I am trying to use the Riser Calculator, but there are two fields I'm not sure how to fill out. I plan on having two rows, with eyes at 11' and 17' from the screen. I will most likely use Berkline 88's in my front row, which have a 38.5" seat back height. I will most likely use Berkline 187's in my back row, which have a 44.5" seat back height.

What I don't know is what should I fill in for "Height of seated front row viewers top of head" and "Height of rear row viewers eyes"? I don't have the chairs yet, so I can't measure this, and it will vary with the height of the people in the chairs.

My room is challenging, because I have my center channel mounted above the screen, so the bottom of the shelf is 6' 8 1/2" from the floor. I would like the screen as high as possible, but a 110" diagonal screen is 54" tall. I would like the bottom of the screen at least 23" from the floor because that's how tall my Hsu subwoofer is and I may have to put it in front of the screen.

So 6' 8 1/2" - 1" for carpet - 23" for the Hsu = 56 1/2" for screen height. So I'm pretty close to fitting if I keep my boarders reasonably narrow.

BUT...when I type this into the riser calculator (using the defaults for the two parameters I don't know) it says I need a 16" riser. But my ceilings are only 7' 6", so a 16" riser would only leave 6' 2" before people hit their heads. I'm 6', but would rather any taller guests not hit their heads.

However, the Berkline 88's in the front row are only 38.5" tall, so if I use that for the "Height of seated front row viewers top of head", then I only need a 11" riser.

I would like to build about a 12" riser, because that would give us 6' 6" of height, but want to make sure we'll be happy with that. Can anyone help?

Here is what it says with the defaults:
Floor to bottom of screen 23"
Height of seated front row viewers top of head 42"
Height of rear row viewers eyes 36"
Screen to front row viewers eyes 11'
Screen to back row viewers eyes 17'
Minimum riser height 16 5/16"

Here is what it says if I use 38.5" for the "Height of seated front row viewers top of head"

Floor to bottom of screen 23"
Height of seated front row viewers top of head 38.5"
Height of rear row viewers eyes 36"
Screen to front row viewers eyes 11'
Screen to back row viewers eyes 17'
Minimum riser height 10 15/16"

Thanks,
Guy

I wonder if it's the 38.5 part. Try 38 or 39 and see what the results are.

No, I don't think that the 38.5" is the problem. I tried 39 and it came out close. I don't think the calculations are wrong. My main questions were what should I put for those two paramaters that I don't know.