Home Theater Room Setup/Layout

villian

Hey guys, I've got a good one to pick your brains about. My downstairs home theater has always bugged me because of the size constrait that I have on my projector. The screen is large, right at 100" but I'd love to go bigger. Only reason I can't is because the speakers and room layout prevent me from enlarging it any more. The room is rectangular in shape and I have everything arranged lengthwise. Project on a short end. I'll post a picture on here to show you.

Question is this: Should I consider rotating everything 90* and projecting on the long wall? How would this change my audio? The fronts could be much wider, but the distance from front to back would be dramatically decreased. There's also a set of FX1000's I have mounted on the wall's at the edge of each side of the couch. They're not in the picture though, as they weren't setup at that point. Let me know what you think. Here's a picture attached to show you the room!

The RT1000's (The rears) are actually in the closet too (Perfect 60* with one on each side), they were just hanging out in the middle of nowhere for this picture lol. Lots of behind the scenes work!

villian

DSkip wrote: »

I always try and set up the front stage on the short wall. Have you considered simply pulling the chairs towards the screen? You could also look into an acoustically transparent pull-down screen so you can get a bigger screen closer to the action, but able to be put up when not in use.

I should have mentioned that this picture skews the distance between the couch and screen. The distance between front speakers and the couch is all perfectly equal, a perfect triangle. The couch looks super far back in this pic, but it's not. I've considered an acoustically transparent screen, just not sure how well they really perform. I don't want to compromise audio quality. That would be an excellent solution though if need be!

tonyb

I like the screen idea, but for audio I think your already in a compromising position. That right front speaker is sandwiched in there up against the sidewall. I like long walls myself but your room seems to short to do that. Maybe some nice bookies on stands with dual subs would sound nicer ?

EndersShadow

I second what skip is saying.... being able to have your screen be as large as the room will allow is preferable. AFAIK the transparent screens are indeed that.... so I'd dig into those so you can get a bigger screen size w/o having to adjust anything else besides your PJ back a bit.

Sherardp

The very first thing I would do in that room is paint those walls. You'll notice huge improvement in video quality right off the top after doing so.

Nightfall

Sherardp wrote: »

The very first thing I would do in that room is paint those walls. You'll notice huge improvement in video quality right off the top after doing so.

Because they're white?

Sherardp

Nightfall wrote: »

Because they're white?

Yes, basically you're you getting a lot of light reflected back to the PJ lens which washes out some PQ. In turn that causes you to lose some of the contrast in image quality, effects black level as well. I would paint that screen wall black and do some color on the walls.

WLDock

villian wrote: »

I should have mentioned that this picture skews the distance between the couch and screen.

Yeah, that picture is not a good one. The back of the right wall where the equipment is looks curved. How about a better picture and room dimensions?

It almost looks like you have more than enough room to go side to side where the big picture is....but again how many feet are we talking? And how big do you want to go with the screen? 110", 120", 135"? See how it looks on one of the viewing distance calculators out there.

EndersShadow

If you are iffy about the transparent screen, there are a BUNCH of DIY guides on using countertop laminate material to make your own decent screen just for regular use. I agree that you need to do some sort of painting on both the front wall as well as something with the ceiling above it and a bit back. You will get some reflection off that white tile and absorbing it will help your PQ on the PJ, as will doing something about your walls.

Sherardp

Need to know the projector model and mounting distance to determine screen size. Also I noticed you're shooting on a wall. I would go to Monoprice.com and get a screen once you get your questions answered.

http://www.monoprice.com/Search?cp_id=10829&cs_id=1082914&keyword=projector%20screen

villian

I'm actually not shooting directly on the wall. It's the reverse (Smooth) side of blackout cloth. It's pinned on the wall but is perfectly smooth. I'll have to get some more pictures tonight to see what everyone thinks. I'm leaning towards keeping the arrangement as is, except maybe scooting the couch back more and adding a drop down screen that's closer to the seating area. Audio wise the only real compromise right now is the front speakers being close to the wall, and the front right being stuck in a corner. My FX's are in the perfect spot for running bipole, and if I scoot the seating area back just one foot they'll be in perfect dipole position. The rear surrounds are right at 60* apart and in the correct spots, and I think that rotating everything 90* just won't work acoustically.

I found a DIY material that I might try first for a transparent screen. I have acoustic ceiling tile right now, but I might reorder it in black and try to start changing the ceiling over to a black. I like the idea of painting the room a darker color as well, and I know that would improve things quite a bit. Right now I get a lot of light bouncing around everywhere, even with the projector on Eco mode and set accordingly. The projector is a BenQ W1070 btw. Great projector for the money.

GospelTruth

If it were my place, I would set it up to shoot on the longer wall. However, that will depend on the actual distance you would then have from couch to the screen in that scenario. I guess it would help to know the dimensions of your room. My screen (although not set up at the moment) is 106". I thought about going bigger, but there are issues with doing that you may want to consider. One, your projector can lose brightness trying to project on a bigger area. That's fine if your projector is bright, but if you already consider it not so bright, this could be an issue. Second, for me anyway, a bigger screen would not be doable on my wall as the added height would cause the center channel to block a portion of the screen. It looks like that would be the case for you as well unless you go with an acoustically transparent screen you can also retract back up toward the ceiling.

Anyway, let us know the dimensions of the room (I don't recall seeing this) so folks here can better chime in on what they would do in your situation.

villian

GospelTruth wrote: »

If it were my place, I would set it up to shoot on the longer wall. However, that will depend on the actual distance you would then have from couch to the screen in that scenario. I guess it would help to know the dimensions of your room. My screen (although not set up at the moment) is 106". I thought about going bigger, but there are issues with doing that you may want to consider. One, your projector can lose brightness trying to project on a bigger area. That's fine if your projector is bright, but if you already consider it not so bright, this could be an issue. Second, for me anyway, a bigger screen would not be doable on my wall as the added height would cause the center channel to block a portion of the screen. It looks like that would be the case for you as well unless you go with an acoustically transparent screen you can also retract back up toward the ceiling.

Anyway, let us know the dimensions of the room (I don't recall seeing this) so folks here can better chime in on what they would do in your situation.

Will do. I have an autocad file of my house so I'll get the exact dimensions from that and take some fresh photo's when I get home. I think a drop down screen may be the route I end up going. Then I could move the speakers slighty away from the walls as well (Since they won't be blocking the screen). We'll see though, I'll have to take a good long look at everything. Going longwise may make more sense in the long run.

villian

Looking around the other night I've decided to keep it portrait style, as is. I'm going to adjust the seating and quite a few other things, but no major changes. There's just not enough room the other way, and adding a second couch should be fairly easy if I move the existing couch forwards. That should help with the screen size issue too, otherwise I'll be adding a bigger, closer drop down screen.

Sherardp

After, paint that room and notice the huge improvement.

txcoastal1

Sherardp wrote: »

After, paint that room and notice the huge improvement.

Bingo, you would be surprised what reflections you get off your walls. Black ceiling tiles too.