For those of you who've been following my questions, I've got rid of the home theater toilet (thank goodness) and widened my room to about 12-1/2 with a length of 20'.

Now I'm trying to figure out seating, screen size, speaker placement, etc. and etc.

Say I go with a nice 100" diagonal screen. That makes it 87" wide for 16:9, which puts the front row viewers' eyes at about 10.875' according to the 1.5 width rule.

If I butt the back of that row against a 5-1/2 foot deep riser then I would still have about 3.5 feet behind that riser and the rear wall.

Would it be ill-advised or fun/wise to add an additional third row of "cheap seats" on a back-row riser in that space? Or should I just have a floating riser and space between the back wall? Anybody try to squeeze three rows in a 20' foot space?

I should add, my current on-a-tight-budget plan for seating includes:
Row 1: Micro-fiber couch we already have
Row 2: Recliners we already have (La-Z-Boy types, not HT ones)
Row 3: Find good, used movie theater seats -- probably row of 4.

In the future, I'd like to replace the row 2 recliners with more HT specific ones (I'll prewire the riser for buttshakers) and the couch with a couple of leather love seats or a leather couch.

We'll probably throw in a couple of banana chairs or bean bags for kids up front. So I'm wondering if the rear "cheap seats" would even be worth it for that occasional party?

I have my rear row of theater seats on a 4 foot deep, 28 inch high riser. If you put yours on the back edge of the riser with the seat backs hanging into your 3.5 foot rear space, then you might be able to do it. But be aware that you need like 9 or 10 foot ceilings for a tall third row riser.

Yeah, that's another worry. My basement ceilings are 9-feet tall, but there is some duct work and a support beam there, so it dips down to 8 feet for the last 4 feet of my theater room. I could probably rework the lowered ceiling there, so about 2.5 feet of it would go back up to the 9-foot level.

I just thought that back row might come in handy for family/friend parties.

Would it have to be 28 inches high if the first riser is only about 9 inches? How deep is your awesome room?

My back row is 23 feet from the screen. The high riser is OK in my room because I have a 12 foot ceiling in there. Your height will depend on your height of your screen and seats and everything else. My front riser is 14" high and the back one is 28" high. I did that so that someone in the middle row can be fully reclined and see over the front row seats when they are upright. The back row are 8 theater seats and are there for extra seating. Some people actually prefer to sit there.

I have an 8' ceiling in my HT. I have 2 1' risers. In front of the back riser is a box that runs the full width of the HT that comes down about 1' from the ceiling. I am constantly telling people to watch their heads in the third row. And I am constantly saying "I told you to watch your head" while checking for bumps, scrapes and blood. Ive even smacked it a few times.

I do wonder if I should have put it in, but when I have many people over I remember why I like it! (Even if I have to brush up on first aid...)

How deep is your room Dr. Vincent?

How high off the ground is your screen, Toxarch?

Is 5-1/2 feet deep enough for a riser or should I be safe and go 6 feet just in case I get rich (and/or decide to go deeper into debt!) and decide to get some fun theater recliners?

My screen is a 123" diagonal 16:9. The bottom of the screen frame (border) is about 31" off the ground. The frame is about 3.5" wide. From my middle row, you can fully recline and see the entire screen as long as you don't have really big feet that come in the way. The screen couldn't be any lower or it would be too low for the middle row.

If you are planning to have recliners in the future, I would suggest you have a riser with a minimum of 6 foot depth. A recliner laid out will take up all 6 feet and leave no walking room.

And for the budget minded; I bought my Berlines from Sam's Club. We were walking through the store and saw some nice leather recliners we really liked and the color was a great neutral beige. I don't like sharing arm rests so I didn't want the regular connected recliners like everyone else gets. The price was rather nice too at around $250 each (I think) so we bought 7 of them on the spot. Had to drive 20 miles back home to get the trailer and took 2 trips to get them all. Having the recliners and theater seats during the build was a big help. Allowed me to get all the measurements I needed for the risers to be exactly the right height.

Anybody else with approximately a 20-foot long room with three rows and/or two risers with pics?

Yes, I have two risers/three rows. It's still under construction, but you can see the pics on my thread.

MrWrite,
My room is 22' deep. I will try to take pictures tonight and post so you can see.

Anybody else with approximately a 20-foot long room with three rows and/or two risers with pics?

My room is the exact same dimensions as yours (20 X 12.5) and I decided to go with 2 rows. And that's with the second row pretty much against the back wall. The sweet spot is the front row and that's where I sit. Even when I sit in the back row it sounds pretty darn good and it sounds fabulous to my guests. Having 2 rows allowed me to increase the size of the screen to right where I wanted it - 126". It fits 7 people extremely comfortably and I wouldn't have it any other way.

I tried to make my theater so that the optimal experience was for me (and my wife).


