I am building out my basement and have a 12'6" and 15'6" room with 8 foot ceilings. I have 2 options. The first is to do 1 row with my seating about 14 feet back. Or I can do a riser, I believe 8 to 10 inches and put a second row in. I am getting berkline 45003 chairs so I have been told I need the riser to be 6 feet deep.

Based on what I am projecting my front row will be about 9 feet from the screen? I have a jvc rs1 with stewart studiotek 130 screen. I have not bought the screen but it sounds like I need to go 92 to 96 and no more on the size.

My questions are:

1. With this room dimension should I go 2 rows or just the 1?
2. Is the riser normally 8 to 10 inches?
3. Is 6 feet deep reasonable for the riser?
4. Is the 9 feet from the front row to the screen right?
5. What size screen would you recommend based on that.

Thanks for your assistance.

Jim

1) Someone else can chime in on the ability for a second row

2) I would use the search engine...ton of threads on risers. I think the common is 12inches

3) Yes, mine is 6 ft also..depends on chairs and how close to the wall you want your second row

4) That is close, but with a 1080 should be fine

5) I would say min 106. Anything less will not give you the WOW factor IMHO

1) You can try two rows, but the last row will experience sound nodes due to the rear wall. I find that more seats make for a more enjoyable experience. (when the seats are full)
2) Try the riser calculator in another thread, but six to ten inches is typical.
3) You need to measure the chairs you are using, them make sure that every combination of recline (front and back rows) will provide enough room to maneuver.
4) You can make the seating distance anything you wish. This only limits the size of the screen you may want to use.
5) I would try a screen with a diagonal of 92" or 106" (max) with an aspect ratio of 16:9. These are both very large screens. My recommendations are taking into account that you will have enough light output from your RS1 to accommodate these screen sizes. I use a 106" diagonal screen with a viewing distance of 11.3 feet.

What do you mean by sound nodes in the rear wall? Is that becasue the seating would be too close?

It sounds like the consensus is that I could go with the 2 rows and 106 inch max screen.

When you measure viewing distance, should it always be from the front row? The reason I say that is I plan to be in the back row and that is farther back. The back row will likely be the one used the most.

Thanks for your help.

Jim

Jim, that's up to you which row is your sweet spot and thereby which row/seat will be used for optium calibration. In my theater, the center of the couch on the second row is where I conduct all my calibrations from...why? Becuase that's the position/seat I sit in the most. I also try to verify what the reading are from other seats/first row too....but the sweet spot has the most optium and I defer to that seat for best results.

That all makes sense. I did check out the riser calculator, which I will play with. How do I know how far off the ground my screen will be?

I still have not decided on which screen, I keep hearing different answers between 96 to 110 inches.

Thanks

Jim

You will not have room for a second row with recliners, you can manage it with real theater seats, my space is 17' from screen surface to rear wall my first row is 9.5' and second on a 15" high riser is 12.5' even that riser has to be 58" front to back to accomodate theater seats.
http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb101/Arwenmark/augustscreenshots022.jpg

My screen is a 120" wide 2.35:1 aspect and not too big for the closeness of the seating with my projector/anamorphic lens/ and screen combination.
http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb101/Arwenmark/augustscreenshots015.jpg

1. You can go with 2 rows if you change your screen size. I am assuming your room depth is 12.5'. If you go with a 106", your first row must be place around 10-11' distance from the screen - minimum. This allows your viewing angle to be set to as closed as 30 degree (SMTPE). You do not want your front row too close as it will strain your eyes after viewing for several hours. If you go with 2 rows - get a 92" screen.

2. My previous HT I built has 7" riser. I made this new one 8" (This is my fifth HT I built). You have a ceiling height of 8' - you need to take that into consideration when building a riser. My basement has 8.5" height - so I went with 8". Came out perfect for the second row. You can go with 10" - but you will feel that the ceiling is closing on you on the second row.

3. Riser depth - this will be determined by the seat your are getting. For your room size - my recommendation would be to go with Berkline 086, 088 or 45004. With these seats, you can make the depth shorter than 6' to allow more distance on your front row location.

4. 9 feet from the front row is right if you have 92" screen. Carada, Da-Lite and Stewart makes this size screen. If you go with 96" - you may need to move the front row a foot backward. Google "SMPTE distance" and you will find a lot of recommended sites that does the calculation for you. This also depends on the aspect ratio of your screen - everything I wrote down was dependent upon 16:9 (HD) configuration. Also, if you like reading technical stuff - I recommend you visit the da-lite website, under the education link, you will find Angles of Views. In there has detailed technical description of the history about how screens evolved in 10 years.

