Remodeling my first room for a projector

[ghost recon88]

Just bought a house and since I don't have a TV, just an Epson 8350, I've decided to convert one of the more rectangular rooms into something of a home theater room. The room is 24 ft long and 13 ft wide (I put a red box around it). The reason I chose that room is it has a single window which I think would result in the easiest light control. There is a fireplace at the end of the room, so I think a pull down screen is in order.

Right now there is cheap wood paneling on every wall, so my plan is to rip all that off, re-insulate the entire room, run my cables and wiring, then slap drywall back down. I plan on using 5/8" thick drywall.

That leads into my questions. For the best acoustics and sound dampening, should I go with single or dual sheets of drywall? Or does the insulation make the biggest difference in regards to that?

Also with the Epson 8350, I'm not sure if I can go with a 135" screen or not. Since the room is 24" long, distance is not really a concern as I can ceiling mount it at any distance although I know the further it is from the screen, the weaker the picture. I guess realistically, can I run a 135" screen or should I stick to 120"? Also I know a lot of people frame mount their screens, can I get a decent quality pull down with enough gain? Elite Screens makes pull downs but they only have 1.1 gain which according to http://www.projectorcentral.com/Epson-PowerLite_Home_Cinema_8350-projection-calculator-pro.htm when I'm at 135" and mid-range zoom, I'm only as 12fL and I'm not sure that is bright enough. I would like a 150" since I have the space for it, just not sure the 8350 is bright enough at the distance away it would need to fill the 150". I've heard mixed things about adjusting the zoom on projectors too, and heard you should keep it right in the middle (in this case 1.55x). If I put it to the max (1.85x) then I could maintain 13 fL with a throw distance of 17 ft. How much zoom is OK to use?

It will probably stay dropped down most of the time as I don't plan on using the fireplace much. I will get pictures up shortly of the room. It has a concrete slab under the carpet I pulled up.

 

[vi edit]

Treating a room for noise is a multi-step approach. It's a function of sealing up a room to prevent sound from escaping, as well as isolating vibrating surfaces that transfer sound to other areas. If you have control over the construction, it might be just as easy to go "room in a room" and stagger out the studs to decouple the inner room from the outer one and control it that way.

Google "Room within a room" and get more info that way.

You have an option of also going with RSIC clips and decoupling the drywall from the framing that way. It's expensive, and a lot of extra work.

And then you have the much easier option of just going double drywall and doing some green-glue between the layers. I did that with a previous house and it worked well. It makes for a massive slab of a wall with a decoupling solution between layers to really knock down the rumbling from mid-bass and low end effects. Attention still needs to be done on things light can lights, outlets and other "openings" into the room. Those make for big sound leaks.

Probably the more important thing that I noticed with my treated room wasn't the sound containment within it. It was more the isolating factor that it provided and reduced all outside noise coming in. That made it so that I could actually watch movies at a lower volume than I normally would so in turn that was even less noise I needed to treat for. Nice bonus effect there.

 

[purbeast0]

i'm no expert at all about noise cancelling, but from reading a few threads over on avs, most people who do it "correct" seem to be doing 2 layers of the 5/8" drywall with a coating of green glue between the two.

as for the projector, it sounds like your room is light controlled just fine since there is 1 small window. to be honest, i'd just try out the different distances and screen sizes to test out the brightness. i just checked that calculator for my projector, and it shows 17fl for my distance that i'm currently set up. but before i made any decisions, i tested out a lot of different distances and stuff.

one thing i will say though - if i could go bigger i would. my current room simply doesn't have enough space to go bigger. i'm at 120" right now, and sit about 13' feet back. it's huge but i wish i could go bigger. but my ceiling is like 7'8" or something. my screen frame is like 3" from the ceiling, and the center channel and subs are like just barely below the bottom of the frame. if i had room to go 135" i definitely would have.

 

[Anubis]

Beast, you could always build a false wall and get a AT screen and go full floor to ceiling with the screen

 

[purbeast0]

Beast, you could always build a false wall and get a AT screen and go full floor to ceiling with the screen

yeah, not gonna happen because there is a support beam in the middle of the room and my seats are already as far close to it as they can get.

i could probably get it supported some other way and get rid of that pole, or at least have a structural engineer look at the possibility, but it's not worth it to me at this point.

 

[ghost recon88]

i'm no expert at all about noise cancelling, but from reading a few threads over on avs, most people who do it "correct" seem to be doing 2 layers of the 5/8" drywall with a coating of green glue between the two.

as for the projector, it sounds like your room is light controlled just fine since there is 1 small window. to be honest, i'd just try out the different distances and screen sizes to test out the brightness. i just checked that calculator for my projector, and it shows 17fl for my distance that i'm currently set up. but before i made any decisions, i tested out a lot of different distances and stuff.

one thing i will say though - if i could go bigger i would. my current room simply doesn't have enough space to go bigger. i'm at 120" right now, and sit about 13' feet back. it's huge but i wish i could go bigger. but my ceiling is like 7'8" or something. my screen frame is like 3" from the ceiling, and the center channel and subs are like just barely below the bottom of the frame. if i had room to go 135" i definitely would have.

