O/T Home cinema

[metal mickey]

I want to install a home cinema in a new build basement. I'm not looking for the absolute top of the range but wish to fit a good system thats compatible with future technology and upgrades. I've been to Richer Sounds today but the salesman was next to hopeless when asked specific questions so here goes.

Are ceiling, wall mounted or free standing speakers best 🤔

Given that I have the opertunity to wire in the speakers what cable/boxes should I use 🤔

Are sockets and outlets available for hdmi cable 🤔

What is the actual real world difference to the viewer between 720 and 1080 resolution 🤔

The room I will fit the cinema in is 5.5m long,4.5m wide and 2.7m tall. What size picture will be best and how far from the screen do I need to ceiling mount the projector 🤔

A switchable amp, Onky TXSR606 and Sony projector VPLAW10 have been recommended to me. Are these o.k 🤔

Any and all other advice is very welcome.

Thanks

 

Edited by - Metal Mickey on 15 Jun 2008 14:13:49

[Philip]

I would have thought one of the new amps (eg. Onkyo / Yamaha ) with multi HDMI inputs and 1 output would have been a minimum.

 

I have a 5 year old system with floor mounted Missions 5.0 (no room / need for sub) and inputs from DVD/BD/Vid and Freeview audio out. Telly is a 26" Panny HD-Ready, but to be honest, I couldn't tell the difference between 26" @ 720 & 32" @ 1080 in the shop.

 

Have fun.

 

 

Dayglo Yellow / Carbon Superlight R No.29 (VHPD)

[TomGaval]

My cousin has a Home theater business here in the States that I help out on occasion. There are very good inwall speakers available, if you need to hide them but floor mounted speakers up front sound the best,IMO. Rears should be wall mounted to get the sound up over the chairs, especially if using two or more rows of seating.

 

As for how far to mount the projector, depends on size of the screen and the throw range of the projector. Each seem to have their own formula. I have a 106 inch screen and the projector is mounted 15'3" from the screen. And my first row of seats are 15 foot back from the screen. Obvioulsy you can go a little closer but if you're have to go a lot closer, then a 92 inch screen might be the ticket. Make sure you have enough room on the sides so that if you select a tower front speaker you don't block the screen. Also you need to think about the room height when mounting the screen. My 106 inch screen with the black surround is 60 inches high. Make sure you have room under the screen to place your center channel and stand.

 

As for 720 vs 1080??? your choice IMO.

 

They are not hard to install, if you have any mechanical skill, which as a 7 owner you surely do. Tom

 

 

 

 

[Frying Pan]

If you've not founf it already, AVForums has some excellent content - there is a dedicated sub-forum for DIY Home Cinema, as well as for amps, speakers etc.

 

Guy

 

-----See some pictures of the build here. 14000 miles completed!

[Mcalvert]

Metal Mickey?

 

Mechanical skills?

 

Naah...

 

 

Michael.

[TomGaval]

*redface* I wasn't paying attention to who asked the question. No real mechanical apptitude needed. I should have said, the ability to read and follow the instruction manuals. 😬 Tom

[metal mickey]

Thanks so far. Tom, the room is over 8'6" tall so even with a screen of your size i'm thinking that would leave 3' under the screen and that would be o.k 🤔

Mr Calvert, your card has been marked 😬

Is it best to position the amp under the screen or off to one side 🤔

Do manufactures publish the info req'd to work out the mounting distance or is it a case of suck it and see 🤔

[Richard Price]

Mike,

Off topic. did you get my blatmail?

[TomGaval]

Three feet is plenty. If you're doing more than one row of seats, you want to be able to see the bottom of the screen from the rear row, even if you build a platform to elevate the rear row you need to see over the backs of the front row.

 

If you're planning only one row, then position the screen so that the middle of the screen is a little above eye level when seated. Leaving room for your center channel of course.

 

I wouldn't put the receiver/equiptment in front of the screen, Remember you will need room for the subwoofer as well.

