To make a long story short, I've convinced the wife to let me make our bonus room over the garage a theater room. I've attached a crappy little paintshop drawing of the basic layout of the room. It's very symmetrical. The entrance is through a door that will be on the end of the hallway (very far left side of picture). The room is 12' wide by 24' long

Currently it has only basic framing and a subfloor. One thing to keep inmind is this is a bonus room so the cross-section looks like that of a cape-cod style home. There are knee walls on the sides that are about 53" tall. Then the angled parts measure about 58", and the ceiling (8ft tall) measures 55" wide.

I did a little research into various 1080p projectors and using a anamorphic lense. What I determined was that a 17 foot throw was a good comprimise in order to get a 120" screen. Most of the projectors in my price range will be able to do 120" in 17 feet. By the way, my price range is always best bang for your buck.

What I'd like to know from you guys is what would you do if this was your situation and you could build your dream setup? I'm looking for any kinds of suggestions. Things as minor as what color outlets to use to things as major as seating and speaker layout.

The reason I'm asking is because I want to start doing the elctrical soon.

Also, I plan on building a HTPC for this room. I'm pretty good with PC hardware so it seems like a good idea.

First welcome to the hobby and congratualtion on your decision to build a Home theater you will enjoy every minuet of it.

My advice is start reading threads like:

The Show Me Thread - All of the "Show Me Your....." threads linked here (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=978755).

or

What I'd do differently next time. (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=855958)

The first one will lead you to several great discussions. Once you expose yourself to more information you can start to form you own opinions and questions.

You might think that your Golden Opportunity is unique and it is the first time the question has been asked. Just do a search ,of the forum, and you will see the same question over and over again, in one way or another.

You will get allot of input if you ask specif questions about how to do something or how something works. But just asking for everyone to design your theater and pour out ideas for you is not how it works.

Good luck!

Welcome to the forum, Crash.

I would agree with GPowers...read, read, and read some more. Look at photos...here on the site, in magazines (Electronic House, Home Theater, Sound and Vision), and on the net. Find a theater that you like or things you like in several theaters and incorporate them into your design. I based my design loosely off of Dean Koontz's Moonlight Theater designed by Theo Kalomirakis. I liked the clean lines and combination of painted and stained woods.

You will find that people around here are generous with their knowledge and suggestions, but also want to see that you invest the time and effort into planning your theater.

Good luck with your design and build...and remember that people are here to help you, but as GPowers stated, you need to post specific questions(preferrably with pics) about what you want to accomplish. You will find that you will get a lot more answers that way.

There are a few bonus room theaters floating around, too. Your dimensions sound very similar to mine.

My suggestion is, get the room right acoustically first...worry about video later. Video can be designed to meet every taste, budget and dimension. Once the acoustics are in place, you can then adjust video to accomodate. Remember, the room itself is often the most important component you have in the system.

Welcome, welcome......

I just have one suggestion RUN!!!!!!! Run like the devil himself is after you before it is too late! This thing we call HT will suck you in and chew you up and spit you out! Oh sure it seems innocent enough, you start with simple words like projector, surround sound, A/V reciever. Then you start talking, and throwing terms around such as insulation vs. isolation, reflection points, acoustically transparent, sound treatments, acoustic panels, DD, GG, CIH, 2.35 vs. 1.78 (16 x 9), scope, curved screen, viewing cones, DTS, Dolby Digital, THX, OTA, Blu-ray,.........RUN RUN RUN!!!!!!!! What is worse than that you start knowing what all the above terms mean,.......RUN FASTER. Then you start UNDERSTANDING the terms. RUN 8-)

Welcome to the madness and good luck. All of here love to have photos of the space. If we see what is going on we will have a better chance to be able to help you when the time comes.

Regards,

RTROSE

So, without knowing much about what you really want, I threw together two quick sketches based on the diagram of your room.

The first is more of a traditional theater with a riser. I would have the riser step up in the hallway before it opens up into the room. You could line the hallway with poster frames of some of your favorite movies with the frames stopping just before the steps. You would have plenty of room for a false wall and traditional stage with this design.

The second sketch is more of a casual media room. In the corner you could have a small wet bar/snack area, a game table in the other corner, and a tranditional couch with a table behind it where more seating could be available.

http://i377.photobucket.com/albums/oo217/bone_pa/2options.jpg

My theater is 13' wide by 24' long...(almost the same)...I was able to put the projector in a soffet in the rear and project a great image from 19ft to a 150" screen using the Panasonic PT-AE3000U...feel free to visit my build thread. :)

Thanks for all the replies thus far. I'll work on getting some pictures soon, but for now I'm trying to research as much as I can on this site. There's just soooo much to see and learn. As far as acoustics layout, I looked on the THX website at diffeent arrangements. For my room the best 7.1 setup is Dolby TrueHD. However, I'm not a sound fanatic as much as I'm a visual fanatic. I know some of you will gasp at this, but I think I'm going to use a 5.1 computer speaker setup (Logitech Z5500). I'll still run the speaker wire to the two rear speaker spots in case I ever upgrade.

