House Framed: Need help !

[alveoli]

Hi Guys, I would be very grateful if someone was able to give me some advice on a home theatre setup in my new place. I'm not new to home theatres but I am trying to decide what is the best setup so that I can pre-run wiring before the house is drywalled. I will attach the floorplan if possible. Sorry about the long post.

1. Original idea was to have the home theatre in the livingroom (13x16') but I'm rethinking that idea.

2. New idea is to have the home theatre in the family room which is much bigger (21 x 13) and is open to the kitchen as well as open to above (ceiling is 18-19'). Only problem is that there is a fireplace which i did not consider in the centre of the room.

How would you set up the room (also how would you position the couches to complement the room as well as be in ideal position for home theatre). I prefer to buy a rear projection LCD (sony). either 43" or 50". 50" would be better if i can manage to fit it on the mantle (awaiting mantle size). This I know would be not an ideal viewing height (infact it may be too high?). An alternative is to use plasma and angle downwards. Any thoughts? Any suggestions would be great! (i plan on a 6.1 system as I am currently running a 5.1 system in my current home).

Home plan can be found at http://www.tributehomes.com/communities/floorplans/nottingham.htm

thanks in advance

 

[Yamaman]

One problem with the family room is that it is open to the second floor. You may have some issues with controlling acoustics in that room. If you plan to have late night movies, the kids (if you have any) may be in for a bit of surprise as well.

I think the viewing height would be a bit high if you mount above the mantle. Have you ever considered a DLP front projector? And mount a screen so that it can go over the fireplace and neatly tuck up when not in use. That's not the best either, but its a suggestion nonetheless.

Speaker placement would be a bit tricky too. You may have to mount on the walls for the rear surrounds.

How about opening the library to the living room - eh, would create a bit of an odd shaped room (nevermind).

Not easy any way you slice it. Get your basement finished ASAP. Judging by the builder, looks like you're from the greater Toronto area- so, I know, you're supposed to wait 2 years.

 

[alveoli]

Thanks for the reply.

I thought about the projector but the problem is too much light. There are 6 big windows in the room, not to mention 8' patio door. Would be ideal for night viewing but unfortunately not soo good during the day. I have kids and thats what why original idea was to have the theatre in the living room. I think i will prewire both rooms anyways and that way I can decide later

 

[Yamaman]

Yes, I see your point. Rear projection would be good for everyday use. I have a projector in my basement that will be used soley for HT, with console gaming and sport's night the odd time (don't wanna burn out the bulb too fast- they're expensive ).

Good idea to pre-wire both rooms; it certainly doesn't hurt. Better if you can go in yourself and do it- that way you won't have any doubts. In most cases, the builder just gets the electrician to run the wires- and they may think they know what they're doing, but I've seen an electrician's handywork when they ran and terminated CAT5 cables- plain stupid!

In my house, they ran RG6 straight to the basement and then just cut it so that about 6 feet was dangling. They didn't even bother to run it right to the breaker box where the cable feed comes in. Again, STUPID!

Even with speaker wire, they may be just run electrical wire along side the speaker wire for convenience. When you talk to your builder, make sure you are very specific about placement and how it should be run, otherwise they'll just do whatever common sense (or lack thereof) dictates.

 

[Leprkon]

advance planning

even if you don't actually wire both rooms for surround, you might want to think about putting in some flexible pvc conduit and some plastic electrical boxes in both rooms. this assumes you can just lay the conduit up in the attic and don't have to drill through main supports to pass the conduit through the framing.

you might spend $ 30 at Lowe's or Home Depot on materials, as the conduit is 2 or 3 bucks for a ten foot run. then you get some blank faceplates to go over the drywall side, before it gets a finish coat of paint to be a little less obvious.

it won't be perfectly invisible, but it really comes in handy if you decide to actually run wire (or, in my case, replace the wire that was in there). the only hard part is guessing which wall will have the receiver and where you would want the surround speakers to come out to put the boxes somewhere near there.

once you do put speakers in, everyone is really impressed with the professional look, and it makes a great selling point down the road..

 

[alveoli]

Thanks guys. What I ended up doing last night was moving the wiring box (2 RG6+2 Cat 5) to the corner where i want the amps, etc to be. I then was going to run all the speaker cables, etc but was afraid that the builder would freak at the extra wiring (and boxes) and end up ripping them all out. Also, trying to avoid security was a bit of a pain since the builder I heard doesn't really allow for the extra wiring to be done in advance.

So... instead, I just drilled 3/4" holes (to the basement) in the areas where I want the speakers to be. When I get possession of the house, I can easily run the cables up throw the hole and and to the speaker. Although it would have been nice to prerun the wire (like I did in my current basement) the risk of issues with the builder was simply not worth it.

Also, I forgot to mention that the open above ceiling is flat and not a cathedral ceiling ....Im almost certain that the HT will be going there. Now the question is 43" or 50 LCD/DLP screen??? (fireplace is 4 ft high, mantle is 18")

 

[Yamaman]

That's actually a good idea. New home builders can be pretty hard to deal with; I speak from experience as well. They wouldn't let me on the site either and had security after hours (would have been nice to add more srews into the subfloor to guarantee squeak-free).

Get the largest TV you can afford, especially if its 16:9. My friend just bought an Infocus Screenplay 4805 (native 16:9) with a 90" screen- he told me he should have bought a bigger screen

 

[plhart]

See "home theater layout" thread. You should be able to do your room in a similar manner; corner placement of the screen solves lots of problems.