I thought about posting this in the Dedicated Theater Room forum, but I
feel more comfortable here, since it seems a lot of you guys here have smaller rooms and a lot of the talk is around how to do it cost effectively. If it's the wrong place to post let me know and I'll take it elsewhere.
My project this year is to upgrade to my small dedicated room in the basement to use a DIY front projection screen.
I first built the room about 8 years ago, and made some serious errors in judgement first time around. Nothing I can't live with, but I'd like to not make another round of mistakes. The room is a bit short of ideal at 11' x 13'6", but one advantage is that the back wall is interior and so I have the option of mounting
the projector outside the room if needed. (I kind of think this would be
cool because it would seem like I have a projection room like in a theatre.)
I've done a simple room plan which I've attached to this post, or you can view it here:
Home Theater Phase 2 Room Plan
You can check out my current setup here:
Current Home Theater Setup
My current plan is to replace the 52" RPTV with a 100" diag 16:9 screen
(hopefully Do-Able board if I can get hold of it.)
Wanted some advice on a couple of setup issues.
Here are the dimensions:
Room width: 11ft
Room length: 13" 6'
Ceiling height: 7' 3"
Expected front row head distance: 7' from screen
Expected rear row head distance: 11' from screen
Rear row riser height: 9"
Rear row riser depth: 5' 6"
Target screen size (16:9): min 46" x 84" (94" diag): max 49" x 87" (100"
diag)
Approx throw distance: 13' 9"
I'm looking at the Panasonic, Sanyo and Mitsubishi 1080p projectors -
(currently biased towards the Panny PT-AE2000U, mainly due to no SDE and remote zoom, but that may change as
the market develops over the next year.)
I'm going to rebuild the riser under the second row of seating (I badly underestimated how deep to make it on the first build.
) I will also enclose the archway and replace it with a door. (Looks nice but is an obvious sound leak liability!)
Some questions:
PROJECTOR MOUNT
Room height is fairly low: 7' 3".
What's the ideal height to mount the projector?
Should I mount it upside down using a ceiling mount? Or right way up?
Occasionally I will want to take the projector to use at an event. Do you know of a ceiling mount which is easy to dismount the projector from? (I would like to unclip it rather than unscrew it.)
SEATING
Should I raise the height of the riser?
What's the ideal distance to sit from a 100" screen? With and without screendoor effect? (HD 1080p - if I go for the Panasonic, there's no screendoor effect - very tempting for closer viewing.)
Is 7ft away from a 100" screen bearable?
Would you forget about the front row and place the back row slightly closer to the screen?
What's the optimal viewing distance for a 100" 1080p HD screen?
SOUND & EQUIPMENT SETUP
Should I mount the centre speaker above or below the screen?
Where should I place the side speakers when I upgrade to 7.1 surround?
Where's the best place to mount the subwoofer?
I am thinking that the equipment rack is best at the back of the room. (Bottom left on floor plan.) I'm thinking of cutting a hole in the back wall and having the wires outside and the equipment facing into the theater room so that I can still use the remotes. Any advice of ideas on that plan would be appreciated.
Sorry for the long post, but I've been thinking about this for a while and I want to make the best of it this time around...

feel more comfortable here, since it seems a lot of you guys here have smaller rooms and a lot of the talk is around how to do it cost effectively. If it's the wrong place to post let me know and I'll take it elsewhere.
My project this year is to upgrade to my small dedicated room in the basement to use a DIY front projection screen.
I first built the room about 8 years ago, and made some serious errors in judgement first time around. Nothing I can't live with, but I'd like to not make another round of mistakes. The room is a bit short of ideal at 11' x 13'6", but one advantage is that the back wall is interior and so I have the option of mounting
the projector outside the room if needed. (I kind of think this would be
cool because it would seem like I have a projection room like in a theatre.)
I've done a simple room plan which I've attached to this post, or you can view it here:
Home Theater Phase 2 Room Plan
You can check out my current setup here:
Current Home Theater Setup
My current plan is to replace the 52" RPTV with a 100" diag 16:9 screen
(hopefully Do-Able board if I can get hold of it.)
Wanted some advice on a couple of setup issues.
Here are the dimensions:
Room width: 11ft
Room length: 13" 6'
Ceiling height: 7' 3"
Expected front row head distance: 7' from screen
Expected rear row head distance: 11' from screen
Rear row riser height: 9"
Rear row riser depth: 5' 6"
Target screen size (16:9): min 46" x 84" (94" diag): max 49" x 87" (100"
diag)
Approx throw distance: 13' 9"
I'm looking at the Panasonic, Sanyo and Mitsubishi 1080p projectors -
(currently biased towards the Panny PT-AE2000U, mainly due to no SDE and remote zoom, but that may change as
the market develops over the next year.)
I'm going to rebuild the riser under the second row of seating (I badly underestimated how deep to make it on the first build.
Some questions:
PROJECTOR MOUNT
Room height is fairly low: 7' 3".
What's the ideal height to mount the projector?
Should I mount it upside down using a ceiling mount? Or right way up?
Occasionally I will want to take the projector to use at an event. Do you know of a ceiling mount which is easy to dismount the projector from? (I would like to unclip it rather than unscrew it.)
SEATING
Should I raise the height of the riser?
What's the ideal distance to sit from a 100" screen? With and without screendoor effect? (HD 1080p - if I go for the Panasonic, there's no screendoor effect - very tempting for closer viewing.)
Is 7ft away from a 100" screen bearable?
Would you forget about the front row and place the back row slightly closer to the screen?
What's the optimal viewing distance for a 100" 1080p HD screen?
SOUND & EQUIPMENT SETUP
Should I mount the centre speaker above or below the screen?
Where should I place the side speakers when I upgrade to 7.1 surround?
Where's the best place to mount the subwoofer?
I am thinking that the equipment rack is best at the back of the room. (Bottom left on floor plan.) I'm thinking of cutting a hole in the back wall and having the wires outside and the equipment facing into the theater room so that I can still use the remotes. Any advice of ideas on that plan would be appreciated.
Sorry for the long post, but I've been thinking about this for a while and I want to make the best of it this time around...
