i am having my basement done. the framing is up so i need to make a decision on which way to go since i need wiring. i would love to do a hd projector/screen thing. are the screens good? wil it be a washed out affect? i really want like a 100 inch screen so as to be the size of the wall. then i read front projection will not be as great as a regular tv in a room where there is light. most of the time we will use in the dark but it will be used in the light. if i go thte tv way, it will have to be significantly smaller because of prices. as you can see, im just starting out so if someone has some tips on doing this in my basement or can point me in the right direction, please let me know. in the meantime i will visit the forums on this board. thanks

In my opinion a regular TV can't give you the same theater experience as a projector "big" screen can give you. It is really up to what you want. In most basements you can control the lighting, but you normally would not have all the lights on and windows open when your watching TV/Movies, using a projector. We never go to the theaters anymore. We have a walkout basement and it is just fine, the theater area is over to one side of the room. When I have Nascar or Superbowl parties, we leave the lights off in the HT area, but shot pool across the room and it works fine. My room is very large though.

I built my own screen, but you can also pay a lot more and purchase from a mfg. Some even use a paint formula on a wall with no texture.

In regards to wiring, make sure you run sub coax runs to all wall locations, even if you don't use them all at first. The sub is the hardest speaker to place to get great performance and you don't want to have to run cables around your floor trim after the fact once the walls are done.

My screen is a 2.35 format 10ft wide, below are some pics, Star Wars using the full width, and Napolean Dynamite in 16:9 format.

Faced with the same decision, I figured that a PJ or TV now might be the reverse in 5 years. Here is what I did (and it's NOT much more money but MUCH easier to do before the walls are closed up)

1) Determined the viewing wall and added a 20 amp circuit for the equipment and put two more 15 amp boxes on either side of the 20 amp (the 20 and each of the 2 15s were separate circuits}

2) buried some pipe in the wall to run cables/wires. Figured what I needed for speakers/HDMI/Component and ran that before drywall wnet up

3) Ran CAT6 for a network connection

4) Added a couple of extra studs to hold up to a 65" plasma TV

5) ran 14ga. speaker wire to the sides and behind the viewing area for 5.1 / 7.1.

6) Put an outlet in the ceiling for a PJ. Also ran component and HDMI from the PJ down the aforementioned pipe.

monoprice keeps the expense way down for cables.

Anyhow, the more you can do now, the better you will be later.

If you're going for the dedicated basement theater, definitely go projector. It should be much more easy to control the light down there anyway. If you're setting up a screen in a more multipurpose room, I'd probably stick to a TV.

Got any models you're considering? (tv or pj?)

I was using a PJ in a living room with tons of light leakage projecting a 120" image onto a white wall using Theatre Black setting (~400 lumens). People tend to overstate the lighting problem. Besides, if most of the time you are in the dark wouldn't it be better to "sacrifice" a little PQ for the minority of the time instead of being unhappy all of the time?

Why not both use a wall mount for every day TV and put a drop down screen for the PJ for movies.