Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Help me design my HT

My HT romm is 12' x 18'4" with 9'ceiling.
What would you do with it? Big tv of FP. If I go FP how big of a screen should it it be? One row of seats or two?

A pretty sharp feller at AVS answered this very question for me once. He gave me some simple math to use which is…..

If you want to follow THX recommendations for viewing angle, divide your room length by 2.17. That will be your max screen width for the room.

Then divide that width by the screen aspect ratio you wish to use. 2.35, 1.78 or 1.33. That will give you your screen height.

Then to find your maximum seating distance, multiply your screen width by 1.54 or, your screen height by 3.68.

One thing to consider is screen height off the floor. If it’s too high, you get neck strain. Too low and you can’t see. 32” or so seams to be about right which runs into problems when you don’t have much room to either side of the screen for tower speaker placement (like my situation).


My theater room is 12 X 16. I have enough room for a couple couches, but definitely not enough for two rows. I don’t think 18 foot would either, but possibly if you can put one row right up to the back wall.

Doing a little math per mdrew's information would yeild a max screen width of 101.382" or about 8'5". That means a ballpark of a 126" diagonal 1.78:1 (16:9 HDTV format) screen or 120" diagonal 2.35:1 (nice and wide) screen. Both have advantages and drawbacks. I have a 16:9, and end up with black bards at the top and bottom of my screen since most of the movies I watch are in a wider format that 16:9. So I need to "mask" off those bars to make them seem to disapear. Sirquack uses a 2.35:1 screen and some other cool technology that I am sure he can chime in on. When (if) he has to mask anything, it is the sides of the screen to make it not as wide, so to speak. Masking systems for me are a little more difficult to construct (thus I haven't done it yet), but for Sirquack, even some sort of side curtains would easily work.

Ok. With that said, those screen sizes are quite large. I am sitting about 14' from my screen (screen to my eyes, not to the back of the room), and 104" is pretty big.

You would also need a projector that can fire a good image that large with enough contrast and brightness. Check out ProjectorCentral and play around with the projector calculators that show max screen sizes, brightness, etc.

You will also need to look at screen material and various gain numbers that will be impacted by room environmentals (ambiant light, etc).

Now for the TV vs. front projector. I used to have a large TV in my first home theater. For V2.0, I went with the front projector that I have now, and I will NEVER go back to a TV. There is NOTHING like the the really large display of a front projection system to really feel like you are in a theater.

As for 2 rows, you would be pushing it, but it isn't impossible.

My first home theater had 3 rows of seats in a 11 x 20 room. Now, the first row was pretty close to the front of the room, but again, it was a 46" TV and not 104". If you go with a little smaller screen, you can move the first row a little closer, and sneak a 2nd row in possibly.

For V3.0 of my theater, I said "screw the seating." 99% of the time, it is just my family of four, so it was really silly when I had 3 rows when 2 of them rarely got used. So now in V3.0, I am going to end up with seating for about 7 adults and no more. That accounts for the few times that the kids have friends over. Plus I am thinking about picking up some "Love Sacks" which are basically upgraded "bean bags" that can sit off to the side and be pulled out if needed.

Hope that this helps get you started.

Thanks guys for your expertise. I tried going to projector centrral but could not get to their site. I will try agin later tonight.

I have been looking at Panny 900 and Z4. Going with the 1.78. If I knew anybody that lived close by that has a 2.35 I would consider going that route.

If I were to go with two rows I would have three seats in the back and two seats in the front. There is five in my family and we seldom watch on the same tv anyways. If I go a single row I would like to get a setup I saw online somewhere that has two recliners on the outside and a loveseat in the middle. It measures 144" wide not sure if I want wall to wall seating especially when the width of the room is 144".

Do you ever feel like your screen is too big. Do your eyes ever strain while watching?

My opinion is that for a 1.78 screen, you do not want to be any closer than 1.3 to 1.5 times the screen width back. This is a good rule of thumb.

I agree with Randy. About 1.3 to 1.5 screen widths back.

When I read mdrews original statement of "maximum" seating distance of 1.54 screen width, I thought maybe he meant "minimum"?

If you are going 1.78, then I would suggest 100" or no larger than 110" diag. You don't want the screen so close to the walls that you don't have room for speakers- and the closer the image is to the walls you'll get light reflected off the walls/ceiling. Painting your walls/ceiling a darker color and eggshell finish should help with controlling the light and you'll get better picture.

Nick gave some good advice on the seating. Depending on what you find for seats and what you want to do, you could go either way. I actually have the setup you described for my front row of 4, with a love seat in the middle. But ours measures at 125" width, not 144". My room is 13' wide. We have chairs made by Lane furniture. So keep researching different chair makes, to find a chair you like with a width that would work.

I finally was able to go on Projector central.
The calculator reccomends a screen sixe of 89" for both the Panny 900 And Sanyo Z4. That seems kinda small. What do you all think about size?

I just had installed a Panny AE900 in a HT that is 14 x 16 x 7.75. The screen is 1.85:1, 88", and all I can say is WOW. I sit about 11 feet from the screen (haven't measured) and the HD picture is mind-blowing. I have no desire for anything bigger.

No pixellation; brilliant colors. I don't think you could go wrong with either the Panny or the Z4.