newbie with a couple questions! (1 Viewer)

[DerekCV]

I’m a total beginner to Home Theater, I have never owned a TV larger then 27inches and never had any speakers other then the ones in the TV for my listening pleasure. I am thinking about converting most of my basement into an HT/hang-out area. Right now the basement is all light colored paneling, which I plan on painting. Any ideas on a good color, not too dark though since I will use the area for a lot of things, computer room, poker room, and bar area. The area that I will be looking to use is about 12’ wide, by 25’long and about 7’ high (drop ceiling), this the area I have considering the “usable” area for the HT setup, the position of the pillars and I-beam in the basement sort of dictate this, there is extra open space around that though.

I’m on a pretty tight budget, so I’m not going to go crazy. But my initial thought I a Infocus 4805 projector mounting to the ceiling in the very back of the room to keep the fan noise away from everyone, who will be seated in the middle of the room. I would like to get about 90” out of it. I will eventually look at getting the Onkyo TX-SR702 but might just stick with my 8 year old Sony receiver for a bit to save up money.

My largest confusion comes in speak selection. I should note that I will probably use the speakers for music a lot too. I like the Infinity Primus speakers, figure I’d start with a center channel, some fronts and 2 surrounds, and then add on as needed when I get the Onkyo. Any speaker suggestions? I don’t like the little 10” subs that I see with a lot of these setups, so I have thinking of doing my own, I have a decent car audio background, I would like to have at least 1 15” sub if not 2. Hopefully it will really shake the room.

Please give this rookie some ideas, or steer me down the proper path if I’m way off. I may not have the greatest stuff picked out, but I’ve also never seen anything bigger then 27” in my house, so it is a big step for me

 

[Michael Whitney]

Based on the Optimal Sepmeyer ratios a room length of 16-17 feet would be more optimal. 12/24 or 12/25 seems to rectangular. Im a newbie on here, but thats what I have gleaned so far. Maybe one of the more experienced members could chime in on this.

 

[DerekCV]

Well the room size is what it is. It is the only spot that I have to use, I'm not going to build walls or anything. And there is much more open space around that area I am just planning on having my speakers in the 12X25 area. And I may be a foot or 2 off on my dimensions, they are just estimations.

 

[Gerry S]

You can't mount the 4805 25' away from the screen. You'll end up with a washed out image thats 163" diagonal.

If you want a 90" diagonal 16x9 image, the furthest mounting distance from the screen is ~14'.

Check out the throw distance calculator here:

http://www.projectorcentral.com/InFo...ulator-pro.htm

 

[JimHagstrom]

Excuse me but I'm trying to understand how to tweek the projector calculator to come up with the best placement for the project and the best projector for my needs. Which leads me to this question base on the above quote:

"If you want a 90" diagonal 16x9 image, the furthest mounting distance from the screen is ~14'."


When I put in these figures it says the image may be too bright and that you may want to us economy mode. Should you use economy mode? Will this degrade the picture quality?

It looks to me that he may want to move the "throw distance" and "image diagonal" to some point outside the pink areas. This will give a bigger picture, will occomidate seating from 13-20'. Do I have something wrong here?

 

[Gerry S]

Jim:

It's hard to predict if it will be too bright - if there is any ambient light in the room I would not worry about the projector being too bright.

Many people use economy mode to simply get more life out of their bulb, as well as reduce the sound of the fan.

Anyways, I was just simply making the point that the absolute farthest you could place the projector and get a 90" image is about 14 feet. That's not what I would recommend.

Your best bet is to put the projector right in the middle of the zoom range. Brightness can be increased/decreased with a higher/lower gain screen. Also, some people really prefer a bright image, while others do not.

What size screen were you wanting? What are your room dimensions (L x W x H), and does your room have good light control (i.e. no windows)?

 

[Jack Ferry]

Derek, I originally was going to paint the existing paneling in my basement, but someone on this forum talked me out of it. Lots of new framing and drywall was a real pain to do, but it made a huge difference.

