I don't know what crack I was smoking when I did our measurements, but I hung our 106" elite motorized screen this past weekend and.. it's just too dang high.

The bottom of the viewable screen is approx 36" off the ground. We're sitting in your average HT seats, so the bottom is basically just about eye level. Normally it would be a no-brainer.. just lower the screen! BUT...

The stairs to get into the basement come behind the screen, and it's an open wall.. (hence the reason we had to get a motorized screen). The mount bracket is attached only to the ceiling joist, so anything I do would have to extend down from that. As you come down thew stairs into the theater room, you can see about 2/3's of the backside of the screen's housing.

So either I have to get really creative and make some kind of ~8" drop bracket and a valence to hide it all, or make some kind of 2-level riser for the first and 2nd row of seats..

What would you do? And if you've been there and done that, photos would be VERY helpful!

(I doubt I could return the screen for one with more drop)

My first step would be to contact the vendor and see what my costs would be to get a screen with 8"-12" more top fabric. Only if that was outrageous would I get creative.

I don't know what crack I was smoking when I did our measurements, but I hung our 106" elite motorized screen this past weekend and.. it's just too dang high.

The bottom of the viewable screen is approx 36" off the ground. We're sitting in your average HT seats, so the bottom is basically just about eye level. Normally it would be a no-brainer.. just lower the screen! BUT...

The stairs to get into the basement come behind the screen, and it's an open wall.. (hence the reason we had to get a motorized screen). The mount bracket is attached only to the ceiling joist, so anything I do would have to extend down from that. As you come down thew stairs into the theater room, you can see about 2/3's of the backside of the screen's housing.

So either I have to get really creative and make some kind of ~8" drop bracket and a valence to hide it all, or make some kind of 2-level riser for the first and 2nd row of seats..

What would you do? And if you've been there and done that, photos would be VERY helpful!

(I doubt I could return the screen for one with more drop)

Making a valence is not difficult at all. I have a motorized screen, and I made a simple mdf skirt and mounted it with angle brackets and trimmed it. I can remove the box and crown as one piece, if I have to get to the screen cassette. Take a look at my link. 3rdrow down shows unfinished screen wall. Then there are shots of finished screen wall.
http://picasaweb.google.com/mahler007/TheatreRoom#

If you're using recliners, you should try it out first. The bottom of my screen is about +45" and on paper, it looks high. But when you are in a normal reclined position, it's perfect. It also depends on how far away you are from the screen. In my case, the first row is back about 15 feet, so even when not reclined, your neck isn't craned looking up.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=14815638&postcount=177
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=14760947&postcount=150

Sorta realized after and didn't want to make the whole riser too tall so I did lift my rear row of seating 4.5" to help view over the front rows head. You can perhaps the seating some and lower the screen some and find a happy medium.