First let me say that this site is awesome. I have decided to finish my basement and add a HT while I am at it. I stumbled upon this site and can't believe how many people are on here sharing ideas, it is great. I love looking at the builds and seeing them come to life. Before I found this site I was going to model homes in the area looking at their basements, but none of them hold a candle to what I have seen here. I have read many threads here (all the current builds and the sticky show us yours...) and I have a couple questions. I am sure they are common.

My room is going to be roughly WxLxH = 14x18x9. What is the optimum seating number and screen size that should go in a room of this size?

I plan on starting in the next 3 weeks, so I am just gathering ideas and info now.

Thanks Guys!

Abs

First let me say that this site is awesome. I have decided to finish my basement and add a HT while I am at it. I stumbled upon this site and can't believe how many people are on here sharing ideas, it is great. I love looking at the builds and seeing them come to life. Before I found this site I was going to model homes in the area looking at their basements, but none of them hold a candle to what I have seen here. I have read many threads here (all the current builds and the sticky show us yours...) and I have a couple questions. I am sure they are common.

My room is going to be roughly WxLxH = 14x18x9. What is the optimum seating number and screen size that should go in a room of this size?

I plan on starting in the next 3 weeks, so I am just gathering ideas and info now.

Thanks Guys!

Abs

Abs, I'm sure some of the other "heavy hitters" will weigh in with their opinions, but here's my .02: at 18' you have plenty of room for 2 rows; whether you do 2x3 for 6, rows of 3&4 for 7, 2x4 for 8 seats is up to you.

If your riser is ~6', that'll leave you ~12' from your front row to the screen (depending on whether you plan to do a false-front for AT, etc.). Using a 1.5x formula, if your front row is ~12' from the screen, or 144"...144/1.5 = 96"; so you can probably comfortably go with a screen that is ~96" wide...or like 110" diagonally.

Your final, optimal, screen size might depend on a couple of other factors: 1) using that formula, if you really want to go bigger than that (and your screen wall will accomodate it), you might want to measure for the back row, and that'll be the best seat in the house; the front row might a little overwhelmed with the bigger screen size, but that's where the company would go :D Also, the 1.5x formula may go up or down a bit, depending on your PJ; I would say 720p v. 1080p, although I can't imagine anyone buying a PJ now would look to go anything other than 1080p. And 2) do you plan to use a 1.78 or 2.35 screen.

The best thing to do, if you can, is get the PJ and throw an image up on to a makeshift screen, even if that's just the wall. Try to get a sense of what will work best for you; IMO, you'll never regret going as big as your eyes can comfortably tolerate.

Good luck,

CD

I pretty much agree with CD. I might allow an extra foot of depth at the back so that the rear seats aren't hard up against the wall -- having a bit of space behind the seats helps a lot with the surround sound experience. So if you allow for a six-foot deep riser with an extra foot of space at the back, then your front row would be at about 11', and a 1.78 screen would be about 100" - 105" diagonally. This assumes the main viewing position is in the front row. If you optimize for the back row (17' viewing distance), you could theoretically have something like a 150" diagonal screen -- but in reality, it would be hard to find an affordable projector with enough lumens to light up that big a screen. Not to mention that folks in the front seats would probably get motion sickness from trying to move their heads fast enough to keep up with the action.

The number of seats you can fit into the room will depend on what seats you use and where you enter the room. If the entry is on the side, for example, the back row could go from wall to wall but the front row would need to leave an opening as a walkway to the back row.

Just be sure to read a lot; there's a lot of good information here. I would recommend checking out the CIH 2.35 forums, too, for another option. If you want to go with a Cinemascope (2.35) format theater, the formula goes more along the lines of 3X screen height rather than by screen width (as screen width changes depending on what format your movie is in). The numbers still work out as above, with a 53" high screen being approximately 94.5" wide for 16x9 material, but expanding out to 124.5" wide for 2.35 format material.