New room... deciding screen size

[Pointswest]

Ok , here goes ... fairly small room , 11 x 18 , but will be dedicated for htr .. from what I've been reading in the posts so far , I will be painting the front wall and ceiling low lustre black. The walls, one is already a dark cherrywood ,so thinking dark burgandy or other paint close to the wood color for the other side and back wall.There are three windows , so far my plan is to build 2 x 2 frames larger than the windows , cover the frames with a Dark Grey fabric and then put a layer of ceiling tile inside the frame to cut out the light and provide a little more sound barrier. I want to have two rows of recliner seating
first row 11 1/2 to 12 feet from screen second row will be 8 inches higher and 15 to 16 feet from front.
Screen size .... I was thinking around 110 to 116 diag.

Well Here are a few photo's of the progress thus far ... Wires are in , raised deck , ( Wife talked me out of lights under deck ), so good old carpet on the riser. Ceiling painted and two of the three window covering completed. Also built the cabnet in the corner with two shelves on roller slide outs for the equipment to set on. Working on some odds and ends for a day or two , then making the four hour drive south to shop for furniture
hmm going to edit this one more time ,some as I figure how to add the photo's

[tonyvdb]

Hi Points, Welcome aboard!

A 110" screen in your room is on the large size. You will find it will be hard to look at (like sitting in the front row and your local Theater) I would recommend nothing larger than a 96" you also will find the picture will be crisper and brighter.
What projector do you have or plan on having?


Enjoy your stay at the Shack.

[Pointswest]

Thanks for all the help so far .. My projector is a epson PowerLite720 and a Philips DVDR3575H/37 Hard Disk DVD Recorder 160GB HDMI 1080P Upscaling , so the plan is to also run satellite output through the recorder to the projector

[tonyvdb]

With that projector your looking good but if your room is not light controlled meaning you cant make it totally dark I would still stay at a 96" screen. Its only a 720p display and while that is more than enough blowing that image up too large will reduce its picture quality. You will also not want that image blown up to much or you will start seeing the so called screen door effect even more.

[Pointswest]

I set up last night to have a look at screen size ... just using the painted white wall. I do have windows, but they will be blacked out. I placed a chair about 11 feet from the sceen, and watched a hour of movie to see if I was doing the tennis game head nod ... seemed to be ok
and didn't notice any sde... but you right it will put the speakers close to the corners. My plan is to put the projector on a shelf at the back of the room

[tonyvdb]

Just remember that you should have about 3' of distance between the rear wall and the back row of seating for the rear surrounds to be heard properly this will push your front row of seating forward (that is if you are having two rows of seating).

[Pointswest]

Thanks for your help Tony .. I am going to play with the screen size a bit more .. did want to go a bit bigger than 96 though ... that's what I have in my current htr ( soon to be exercise room

[tonyvdb]

No problem, Ultimately its up to you for screen size as its what you like that counts. You mentioned that you would then have to place you main speakers in the front corners this is not a good idea as the dramatically affects the sound from them its always best to have them at least 3' from a corner.

[cynical2]

I have 2 rows with almost the same exact seating distances (with 12" riser instead of 8").

I'm at 119" for 16:9 content and 150" :raped: for 2:37 content (image height is constant...the image is just wider with the 2:37 content). I prefer the back row when we're using all 150", because the front row is just TOO big...but both kids (and every friend they've brought over) prefer the front row. For 16:9 (119" diagonal), I'm equally pleased with either row.

My next iteration will be slightly smaller...113" for 16:9 and 143" for 2:37 content.

To Tony's point, my screen is larger than the experts recommend. But, I did the same thing you're doing...projected different sizes and watched for a while. And, this is what works for our family. It's definitely a matter of personal preference. So, I'd continue your testing and go from there...all the while, keep the industry recommendations for size in the forefront of your mind. There's a solid foundation behind the recommendations.

[Pointswest]

Thanks cyn .. I have decided to go to 10" for the raised . Question for the members .anyone out there use rope lighting around the front edge of their raised seating deck?