Well, this is what is apparent to me...
tRiXtA has put a lot sweat, time, blood, tears, pride, thought, and planning into this room so far.
Aesthetics seem to play an extremely important role here.
The plasma is easier, and it will "work" nicely. I would even say that as the discussion progresses, the OP would apparently be inclined to forgo the PJ route.
HOWEVER, if I may speak for many of us who do own a PJ setup, I really, really, really doubt that Sherardp, Votrax, mperfct, or I would ever want to swap out our PJ system for a plasma of the same cost. Even in that exact same room. I would even go out on a limb and say that we would probably even go to the extent of suffering in poorer aesthetic surroundings to do so.
If you have conduit running thru all the side walls. you can have an open rack, say behind that post, and run some speaker wire thru it. You can have one single HDMI cable, covered, to the PJ nearer the middle of the room, on any kind of shelving. *Not having the lights up front is a very, very, very, very good thing
anyways*. (Hell, an expert today was recommending to black out the BACK wall!) The problem I see here is that the OP already took the time, sweat, blood, and tears to plan and execute all of this. Yes, it IS too bad we didn't even discuss this PJ stuff at the beginning of your preparations.
The point I want to make is that the difference, IMO, between a 60" plasma and a display double to triple that, at our viewing distance discussed is rather incomparable. You know when you were younger, you remember particular movies.... that for some reason impressed you so, that you remember the actual theater, where you were seated, etc? This is the same kind of thing. I know my friends, many of them, have experienced this feeling at my place. On multiple occassions. Hell, I have a friend who has seen the entire Band of Brothers at his place, and he doesn't think he can watch anymore than two episodes so far at my place, because its so overwhelmingly intense.
Its a different experience, entirely. His brother, OTOH, wanted to sit in the front row, even at 16:9, to be even more immersed. Or do you remember seeing LOTR for the first time in the theater, and you may not have been self-conscious about it, but your heartrate is significantly raised? This is the same sort of thing. I even wondered about the impacts on my health, because yes, my heartrate has been raised for extended periods of time on multiple occasions. I've never, ever, quite experienced that on a 60" plasma, 60-67" DLP, 50" SXRD, etc. I've called out to friend's sitting right next to me before, and they just couldn't hear me; they just simply could not believe what they were seeing. I mean they probably hear some distant subliminal voice, but they could NOT register what was being said to them, or that anything at all was being said thing. Stupified, utterly. All in all, its an entirely different experience, and that's why I speak on the behalf of others: we'd sacrifice to make it work. Its just so worth it, IMO.
So tRiXtA, this is my nutshell point of view, atm.
1. I am now very much doubting you want to go the PJ route, because you would be unwilling to:
2. mount PJ closer and/or put equipment elsewhere
3. I believe if you watched just one single movie at sherard's, votrax's, mperfct, or at my place, you would throw your intended plans out the window. In fact, I would bet very good money on it.
4. None of those who have helped with the PJ discussion here would install a plasma in that room. As we are pretty familiar with the extremely different experience that a cinematic immersion can provide, we would simply make it work out. End of story, period.
*You've got a dedicated room in a basement. Trust me, if every AHer did, this PJ subforum would have 100x the activity.
*You've got a nice budget. Trust me, if every AHer did, this PJ subforum would have 100x the activity.
Just my thoughts. But, its you that has to be happy. You're the one that's going to be watching in there.
And on that note....
I think the aspects involving such a decision might now have been covered for the most part. FWIW, I think BMXTRIX might've said to do the plasma first anyways, and go from there. As you might remember, I was advising a $1400 Panasonic 50" plasma, a $2500 Pana PJ, and a screen of a few hundred dollars. Heck, say $500, that's $4.4k. Are you going to pay more than that for your 60" plasma?
Some pics, 46" Sammy vs 133" display
screen up
screen down
rmk's plasma/pj combo (old pics)
screen up
IIRC, I think he's going to get a bigger screen soon(?)
screen down
cheers my friend.
