[capslock]

I have a horrible room layout. It is a long rectangle, which you would think would be perfect for a home theater. The only problem is that I have a fireplace dead center in the short wall where the screen should be. The mantle won't let a flat panel hang above the fireplace, so that leaves me with a corner. If I use a corner, I can't get my front speakers positioned correctly. What in the world do people do who have to put a tv/screen in a corner?


I'd attach a drawing, but this is a simple layout - a rectangle with a fireplace dead center in the perfect short end of the room. There's not much space in the corners, and the other short end has a staircase, so it's out.


Any ideas?

 

[Larry Fine]

Quote:

Originally posted by capslock Any ideas?

Yes, attach the drawing.

 

[thebland]

Easy...Remove mantle and brick over the fireplace and you are back to a perfect room. Or simply put a false wall in front of it to keep it out of the theater room. Then, when you sell, simply tear the wall down and you have the old room back. Good solutions if you are committed to having a theater.

 

[Larry Fine]

I can see it now. A buyer looks around the room, but wishes there was a fireplace.


"Come back in a week", you say.

 

[CZ Eddie]

Quote:

Originally posted by Larry Fine I can see it now. A buyer looks around the room, but wishes there was a fireplace. "Come back in a week", you say.

Thanks for the early morning chuckle

 

[Workindood]

We have a bad set up in our living room as well. It is a Cape Cod style house. That means it has a Living room/Dining room combo . Actually it is just a longer living room. This room has a fireplace as well right on the middle wall. So I put the TV in a so called corner. There is not enough room for the right speaker so it is on top of the TV. (As far right as I can go) It is not perfect however it still works. It worked allot better when I just had our little 27" Panny in that spot. I still can hear all of the surround sounds quite well. The rear speakers seem to come out more with this odd set-up.

 

[AnthonyP]

go FP and put a retractable screen about a foot in front of the fire place

 

[thebland]

Quote:

Originally posted by Larry Fine I can see it now. A buyer looks around the room, but wishes there was a fireplace. "Come back in a week", you say.

Hey a small problem if allows the proper implementation of a dedicated room !

 

[DZacco]

Capslock,


Are you living in my house?


I have exactly the same situation. I will be recieving a Samsung 5085 this Friday. It will fit in the left corner on the floor and in front of the brick hearth that goes the length of the far wall. I just ordered a 5.1 system with two front tower speakers that I envision being placed on the hearth in each corner, so one tower will have to sit behind the TV. It is 40" tall plus the hearth elevates it another 18" so I am hoping it won't be totally obstructed. The front firing 12" sub will probably be placed on the hearth and behind the TV as well. Again, hopefully it will be below the bottom of the TV. The rear speakers are another challenge. The right rear is a no brainer but the left cannot be placed where it belongs, otherwise it will be in the middle of the stairs. I'll have to see how it sounds placed behind the sofa, otherwise we'll have to get creative (a loose term for constructive).


The fireplace deletion is not an option as I just paid $3K for the gas insert.


DZ

 

[davdev]

Uhm.... not to be a jerk but I hope you are not expecting much from that speaker which will be behind the TV. I cannot see how that possibly could work out well. First, the TV is going to block the speaker, you may be able to get the tweater over the top, but the woofers are going to be blocked. Second, sounds that should be coming from the side of the TV, are going to come from behind it.


I hope it works out for you, but it's going to be a tough one

 

[Delvo]

I'm not seeing the problem with the fireplace. Why not just hang the screen right in front of that? Are you set on having the screen be a part of the wall with the fireplace not even visible below it?

 

[Ben jammin]

I have a suggestion - buy a new house



Seriously, where I live virtually all the new houses being built have a configuation similar to what you described. Rectangular great room open to kitchen or breakfast area on one end, fireplace on the other end (short wall) with built in cabinets and bookshelves on each side. One long wall is the back of the house and usually has windows, the opposite wall may have a stairway or open to a study or whatever. 90% of the people stick a 36" Sony Wega tube TV on top of the built-in cabinets on one side of the fireplace, wedged in the corner. If they have surround sound they buy small bookshelf speakers for their mains, or in some cases use all in-ceilings. It's a horrible arrangement, especially when you consider how useless fireplaces are in this part of the country. If you can't afford and mount a plasma above the fireplace, there is simply no good solution. Even that requires you to crane your neck up to watch TV.

 

[mborner]

Why has nobody mentioned using the OTHER END of the room, leaving the fireplace behind the listening position?

 

[capslock]

Actually, I considered the other end of the room, opposite the fireplace. Unfortunately, we have a desk there, and the staircase empties out right there as well, so it just wouldn't look "right" (read perfect).


Right now I have the TV on the right side of the fireplace, with the right speaker up on a ledge with the tweater in clear view, but the mids are completely lost. The sub is on the floor next to the TV, which works just fine. Of course, there is no sweet spot as the rear speakers are also in the wrong spots, but it was the best I could do. Now when an airplane flies from right to left, it sounds like it's coming out of the TV into the fireplace.


I almost convinced my wife to let me put a retractable screen in the ceiling above the fireplace, and a small DLP or LCD projector on the opposite side of the room. This would give me about 12-14' of throw distance to the screen.


My only problem is that I couldn't find any info on screens. I found an Infocus X1 (?) projector that worked well, but eventually returned it because I couldn't figure out where to get a reasonably priced screen (or any screen for that matter).


Are there small projectors and hidden type screens that I could use? Or should I just build an addition to my house? Maybe it would work better in my shed...

