I have a room that is approx 13' deep with space to mount a roll up screen at one end that is a maximum of 8' wide (not sure what that would fit in as far as a 16:9 screen is concerned... 100" maybe?).

Is this enough length if the 1 and only row (A sofa sectional) is against the wall under the projector 13' from the screen?

Movie night might be more fun with 100 inches of 1080p projection...

I think that sounds good other than it might get hot sitting under the projector. But look for a projector with a short throw lens to get it from above you.

You - in our personal experience - have a fine space for stepping up the the WOW of true Home Theater which - again, in our opinion and experience - you can only achieve with a projector and screen - no tv available today can emulate the effect of a commercial theater which is the basic definition of Home Theater.

Our room is 24X13 ft. We have our 56in TV located at wall facing the length of the room (24ft.).

We put our projector on side wall facing the width (13ft.) to a fixed wall screen. Our furniture is simple home sofas and love seats and arranged so we can sit and comfortably watch either the TV or the PJ screen yet the room is not crowded and quite comfy.

Our projector is on a simple shelf approx. 5 ft. above the floor and to allow room for the projector plus space behind for cables our lens-to-screen throw distance is just over 11 1/2 feet. Our ceiling height is a bit over 7 1/2 ft. and our screen frame is mounted up against the ceiling so actual top of screen material is just four inches from the ceiling.

At this distance we easily achieve a wide screen diagonal almost 120 inches with ample zoom in and zoom out capacity to spare. We chose a square screen instead of a more rectangular 16:9 and we are very glad we did as it give us a lot more flexibility projecting different aspect ratio stuff - like 4:3 regular TV or older movies (pre 50s) 3:2 and US HDTV standard 16:9 as well as the many wider screen aspect ratios of modern films which, BTW, are a LOT wider than 16:9.

Our PJ is a Panasonic and it sits directly above the heads of viewers and you can't hear it nor can you feel a bit of heat from it.

Based on our experience you have plenty of space in your room to create true Home Theater - go for it and you will not be sorry you did!!

You guys have just set me on fire. Really all I should need is a screen and a PJ. I have everything else!

go for it and you will not be sorry you did!!+1

Imjay-

You have any pictures available? I'd like to see your setup.

Chris

I'd love to see some too!

I have a room that is approx 13' deep with space to mount a roll up screen at one end that is a maximum of 8' wide (not sure what that would fit in as far as a 16:9 screen is concerned... 100" maybe?).

Is this enough length if the 1 and only row (A sofa sectional) is against the wall under the projector 13' from the screen?

Movie night might be more fun with 100 inches of 1080p projection...

More than enough space. My room is 11' x 13' with a 106" diagonal, if I remember correctly that's 92" wide (but I could be mistaken). I have a nice sectional directly underneath the projector which is mounted on the rear wall...there is no going back ;)

One nice thing is that the smaller the room with a big screen, the more impressive the thing looks.

I had an 8' wide screen in a 13' x 17' deep room. The screen dominated the wall and was super impressive.

My current screen is 10' wide in a 16' wide room. Although the screen is bigger, the initial wow factor isn't as big because the room is much bigger. I don't know why it is that way ,but it is.

Good luck with your project!

13ft throw with a sectional- sounds like my theater

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd107/victor-eyd/home%20theater%20room/100_5252.jpg

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd107/victor-eyd/home%20theater%20room/100_5265.jpg
110" 4:3 or 100" 16:9

Victor

I guess I can snap a pic or two and post them - flattered that you would ask.

Remember it's just a living room belonging to two older people who refuse to grow up and who don't give a hoot about having traditional rooms for our living space.

So, we have a open floor plan - living room area as described - 24ftX13ft but that is open to what should be a dining area that is about 20ft long but width opens into a kitchen area.

Our space use is odd to some family and friends cause we don't mind having a projector on a shelf aimed at this great big 'ol fixed Da-lite, Da-snap gray screen. Day and night the screen is visible - we don't mind.

No dining in the dining room cause we built a large oak bar to go with our coin-op foosball and four really fun pinball machines and crowded into that mix is a neat coin-op plastic tip dart machine. No art on the walls - beer neons instead - this works great for us but we know more traditional people peek inside and think "what in the world are these ninnys living like this for??)

Okay - back to the thread - yeah, all you really need is:
Projector
Screen
Surround sound system of some sort. Good news is in a smaller room you get a lot more sound "bang" and fidelity with a less expensive system. We are using a six year old 5:1 Onkyo - paid $499 for it at CircuitCity - it wouldn't do in a really big HT room but in our space it really cranks.

Rattled all the above to get to same end comment. Go for it and you won't be sorry.

Sounds like a nice place to live to me.

This is the space we are working with for entertainment:
http://i454.photobucket.com/albums/qq270/turkjay/Picture187.jpg

http://i454.photobucket.com/albums/qq270/turkjay/Picture188.jpg

The "TV nitch" is about 8' wide. Once we get moved in I plan to mount a LCD to the wall in there for general viewing. For movie night I will hang the biggest screen I can in there and having it open in front of the LCD. The projector will be mounted on the far wall/celiing/where ever.

To make it all nicer I think I'll put some blackout blinds on that glass door, paint the inside of the nitch black, and mount a valance/curtains to hide the electric screen. The hard part is going to be running the wires to the surround speakers.

How about something like this. This is Mike Lang's theater. In your scenario, I'd keep the lcd above the fireplace but in the niche I'd hide the speakers and stereo equipment and either have a drop down screen (if you have artwork to show during the day) or have a dedicated fixed screen on the wall

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v210/mlang2000/IMG_3711.jpg

His thread
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1051328

Victor