[garyttu]

I am building a house and my HT room is looking to be

21 X 16...


How far from the front wall is the idea place to put seating? I am also looking to put a FP screen on that front wall so I need an appropriate size for whatever seating distance is chosen... any ideas?

 

[cburbs]

Screen size can depend on the Projector and your first row of seating. Usually you want to be 1.5 * the width of the screen away. Is it 21 deep or 16 deep???

 

[garyttu]

the room is 21 feet deep and 16 feet wide....

 

[wildhunter]

Without the specific layout of the room I'd say use a 10' wide screen and sit 15 feet back. That will give you room for 2 rows if you wanted that and leave some space behind you for the rear speakers. Really need a specific room layout, what you expect to get out of the theatre (do you want it to be big, emphasis on picture, emphasis on sound, how many seats etc) to give a good answer though.

 

[Bob Mathes]

As a screen manufacturer (Draper), I would second wildhunter's recommendations.

 

[Art Sonneborn]

I'll just throw in my experiences with my theater which sounds to be similar to what you are looking to build. Mine is 16' wide and 26'8" long.I have a nine foot wide screen and sit about 1.1 screen widths back in front at 10' or so and the second row is 16' back the third about 22'.


The PJ you chose, the scaling quality ( or if HD) and your preferences for immersion in a commercial theater are things to consider. I like to sit in the front 1/3 at a commercial theater ( not right in front though). If this is you, setting things up with similar ratios in your HT will make you happy. If you like to sit further back set things up as the others have said at 1.5 screen widths as the first row or more.


Art

 

[eameres]

I've seen a lot of people mention the 1.5x rule of thumb, but it seems like in the majority of real life anecdotes we wind up prefering to be a little closer. In my 20'x15' room with a 9' wide screen, the typical configuration is to view from about 12' from the screen, which is more like 1.33x


Of course projector choice will also be a big factor, if your PJ tends to show a lot of screen door, you may want to be further back.


Eric.

 

[Gregory]

I was planning on a 52" X 92" screen, sitting back 13.5 feet. That 1.76 X the screen's width. I was thinking of going wider, however I am concerned with the ping pong effect (eyes/head trying to follow action on the screen).


Isn't a 9' wide screen seated at 12' back kind of close?.......just curious. I'm still trying to determine how wide is wide enough without getting headaches.


Thanks,

Greg

 

[VideoGrabber]

Gregory wrote:

> I was thinking of going wider, however I am concerned with the ping pong effect (eyes/head trying to follow action on the screen).

 

[Drew Eckhardt]

Quote:

Originally posted by Gregory I was planning on a 52" X 92" screen, sitting back 13.5 feet. That 1.76 X the screen's width. I was thinking of going wider, however I am concerned with the ping pong effect (eyes/head trying to follow action on the screen).

You won't have problems with that until you get much closer.


8-9 feet from my 87" wide screen nice 2.35:1 transfers look wonderful and don't have that problem. Getting closer makes the softness real apparant.

Quote:

Isn't a 9' wide screen seated at 12' back kind of close?.......just curious.

Given a projector without visible artifacts, 4:3 DBS/VHS will be unwatchable, good DVD transfers at

 

[eameres]

4:3 VHS sources are not allowed in my theater. Digital broadcast and cable are only tolerated while changing channels between HD stations.


Maybe once I fully get the Holo3D II really set up and tweaked I may ease up on these restrictions, but for now, only DVD and HD are allowed !!!!


Eric.

 

[Shift]

The formula is



1.5 * (width of your screen) =


what ever it equals you divide that by 12 , and that would be your seating distance from your screen.


Hope this helps.


So mine is an 96" wide screen and I multiply that by 1.5 which equals 144 and then I divide 144 by 12 .. and the answer is 12.


So rule of thumb is I sit at least 12' back from my 96" screen

 

[Gregory]

Thanks all for the advice and detailed responses.


I was at the movie theater the other day and determined (using the drop ceiling tiles as my measurement) that I was at a 40° field of view. That was ~ slightly further back from the center of the seating, our usual seating preference. Based on that, I could probably go to a 10' wide screen, however what I wasn't considering until I read your responses was the resolution of various sources...........something I'll need to give further thought to.


Thanks,

Greg