I'm itching to redo my home theater. My room is 14'x14' with a 5 feet wide opening on the right side. 9 feet ceiling height. Seats are back against the back wall on a 4" riser platform. Currently I have a Hitachi rear projector that is built into a recess in the front of the room. I want to move to Blue-ray, but the Hitachi can only display 1080i. I plan to take the Hitachi out of the recess and place a couple (or 4) subs and a center channel in the same recess. My budget is $10k max including installation. What video system would you recommend?

1. 65" LCD: Do they make them bigger?
2. Front projector: which model and how large the screen, 2.35 or 16:9?

My preferences: I tend to lean towards excess:) I want the most bass, the largest screen, etc.. If I get something small, I'll just end up upgrading to something bigger later.

Definitely go with a projector.

Where is this room located? What rooms are around it? What kind of sound isolation needs do you have? What do you tend to watch? Movies? Sports? Video games?

The trouble with putting subs and speakers into a recess is those boundries can change the way it sounds. At a minimum you'd want to line the cavity with insulation (then cover it with fabric to keep the fibers out of the air - poassibly consider cotton insulation).

I agree projector will give you the most impact. Paint the screen wall black for more pop. Any windows?

What is the purpose of the 4 inch riser if this is a one row theater?

Sounds like you are limited to about a 12 ft throw distance for the projector, You should experiment with the on-line image calculators to see what size image you can get with different projectors. As an example at Projector People, the calculator indicates that the Panasonic 3000/4000 would throw a 106 inch wide 2:35 image. Some would consider this too small and would hesitate to use a projector at the maximum zoom setting because of potential image degradation issues. There are however other projectors that would suit your needs. (Just don't ask me which one)

This is a dedicated movie room. I'll watch some sport, but 90% movies. It's in the basement corner with 2 sides of foundation, one side has utility room on the other side of the wall, and the door opens to the rest of the basement that is finished. The reason for the riser is the current TV sits a bit high in the recess. I had to look up a bit. The riser just allows for level viewing of the current tv. I could add a second row in front, but that puts the seat only about 7-8 feet from the screen.

Thanks for the suggestion about the throw calculator. I'm debating if the projector is worth while. I've been back and forth for a while and would like to come to a decision by the end of the year. I would love a DLP, but the most that it can throw at 12 feet would be around 90 inches wide. At this room and screen size, I wonder if it is advisable to use an anamorphic lens to widen the screen. A 90 inch 16:9 throw, use an anamorphic lens would stretch the picture to around 120 inches right? That's big enough for me if it work.

My theater is slightly smaller at 13x12 but if I could re-do it now, I'd go for a 120" 2:35 1080p image and upgrade the receiver to process the newer dd/dts audio formats for blue ray.

Victor

I checked out the projector zoom apps....seems like of the common PJs, the JVC rs 25 can throw a 100 inch wide image at near max zoom from a distance of 12.5 feet. If I use an anamorphic lens, then I can project a screen that is around 130 inches wide right? Any down side to this?

You may want to do some research on your Anamorphic lens of your choice. For instance the panamorph recommends a throw distance of at least 1.6 times the width of a 16:9 image for best results, down to 1.3 if you are willing to accept more pincushion distortion.

In your case you will be at 1.5 if you can really get the lens at 12.5 feet from the screen. I think you will be at a little less than 12 if the room is 14 feet long.