@Jostenmeat - Awesome info, I never really considered a false wall, I do have the option to extend the room another 8' in length if needed, I'll have to investigate that further. As for seating, I wasn't keen on two rows, I should be able to comfortably seat 4 people in one row and that should be sufficient for 95% of our viewing. The ceiling height has been a big limiting factor in the design.
I was going to paint the room (walls/ceiling) "black bean", I saw it in someone's home theater and it looked great, it's a warm neutral brown color. I've got one small window that I'll cover up, so the room will have no ambient light. I'll check out the JVC models you listed as well.
Sounds like Funk is getting a lot of good feedback, looks like they are updating their product line atm.
This post has to be a quick one, and I may not be able to get back to you again until the end of the weekend or something. Addressing thoughts in order: Make sure that dims aren't double (like 28'x14', worse is equal, and even worse is when ceiling is half or equal too); hopefully someone here can figure out some ideal dims for you, with what you have. Remember that a false wall "isn't really there" when it's just acoustics.
You can do two rows, but 120" will be around the max you can figure with that, this is assuming AT screen, rather close to ceiling (but not too close), with a rather high riser, which is also placed about as snugly to front row as you'd want (which is still a bigger amount of space than you will originally guess). My usual advice is that minimum seat pitch is 6', if not more. (Seat pitch I believe is the term to describe distance between identical spots of seats in different rows.)
Calculators for you.
Viewing Distance Calculator
Hm, I can't find the old one, I wondered what they did with it. I haven't seen this one before, and it sure isn't as easy to use by first glance. Anyway, this is utter minimum (if it even works right), because the person in front may prefer not to recline (whereas you do in the back), and happens to prefer hair-dos from the 80s with lots of hairspray.
Home Theater Calculators - Riser Height; Determining the Optimal Home Theater Riser Height for Seating
You can easily find sq ft to do your ft lamberts calcs. You can do 4 screens at a time, and then do a unique save to share with other members.
TV Calculator
I don't have time to look up your black bean paint, but look up its grade for flatness/matte quality, and/or paint your candidates on a board and play with it under a direct light source.
Funk most definitely seems to have an excellent reputation. There are some neat finishes out there too. Bear in mind please that potentially you can hide 3 speakers and 2 subs behind your false wall AT screen, where you can pay for pure performance, hideous ugliness be damned. Do not place subs directly behind screen unless you don't mind a pulsating screen at extreme volumes.
The tidbit about starting with 5.1 to later upgrade to 7.1: I will say that I would position my side surrounds differently with the two scenarios. In the former I would have them at a larger angle to help straddle side and rear areas, and in the latter I would have them directly to the side, at right angles. That's me. If you have two rows, there is some trickiness. I changed to bipoles after a particular AH article talking about this extra coverage, but TBH, the effect wasn't nearly as great as I was hoping. Rear speakers, I definitely vote yes, a great portion of the latest blockbusters are being recorded in 7.1, at least the ones that I buy or watch. That said, I think the front 3 is where it's almost all at. Identical/tower center speaker aligned in the middle, many benefits, lemme go copy/paste a portion of a recent post of mine at a different forum, talking about the "pros/cons of AT".
It's entirely about the audio. Well, one way it could incidentally help out with video is by increasing the available space for a larger screen, depending on room dims/setup. Otherwise, entirely about the audio. Off the top of my head, in no specific order: 1. Audio/dialogue truly locked on to the screen. 2. Using identical speakers allows the best possible match. 3. All identical drivers being on the same plane allows for best possible panning effects. 4. (Typically) larger choice of (all important) center speaker usually allows for greater power handling. 5. (Typically) moving the speaker away from being to close to a boundary (ceiling or floor) reduces SBIR, and helps clarify audio. 5 (Typical) avoidance of horiz MTM center speaker configuration gives clearer dialogue intelligibility at the extremes of seating. I haven't talked about this stuff in close to a couple of years, so I'm probably forgetting something.
