How large a screen should I buy?

[drooze]

I am planning on building a dedicated HT room in my basement that will measure 12x17. I will have two rows and expect to sit about 12-13 feet from the screen. I plan to buy a 1080P projector. How large a screen can I reasonably go? I plan to watch normal DVD, Blue-ray and 85% HD TV on it.

 

[Exit]

There are people here that can give you exact dimensions. When I started planning the limitations for the screen size were determined by the second row seats being able to see the bottom of the screen and the ceiling height. I figured the bottom of the screen had to be at least two foot off the floor and the ceiling height (basement) was 7 foot. So maybe the upper screen limit is 6 1/2 foot. That left about a 4.5 foot or 53 inch high screen. Then the width works out to whatever the 16:1 widescreen format gives you. Hope that helps. I have not built my theater yet, but I have done some planning.

 

[Midcow2]

Sometimes you can actually get too big of a screen.

I am planning on building a dedicated HT room in my basement that will measure 12x17. I will have two rows and expect to sit about 12-13 feet from the screen. I plan to buy a 1080P projector. How large a screen can I reasonably go? I plan to watch normal DVD, Blue-ray and 85% HD TV on it.

Twice the screen width (on a 3:4 this is (4/5)80% , on a 9:16 wide this is (16/18.35) 87% of the screen diagonal ) typically represents the ideal TV viewing distance for a HDTV display, it would be a bit too close for standard television viewing; in the later case, a three times the screen width would be a better option.


Here ar some minimum distance calculations based on resolution:

For DVD (480p) source, recommended sitting distance to see full resolution for each screen size is..

20 inch TV= 7 feet
26 inch TV= 9 feet
30 inch TV= 10.5 feet
34 inch TV= 12 feet
40 inch TV= 14 feet
50 inch TV= 17.5 feet
60 inch TV= 21 feet.

For 720P HD sources, recommended sitting distance is..

20 inch TV= 4 feet
26 inch TV= 5 feet
30 inch TV= 6 feet
34 inch TV= 6.7 feet
40 inch TV= 8 feet
50 inch TV= 10 feet
60 inch TV= 12 feet

For 1080i HD sources, the recommended sitting distance is..

20 inch TV= 2.8 feet
26 inch TV= 3.5 feet
30 inch TV= 4 feet
34 inch TV= 4.5 feet
40 inch TV= 5.3 feet
50 inch TV= 6.5 feet
60 inch TV= 8 feet

So at 1080i or 1080p resolution you should be fine t 12 ft with as large of screen as you want to use!

This 30-degree viewing angle seems to have been accepted by many as the standard in home theater and motion picture viewing.

Here is a screen size calculator: http://myhometheater.homestead.com/viewingdistancecalculator.html

 

[BMXTRIX]

There are many things to consider when considering the size of the screen you want to put into your theater, but the most important thing is truly your personal preference, not any exact stats.

The THX specification is that your seating should be about 1.5x the screen width. So, for a 10' wide screen you would be sitting at 15' under optimal conditions. This basically puts you in line with THX standards, and a properly designed movie theater will have the center row, center seats at this distance.

Now, does that work for you? Do you LIKE sitting in the center of a movie theater or do you prefer to be a bit closer or further away? Remember - it's your FRONT row at about 12', which means that if you go a bit over 8' wide, then your front row would be just ahead of the 'center' of a movie theater, while your second row would be a bit further back in the theater.

I would probably go with about a 120" diagonal minimum and might consider going a bit larger personally.

If it's a serious home theater, I would also not even consider a 720p projector anymore. Despite excellent prices, 1080p is pretty easily available right around $3,000 and you won't be looking to upgrade in six month or a year.

 

[drooze]

Yeah its definitely going to be 1080p. Thanks all for the input.

 

[erick.s]

You can use measurements as a guide but some of it is personal preference. The front row in my theater has my eyes exactly 13-1/2 feet back from the screen. I use a 110" 16:9 screen and it's perfect for me. I hate having to move my head when watching a movie (feels like watching a tennis match) and I find that the 110" is perfect allowing full screen viewing without needing to follow action by turning your head to see one side of the screen as opposed to the other.

 

[STRONGBADF1]

Read this

Clint did a nice job on this helpful article:

http://www.audioholics.com/buying-guides/how-to-shop/what-size-screen-display

SBF1

 

[jostenmeat]

I am planning on building a dedicated HT room in my basement that will measure 12x17. I will have two rows and expect to sit about 12-13 feet from the screen. I plan to buy a 1080P projector. How large a screen can I reasonably go? I plan to watch normal DVD, Blue-ray and 85% HD TV on it.

drooze, are you hearing a certain theme here?

I believe the ONLY way to know is to throw the image on the blank wall and go from there. After all, this is really about personal preference (if you haven't noticed)...

FWIW, I believe I have a 42 deg angle for my front row, decidedly closer than THX's 36 deg. I originally had the front row at THX, and the back row at roughly SMPTE, but I moved both further up because I realized I loved greater immersion. So much so, I went with the biggest screen I could practically fit, and the remaining space for speakers was an afterthought. I am presently researching well designed horizontal center speakers that are short in height.

There has been only two times that I've ever preferred the back row. Once was for watching The Frighteners as the PQ is not up to par as with most of my purchases. The other was for a foreign film with subtitles. I have zero issues with the aforementioned "tennis match phenomena", but I find vertical movement of the eyes more difficult to deal with.

So if you will watch a lot of normal DVDs, I might say smaller screen as the inferior PQ may be hard to swallow. I have only Bluray and HD-DVD hooked up to mine, and even then, Im only purchasing those discs that have top-notch picture quality, even relative to other hi-def movies.

Also, depending where you mount your PJ, you may be limited to screen size due to zoom capabilities of any PJ.

Lastly, I know we are only talking about size, but there are many things to know before you decide on the technology of the screen you will use.

Just throw up the pic at a blank wall first.

 

[drooze]

I hadn't actually considered buying the projector and then projecting it on the wall before buying the screen. I guess that makes alot of sense assuming that from one mounting point I can try the different sizes. I guess I could temp set the projector on a ladder to try it out as well. A good idea thanks.

 

[KevInCinci]

FWIW, I used the THX guidelines as just that: guides, and then bought the biggest screen I could afford and that wasn't visually overwhelming. I found, at least at the time, that there were some annoying price jumps as you got bigger, especially in fixed frames (incl. frame). I was buying an entire home theater setup at the time within a pretty strict budget and the extra cash from a not-gigantic screen was better used elsewhere. Besides, at the time 100" was bigger than any of my buddies' screens

Cheers,

Kevin