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Ripley (Believe It Or Not) Street Theater

post #1 of 6
11/19/10 at 9:49am
Thread Starter 
Ok, this is my first post on AVS forums! My wife and I are buying a new house (moving in on Dec 1st). Ideally, I wanted to build from the ground up, but for various reasons that was not possible. So we are buying a spec home with the floor plan we wanted but we were unable to get many customizations done in the time frame we had.

Our house is on Ripley Street therefore the thread title. It is a 3750 sq/ft 2 story home with seperate dedicated game and media rooms next to each other. The media room is already finished (walled, painted, wired, some lightning).

However the layout has the projector throw going from north to south which is the shortest distance in the 17' (e-w) x 13' (n-s) room. As currently wired the projector (yet to be selected) would be about 12' from the screen (which I current plan on being "Screen Goo").

I have attached a JPG of the media room layout (please note that the layout is mirror image of actual room). I couldn't attach the PDF of entire second floor plan because it was too large.

So my first issue: "Is it worth it too change the room so that the screen would be on west wall and projector throw would be greater distance?. If I make that decision then that opens up the possiblity of creating a bar/setting area on the east wall in the gameroom similar to what is shown in the second attachment (Bar area).

I will post more as I move forward.

Any feedback is welcome and much appreciated!
LL
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post #2 of 6
11/19/10 at 10:10am
Welcome to the forum! Personally, I don't see any reason why you shouldn't/couldn't change the orientation.
Maybe the bigger question is what size screen are you intending on doing (and projector as well).
With the current set-up you may be limiting your screen size due to only having around a 12' throw distance.
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post #3 of 6
11/19/10 at 12:47pm
Thread Starter 
Floyd,

Thanks for your input. Took a look at your build thread and it was quite impressive. How do you like using 3D Home Architect? Is it easy to learn? I'm a software engineer so learning new applications is not that big a deal but I'm a neophete when it comes to media rooms and construction. Would you recommend it over SketchUp (seems you used it also) or Visio? Any other applications out there that are worth considering?

Regarding the existing media room (I'll add pictures to this thread this weekend after I go out to house and take some), the things that would cause me to hesitate to change the layout are:

> the room is essentially done so all I'd have to do is drop equipment into it;
> the ceiling already has recess in the middle of room (not sure what the proper architectural term is but is 9' at that point and 8'6" most everywhere else) for the N-S projector-screen setup
> columns, and lamps, are already setup on west wall
> one advantage to south wall is that I could put LCD/plasmas screens on either or one side of the projection screen (don't think I'd have enough room on west wall to do that)
> I'd have to go back down to flooring and framing and start over again


That said I don't mind starting over because I want the best possible media room setup I can afford (and I do have some $$ to play with). So here are a few initial bullet points/thoughts:

> I want as large a screen as possible for the viewing distance. So I'm thinking 110"-130" diagonal.
> Ideally, I don't want A/V equipment in the room. There is a lot of closet, attic space behind the west and south walls. Note: Part of attic space has two water heaters. If I must have A/V equipment in room I don't want to see it.
> Want to get rid of double hollow-core doors and replace with single solid-core more sound proof door (something cool would be nice); this would also give me more room for inter-room bar on east wall
> Want soffit on ceiling (nothing there now)
> Want room to have sofa-like seating in additional to typical movie-like seating (not commonly seen in forum so maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree here)
> Ideally would like to integrate it in with gameroom, but not at expense of media room "experience".

There are very few things etched in stone yet. However, I am bringing what the builder's AV man says are good speakers from my old house. They, including dimensions (H"xW"xD"), are:
- center front - Onix Rocket RSC200 - 12x26x13;
- front sides - Onix Rocket RS750s - 38x9x17;
- rears (wall mounted) - Onix Rocket RSS300s - 15x17x7;
- subwoofer - SVS 25-31PC - 33x16x16.
I will supply pics when I have a chance.

Three projectors high on my list of candidates are:
- Panasonic AE4000U
- Mitsubishi HC7000
- Runco Lightstyle LS-3 or 5
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post #4 of 6
11/19/10 at 7:00pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Redweb View Post

Floyd,

Thanks for your input. Took a look at your build thread and it was quite impressive. How do you like using 3D Home Architect? Is it easy to learn? I'm a software engineer so learning new applications is not that big a deal but I'm a neophete when it comes to media rooms and construction. Would you recommend it over SketchUp (seems you used it also) or Visio? Any other applications out there that are worth considering?

