Movie Theater in house

[69_500]

Does anyone have a theater set up in their house? If so what do you have? And any recomendations as to what you would change if you could do it all over again?

Just moved into a new house about 5 months ago now and we are thinking of making one of the rooms in the basement into a theater room. Where we could chill watch some movies. Ordered 4 theater recliners the other day and they are supposed to be in about a week from now. I was  thinking of mounting a 50" LCD TV on the wall, but then also moutning a 120" projector screen that is powered to raise and lower to go over the LCD. Then hanging a projector from the ceiling in the room to watch DVD's and such on. Or if we have a party to put on a movie for the kids. Any suggestions on a screen? A projector? Or if anyone else has done such a set up. I like the idea of just having the TV mounted to watch TV on all the time, but if you want to have the theater feel you can run the screen down in front of the TV for a larger viewing area and then watch it like that.

[Darkman]

I wouldn't waste my time on a projector. The globes in them do not last long and they are expensive to replace. Go with the 50" HD flat screen with a good quality blu ray player. The most important feature of a home theatre system is the sound. Get an amplifier with true THX sound (I have one that takes 11 speakers) and once setup, your mind will be blown!

[2Gunz]

I agree with Dark.

Unless you have a HUGE room and the money to spend on GOOD projector I would forget about the projector.

A motorized roll up screen starts at $1500  and a good projector starts at about $3000.

I would take that money and dump it into a sick flat screen.

I have not priced them.... but a 65" + tv with 3D seems like it would be awesome.

And as noted by dark the sound is VERY important.  Spend the money on 7.1 and buy and AWESOME center channel speaker.

Also forget DVD's and go blue-ray.

[69_500]

The room is 24' x 16'. Already have the 55" led tv on the wall with 7.1 surround sound. Speakers are already mounted as well. We are wanting a theater feel though and I just picked up a 120" screen that is motorized for $150. Looked at a few of the jvc  projectors that are even 3D compatible. They seem to be running about $2,300-3,000. Only thing the projector would be for is movies so I am not too worried about the life of the bulb as they are supposed to get around 4000 hours out if one. Which if it is only for movies should give us about 6-7 years worth of entertainment.

[2Gunz]

Well then...

The next step is to figure out your throw distance and the correct projector/lense for that distance.

If you are able to mount the projector pretty much anywhere than that's not much of a concern.

After that.... try to find a place that you can actually watch the projectors and see what looks best to you.

Make sure it can do real HD and that it will be bright enough for the environment.

[Orange_Crush]

Are you still looking at equipment?  I can help you out.

I had a 106" screen theater in my old house.  It was fantastic and much MUCH better than a 50" flat screen (which I have now).

If you have any questions, I have plenty of advice to give you.

[PocketThunder]

Elevate the floor and put a couple subs under each chair... 

[Orange_Crush]

One suggestion I will make is that you buy a fixed screen instead of a retractable.  Carada makes excellent fixed screens and the prices cannot be beat...plus they are made here in the U.S. of A.  Fixed screens will give you a better cinematic experience because they won't move or wrinkle.

Epson makes a good 1080P projector at a very reasonable price, BTW...but shop around.

[KS71owner]

My friend Tricia got her husband a projector for their anniversary....he ended up building a HUGE home theater around it. The screen is about 120", and shows up great even in normal light. Can't remember what brand the projector is though. He says it's awesome for playing CoD4 on.

[thedodgeboys]

I agree the large screens are a hoot I put one in the basement for the kids x box games with a surond sound system, now all there friends want to come over to our house to hang.

Now I know what my kids are doing & who there friends are. 

[69_500]

We are still not sure on exactly what we are going to do in the basement. I like the idea of a retractable screen due to the life span of the bulbs in most projectors. With it being hung where it would come down in front of a LCD TV that would give the best of both worlds. TV for everyday watching, then the big screen for when you want the movie theater feel. Still not sure though. Just weighing options.

[defiance]

I've had a projector for a couple years, and I would **NEVER** go back to not having one!  I have a 47" in the den, and nobody watches it, it lookst TINY now.

One thing to keep in mind, if you want to 'try it out', there are some REALLY bright 720p projectors with nice pictures and long bulb life available for <$500.  They aren't 1080p, and they're not as flexible (placement-wise) as nice LCD projectors, but they'll still give you a GREAT picture, and give a good impression of life in projector-land. 

example - look on newegg, they're selling the Acer h5360 for $500 shipped right now.  It's almost identical to my projector, and I couldn't be happier.  It's 3d, but you have to get an extra converter ($200-$300 depending) to get that to work with most stuff, but the 2d picture is still quite amazing, and if you don't care about 3d, no problem.

[Steve P.]

I have no personal experience with them, but my parents club has one that is now about 6 years old. It is in a room about 28 by 40 and they seat about 30 people in there most of the time. This room gets rented out a few nights per week and is in use all weekend. My father tells me I should be doing the same here with the size of my living room.  Says everyone at the club loves it. They have done no maintenance and still all original. Don't know the size of the screen, but they paid about $150.00 for it when they bought the projector and it is motor retractable. If I remember right they bought it from some store on EBAY... About 2 years ago they upgraded the sound system and went to blue ray, but says they still use the DVD quite a bit. It hangs from the ceiling and has a popcorn cart just below it... Only thing he said they did that nobody told them would be a problem was to put up black backed curtains as the already dark curtains were not dark enough....

We had talked about doing this at our old house in the garage. It was very deep but not very wide. I thought of building a 2-step platform for a couch on the bottom and 4 Lazy boys on the second step or tier. First was to get the second row high enough to not have the first row heads in line of sight. Second reason was to put the sub inside all of it to realllllly get the deep, shit your pants, bass... 

Let us know how yours works out....