Mark Nguyen

HT Setup - 5.1 / Screen

Hi everyone, I am about to build our home and will have a dedicated HomeTheater (Media Room they called it here in Dallas) and have a few questions I am hoping I can get your suggestions on.

Let me start with what I have:
Def Tech BP2000 (front)
CLR2000 (center)
BPX (rear)
Sony HS10

Here are my questions:

1) What would you recommend for a screen of 120”? Reasonable price, no maintenance, Gain about 1.0.

2) Where would you place the center channel? Below or above the screen? Seating area is about 16-17 feet back.

3) Rear surrounds, from your personal experience where would you wall-mount them? Behind and above your seating area, at and above, ear level and behind, ear level and at your seating, you get what I am saying.

4) Last but not least, what are fairly decent cable? Monster? What else? I will have to do a pretty good run. Oh my receiver is Rotel RSX-1056.

Thanks a lot for.

Mark

ChadLB

1) What would you recommend for a screen of 120”? Reasonable price, no maintenance, Gain about 1.0.

- I would look at a Carada screen. Great CS, prices etc.

2) Where would you place the center channel? Below or above the screen? Seating area is about 16-17 feet back.

You can do either just depends on where the screen can be placed. My screen is tight to the ceiling so I have mine below the screen but the stand is at an angle so that the center channal isn't pointing straight on.

3) Rear surrounds, from your personal experience where would you wall-mount them? Behind and above your seating area, at and above, ear level and behind, ear level and at your seating, you get what I am saying.
Look here: http://www.dolby.com/consumer/home_e...oomlayout.html


4) Last but not least, what are fairly decent cable? Monster? What else? I will have to do a pretty good run. Oh my receiver is Rotel RSX-1056.
Don't waste your money on monster. What length do you need as they can easily be made. If you don't want to make them look at bluejeans cable and bettercable. I just starting making my own using either Canare or Belden.

Chad


PS where are you in WI?

My home Theater

BlakeN

120" at 16 feet might be a little large. After a while you might get eye strain or headaches because your eyes will have to move arround the screen.

You might want to make a cheap screen out of blackout cloth and try it out first to make sure your comfortable and then buy the screen. Or just paint your wall white and watch a few movies.

Mark Nguyen

Thanks for the responses so far!

BlakeN, when I was in Chicago before I moved down here I have a 120" screen (wide not diagonal) and the seating area was about 18ft away and it seemed ok for me. It was in my basement on a painted white wall. The picture was nice even on that drywall but since I building a dedicated HT room I figure I would get an actual screen this time. And this time I getting a 120" diagonal so I think that should be safe right?

ChadLB, the Carada screen place looks pretty decent. Good price too. Looks like it will requires some assembling but I am fine with that. Is it tough making these cables from Canare or Belden? For my fronts to the built-in AV rack it's probably about 30ft, about the same for center, and 15ft for rears.

P.S. I was actually in Chicago when I moved down here to TX.

Mark

ChadLB

Cables are not to hard to make though I would suggest using the correct tools to make them.

My home Theater

Mark Nguyen

Oh, what screen ratio would you get if you watched mostly wide-screen movies? What is the deciding factor for this?

1.78
1.85
2.05
2.35

ChadLB

From Carada's site....

Precision Series 1:78 To 1

This is the aspect ratio of High Definition Television, and is sometimes referred to as 16:9. It is the most popular aspect ratio for home theaters because it is a good compromise between the 1.33 to 1 format, and widescreen movies like Indiana Jones or Lawrence of Arabia.

My home Theater