A little history on myself as to why I'm this way.... when I was younger I fell very violently on some ice and hit my head. The concussion I suffered was severe enough that the ringing in my ears will never go away. I've tuned it out for the most part, but my hearing is about 80% as good as it should be. Also, I've had Lasik eye surgery. As a result my vision is insanely good. Mostly I obsess over resolution though. I don't seem to be as affected by refresh rate problems.

So I appoligize for now caring that much about sound, but whatever I do will be done right.


Bone_pa, thanks for those drawings. It's amazing what a simple diagram can do for you. Unfortunately I have to keep the aisle in the center of the room because of the knee walls. See, the roof slopes down on the sides down to 4 feet tall at the extreme ends. I'm hoping I can fit 2 seats on each side and still leave room for an aisle down the middle. I have to measure some loveseats and theater seats.

That sucks about the ears ringing....but I feel your pain. My ears have rung for years due to a similar incident. Sometimes the pitch changes and sometimes it goes so loud you would think I hit my head again...but unlike you I have not lost any tones in my ear and hear perfectly. During the day I hardly notice the ringing.

Anyway...about the room. Your dimensions are very similar to mine at 14x24. I'm not sure how many seats you are going for but you should be able to get two across the front and still have a path on the side of the room. Knee walls are always a pain to work around, but it looks like you are on your way. I would rethink the computer speakers though. You might be surprised at the difference, even with the tonal problems, that a good set of speakers make.

Welcome and good luck!

Welcome to the 12 step gro... er hobby. Before long you'll be as addict.. I mean into the hobby as the rest of us. Seriously this looks like cool project! BTW I like the top sketch bone threw up there looks neat.

Bone_pa, thanks for those drawings. It's amazing what a simple diagram can do for you. Unfortunately I have to keep the aisle in the center of the room because of the knee walls. See, the roof slopes down on the sides down to 4 feet tall at the extreme ends. I'm hoping I can fit 2 seats on each side and still leave room for an aisle down the middle. I have to measure some loveseats and theater seats.

Another idea would be to have the seating at the far end of the room away from the hallway and use a drop down screen to come down after you have entered the room. Not ideal, but I would prefer to have my seat in the middle of the room rather than the aisle.

Or, you could turn the room 90 degrees and put the screen on the long wall. It would put your seating on the back wall, but would eliminate the need for an aisle altogether.

Or, you could turn the room 90 degrees and put the screen on the long wall. It would put your seating on the back wall, but would eliminate the need for an aisle altogether.

I don't think that would work since he has 4 ft high knee walls on both long sides.

Crash, what sort of roof pitch are we talking about? How far out from the bottom of the knee wall does the pitch meet the ceiling? That will give you a good idea of if you can get by with the side aisle?

I don't think that would work since he has 4 ft high knee walls on both long sides.


He might have to bring the screen and couch off of the walls slightly to make it work, but it could work.

He might have to bring the screen and couch off of the walls slightly to make it work, but it could work.

Just a rough estimation, but he would sit about 7 ft away from the screen. Sure it could work, but then only one row of chairs and would probbaly hit your head on the gable when you stood up. He already hit his head once in life, give the guy a break!! :p

HAHA nice one wiskey. I've actually had a few concussions, but that one as a kid really did a number on me.

Roof pitch is 10/12. So try to follow me on this.....the knee walls start at 58" high (this is the lowest point in the ceiling) and run up to 96" high. The point at which you are 96" high is 44 1/2" from the knee wall.

The problem with doing some kind of roll down screen in front of the hallway is that the screen will be wider than the 55 inches of full height ceiling.

My last shot at getting the seats in the center is to build some kind of rail system into the floor so I could separate the sofas/seats in the middle. Anyone ever heard of someone doing this? Doesn't seem insanely difficult.

That's not a bad idea. That would actually be pretty cool if you could pull that off.

Another idea...one that I have seen on here, would be to build two small platforms with casters that could be rolled into position.

Somewhere I remember seeing a guy who had an automated rotating floor. That would be cool....two seats in the front that split in the middle when you approach them, you could use a floor sensor to trigger it... and then they go back togther when the movie starts. That would be sweet!!