 

Regarding the distances, I have an Infocus projector and on their website they have a screen size/projector distance calculator that will give you the midrange of where to mount the projector. Midrange give you the ability to shrink or enlarge the picture to fill the screen. If you go too far back or too far forward you limit your adjustments.

 

I'm sure the other manufacturers also provide similar calulators.

 

The key is to mount the projector lens centered on the screen and at a distance that allows you to fill the screen properly. Most projector mounts give you good adjustablilty to level the projector. Assembling the screens is the most nervewracking part as they need to be streched to fit the frame. An extra set of hands helps. Good luck Tom

[moonwrasse]

I have some home made speakers for my set up that i got from IPL Acoustics, http://www.iplacoustics.co.uk/

His speakers are fantastic far better than bought speakers as you can tune them to your requirements, the sub is mind blowing 🥰,

 

His cables are very good aswell....

 

 

 

[Golf Juliet Tango]

Sony have brought some of these along to events for Blu-Ray demos which I have done for them.

They are designed for domestic use and have a choice of lenses for different throw/screen ratios.

I don't suppose they are cheap however!

 

_{Democratic dissent is not disloyalty, it is a positive civic duty.}

[PAC]

Free standing speakers will always be best because you can tune them via position, and are technically better from the start.

Cable spec depends on your budget. No point spending £10k on speakers then using bell wire to hook them up! I'd recommend 'QED 79 strand' as a minimum.

 

I wired a set-up into std metal boxes with female banana sockets fitted to blank plates, but I'm sure you can get dedicated stuff -at a price!

That said, if possible use external trunking; not so tidy, but it reduces the number of joins in the cable, and it makes upgrades much simpler. Same goes for HDMI.

 

I have not done any back to back comparisons, but it makes sense to me; if you magnify a picture to seven foot across, then you want all the pixels you can lay your hands on. Worth spending a bit more. Also 1080p is better than 1080i.

My Optoma projector gives a 1.9m picture from 2.5m away. However, all projectors are different, so check first.

I would avoid Richer Sounds as they are more of a 'pile it high-sell it cheap shop', and don't tend to stock the best value gear.

 

I don't use a screen -a sentence that normally reduces projector salesmen to jelly- but I found a matt white wall gives great, tidy, cheap results

 

I don't know the models you list, but if it's a dedicated cinema amp you're after, you want 100W per channel, and if you're using the decoder in it, make sure the steering is fast and accurate.

Always get a demo first.

 

I'm sure you're gonna' have fun!

Paul

[metal mickey]

Richard, no mail yet

Thanks everyone for the advice.

[Richard Price]

Mike,

you should have blatmail.

 

If not, could you drop me a line please?

My contact details are here

[metal mickey]

Richard, YHM

[Julian Thompson]

Mike

 

I have an AudioControl RTA that will be very useful for you to set up the room. You can use it when the time comes.

 

[Chickenhawk]

Mickey

 

I do this for a living and a fair bit is subjective a bit like which is the best 7...

 

A few guidelines:-

 

in an ideal world speakers are head height when seated.

 

The minimum viewing distance should be twice the screen width (applies for plasmas LCD's etc)

 

Yes a white wall can work quite well, but you get no 'optic gain' from it. Screens give a certain amoun of gain due to their 'Daz' whiter than white effect. You can also now buy screen paint with flourescents - you roller it on. Having a painted wall can be of benefit thou as aspect ratios change across DVD's so you would have to change the screen mask on a roll down screen but not on a white wall - The black bit top and bottom and sometimes sides.

 

When buying a projector/plasma/LCD the 'contrast' ratio is one of the most important things - as without good blacks the picture is crap and washed out.

 

If you're going to use a projector, even with the benefit of modern lamps etc you do need a good blackout. Try and get something with at least 1600-2000ANSI Lumen brightness.

