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I've done lots of reading and searching and can't seem to find anything to really answer this, and this seems the best place to ask.
We bought our house almost a year ago, and projects have kept me on other things until recently. i have always wanted to do a full on home-theater, but budget and space have not been available in the past. in the new house I don't really have the space for a dedicated theater either but it's other characteristics won out over the (perhaps arguably) frivolous dedicated room.
I do however have a plan. My living room is pretty large (16' x 22') with 12' vaulted ceilings, which is nice, but it's also open to the dining and living rooms and has doorways going off from each end. It also has a skylight and sliding door, plus the large window in the dining room and the small window in the kitchen.
All of these windows can be covered, but will likely not be lightproof during daylight hours. I have can lighting in the ceiling with eyeballs to keep light off the screen area. I have attached a few pictures, the first is looking at the display area, then the left into the kitchen and dining area and finally looking back at the seating area.
Finally I have a ceiling fan and large fireplace to contend with.
The ceiling fan hangs down 30" from the peak and I'll need to be about 16' to 21' from the display wall to get behind this ceiling fan. The current seating has us about 21' from the screen, but will likely end up closer to 18' when all is said and done (wife has design ideas that don't necessarily go with theater ideas).
The 16' wide room does not have a 16' wide wall as a 3' doorway on the left cuts me down to 13' of wall space, and keeping it somewhat centered only leaves me with about 10' of width to use. I'll need to be above my speakers also, which gives me a lower edge of about 3' off the ground.
Now, the fun stuff. I've finally decided to buy a projector. I really don't watch much TV, but really enjoy movies & documentaries and the wife likes TV. I'm not what you'd call a gamer, but could easily see that changing as I do enjoy it quite a bit when I make the time. Wife wants a Wii.
I sort of figure I can hang it from the vaulted ceiling low enough to get under the ceiling fan, but high enough to not be in the way of anyone (or distracting and ugly).
Wife thinks this is all a bit silly I think, and is not really on board. Okay, she has her right to her opinion.
Here's my challenge. The walls are painted an eggshell Behr "Stable Hay" yellow/beige color. I don't think I'm gonna convince the wife to let me hang a big grey screen on the wall, nor paint the screen area; not at first anyway. Nor am I certain I want a big screen on the wall all the time either quite frankly.
So, I've been thinking about how hard it would be to offest the yellow color in the calibration to give me white whites and dark blacks. I know the obvious answer is that it's not a good idea, it'll never be right. I'm okay with that to start. I just want to know if going from a 32" HiDef (720p) LCD to a 10' screen will be so much better that the (hopefully) slight inaccuracies will not make it un-enjoyable. I'm not a big videophile, but I do understand this all much better than John Q Public, and feel I can notice when things aren't quite right.
I'm willing to deal with the yellow issue for the (hopefully amazing) impactof going to a 10' screen (I sit about 21' from the current 32" TV). I won't put up with a clearly crappy picture, but with nothing to compare it to in my house, how much will I really notice?
I'm wanting to buy the Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 6100 Projector, but might end up getting something less.
I figure I need lots of light to throw 17' and get a 10' image with enough light to compensate for ambient and reflection issues.
I thought about embedding magnets in the drywall to hold a border, but figure a lightweight plastic? frame covered in velvet that I can just hang on a few hooks on the wall when I want to watch something, and can easily remove it when we have people over to just hang out will work fine too.
So, anyone have any thoughts or opinions?
I'm sure I'm missing some things so all suggestions are welcome.
thanks!!

We bought our house almost a year ago, and projects have kept me on other things until recently. i have always wanted to do a full on home-theater, but budget and space have not been available in the past. in the new house I don't really have the space for a dedicated theater either but it's other characteristics won out over the (perhaps arguably) frivolous dedicated room.
I do however have a plan. My living room is pretty large (16' x 22') with 12' vaulted ceilings, which is nice, but it's also open to the dining and living rooms and has doorways going off from each end. It also has a skylight and sliding door, plus the large window in the dining room and the small window in the kitchen.
All of these windows can be covered, but will likely not be lightproof during daylight hours. I have can lighting in the ceiling with eyeballs to keep light off the screen area. I have attached a few pictures, the first is looking at the display area, then the left into the kitchen and dining area and finally looking back at the seating area.
Finally I have a ceiling fan and large fireplace to contend with.
The ceiling fan hangs down 30" from the peak and I'll need to be about 16' to 21' from the display wall to get behind this ceiling fan. The current seating has us about 21' from the screen, but will likely end up closer to 18' when all is said and done (wife has design ideas that don't necessarily go with theater ideas).
The 16' wide room does not have a 16' wide wall as a 3' doorway on the left cuts me down to 13' of wall space, and keeping it somewhat centered only leaves me with about 10' of width to use. I'll need to be above my speakers also, which gives me a lower edge of about 3' off the ground.
Now, the fun stuff. I've finally decided to buy a projector. I really don't watch much TV, but really enjoy movies & documentaries and the wife likes TV. I'm not what you'd call a gamer, but could easily see that changing as I do enjoy it quite a bit when I make the time. Wife wants a Wii.
I sort of figure I can hang it from the vaulted ceiling low enough to get under the ceiling fan, but high enough to not be in the way of anyone (or distracting and ugly).
Wife thinks this is all a bit silly I think, and is not really on board. Okay, she has her right to her opinion.
Here's my challenge. The walls are painted an eggshell Behr "Stable Hay" yellow/beige color. I don't think I'm gonna convince the wife to let me hang a big grey screen on the wall, nor paint the screen area; not at first anyway. Nor am I certain I want a big screen on the wall all the time either quite frankly.
So, I've been thinking about how hard it would be to offest the yellow color in the calibration to give me white whites and dark blacks. I know the obvious answer is that it's not a good idea, it'll never be right. I'm okay with that to start. I just want to know if going from a 32" HiDef (720p) LCD to a 10' screen will be so much better that the (hopefully) slight inaccuracies will not make it un-enjoyable. I'm not a big videophile, but I do understand this all much better than John Q Public, and feel I can notice when things aren't quite right.
I'm willing to deal with the yellow issue for the (hopefully amazing) impactof going to a 10' screen (I sit about 21' from the current 32" TV). I won't put up with a clearly crappy picture, but with nothing to compare it to in my house, how much will I really notice?
I'm wanting to buy the Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 6100 Projector, but might end up getting something less.
I figure I need lots of light to throw 17' and get a 10' image with enough light to compensate for ambient and reflection issues.
I thought about embedding magnets in the drywall to hold a border, but figure a lightweight plastic? frame covered in velvet that I can just hang on a few hooks on the wall when I want to watch something, and can easily remove it when we have people over to just hang out will work fine too.
So, anyone have any thoughts or opinions?
I'm sure I'm missing some things so all suggestions are welcome.
thanks!!


