First Home Theater Room (1 Viewer)

[JIverson]

Hello all, I am new to the site and this is my first post. I've taken some time to search and read up on what I'm asking for, but there is a TON of information on here!

Basically I have a theater room finished, no windows with brown walls and carpet. I need some advise on equipment and I have some basic guidelines:

1. I want to use a projector. The projector will be approx 11 ft from the wall and the room is approx 15 feet wide. I think this will be the majority of my budget, approx $1500 out of a total budget of $3000... is this reasonable?
2. I want good sound too, but I'm not an audiophile so a decent system by most of your standards will be fine for me.

What I'm looking for is advise on equipment, screen size, brands... is there anything I'm missing? I should add that I do plan on using a PS3 in there too.

Thanks for all your help and knowledge.
JIverson

 

[SethH]

Where will your seating be? Assuming it is directly under the projector, I would aim for between 95" and 110" for your screen size. Some projectors to consider include the Mitsubishi HC3800 (DLP) and the Epson 8100 (3LCD).

Also, do not forget to include cabling in your budget. Depending on where your receiver will be, you will likely end up needing at least one HDMI cable that is pretty long. Look at Firefold and Monoprice for good quality and good prices. Even so, you will probably need about $200 for your cables.

 

[Jim Mcc]

Are you saying the projector will be 11' from the screen? I have the HC3800 and it's a great projector. It's $1295 and it has a free bulb rebate until the end of March. From 11', the HC3800 will give you an image size between 74" - 110" diagonal. I also recommend you make or paint your own screen. I painted a sheet of 1/2" MDF for my screen for about $40. There are numerous types of DIY screens. Are you going to ceiling mount projector or put it on a shelf? If you put it on a shelf, you'll need a LCD projector with lens shift.

 

[JIverson]

Seth - Seating is not set yet, I can se it directly under the projector though... maybe two rows as there is plenty of room behind that 11' line. I'll look at both of those projectors. Good lead on the cables, I'll check those out.

Jim - It will be a ceiling mounted projector 11' from the screen... is that too far? Good idea on the DIY screen, I hadn't really considered it.

Many thanks,
Research continues!

 

[Sparks]

Hey Jason... If you look at my post just listed you will see what I did with my Epson HC6100. I purchased it due to being 1080 lcd 3chip and love the pic. My screen size is 106" with the projector being at 13' back from the screen. The projector has a lens shift and is relatively quiet while operating.

I purchased several cables from monoprice along with a 4- hdmi powered splitter and love all of them. They worked great for my situation. I have a few bugs to figure out but am getting there anyway.

On the screen keep an eye out for someone who has purchased a projector that comes with a screen that they don't need. I found one on Craigsslist that I purchased for $100.00 that had the frame and was HD Gray material. After it was hung it looked great.

Good Luck,

Chris

 

[soundprogress]

Hi,

This is a long post, longer that I thought when I started.

I design home theaters for a living and there are a few things I always start with and then work with the client to massage as many of then in as possible. You might like to see what screen sizes are recommended by different authorities on the subject at this site, http://myhometheater.homestead.com/viewingdistancecalculator.html .

Here's how I start and rule of thumb:

1. Bass is usually best at the 60-65% of the length of the room. This applies to shoebox shaped spaces. Sometimes this places the viewer too close for aesthetics or cosmetics. I'm not sure how your room is laid out without a drawing.
2. The screen size should be no larger than 1.5 times screen width for a 1.78 screen. This has become somewhat flexible now that we need to work 2.35 (2.4) screens into the mix. Basically, don't chose a screen size at random. Take a tape measure to an A/V store, sit as close as you are comfortable and measure the screen size and the distance you are from the screen. Use that ratio of distance of screen to screen size to chose your own screen size.
3. The up angle from your seated eye to the vertical center of the screen should be no more than 7 degrees. Sometimes I stretch it to 10 degrees. Its a matter of eye fatigue looking up. Sorry, it's a little trig or use a CAD program like Google and make stick figures, it works. As an example, figure you eye is 36" from the ground and you sit 11' from the screen. The vertical center of the image would be comfortable 16" above your eye or 52" from the ground (this is for any size screen (Yes, there are exceptions).
4. All rooms can use some acoustical treatment. Carpet does a good job of removing high frequencies from the room in general but there's also most always a need to remove ~200-5000Hz (the number varies) to give the room a lower decay time in frequencies where voices and the majority other important audio info is. Strong first reflections should be tamed (most anyway) too.
5. Speakers in corners or very near walls will have large increases in mid to lower bass. They also accentuate/activate bass modes. Either move them away for the boundary, treat the boundary with effective acoustical material and or equalize the system.

Does that sounds like a lot of work? It's certainly a lot to think about. Use what you can or want.

 

[JIverson]

Very good information! A bit technical for me, but I'll reference this several times during the process I'm sure. The expertise on this forum is very useful and appreciated. Have researched projectors many times and always find more options... will have to narrow it down and pick one fairly soon.
Thanks again.

 

[emmajones]

Hey same here it first reply to any post, i don't go in the deep of standard and other thing i just listen the words' depth.

Emma Jones

Online Furniture Retailers UK
Furniture Retailers Store UK

 

[emmajones]

Hey same here it first reply to any post, i don't go in the deep of standard and other thing i just listen the words' depth.

Emma Jones

Online Furniture Retailers UK
Furniture Retailers Store UK