Planning home theater room, could use some help

[JenningsPaige]

Hi guys. I am planning to make a dedicated home theater room out of one of our bedroom. The room is on the small side (12.5 X 12 feet) which greatly concerns my husband. We also have a very limited budget (about $4,000), and I'm into the look and feel of a theater, so a significant portion of the money is going towards furniture and decor. I'm not really an audio or video nut. The room will be nice and dark, and I tend to be impressed by an half decent sound system (like...even home theater in a box sounds good to me). Hubby is not so easily impressed and would much rather spend $30,000 to do it right in a much larger room. He is of the opinion that if it can't be done top of the line, it shouldn't be done at all. I am of the opinion that it's a relatively inexpensive way to have a whole lot of fun in a room we don't use anyway. So anyway, here's what I'm planning to get. I just want to know if you think there's any major errors for the home theater I'm going for (ignore hubby's wants because he won't be happy unless it's the local cineplex). I also put what each thing costs so you can see how much of the budget will go toward each thing.

I want to get 2 rows of three movie theater seats like these (cost $1000 total):

http://www.doll-fan.com/galleryalbums/album1421/seats.jpg

So we built a 7" high platform to put the back row of seats on for a stadium seating effect, just for fun:

http://www.doll-fan.com/galleryalbums/album1421/IMG_0005.sized.jpg

I plan to put the projector as far back as it will possibly go on the wall behind the seats, and the put the screen right up against the opposite wall (over the window, which will be covered with red velvet curtains.

This is the projector I picked--BenQ 5120. It's $1250 including a ceiling mount:

http://www.doll-fan.com/galleryalbums/album1421/benq_projector.jpg

http://www.doll-fan.com/galleryalbums/album1421/ceiling_mount.jpg

The screen I want is 106" diagonal 16:9, but I realize I may not be able to get the picture as big as that and still be in focus, since the projector will only be about 11 feet away. That's why I'm putting curtains on the sides to shrink it down if need be. I think it will still be pretty darn big for a room that size.

Screen is a pull down Da-lite one for $175

For speakers, I like these Bic Accoustechs. They are $1000 with shipping.

http://www.doll-fan.com/galleryalbums/album1421/speakers.gif

The receiver is a Pioneer 1014 I think? It's $375:

http://www.doll-fan.com/galleryalbums/album1421/pioneer_receiver.sized.jpg

And the DVD player is a Pioneer C36, I think it's called. It is $275:

http://www.doll-fan.com/galleryalbums/album1421/dvd_changer.sized.jpg

The rest of the money would go towards covering the walls in red velvet, and fun accessories like popcorn machine and decorations.

I'd love to hear opinions on this before I actually buy the stuff. But seriously, the budget cannot be extended at all, so if you want to add money to one thing, you have to take it from somewhere else, and the seats are the best price for the most seating so I don't see how that can budge.

[rboster]

I'm impressed with the amount of research you have already done on this project. Many come here with a budget with hopes the membership will do all the research/or provide the answers for them. I don't have any opinions on your equipment, since I don't have any background on those products. A couple of things to consider.....

One thing I would reconsider is the screen size. Two reasons, the size of the room and distance from screen makes me think your screen maybe too big. But, my real concern is the projector...is that screen size a good fit for the qaulity of the projector output?

Another consideration are the chairs....for those type of chairs, I would try to find used chairs to save on money....ebay or home theater sites classifieds. I would also check local classifieds. I would visit the ht accessories area and search for other chair options...those say theater, but how comfortable are they to sit through a 3 hour movie? Coaster seats, I think are the the new hot economical seats. Here is a thread abot them:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=418788

I just read the first post and he bought 6 chairs for a grand. They sound pretty decent. Run a search in accessories using coaster...there are quite a few threads on these seats.

Good Luck and Welcome to AVS

Ron

[dty]

I'm a cheapskate myself so I cant comment on your equipment but I can lend my opinion on how to save some bucks.

