[Kimo Bonnelycke]

Hello All,

I am planning on finishing my basement, and want to turn the main portion into a home theater room. The dimensions would be roughly 11feet by 20 feet. The room has a support wall which comes out about 2 feet, and it is almost in the middle of the room. I was planning on having half of the room as the theater, with seating roughly in the middle (about 11 feet from screen), and the other half the equipment area as well as media racks. I plan on getting a front projection, and having a screen anywhere from 80 - 96 inches (not sure how big I should go).

Would this room be too small width wise? I wanted to have it bigger, but it just would not work.

Thx.

Kimo B.

[Stephane]

You have about the same area that I have. I have a 18.6 length X 19 wide. The width part of it is cut into a 8.6 foot area there for leaving me with 10.4 feet for my home theater. I am enjoying it alot. I have a 7.1 system set up in it right now. I have a 100" screen, and I sit mostly at the back end of the room. maybe about 2 feet from the back wall.

If you plan on sitting in the middle of the 20 foot long section, I would not recomend a very big screen if you are doing an LCD of DLP projector, you may get what people call the screen door effect.

Hope this helps.

[Kimo Bonnelycke]

Stephane,

thx for the info. I have been going my plan, and the room is going to be a little smaller than I expected (around 9 - 10 feet). I don't think it will be a problem though. My only "big" concern, is going to be how high my ceiling is. I think I will only have around 7 feet, so I am not sure how well a big screen would work, not too mention make sure I don't bump my head against the lcd projector

Kimo B.

[Ron-P]

The inside dimensions of my theater are 9.5'x15.5' with a drop ceiling half way through the room. 8' in back for the seating and 7' up front for the RPTV and gear.

Peace Out~

[Stephane]

Well my LCD projector is about 14 1/2 feet back to project a 100" viewable screen. You are right, I could easely hit the LCD projector if I had not placed a coffee table right underneith it. It does work.

I think that your dementions are going to be fine. Either with an RPTv or a projector. My ceilling is only 7 1/2 feet tall through out the entire room. And I do not have any problems.

[Neil Joseph]

At an 11' seating distance, you could plan for a 92" - 96" diagonal 16x9 setup but not larger for the reasons mentioned. As for the width limitations, the screen mentioned will still allow you to place your speakers to the sides without interfearance so you will be fine in that regard. Now, with the 7' ceiling height limitation you could still fit the larger of the two screens in there. You would be looking at placing it roughly 18" - 20" off the ground after factoring in about a 3" border width. Why don't you draw it out and sit at your intended seating distance to get an idea of what you would be looking at.

(edited after seeing your second post)

Is your seating distance not 11' anymore but now 9' - 10'???

[JakeMcM]

I have an 11.5 by 15 room, I've managed to squeeze, a 96" screen, tower fronts, 7.1 surround sound, and a movable 2nd row on a riser. I wish it was bigger but what can you do. I would get the projector first set it up and see about how big you can go, thats the only way to tell. I think that your screen size/viewing distance falls within the recommended ratio but you want to see if you like it first.