 

For audio I sell piles of Denon for amps DVD's. Good stuff reasonable price. It also nearly all comes with 'auto' set-up micro phones to sort out speaker levels. Their mid range amps also 'up-scale' pictures to HDMI.

 

And for speakers I'd recommend something like KEF, 2005 series on a small budget, and 3005 if you've got deeper pockets. Stay away from Bose.

 

At the end of the day it's also like your 7...how fast do you want to spend 😬

 

[metal mickey]

Chickenhawk, thanks for that. I was not aware of the veiwing distance to screen width ratio. I have the option of wiring the speakers in direct i.e letting the cable come out of the wall and into the speakers or wiring them through sockets. Which would you recommend 🤔

[tonyg]

If you are able to do a new build, using in wall speakers leaves a much tidier result than conventional speakers - B+W do some excellent ones which are also really easy to fit.

 

http://www.bowers-wilkins.co.uk/display.aspx?infid=3496

 

Suggested would be CWm 650 for fronts CWM cinema for center and cwm 500 for rears - a sub would be handy - otherwise the kef 2005 (the mark3 is due out soon) or 3005 is a good choice,but consider the b+w Mini theatre speakers.

 

http://www.bowers-wilkins.co.uk/display.aspx?infid=803

 

they are really neat and tidy and very flexible.

 

regarding projector position this depends on the projector - each projector has a throw ratio that determines where they are positioned in relation to the size of the screen.

 

I would avoid the AV Forums like the plague - there is some excellent information there,but there is some absolute rubbish spoken also and it's sometimes really hard to tell which is which.

 

Regarding amplifiers make sure and buy one that does the new Blu-ray sound formats

Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio.

 

There are sockets available for HDMI cables but i can't remember where right now.

 

(drunk too much wine)

 

Don't be too worried about formats - a 1080 projector would be a good idea,but good DLP ones are still expensive and LCD ones suffer from the inevitable "chicken wire"

problems - i have seen a 720 DLP projector which looks a lot better than a 1080,but it was a 3-chip DLP at 9000 pounds.

 

The Onkyo's aren't bad - but there are better sounding amps out there - Pioneer VSX-LX50,60 and 70 (depending on how much you want to spend) and there are some new Harman Kardons coming out soon

 

http://www.harmankardon.com/category.aspx?anguage=ENG&Region=EUROPE&Country=GB&cat=REC

 

which if my past experiences are anything to go by will sound excellent,but don't get a lot of publicity as they don't send them for review.

 

If you intend buying a BLu ray player - wait until the new profile 2 compatible ones start to appear or buy a PS3 - it's not a great DVD player (it is a games machine) - but it is software updateable.

 

I was speaking to RIf the other day and this projector

 

http://vis.mitsubishielectric.co.uk/products/projectors/HC4900-Home_Cinema/specification

 

looks pretty good spec wise and is a decent price,but i haven't seen one working so i can't comment.

 

i've never worked out how to blatmail - so if you have any further questions post on this thread.

 

Enjoy your system !!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by - tonyg on 18 Jun 2008 21:33:48

[Chickenhawk]

Ideally the least joints/connections from the amp to the speakers the better. If you want to be posh cut in shallow back boxes and plate them, or cut in the back boxes, drill blank plates and bring the cables thro the blank plates and straight into the speakers.

 

This lot are good (and cheap - don't buy hi-street) for most bits/cables that you'll probably need.

 

http://cpc.farnell.com/LS00805/audio-video-tv/product.us0?sku=unbranded-stp222

 

http://cpc.farnell.com/LS00805/audio-video-tv/product.us0?sku=unbranded-stp222

 

You'll need to search thro for exactly what you want but they do CCard mail order

[brucehc]

Mike

YHM

[Ian B]

and if you want custom metal connector plates to match your existing electrical sockets here

 

 

---

Ian - MI 5EVN - Slightly Vider SVelte model 😬 now repainted to match the Autocom headsets (and AA recovery truck 😳)