 

[DZacco]

Quote:

Originally posted by davdev Uhm.... not to be a jerk but I hope you are not expecting much from that speaker which will be behind the TV. I cannot see how that possibly could work out well. First, the TV is going to block the speaker, you may be able to get the tweater over the top, but the woofers are going to be blocked. Second, sounds that should be coming from the side of the TV, are going to come from behind it. I hope it works out for you, but it's going to be a tough one

My speakers will be here tomorrow and the TV will arrive on Friday. I'm sure you are correct about the speaker placement. I think there might be enough room on both sides of the TV for the tower speakers but we'll see... It would look totally wrong with the set on the oppisite side of the room. That would put the sofa backing to the fireplace and the room isn't big enough to leave it a decent distance from the hearth.


I'm starting to warm up to the idea of buying a new house .

 

[JudgeSmails]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ben jammin Seriously, where I live virtually all the new houses being built have a configuation similar to what you described. Rectangular great room open to kitchen or breakfast area on one end, fireplace on the other end (short wall) with built in cabinets and bookshelves on each side. One long wall is the back of the house and usually has windows, the opposite wall may have a stairway or open to a study or whatever. 90% of the people stick a 36" Sony Wega tube TV on top of the built-in cabinets on one side of the fireplace, wedged in the corner. If they have surround sound they buy small bookshelf speakers for their mains, or in some cases use all in-ceilings. It's a horrible arrangement, especially when you consider how useless fireplaces are in this part of the country.

Wow, you must live near me. Like the poster I am in the same lousy situation. I have a great room EXACTLY like you described above. The room is spacious and beautiful yet it is anti-home theater I tell you! I also cannot stand a TV placed at a higher level than eye-level so putting it over the fireplace is not an option for me either. I have settled on putting a 32" HD LCD in the corner on one of the built in bookcases. Not perfect, but it gets the job done. I am now struggling with how to place my speakers. My old black Polk RTs won't fit next to the TV or look aestheticly pleasing next to the silver TV. So I am stuck in a quandry. If any of ya'll figure out a good way to setup a room like ours I am all ears to any advice. Thanks.


JS

 

[GatorMike]

Sounds like we all have similar rooms! I'm glad I found this thread because I have a similar situation. I have a centered fireplace against the wall where I want my TV, and a window on each side. The fireplace is 5 feet wide and there is an additional 4 feet on each side. I currently have a 60" rear projection TV shoe-horned into one of these corners.


I finally convinced my wife that we need to hang a flat screen above the fireplace. Know how I did it? There's a mirror that goes from the mantle to the ceiling (into some crown molding at the top). She told me she has never liked the mirror. I can fix that, I said...


So I'm going to do this step by step. First remove the mirror. Then take the fireplace down about 3 rows of bricks so the mantle can be moved down. This will make the center of the flat screen a little above eye-level. So in order to fix that problem I suggested we get some nice reclining theater seating. So far I'm 2/2 on wife approval, now I've just got to make this work...


I decided against a projector because there's a ceiling fan in the way and we need that in the room!

 

[Redhouse]

Quote:

I almost convinced my wife to let me put a retractable screen in the ceiling above the fireplace, and a small DLP or LCD projector on the opposite side of the room. This would give me about 12-14' of throw distance to the screen. My only problem is that I couldn't find any info on screens. I found an Infocus X1 (?) projector that worked well, but eventually returned it because I couldn't figure out where to get a reasonably priced screen (or any screen for that matter). Are there small projectors and hidden type screens that I could use? Or should I just build an addition to my house? Maybe it would work better in my shed...

I would do the projector setup, you could find all the info on screens you could want right here in the screen forum. I have a friend that just did a HT system in a room like your's. What he did was, do inwall speakers around the fireplace, the surrounds were in the ceiling. The screen pulled down in front of the fire place and the projector was ceiling mounted. He uses his setup for movies and nightly TV viewing and it works out well. When the screen is up and everything else is hidden inwall, the room still looks like a normal sitting room. He has a SVS sub that looks like a freaking end table.


Redhouse

 

[JohnnyRose]

I have been struggling with this issue for a number of weeks.


Before you open the layout below, here are the details.


I have a 15 x 20 room. $%^& fireplace is dead center on the short wall and the opposite wall is totally open to the kitchen area.


Along the other other walls are numerous windows, doors and a large opening into the living room.


We are having the current mantle removed and a custom built hearth/cabinet built that will span the entire 15 length of the room. The cabinets will house the HT compnents and the cabinet in the corner is going to house a forward firing sub (Velodyne DD12).


The 50" Plasma (not purchased yet but likely to be a Pio 1120 or 1130 if I wait) is going to be mounted on an articulated arm so that when not in use, I can place against the wall and when in use can be swung out to bridge the corner (see attached). Im still doing the math to figure out if there is an arm that can do this.


I have no floor space for towers so all 7 speakers (7.1) need to be mouted off the floor. The L&R speaker will be mounted on the wall and the center (not shown on drawing) is going to be mounted across the corner. The sides are going to be mounted immedately adjacent to the two couches at the highest part of the wall. The two rears are going to be ceiling mounted (most likely in the ceiling) since I cant seem to get a symetrical layoyut otherwise.


For whatever its worth, I was looking at Magnepans for the LCR speakers since the the L&R can be swung out to parrallel the TV and swung flush when not in use. All speakers are still under evaluation.


I regard to my speakers, my biggest problem is finding a single brand that can provide all the different types (wall mount, ceiling mount, etc) that I need.


Any input into my layout (and speakers $2-3K) would be greatly appreciated. The cabinet is getting installed in a couple weeks which give me that much time to run wires for the speakers.


Thanks


John

 

[am_pcguy]

What's in the living room? Why not do the HT in the living room, is the layout any better?


Another option, can you make the living room entry smaller? Place the screen on the wall with the living room entry?


just a few ideas...