5. I recommend using 92" for your room - You will enjoy it more rather than overwhelming yourself with too big a screen.

1. You can go with 2 rows if you change your screen size. I am assuming your room depth is 12.5'. If you go with a 106", your first row must be place around 10-11' distance from the screen - minimum. This allows your viewing angle to be set to as closed as 30 degree (SMTPE). You do not want your front row too close as it will strain your eyes after viewing for several hours. If you go with 2 rows - get a 92" screen.

2. My previous HT I built has 7" riser. I made this new one 8" (This is my fifth HT I built). You have a ceiling height of 8' - you need to take that into consideration when building a riser. My basement has 8.5" height - so I went with 8". Came out perfect for the second row. You can go with 10" - but you will feel that the ceiling is closing on you on the second row.

3. Riser depth - this will be determined by the seat your are getting. For your room size - my recommendation would be to go with Berkline 086, 088 or 45004. With these seats, you can make the depth shorter than 6' to allow more distance on your front row location.

4. 9 feet from the front row is right if you have 92" screen. Carada, Da-Lite and Stewart makes this size screen. If you go with 96" - you may need to move the front row a foot backward. Google "SMPTE distance" and you will find a lot of recommended sites that does the calculation for you. This also depends on the aspect ratio of your screen - everything I wrote down was dependent upon 16:9 (HD) configuration. Also, if you like reading technical stuff - I recommend you visit the da-lite website, under the education link, you will find Angles of Views. In there has detailed technical description of the history about how screens evolved in 10 years.

5. I recommend using 92" for your room - You will enjoy it more rather than overwhelming yourself with too big a screen.


Alex

Thanks so much for your thoughtful comments. I have a 8 foot ceiling in my basement so pretty close to yours. It sounds like the 8 inch riser will be about right.

I will be using a 16:9 screen, with the front row around 9 to 9'6". I think I have it narrowed down to 92 or 96 inch screen. I would like to go more but as you and others say, it will be too much.

That screen won't be too small for someone in the back row who is 15 feet back?

I am going with the berkline 45003 so am allowing 6 feet for the riser depth.

I will check out the website you suggest. Thanks.

To the people that say it will be too much clearly have not seen a home theater with a large screen and close seating, you will find that many of us here have such theaters and much prefer them to the "chart recommended distance and sizes"

You people that say it will be too much clearly have not seen a home theater with a large screen and close seating, you will find that many of us here have such theaters and much prefer them to the "chart recommended distance and sizes"

I have not so that is why I am inquiring. I really would like to go bigger on the screen vs. smaller.

I guess my final question would be in a 15'6" room, would most of you do 1 row or would you put in the 2nd row?

Thanks

Jim

Jim: After spending years on this site and almost as many has a projector owner, the common mistake ppl make is to buy too small of a screen the first time. But, I can't judge for you what will and won't work ....ppl have different accpetance levels of perceived brightness and overall image. What may look great to me...you may say it needs more "pop, the picture is too dim." I would highly recommend ordering the screen last for two reasons:

1) You can display an image on bare wall or sheet (whatever works) to determine the size of the screen that YOU feel comfortable with.

2) You can order screen material samples from the company or companies that you are going to buy a screen from to determine which material works best with your projector and enviroment...by hanging the material on the wall to view it's effects with the image.

Ron

Jim,you are getting lots of advise---it can be confusing!Let me weigh-in on the bigger is better side.First ,determine where YOU will be sitting because you don't have room to spare.Then go as big as possible for your seating position.It's better to have a compromise in the secondary seating position.Also what are you going to be viewing? If mostly movies you might consider a 2.40 or 1.85 aspect ratio screen.My current HT is 15.5' deep and my screen is 1.85 A.S. 106"dia..I am reconfiguring my HT to 17.5'deep with a 12" riser for a second row and changing the screen to a 120" dia 2.40 A.S.because 90%of my viewing is movies and hi-def.Also if you can ,try so see a dalite high power screen...WOW!I saw tcrolys setup and was shocked at how much pop the image had!I thought my carada brilliant white had pop.John :)

I have a room that is 14'3" deep and have two rows. I have Berkline model 83's and the view is great. I wouldn't mind going even larger but my screen is 120" diag 2.35. So the heads in my front row are almost 10' from the screen. The second row is all the way to the back wall. If I can get a 1080p projector with a smaller throw ratio I'm going to go bigger. For the record I have to agree with most here. I never want to sit in the back row. The front row is a much more immersive experience.