Home Theatre Options with HDTV: Part 1

Summer is always a good time for household projects. With the time and money you might spend for a nice vacation, you could either make a movie yourself (as I’m teaching kids to do this week at the annual UND Summer Moviecamp) or you could build your own home theatre. In past articles I’ve discussed how full 1080p HDTV, 7.1 or 5.1 surround sound systems, and BluRay technology now make it possible for home video setups to rival, equal, and potentially surpass many commercial movie theatres. This article will cover options for turning a room into a dedicated “home theatre” rather than a simple TV-watching room.

The term “home theatre” has been very loosely applied to any living room or recreation room used for watching TV. A large flat-panel television may be a good choice for an apartment, or if you have a relatively small room, or need to get a viewable picture in a multipurpose room with windows that cannot be completely darkened. But how many real theatres show movies on TV monitors? A true home theatre needs a separate projector and screen, and at least two or more rows of seating, or it can really only be called a TV room, rather than a “theatre.”

Using a projector rather than a big-screen flat-panel TV provides both a larger image for the price and a more film-like look, but one of the biggest advantages is that you can keep the same screen height for everything. A good zoom lens actually lets you make the picture wider for widescreen movies (hence the term “wide” screen), instead of being forced to watch it either shrunk to the “letterboxed” image or with the sides cut off, as required on a fixed-size TV set. Note that if you use a projector with anything less than full 1080p resolution, you will probably be disappointed in the sharpness of its larger image.

Besides a good projector, to approximate a theatrical experience, you need a decent-sized room that can be made totally dark, a space maybe ten to twelve feet square, preferably larger. A basement or garage is often ideal for converting into a home theatre. A typical garage’s twenty-foot square space is roughly the size of a small auditorium in some commercial multiplexes!

The next step to make a room into a theatre is providing seating for more than just a few people. Seating style is up to you and your budget. Some prefer sofas and easy chairs (possibly with built-in cup holders), while others insist on traditional theatre seats. Some people like the flexibility of folding chairs (especially movie-style “director’s chairs”) so the room can be used for other things. Still others do a combination of all of these, perhaps with areas having small tables for drinks and snacks.

If desired, for a few hundred dollars worth of lumber and carpet, plus a few days of labor, you can build platforms to give you “stadium seating.” Use three-quarter inch plywood sheets screwed onto two-by-fours to frame and brace them. Carriage bolts are sturdier than screws to attach legs if you want risers on more than one level. With or without multiple levels, you might consider whether you’d like to provide aisle lighting.

Depending upon the size of your seats and your room, the distance from one seat back to the one in the next row (and thus the depth of each platform) might range from thirty inches to four feet. Platforms might be anywhere from eight to sixteen feet wide. Depending on the height of your ceiling, each row should rise in increments of four to nine inches from the one in front of it.

It may seem too obvious to mention, but in a theatre the seats should all be facing the screen, rather than each other as in a living room. The center of the screen should be near the average eye height. A very large, almost wall-size home screen (perhaps three to four feet tall by eight to ten feet wide), should be placed a few inches to a foot below the ceiling, and two and a half to three and a half feet above the floor. You’ll need to consider sightlines and projector location to avoid heads getting in the way of other viewers or casting shadows on the screen.

In next week’s column I’ll recommend options for screens, equipment placement, and wall/ceiling treatment.

Questions and comments: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)