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New dedicated room with just a few ?'s

637 Views 12 Replies 5 Participants Last post by Diesel 48, May 19, 2006

Diesel 48

Discussion Starter · May 18, 2006

Hey guys I have been reading a ton, bought the the home theater book, read through that a few times and now I am ready to write my first post. I recently purchased a house, my first one, (woohoo!!) and plan on converting one of the bedrooms into a theater/video game room. The room is 12.5'wide by 16' long. Not the largest room in the world but I think it will work. I recently purchased the highly touted panasonic 9000U or something like that front projector. I plan on having my main seating as close to the back wall as possible. Probably 15.5' back. I have read many posts about determining the screen size and that your viewing distance should be roughly 1.3-1.5 times the diagonal. I was told to check out the view distance calculater on a page that the forum doesnt let me post yet.

and the THX screen size it gives me is much bigger than that reccomended distance.

If I tell it i am 15.5' away, 16:9 screen, a diagonal size of 115" is reccomends a THX screen size of 138.7 diagonal for THX view distances and coverage. What is correct?

I hope this wasn't to long. Thanks for you help.

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mderka

· #2 · May 18, 2006

If you could supply a little more info I think it would be helpful

1. I'm guessing you are going with only one row of seats in which case you may want to rethink your seating distance (too close to back wall).

2. Are you planning on 5.1 or 7.1, it will make a difference on both seating position and screen size.

The panny 900 is a fairly flexible projector for both seating position and projector placement. With a room your size I would be thinking of the seating position at about 13 feet, a 110" screen and the projector mounted on the back wall.

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sdspga

· #3 · May 18, 2006

I agree with mderka. Make the throw as long as you can by mounting on the back wall that way you have some flexibility w/screen size. Why not mount the PJ and throw onto the blank white wall and determine what size you like realizing that the picture will probably improve somewhat w/dedicated screen material. Don't know if this helps, but I have the AE700 w/11' seating and 12' throw, 92" diag screen. Could go a little bigger on the screen, but I am very happy.

Also agree on getting the seats away from the back wall if possible. All the experts will tell you not to sit too close to room boundaries for accoustic reasons.

good luck!

Scott

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scottyb

· #4 · May 18, 2006

My room is almost your exact size. I have a 100" screen and would not go any larger.

The pic is plenty big and when you start to get too big the quality of the pic goes down. Able to see more artifacts, etc.

If you can before you get the screen set up the projector and experiment with screen sizes.

I also agree with getting the seating off the back wall, even if it's only a foot or two.

Scott

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Diesel 48

Discussion Starter · #5 · May 18, 2006

I was thinking of only starting out with one row of seats due to budget and size of the room. I planned on putting the projector all the way to the back wall. I will have a 5.1 sound system. I was thinking of also putting some bean bag chairs in there for extra seating if needed. Thanks for the responses guys. Scottyb that is a 100" screen diagonally correct? And that seems plenty big? The reason I bought the projector was for a "theatre" experience. I would think 100" would give you that. I attached some drawings i did in sketch up. The black represents accoustical treatments. Does the back wall need any treatments? I thought i read a post that says it did not need much if any. Any suggestions? I will be driving a svs sub with DIY speakers, a denon 3803, with an outlaw audio amp. I am thinking about getting a M&K speaker set though.

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scottyb

· #6 · May 18, 2006

Yes, 100" dia.

We only have one row also, but we got some, for lack of a better word, circle chairs from Target. They fold up so they only need to be out when there is more than four people and easily stored. The kids love them, but I've sat in them and they are fairly comfortable.

Scott

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dc_pilgrim

· #7 · May 18, 2006

Take a look at Ascend Accoustics - a former M&K guy who now runs a internet direct speaker company. Well regarded (at the price point) in the speaker forum.

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sdspga

· #8 · May 18, 2006

Quote:

The reason I bought the projector was for a "theatre" experience. I would think 100" would give you that.

Totally agree.

Quote:

The black represents accoustical treatments. Does the back wall need any treatments?

Placement looks good from what I have read. What will you be using? Are you covering w/GOM?

Also, might want to consider some base traps in the back corners. They did wonders for my room. Check out the Audio Theory and Setup Forum for more on these.

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Diesel 48

Discussion Starter · #9 · May 19, 2006

I am going to try and find the john's of mansville stuff. I think it is called linacoustic. I will cover that with black GOM. I am not "fully" converting the room because when i sell the house i would like the new homeowners to be able to easily convert the room back into a bedroom. I planned on getting bass traps as well. What did you use for them? Did you make them? If you did how did you do that. Thanks again for the help guys. I will post pictures of my progress.

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sdspga

· #10 · May 19, 2006

I used Owens Corning 703 2" rigid fiberglass with FSK facing. I doubled up the 2'x4' panels and left the facing on the outer most panel. I built a housing for them out of 3/4" mdf board so that they could straddle the corners and still have about 6" of air behind them. I made the housing so that it went floor to ceiling and covered with dyed muslin cloth from JoAnn's.

It made a HUGE difference in my room. I have a crappy HTIB audio system as that was all I could afford, but even this sounds unbelievably better since I treated the room.

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sdspga

· #11 · May 19, 2006

Diesel,

Here is a study I was looking for earlier about the benefits of bass traps. (It made sense to me after about three times reading it)

best,

scott

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