Arise, thread! So…I bought a house! It’s super exciting, since I’ve been a renter nearly my whole life, but also a bit scary. So much that I could spend money on!
The new house has this huge upstairs “bonus room” that I’m considering turning at least partially into a home theater. Has anyone here built one? I don’t think I want to spend the kind of money to make it a fully pro room like the ones I drool over, but I don’t really know much about seating, projectors, screens, wiring, and the types of companies you need to hire to do this sort of thing. I’d love some advice.
Most people opt for the basement for a bit more natural sound isolation. Is that an option? Bass carries. Aside from that I wouldn’t get less than a 75-inch TV. I prefer a decent quality pair of speakers and a low-end receiver for better sound and better stereo separation than a sound bar. Sit closer than you think you should.
Also go for a wall mount and hidden cables, easy and much cleaner. If your basement is unfinished, sound isolation vis safe and sound.
I’ve built two soundproof home theatres, though neither was nearly to the extent of the enthusiasts on AVS forum. More multipurpose rooms with theater as one main purpose. Happy to offer more tips. How much remodeling are you considering?
I’m in Austin, so no basements here, but that’s OK. The upstairs bonus room is huge and more than big enough to do anything I want with it. I’m also not worried about soundproofing.
I’m not made of money, so a full theater conversion is out. I think I’d like to focus on getting a great display (whether it’s a big OLED or a projector), great sound (receiver+speakers or high-end soundbar), and great seats. Here are some photos of the room with the current occupant’s furniture in it.
This one is looking from where the stairs come up towards the back
This one is looking from the window in the back forward. I was thinking I’d put the display on the far wall next to where the stairs come up. I’d obviously need to get blackout blinds for the window.
Nice room! Understood that soundproofing is not an interest. I’ll just plant the thought that watching even at medium volume will make the rest of the house very annoyed. So if you have a partner and watch together, with no kids, then it’s all good. Don’t buy a subwoofer. Headphones aren’t very enjoyable to me. If I were looking at that room, a remodel with basic soundproofing would be maybe $5K to $10K. But yeah, that’s a lot for ‘I can still hear it! Turn it down more!!’ coming from the kitchen :).
So that put to rest, a projector. I don’t have one and kind of want one too. Your ceiling is pretty high which makes the angle a problem if ceiling mounted. The proper setup is for the projector to be mounted mid-screen (horizontal and vertical). Projectors have some optical shift ability, I can’t recall how much but you need to research to see if it works. Avoid digital keystone. Projectors aren’t bright enough for lit rooms. This sounds fine (just close the blinds) but you might get tired of it and wish you got a nice bright TV. Though, newer expensive projectors are getting brighter and brighter. They have fans you can hear, which conflicts with low-volume watching. I like the look of the ultra-short-throw projectors which are gaining popularity but even more expensive.
TVs don’t have the brightness issues and 75’s and 85’s are getting more affordable. I’d budget around $2K CAD or $1,500 US, or so, to get a brand name mid-to-high range, Samsung or Sony. Consider LG OLED - popular here on the forum (and popular for a reason, they’re great), but regular TV’s in the indicated price range are also great.
I like the location on the long wall. I’d probably mount on the left behind the foosball table to be a bit further from the window. Viewing distance, seated eyes are 1.5 times the TV size or closer.
Sound is really preference-based to my note above. Do you want the helicopter coming from behind you? To me nah.
Yeah, I have an LG CX 65" in my living room now and it’s awesome. I’d totally be happy to add a 77" for this. Sound-wise I’m torn. Technically a receiver+speakers setup would be optimal, but it means snaking cables through the walls and stuff - maybe do-able, but these high-end wireless soundbar setups have come a long way and may be just fine. I have a Sonos Arc+Sub+2 One setup now and it’s totally great with no wires.
Just need to think about seats. Do I splurge for something like this?
I am with you: I’ve played around with a projector, currently have the 65" LG OLED, and would choose the 77" LG if I could wave the proverbial magic wand. I’ve also got a decent midrange Polk 5.1 system (roughly the current Wirecutter recommendation, except tower instead of bookshelf and ~15 years old), and if I were doing it from scratch I’d just go with the best Sonos setup as Close Enough but Way Easier.
I love a good sectional more than the theater style seating, though. Give me the corner! The best of all worlds!
Here’s what I bought. Everything but the seats is coming in later this week and I’ll hopefully have at least the screen and projector up and running this weekend.
I can’t wait to get it all set up. I have total light control in the bonus room and have put up blackout curtains over the big windows.
I also bought some sound absorbing material/panels, but I’ll see where I need to place those after everything is in. The room is huge, so I don’t exactly know how to treat it acoustically without spending way more money than I want.
I’m seriously considering a short throw projector instead of a tv for my next upgrade. Let us know how it is!
I just don’t understand why they are so expensive. It seems like they would much simpler to engineer and manufacture than a huge plane of glass with a ton of led bulbs behind it.
Didn’t know an LS800 had released. I will have to take a look. I have a very restricted space I’ve been looking for the right protector for. Don’t need 4k, but I’m very sensitive to rainbow artifacts, so 3LCD always a good option.
Edit: OOOH. MINIMUM image size. That might be the case, but I imagine people generally don’t get projectors if they want TV-size images. You can get a 77" LG C2 for way less than this projector.
