[Jarett]

Hey all,
I'm planning a home theater within my home plans and i'm wondering what the ratio for veiwing distance is...height times 2? width times 2? width times 1.5? I have no clue...I would be using dlp or lcd with hopefully an 8 foot wide by 4.5 16:9 screen, and therefore 6x4.5 4:3 screen...right now I have the room length at approx. 17.6 feet...i want two rows of seating...any input? also, how far away should the speakers be from the couch? thanks for all the help!

Jay

[Jarett]

anyone?

I just need some calculations lol..thanks

[Conrad Ebel]

If you have the room, try for 2x screen width. My room is 16' 4" long and 12" wide, and I have two rows of seating, with the back row against the back wall of the room. My couches are 37" long and I have about 20" between the couches for "leg room", which is plenty comfortable. I just barely fit two rows in my room, another foot or so of room length would have been nice. My front row is ~1.7x and my back row is just over 2x on a 80" wide screen. The picture quality is a bit better in the back row, but it is still acceptable in the front row.

It really depends on the projector though. Some projectors are better at close distances than others. Some claim that you can watch from 1.2-1.3x without losing any picture quality. Do your research and pick one that will work for you.

Check my sig for pics of my room. Yours sounds like it will be similar in depth at least.

[ChrisWiggles]

Screen width depends on two main things:

1: The quality of the display (in terms of mainly SDE visibility)

2: The pickiness of the viewer

CRT projection will support the largest viewing angle, IMO because of the complete lack of pixels, and the ability to throw a completely smooth picture.

High resolution LCOS type displays are probably the closest behind CRT projectors.

Then the 720 DLPs, which to my very picky eyes, need to be at a fairly small viewing angle of about 1.7-2.0 to really come together.

Then LCDs, and lower resolution DLPs, etc, which I don't have much experience with the lower end stuff.

You'll need to see these in person, and decide partly on your own what kind of pixel visibility you are ok with, to figure out how big you want your viewing angle.

[Jarett]

Thanks guys,
What do you mean by "viewing angle"? Is this just the distance from the screen? Do you think my room is big enough for an 8 foot wide screen? thanks

Jay

[ChrisWiggles]

Viewing angle is the angle between you and the width of the screen. Because we can't talk in absolute screen size,because people sit different distances away, viewing angle, or viewing ratios take these changes into account. In temr of screen door visibility, someone with a 5 foot wide screen, sitting 10 feet away, is at 2x screen width, and will see the same SDE as someone sitting 20 feet away from a 10foot wide screen.

It's most convenient to talk in terms of the ratio of sitting distance to screen width.