[Rex.G]

My fiancé and I bought our first house and I’m considering turning a spare bedroom into a small theater. The room is cozy at 11' x 11'. At first I had no intention of putting a "theater" room in because I felt the rooms I had at my disposal were just too small. But a friend of mine decided to try to prove me wrong.

He brought over his SP4805 and we set it up just to get a feel if it would work in the room. I was pleasantly surprised at the results. The 4805 threw an image of aprox. 74". Sitting about 10' back we sampled Toy Story 2 and The Empire strikes back. I was unable to detect scan lines, dot crawl or the "screen door" effect. I have to say I was downright floored especially considering we were projecting onto the wall. My fiancé was just as impressed, thankfully she is into movies as just as much as I am. So we decided that after our wedding (July 1st) we could throw some $$$ into a theater room.

If you have made it this far into my post I commend you. Now for my questions. First off is this room simply too small for FP? When we were looking @ houses I always had a theater room in mind but this house, even though no media room or basement, had too much going for it to pass on. So it could be that I just wanted it so bad that the 74" image was going to look great no matter what. Does anyone have or been in a theater room this small? What are the downsides other that limited seating?

Next my budget will be about $2500.00 and am looking for suggestions/ recommendations on equip. This budget is just for a/v equip. I have the following that can be used:

Zenith DVB 318
Harman Kardon AVR 230
Bic Venturi DV52si Mains and surrounds
Bic Venturi DV53CLR Center
Sony SA-WM500 Sub

I was considering either using everything listed above and utilizing the entire budget on a proj, or getting something like the sp5000 and a new speaker set like the SVS SBS-01.

As I indicated before I won't be starting this project until at least this summer so I have plenty of time to plan or change my mind. But to me planning and thinking about it is half the fun!

Thanks for taking the time to read this. Any comments, suggestions or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

PG

[David F]

I'm also interested in the responses here. I'm embarking on a basement finishing project myself, and the room that is to be my theater is a little smaller than I originally had hoped - 12.5' by 13.5'.

I guess it depends on how much of a 'purist' you are. I, personally, just want a cool place to watch movies. So I'm not really that concerned with having a room that is almost a square. (Acoustically, it would be nice to have a rectangular room.)

Originally I had planned on doing two rows of seating, but was stuck with a screen maybe 65" (diagonal) if I went that route. So, now I'm thinking I'll only have one row of seats.

Good luck on your project - hopefully some people with experience in such small rooms will chime-in.

Dave

[Jeff Gatie]

The fact that the room is a perfect square is going to make the acoustics a factor. Square rooms are the absolute worst when it comes to nulls/peaks in the soundfield. There are ways around this, but that is for the far more knowledgable than me.

[Cameron Yee]

I have a mini theater I set up in the summer (check my sig for picture links). The room is only 10X12. My seat is at the 2X screen width recommended for the 4805. The screen is a tad high, but unavoidable with a ceiling mount and the smaller-than-normal screen size. Fortunately my chair has the perfect angle of recline, though I may replace it with one that is a bit taller.

[Rex.G]

Quote:

The fact that the room is a perfect square is going to make the acoustics a factor. Square rooms are the absolute worst when it comes to nulls/peaks in the soundfield. There are ways around this, but that is for the far more knowledgable than me.

I was aware of this and planned to deal with it when installing. I was hoping to minimize the effects by using accoustical tiles or maybe even using carpet to help level the sound field.

But even in a square room the sound should be improved over my living room setup now. I havn't been too pleased with it because the shape of the room requires uneven speaker placement. It's okay from one spot on the couch but far from ideal.

[RickRO]

Peter,

Quote:

The 4805 threw an image of aprox. 74".

Did you try any other size besides 74"? I "experimented" with a FP this past weekend in my family room which is approx 13.5x14.5. I projected anywhere from a 61" to an 87"/88" screen just to see what it was like. Even if you had to downsize the image somewhat to have a more comfortable viewing experience you would still end up with a "bigscreen". The wife commented that it was uncomfortable for her to watch from the couch (after about 4-5 hours watching We TV )

that was about 7-8 feet from the wall where I was projecting (the couch sits perpendicular to the wall where the image was) so that did not help. My/her overall and experience was a good one though.

I don't think that seating for you and your wife would be much of a problem especially using a love seat at or near back of the wall. You being a newlywed closeness shouldn't be much of a problem for you or your bride.

Seating for your "guests" may not be optimal however for short periods of time ie. movie watching, the big game..etc. etc. etc. you might find your guests able to tolerate less than optimal seating arrangement than you or your wife would on a regular basis for longer periods of time.

For my family room we went with a sectional couch and a recliner in the corner (the recliner's mine HAHAHAHAHA) which also had the best view of the "screen" this past weekend This arrangement works well for our room due to the regular TV in the corner, might be an option for you, but may not be optimal.

Good Luck and try not to drive yourself mad....