen size. Since the HDTV is becoming rather common as a computer monitor, the viewing distances have information for that use as well.
The thing to keep in mind is that you really don’t want to be on the ragged edge of seeing every last pixel in your display. There is also the issue of viewing angle with the wide screen displays. As a computer monitor, being close for extreme detail and having the screen occupy a wide swath of your vision real estate might help productivity. For media viewing, the opposite might be better. So, a 32″ HDTV calculated at best at a 4′ viewing distance might be good for computing from a distance of 3′ and for media viewing at 6′ –
Rules of thumb can be useful but keep in mind that they aren’t specifications!
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