Pics are in my sig if you want to see them.

erandmckay: Did you end up with less than 6 feet of head space on the back riser? How's that work?

Vincent: I'd love to see some pics

Stew4msu: That's awesome! I've seen your theater before and always thought you did a great job! Couple of questions for you:
1. How deep and high is your riser? And how far back is your "sweet spot" front row?
2. What are the specs on the seats and what kind are they?
3. Are you talking 126" wide or diagonal on the screen? What kind of picture are you getting?
4. Have you ever had more than 7 people watch a movie in there at the same time and wish you'd gone with another row -- or is that a non-issue?

Thanks again!

MrWrite,
Here are a couple of pictures. As you can see I do not have Recliners (yet), but you can get a feel for the size of the risers.

The ceiling is 8'.
The risers are 12" and 6' deep.
The Room is 14' long and 22' deep.
The lowered part of the ceiling was due to a steel I Beam. I think the wife might have minded if I took that out and the subsequent collapse of the house. It runs the width of the room at about the 15' to 16.5' (It is about 18" deep) mark. Behind it I have about 6' to the ceiling, its just getting back there and when you first stand up from the seats when there is a problem (or if you have tall friends - I am 5'7" so I fit back there)

View from door to back of room:
http://members.aol.com/vinny516/HT/HT-Landscape-door-back-sm.jpg

View from front stage right corner of room to the back:
http://members.aol.com/vinny516/HT/HT-portrait-frontrt-back-sm.jpg

View of Screen from back seating area:
http://members.aol.com/vinny516/HT/HT-landscape-backseat-sm.jpg

Not that it is relevant to this thread or that you even care but I really like it so I am showing it off - here is my rack
http://members.aol.com/vinny516/HT/HT-ComponentRack-sm.jpg

here is my rack


Allow me to be the first... nice rack! :D

He does have a nice rack! Not relevant to this topic, but very relevant to my theater process -- thank you!

So do you feel like that having that second riser is good? Or would you get rid of it if you could to get more space up front? I have 2 feet less to work with length-wise in my room, so I'm wondering if 2 risers is a stretch.

I sort of have to decide quickly because the HVAC guys are here and want to know if they should put the cold-air return at the top of one riser or two.

P.S. Vincent, you did what we'll be doing -- just throwing in any available comfortable furniture for now and upgrading that later. It looks like you have a very fun, comfy theater.

Oh yeah, where do you normally sit?

I love the second riser. The only problem I have with it is the ceilig height, not the distance up front. With a 22' room though, my front row is still 10' from the 8' screen. 1.25x the width - not quite 1.5, but people sit there all the time. Actually the younger ones prefer those seats - especially when using the Xbox 360.

I sit in the loveseat on the first riser. That puts me at almost 16' which is close to 2x the width of the screen. Plus, if you look at the speaker layout, that is the optimal place for sound. I do use the couch in the back when I want to sprawl out and watch TV, but the loveseat position is the optimal and my favorite.

The Furntiture was my compromise to the wife. I get a finished basement (man cave) with a home theater and she gets new furniture for the family room. I then get the castaways for the Theater (at least until I can afford some recliners). I don't get new furniture for my HT, but I still think that compromise worked in my favor. Must have been all that practicing with the Jedi Mind Trick...

Stew4msu: That's awesome! I've seen your theater before and always thought you did a great job! Couple of questions for you:
1. How deep and high is your riser? And how far back is your "sweet spot" front row?
2. What are the specs on the seats and what kind are they?
3. Are you talking 126" wide or diagonal on the screen? What kind of picture are you getting?
4. Have you ever had more than 7 people watch a movie in there at the same time and wish you'd gone with another row -- or is that a non-issue?

Thanks again!

1. Riser is 6 feet deep and a total of 10" high.
2. They're Coaster Studios (power buy going on currently). The row of 4 fits perfectly in my 12.5' wide room (seats are 12 wide, allowing 3" on each side).
3. 126" diagonal. Picture is phenomenal (if that's what you're asking). There's some screen shots in my link.
4. In 2.5 years, I've never had more than 7. I've had 7 people twice. As my kids get older, I might have more with their friends, but I can always use bean bags or something for them.

Here's my situation:

The HVAC guys just got finished putting the heat runs through that area. So now my room for the front 16 feet is at the 9-foot level (or thereabouts).

The back 4 feet dips to 8 from the ground to a beam and lowered vents. It resembles this sort of:

____--------------------------------------------------------

I could regain 9-foot ceilings for the middle 2 feet of that 4-foot section. Of course if I raised it to a second riser, it would be 7-foot and 8-foot ceilings in that area. Then it would look like this sort of:

_----_--------------------------------------------------------


Would that be weird? The lowered parts wouldn't be in walking paths -- it would be above seats.