Theater Layout? - DVD Burners? (1 Viewer)

[Glenn_N]

I just joined this forum and am getting ready to assemble my home theater. I have a small room (15'L x 12'W x 9'H) and I am looking for speaker placement suggestions. I have purchased the Pinnacle Quantum System with wall mountable brackets. The TV is centered on one end of the 12' wall and the L shaped couch is on the other end of the room (no room to move it). The corner piece of the couch sits away from the corner of the room by about 3'. The sides of the couch are against the back wall and one of the side walls. Should the speakers be mounted on the ceiling, side walls (note: the side wall will not allow me to place the speaker any higher than 48" due to cut-out from hallway) unless it is up at almost ceiling level (there is 12" of the side wall up high), or on the back wall? Which way should they aim? Also how high is recommended for speaker placement on the front L/R speakers?

I apologize for not having a CAD drawing, as I am new to this forum and not sure how you pros make those.

What are your thoughts on DVD Burners? I have a Panasonic Replay TV currently and see Panasonic will be introducing 2 new Replay models with the DVD Burner built in this summer. Is it worth waiting for that to come out, or should I just get the burner stand alone unit? The Panasonic also states they have "Dialogue Enhancer" which is suppose to amplify the voices to avoid the high volume levels of music and sound effects in relation to voices. (I like the loud noises, but having small kids, makes constant volume adjustment necessary).

Thank you in advance for any help suggested!
Glenn

 

[sean_pecor]

Your description of sofa placement didn't translate into something my overworked gray matter could understand

Here is a useful link:
Speaker Placement from Dolby Guide to HT Sound

I'm sure others will provide more reference links. This is a good place to start. It is consumer-oriented and explains things clearly with useful visual aids.

I'm glad to see Pinnacle is still going strong! When I was 16 (14 years ago!) I bought a Pinnacle speaker package. I toiled part-time at a tanning salon (yes, the 16 year old male's dream job!) to save up and they stood up to a tremendous amount of abuse by Yours Truly, but were eventually murdered in brutal fashion by a failing kenwood receiver.

I was gabbing with a local dealer, and he said that Pinnacle is a real family-run operation. He even speaks with the grandmother when placing orders or sorting out invoices

Sean.

 

[Glenn_N]

Sean,
Thank you for the link, it is exactly what I need. I like that it gives several options for different room layouts.
What I should have said about the couch is it is a sectional L shape and is against the back wall.

I guess the second part of my question regarding DVD Burners should be posted under another category.

As a side note, I have been researching Replay TV and see they went bankrupt (Sonic Blue) and have sold to D&M (Makers of Denon & Marantz). It looks as though the new Panasonic DVD Recorders will not have Replay after all. Panasonic no longer has the rights to the service. According to everything I can find, the Panasonic new models will have a DVD Burner with either a 80 or 100 MB Hard drive built in. I believe that only has a record and store feature much like a VCR without the tape. It does not have any of the Replay features. So, what is the point in having the unit with the hard drive?

I just bought the new Hughes HDVR2 DSS receiver with built in Tivo (yet to be installed). I am very partial to the Replay TV format and skeptical about Tivo. Replay (which I currently own) seems to have so many features that the Tivo does not. The Hughes is also the only unit that allows dual satellite tuner input. I got on the Replay site and they say if you want dual satellite tuners you must buy 2 Replays!!! That is $1,000 compared to $250 for the Hughes Tivo unit with a satellite (4 feeds) and another tuner box. Give me a break!

Thanks again for your input,
Glenn