New Home Theater (1 Viewer)

[Rabidcatfan]

Hi all, this is my first post here. Happy to be here. Being a lifelong film buff, having my own dedicated home theater space has been one of those bucket list items very high on my list. The only problem is I'm a dad of 5 kids and space for such a venture was never really there. Now however, there's finally space. Im in the process of getting a new house with a sizeable basement. In the basement is a 10.5' x 13.5' x 8' tall room that was being used as a kids playroom. I think it has potential and I'd like to turn it into a dedicated theater room. My budget isn't huge. I've set aside about $3500 for the room. I think my main focus would be making sure I have a good screen (I'm thinking a silver ticket 120 or 135) a decent projector and a good sound system. Over time I would like to build a riser and have a true theater seating set up, but for now as long as I have those other 3 items taken care of I think I'll be happy in the interim. Does anyone have any suggestions on what I should get based on the size of the room, and my budget?

 

[Bobofbone]

I'd suggest deciding how you are gong to lay things out, and go from there. I had a 22' X 15' room with a 9' height. I brought in lawn chairs, masking tape and some spray pain to make screens on a couple of walls, to get a mock up of projecting both ways. I also went out to a theater with my wife, and went to a Saturday matinee of a movie that wasn't very good to help decide what I wanted. The place was just about empty, allowing us to move around and watch from different seats. We picked our favorite spot, ad after the movie ended, I paced dimensions of our seating distance and the screen size. Since we would be using the theater most of the time for ourselves and occasional guests, we planned for 4 reclining seats. We've also used bean bag cushions and anything else available for up to 15-20 kids at a couple parties, but I thought planning for the usual made more sense than planning for the unusual. I'm suggesting that you define what you want first, and go from there.

I wanted a setup that duplicated the perspective that I liked in watching a movie from the position I liked in a theater, with good acoustics, and good sound isolation from the rest of the house. Knowing what size screen you want, you can look up projector specs and determine where to mount a projector and how big a screen to use, and what you will need for a projector. That also can indicate how to wire the room and give you an approximate idea of where everything is going to go. Your room size is probably going to allow for at least a 7.1 set up. If you don't use ceiling speakers for height effects in a ATMOS type system,, I'd still run the wiring in to the locations for speakers if you decide to do it later. It's easier to do it all at once. I'd also suggest, if you are going to use a projector, that you consider making your screen. It isn't difficult, if you know how to use some basic tools. It also has the advantage of allowing you to make a screen that's the exact size you want. I obtained the fabric from Carls Fabric to make a 155" diagonal screen with a 2.4:1 (widescreen) aspect ratio for less than $150. It's a fixed screen, with a surrounding black frame. You can also try a painted screen on the wall (I'd bet that would be pretty kid resistant as well) for the cost of materials to finish the wall, paint and a paint sprayer.