On the projector, I have an Infocus 4805 that's 14 feet back and set for about 84" wide. I love the picture. Yes, the projector is a bit noisy, but I sit directly under it and barely notice it. It's a little louder than the fan in my computer. Still, I highly recommend this projector.

 

[JimHagstrom]

Gary thank for the reply to my post. You did manage to bring up a couple of ideas for me. One being setting the projector up right in the middle so I can zoom in or out from there...great idea. Also, the part of it being "too dark or light", I guess and really didn't think about it but it is "their" opion probably based on a completly black room.

My room has a big slider and a window, but I do plan and using black out cutains and whatever else to eliminate this problem.

My room is 15' at 1/2 the room and 18' at the other half. Still trying to figure if I can mount it on the 18' side and shift the image to the middle of the wall without interferance from the 3' side wall in the back center.

 

[JimHagstrom]

Derek, don't mean to highjack your thread but I think some of the answer I seek are similar to yours.

Jim

 

[Cees Alons]

Well, this thread was almost hijacked, indeed . So let's get back to the original question, folks.

Speakers.
Personally, I cannot be of much assistance here, because I'm not familiar (enough) with the US market, but let's give this little subtopic a good start: no Bose, Derek!


Cees

 

[DerekCV]

thanks for the input so far. I'm still just in the tinkering phase. I"ve seen some pretty good prices on Infinity Primus speaker locally, and i posted a question in the speaker section about them. So I guess the big question is does anyone see any major flaws in my inital thinking? So far it I don't appear to be too bad.

Jack,
I'm not a fan of the painted paneling, and I have drywall under the paneling too, I just don't want to tackle something that big, I'd rather focus my attention to building up a threater. Also someone had mentioned somewhere about hanging fabric on the walls to reduce reflections and stuff. Anythoughts on that, or is that really expense?

Thanks.

 

[Gerry S]

Derek:

Speakers are a personal thing. What sound's good to me may not sound good to you. I personally like a more laid back sound. After all the auditions I ended up with Energy Veritas speakers. If you like a more forward sounding speaker, listen to Klipsch (these sounded like they were in my face, but my brother loves them). Look at Mirage if you are into dispersion. In the end let your own ears be the judge. Be sure to make sure they are all matched. If you state your budget, maybe we can recommend some brands for you to audition.

I went DIY with my sub and I think it's awesome. Check it out here.

 

[Jack Ferry]

If it's done well, fabric on the walls can look great. At least that's my understanding - as I think about it, I don't think I've seen it many times except on Trading Spaces type shows. (And, of course, lots of multiplex theaters use fabric on the walls.) I do think it would be somewhat expensive, especially if you go with a relatively expensive fabric like velour. With fabric at $5 or $10 a yard (meaning a 3'x5' piece), it could really add up. Even new drywall would be probably be cheaper (for materials), but obviously a lot more work.

 

[Jack Ferry]

I don't know how tight your budget is, but if you want to get some surprisingly good sound without spending much, check out Fluance speakers. I'm really impressed with mine, but (full disclosure) I don't have much experience with speakers. My previous speakers were Bose, and I used to think they sound good.

 

[JimHagstrom]

Years ago I put together a system in my house. I had a Pioneer THX receiver, Infinity speaker, and a Velodyne subwoofer. The sound was awesome! My friend that had lots of money in his Yamaha system with Klipsch speakers was oh so jealous. Look around and get what sounds good to you. I just recommend to use the same speakers (Brand/Model) all the way round.

Jim

 

[Gerry S]

Fabric on the walls is expensive. You'll want to get stuff that is flame resistant, or made to be put on walls.

Dazian has more affordable products, and a more expensive alternative is from Guilford of Maine.

Since the OP is on a budget, treating the entire room and covering with fabric is probably out of the question. A better solution would be to make some DIY acoustic panels to help improve the sound in the room.

 

[DerekCV]

Yeah fabric was just a thought. I'll probably just paint it a grey color or somthing.