Before buying the chairs, go look in the accessories forum. I know I would rather sit in a theater recliner than a regular theater chair. (guys like recliners)...accessories forum is also good for your fun stuff. popcorn, mylars, poster stuff, etc. I never even heard of a mylar before going there...

most people here say your distance back from the screen should determine your screen size. 1.1 to 1.5 times the horizontal (not diagnal) of your screen. Look up your projector on www.projectorcentral.com to check the distance of the projector to the screen and see if that will work well for your room.

If you want to save some cash, I would go with a less expensive DVD player. I havnt researched them, but Ive seen alot of threads here with DVD players less than $100 getting GREAT ratings. Im sure somone here knows what im talking about.

im pretty much a newbie, so thats all I got.

Good Luck

[JenningsPaige]

Well....there isn't enough room to fit recliners. If we did that, we could only seat two people. And it wouldn't look like a real theater, which is something I really like. The theater chairs allow for two rows, so 6 seats total. The recliners just take up so much room....I want it to be a friendly, social theater. Also, those seats are cheap. The chairs themselves are only $110 on ebay. It's the shipping that costs so much, but that would be the same for any chair online. They're much cheaper than any recliners I found....

The screen might be too big to use all of it and get a good looking picture. I realize that, and it's okay because we can just pull the curtains in and make the picture a little smaller. Then later, if we get a bigger room, we can use the full screen.

So you don't see any major problems as of yet? Dare I be hopeful? Hee hee....

Thanks for your input! I appreciate it!

[Morris Jones]

I think you're going in exactly the right direction. You'll have a much better theater in the small dedicated room than many of us have in spaces shared with a living room or den.

I've heard many pro HT installers say they'd much rather work with a room like yours than a big living room.

Keep us up to date with pictures! :)

Mojo

[bpape]

I too would recommend a smaller screen. That's way too big IMO for 2 rows of seating in a 12' deep room. You won't be happy with the way standard definition material looks as it will be very grainy. If you want to get it for another room later, at least plan on masking off the unused portion of the screen with panels covered in Duvetyne. You'd be surprised how distracting the unused reflective portion of the screen can be. Curtains will work OK for taking care of the width difference but won't help with picture height difference.

Personally, if you or your hubby is at all handy, I'd recommend making a DIY screen. It will be very reasonably priced and IMO, a better solution than a pull down (Yuck!, sorry). Pull downs, IMO, are not at all desirable. They never are 100% flat so the picture looks funky, getting focused exactly is almost impossible, etc.

The audio looks OK but realize that those are pretty big speakers for that room size wise.

[Delvo]

You could cut out a bit of the drywall near the top in the back and create a little shelf/box area for the projector that's recessed back "into" the wall instead of setting the projector "out" from the wall and into the room. Of course, that would mean you'd get a protruding box shape in the room that's on the other side of the wall, but there are ways you could handle that too, like putting a slant or arch under it on that side and painting it the same color as the walls so it doesn't look so boxy and conspicuous. Meanwhile, in the theater, you'd free up more floor space for chairs and/or walking space between rows, and pick up another foot or two of "throw" distance (from projector to screen).

If you go this route, you can also isolate the projector's noise from the theater room by putting a sheet of transparent plastic or glass roughly flush with the theater wall in front of the projector, and ventilating the projector into that other room on the other side of the wall instead of into the theater.

[Fat Dave]

One thing I'd maybe look at is I think you're a little audio-heavy within your budget. I might be tempted to look at say the BenQ 6200 or similar, and maybe ease back a bit on the speakers. I think you could get 90% of the audio quality and greatly increase the video quality. Particularly given that the front row will be rather close to the screen.

However, if you watch only 480p-based material (no HD and no scaling), then this projo may be just the ticket. I haven't seen what it does in person - I'm going strictly off the resolution. It was because of the size of my first home theatre that I moved up to an XGA projector, but I used an HTPC to scale.

I also like the suggestion of seeing if you can mount the projo into the back wall. Anything you can do to get the noise down will help immensely with the experience. If not, consider perhaps a hush-box. I made my own, for far less than the ceiling mounts cost, and it helps keep things considerably quieter, as well as adding a nice finishing touch.