Put the centre of the screen at the eye level of someone sitting down — for most sofas and most screen sizes, that is lower than people expect.
The measurement
Sit where you will watch. Measure from the floor to your eyes; on an ordinary sofa that is typically between 100 and 120 cm. The centre of the screen goes there. On a large screen that puts the bottom edge close to the top of a low cabinet, which looks low until you watch something.
Why the instinct is wrong
A television off is a piece of furniture, and furniture looks better higher. A television on is something you look at for two hours, and the neck decides. The installation that looks right in an empty room is usually 20 to 30 cm too high.
The compromise that works
A full-motion mount with downward tilt, if the screen genuinely has to live high. Tilting the screen toward the seating keeps the geometry and the reflections sensible even when the height is not ideal.
The same rule for a projected image
Bottom edge at roughly seated eye level, which puts the centre slightly above it. A screen mounted so high that it needs chin-up viewing is the most common error in projection installations, and it cannot be corrected afterwards.
This does not replace the manufacturer's own instructions. Every brightness figure, contrast ratio, power rating and load capacity on this page is reported from the manufacturer's own documentation, with its unit written as published, and named as such — none of it is measured here. A brightness figure that is not expressed in ANSI or ISO lumens is reported as the manufacturer expressed it and is never converted, because no conversion exists. And the one statement repeated rather than assumed: the load a mount states describes the mount, not the wall it is fixed to. Which anchor suits your wall is answered by the mount's own instructions for that material, and nothing here replaces them.
Questions people actually ask
What about above the fireplace?
It is a common choice and an uncomfortable one: it puts the screen far above eye level, which means looking up for the length of a film. Where the room genuinely offers nowhere else, a mount with generous downward tilt makes it tolerable rather than good.
Does a tilting mount solve a high position?
It corrects the angle of the screen, not the angle of your neck. Tilt reduces reflections and keeps the image geometry sensible; it does not change the fact that you are looking upward.
Last reviewed 4 September 2026