[AMartin56]

My wife and I are considering this house.


I would be given the game room for a home theater.


I would be able to paint the walls dark gray...the molding would still be white but I should be able to go with a dark gray on the ceiling as well. The ceiling fan in the picture will not be there and the stair railing would be a half wall instead. I'd have blackout curtains on the windows. Carpet will be a light color but I'll add a dark area rug to the floor in front of the screen.


The room is 18 feet long and 14.5 feet wide. I'd be using a Sony 40es on a 106 inch 1.0 gain white screen. I'd want to mount the projector behind me so I'd have about a 14 foot throw (2 feet for clearance and about two feet for the projector) with one row of seating from about 12 feet away. On the floor plan screen would be on the right wall...projector in front of the windows on the left.


Thoughts? I'm a little worried about light from the stairwell but it can't be helped.

 

[AV_Integrated]

Always remember it's just my opinion...

I would repaint significantly if you can and go with darker carpet unless it's already been ordered. It's not a family room, so a nice deep dark grey carpet can be quite 'regal' looking and provides a nice complement to the rest of the rooms in the home. This is a theater, so getting a bit more 'dark' from the carpet and walls does nothing but help the projected image.

I like the room a lot. Hate the windows, but proper wall coverings can help deal with that.

Speakers... On the screen wall, which makes sense to be the large blank wall, you have plenty of room for decent floor standing models. For the surrounds, it seems like your best option is in-ceiling. Make sure to get decent in-ceiling speakers to match the fronts.

I think your plan is sound, but the screen size is a bit small IMO. Most people swear by 10" to 12" of diagonal for each foot of viewing. That's 120" to 144" of screen size. If you can, why not get the Sony, fire it up, and see what screen size you actually enjoy? I sit about 15' from my 161" diagonal. I had a client freaking out on a 134" diagonal he was viewing from 9' away (Sony 40ES), and I showed it to him before buying the screen and he is very happy with what he saw, and what he now owns.

So, yeah, screen size seems small.

If it were me, I would likely not only deinstall the ceiling fan, but I would put in at least two zones of ceiling can lights. One zone for the general room lighting, near the screen, central room. Another zone for above the couch. All lights on dimmers. So, two dimmers. This way you can watch the game and still have a bit of directional light over the seating, and enough light to move around and hang out with friends without devastating the on-screen action.

 

[AMartin56]

Thanks for the advice. This wouldn't be the house...this was just a model they were building. But of course the widows etc would be the same. They won't paint the rooms individually so it's likely to be an off white that I would paint dark gray (walls and ceiling). Baseboard and window frames would remain white. Top of half wall (instead of railing seen in the picture) would be white. Dark gray with some white trim would still look elegant for general use and pass the wife test.

They'd put can lights in and I'm pretty sure the would wire them separately and put in dimmers. Great idea on that...the configuration you suggest makes sense. Not sure I will be able to go with built in speakers though. I'm going to continue using my NHT Super Zeros as surrounds (rest of config is my signature). I have wall mounts for them though and they don't extend out much so it shouldn't be a problem. I don't think they would extend much beyond the window treatments anyways. I'm not likely to experience perfect sound in most instances anyways since my daughters room will be just down the hall. Not sure how much could be done to reduce what would transfer to her when she is trying to sleep.

As far as seating distances goes I could certainly inch closer but when testing on a wall I liked 106 inches at 10-11 feet. Anything closer seemed grainy at times...especially with less than blu-ray quality content. But I think I could get one row of recliner seating with a small bar with stools behind them for football games. I'd only have a big crowd for the Super Bowl. None of my other friends are fans of the Texans....most folks around here root for the Cowboys.

 

[PrimeTime]

If this room hasn't been constructed yet, be sure to at least run speaker wires to ceiling locations in case the Atmos bug bites you later.

Possibly AC power and an HDMI cable for the PJ too. AC is more important as you can opt for a wireless HDMI if necessary.

 

[dreamer]

As far as seating distances goes I could certainly inch closer but when testing on a wall I liked 106 inches at 10-11 feet. Anything closer seemed grainy at times...especially with less than blu-ray quality content. But I think I could get one row of recliner seating with a small bar with stools behind them for football games. I'd only have a big crowd for the Super Bowl. None of my other friends are fans of the Texans....most folks around here root for the Cowboys.

You may have been seeing graininess because the wall was not perfectly smooth. Really, even 150" should not appear grainy for bluray from 12'. Try taping some computer paper to the wall with it zoomed out larger and compare the graininess between the wall and the paper. A good screen will be smooth like the paper.

One way to take care of the stairwell light would be to ceiling mount a curtain track all along in line with the half-wall from back to screen wall. Draw a heavy drape from front to halfway and back to halfway, leaving an opening people can come and go through for serious watching in daylight and to add some sound damping. And some 3' tall speaker stands for your existing surrounds would be my choice rather than new in-ceiling speakers.

 

[AMartin56]

You may have been seeing graininess because the wall was not perfectly smooth. Really, even 150" should not appear grainy for bluray from 12'. Try taping some computer paper to the wall with it zoomed out larger and compare the graininess between the wall and the paper. A good screen will be smooth like the paper.

One way to take care of the stairwell light would be to ceiling mount a curtain track all along in line with the half-wall from back to screen wall. Draw a heavy drape from front to halfway and back to halfway, leaving an opening people can come and go through for serious watching in daylight and to add some sound damping. And some 3' tall speaker stands for your existing surrounds would be my choice rather than new in-ceiling speakers.

Thanks for the additional advice. The ceiling curtain track is a good idea....I'm just not sure where to source that from.

I have the option to have them run speaker wire through the walls prior to installing the dry wall but I'm not sure how useful that will be since I'm not sure where I will place everything yet. I have a low media shelf that could go under the screen for the cable box, reciever and blu-ray player but it may be better to leave that wall blank for the screen only. It just wastes space to put the components on a side wall considering that I probably won't be stacking them vertically. Besides I've had good luck with running those thin plastic cable management channels that glue to the wall right above the baseboards where it's hardly noticeable so I'm not all that worried about the speakers.

The builder will run 'low voltage' channels for in wall HDMI etc but I'm not sure if they are able to do that to the ceiling for a projector (and I'd have to decide on my receiver placement beforehand). I'll certainly ask though. They'll be able to put a power outlet up there for sure. Unfortunately the air vents for the room are pretty close to where the projector would go but I think it would be okay.

Speaking of the ceiling....I was able to see one model that was in the framing stage with no drywall. Unfortunately none of the joists are exactly where I would hang the projector but I'm sure I could mount a board up there between two of them...paint it the ceiling color and then attach the projector mount to that.

 

[PrimeTime]

Figure out where the screen is going, and then have them run two speaker cables across the ceiling, parallel to the screen, about seven feet out from the screen (log that distance). Then, for Atmos, you can just punch through the ceiling anywhere along that line to access the wires and mount a ceiling unit.