How is 17 fL? You think it's too bright, just right? With a 135" screen, I'll be sitting 10-15 ft back tops. Debating about the dual layers of dry wall, seems a bit like overkill but I'm not sure. How is the light control in your room? You have a white screen or what color? Any pics of your setup?

 

[giantpandaman2]

I have an 8350 on a 100" screen. You could go bigger, much bigger, with light control. Really depends on the gain on the screen. The 8350 has a lens system that makes the distance that you mount it at very forgiving. Given the price of the 3020 you might consider moving up. 3d and some added brightness. Should make that 135" screen a snap.

You could use two layers of drywall or use tasteful fabric baffles for noise isolation. Just depends on how much sound quality and blocking noise leak into the rest of the house is important to you. The room you're using is decent sized so there shouldn't be too much audio distortion unless you turn it up really, really loud. No way to know for sure without a mic and some calibration software, though.

I'd suggest running conduit and having junction boxes for the wires. Given how quickly things change, it'll make life a lot easier when HDMI or whatever connections switch.

 

[ghost recon88]

I got a steal on my 8350 + I have 4 years of complete protection left. Paid $750 for one with 5 years total of geek squad coverage so I'm not really looking to sell it and pay more. If I went with 2 layers of drywall, would you recommend 2x 5/8 or 2x 1/2?

I'm looking at these screens, all of which are motorized.

http://www.amazon.com/Screens-VMAX13.../dp/B0014VF46Y

http://www.amazon.com/Elite-Screens-...eens+motorized

http://www.amazon.com/Elite-Screens-...eens+motorized

 

[giantpandaman2]

Between those three I'd go with the 125" 1.1 gain. Should match up quite well with the 8350. Going for 135" is stretching the lumens a little too far imho. You also need space to put your speakers. Push them too far out to the side and you'll be introducing reflections, etc.

 

[ghost recon88]

I've been trying to look around for better quality screens, but I can't seem to find anything else that is a motorized one without getting into the $3k price range. My speakers will be wall mounted, or at least that is the plan.

 

[sdifox]

do fixed screen. A lot less headache. Motorized masking if you care about that.

not a big fan of high gain screen since hot spotting will occur.

running the bulb in eco mode extends life, but then replacements are not really all that expensive anyway.

 

[ghost recon88]

do fixed screen. A lot less headache. Motorized masking if you care about that.

not a big fan of high gain screen since hot spotting will occur.

running the bulb in eco mode extends life, but then replacements are not really all that expensive anyway.

If you read my OP, you'll see I don't have space to install a fixed screen since I have a fireplace at the end of the room I will occasionally use, plus deleting a fireplace sounds like a huge PITA.

 

[purbeast0]

How is 17 fL? You think it's too bright, just right? With a 135" screen, I'll be sitting 10-15 ft back tops. Debating about the dual layers of dry wall, seems a bit like overkill but I'm not sure. How is the light control in your room? You have a white screen or what color? Any pics of your setup?

17fl is bright, but like ... good bright. here are some pics of my setup:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=34852983&postcount=887

that was when i first did it. those 2 window wells are now actually gone and i got them filled in when we redid our patio 2 months ago. but this is what it looks like now down there with some accoustical panels i made.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=36015970&postcount=1

there is another window on the opposite side of the screen, but it's a small window well, and during the afternoon some light comes in, but i have this board i just put up there to cover it up if i want to. eventually i plan on building a bar down there and back on that other side, and will be making more panels to hang on the wall though.

 

[ghost recon88]

I like the movie poster thing, that's pretty cool. Did you paint the walls closest to the screen dark red to help with light reflection, or did you just like the color combination between the red and light tan? I do like the light tan color with white carpet, just wondering how it would do as far as acting like a mirror since it is a lighter wall color? How do you like the Elite Screen? They do seem like some of the cheaper screens, but I've seen some really good image quality on them based on pictures. Hard to tell if it's the screen or projector though.

 

[purbeast0]

I like the movie poster thing, that's pretty cool. Did you paint the walls closest to the screen dark red to help with light reflection, or did you just like the color combination between the red and light tan? I do like the light tan color with white carpet, just wondering how it would do as far as acting like a mirror since it is a lighter wall color? How do you like the Elite Screen?

the room was already finished when i moved in. i had a little "build log" i had here, that kinda shows the process of how it looked before and how it progressed.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2281468

i did go with a darker color for lighting/contrast purposes. my wife and i just went through some colors before and we were between a dark red or blue, and both just decided on the blue. i wasn't going to paint the ceiling initially too (as you will see if you browse the thread i linked above) but decided to just go for it and did it.

it definitely looked brighter and the contrast was worse with the light walls, just on my little test when projecting onto the wall.. the darkness on the walls certainly helps.

dark carpet would help even more, but it's not bothersome to me at all as it is now. my center channel and subs also kind of help block some of the reflection onto the ground, but dark carpets would for sure be the way to go if i was doing this from scratch.