Regarding the existing media room (I'll add pictures to this thread this weekend after I go out to house and take some), the things that would cause me to hesitate to change the layout are:

> the room is essentially done so all I'd have to do is drop equipment into it;
> the ceiling already has recess in the middle of room (not sure what the proper architectural term is but is 9' at that point and 8'6" most everywhere else) for the N-S projector-screen setup
> columns, and lamps, are already setup on west wall
> one advantage to south wall is that I could put LCD/plasmas screens on either or one side of the projection screen (don't think I'd have enough room on west wall to do that)
> I'd have to go back down to flooring and framing and start over again


That said I don't mind starting over because I want the best possible media room setup I can afford (and I do have some $$ to play with). So here are a few initial bullet points/thoughts:

> I want as large a screen as possible for the viewing distance. So I'm thinking 110"-130" diagonal.
> Ideally, I don't want A/V equipment in the room. There is a lot of closet, attic space behind the west and south walls. Note: Part of attic space has two water heaters. If I must have A/V equipment in room I don't want to see it.
> Want to get rid of double hollow-core doors and replace with single solid-core more sound proof door (something cool would be nice); this would also give me more room for inter-room bar on east wall
> Want soffit on ceiling (nothing there now)
> Want room to have sofa-like seating in additional to typical movie-like seating (not commonly seen in forum so maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree here)
> Ideally would like to integrate it in with gameroom, but not at expense of media room "experience".

There are very few things etched in stone yet. However, I am bringing what the builder's AV man says are good speakers from my old house. They, including dimensions (H"xW"xD"), are:
- center front - Onix Rocket RSC200 - 12x26x13;
- front sides - Onix Rocket RS750s - 38x9x17;
- rears (wall mounted) - Onix Rocket RSS300s - 15x17x7;
- subwoofer - SVS 25-31PC - 33x16x16.
I will supply pics when I have a chance.

Three projectors high on my list of candidates are:
- Panasonic AE4000U
- Mitsubishi HC7000
- Runco Lightstyle LS-3 or 5

Thanks for the comments on my HT. I liked 3D Home Architect from the aspect of being able to throw something together very quickly for a visual of the room/floorplan, but it doesn't compare to sketchup for being able to do a more detailed rendering with textures, colors etc. Sketchup had a much larger learning curve though, although I didn't spend time doing the tutorials

There are certainly good arguments for either room layout you're looking at. Easy to get moving as is, yet may be ultimately a better set-up for screen size the other way. Sounds like you're working through the options though.

You may want to visit Projector Central and use their projector calculator pro to plug in some numbers for screen dimensions based on the projectors you're considering. Should give you quick feedback on min throw distance based on screen size, aspect ratio etc. http://www.projectorcentral.com/proj...ulator-pro.cfm

In either set-up, it sounds like you could put a hole in one wall to house your equipment via a rack or diy shelving and keep it out of the room.

I may be a bit biased on the screen size etc as I am sitting 12' away from a 120" wide 2:35:1 AT screen, and wouldn't want it any smaller now that I have it. That would be hard to fit into your current layout.

If I wasn't burnt out from spending 1.5+ years in my basement, I wouldn't hesitate to "redecorate" your room if I thought it would suit me better in the long run. Ultimately, you will need to determine if it's worth it for you or not as you have valid arguments both ways.
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post #5 of 6
11/22/10 at 7:39pm
Thread Starter 
Attached to this post are pictures of what I have to start with. As you can see the room was intended to have the screen on the south wall and the projector on the north (see previous layout in first post). The ceiling has the cut in for that layout and columns/bulbs are positioned for that layout as well.

Any thoughts regarding if it is worth it to move screen to west (Back wall) and gain the 4'?

Any thoughts/suggestions about the room in general?

Thanks!
LL
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LL
LL
LL
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post #6 of 6
11/22/10 at 7:52pm
Thread Starter 
What is the best way to get rid of the light coming through the door cracks as shown in the picture below? Will simple 'ole weatherstripping do the trick? Thanks!

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