Help me set up my HC area

[Amp34]

I'm building an home cinema oriented area in our house and the time is coming to set up the cinema part.

The two major things i'm struggling with are:

Projector or Large TV
Where to install surround sound speakers and what to get

Below is the room and the location I am installing plugs and network ports. It also shows the approx. location of the sofa and where the lights may go. The white lines between sofa and bar and to the left are where the ceiling lows from just over 7' to just over 6'*. Height of ceiling is important as it may cause problems with speaker placement.

Ideally I want a 7.1 system but not sure if I can fit it in the space I have, there is approximately 2 foot between the back of the possible sofa location and the dropped wall. I'm also not sure what I can do with a non in ceiling speaker (like to steer clear of them if possible) on the right hand side.

On to the projector vs TV question. I'm looking at sticking in a 4k OLED 65+" screen and as much as the idea of a larger projected image on the wall appeals I'm not sure I'd get the IQ from a PJ (especially the lack of 4k) that i'd get from the TV. This may also be the only TV/PJ location in the entire house, although we don't do much TV watching, it's mostly films and streamed content. If I chose a PJ is the location (highlighted by the red above the sofa the best location to put it? Even if I don't install one now I plan on roughing in a location for it, with power, Cat 6 Network and HDMI, would I need anything else?

Any other comments on lighting, positioning or anything else would be interesting to hear as well.

*The left line has gone missing, it's basically the left part of the bar countertop to the bit of wall that sticks out on the left.

 

[vila]

On to the projector vs TV question. I'm looking at sticking in a 4k OLED 65+" screen and as much as the idea of a larger projected image on the wall appeals I'm not sure I'd get the IQ from a PJ (especially the lack of 4k) that i'd get from the TV. This may also be the only TV/PJ location in the entire house, although we don't do much TV watching, it's mostly films and streamed content.

Well no cinema uses a tv, if you want the cinema experience get a projector.

4k projectors are available now but as you quite rightly point out are expensive starting around the £5000 mark.

On the flip of that you really aren't going to be seeing much benefit from a 4k source on TV unless your sat really close to it and of course source material is in short supply - streamed 4k really isn't great.

 

[lucid]

The plan makes the room look more like an entertainment/games area rather than a home cinema. The fact that you haven't any suitable wall space for surround speakers, and the walk-through areas would make it difficult to locate floorstanding surrounds kind of emphasises this feeling.

If this was a regular room for 7.1 then I'd spec on-wall dipole speakers. Prices range from £280 - £1000+ per pair. In-ceiling speakers are a little compromised in their performance by the nature of their design, so to compensate it's necessary to up the budget. For decent entry-level in-ceilings you need to double the speaker budget. Monitor Audio CT265-FX are thoroughly decent without breaking the bank. They're £280 each. Depending on the use of the space above your cinema area then you may have to consider fire hoods for the speakers too (£80 ea). These aren't needed if it's loft space but you might want to think about some kind of acoustic backbox to provide some bass boost and protect the speakers from dust and debris and to stop too much of the sound spreading to adjacent areas.

Front and centre speakers can be conventional floor/stand-mounts from the same manufacturer.


TV vs projector: In the type of room you have then the question should really be "Big TV or smaller TV + projector?". That question can only really be tackled though if the budget is known. So, what's the vision budget?

 

[Amp34]

Thanks Lucid, yes it's an entertainment centre more so than a dedicated multi level seating home cinema but that area will be dedicated to films/av stuff, the living room is in another room. Also if I get a projector I'll have a fixed screen on the wall as the furniture piece beneath is for the AV equipment. I shied away from a dedicated area away from the screen for that stuff as the effort moving it elsewhere seemed to much for the benefit.

I think the key bit of info you gave there was that I can mix in ceiling and floor speakers in the same system. I was trying to stay away from them but I think I will have to go with them due to the low ceilings. Would using wall mounted speakers for the left and right channel and in ceiling speakers for the back channels be reasonable or should the four side/back all be the same speaker?

I think I'm heading towards the TV at the moment, I really want something that will last a few years and at the moment I can't see 1080p projectors having that much life in them in a few years. I may as well get a TV now and then possibly get a PJ later on when 4k PJs are more common. That said is the projector location marked a reasonable one or should I think about moving it back a bit more?

 

[lucid]

The side- and rear-surround speakers should all be the same model of in-ceilings.

As it's a games/entertainment room then your plan to go for a TV probably makes most sense, especially if the display is likely to be used with mixed lighting. However, I still think that decent projection kicks the arse of TV in every area except absolute light output. I have just completed a dedicated cinema room for a customer where the screen is a 120" 21:9. This gives 16:9 screen size of 96" diagonal for watching regular TV. By the time I'd finished calibrating the JVC projector even Sky football looked good.

 

[Amp34]

The lighting is going to be controlled. I'm having blackout blinds on all windows and several lighting areas that can dim at the flick of a switch/AIO control. There are only two of us in the house so most of the time it will be a case of both of us on the sofa or just one of us downstairs and the other in the living room.

How long does a PJ normally take to warm up nowadays? I'm only used to commercial/academic ones that take a few minutes.

 

[lucid]

All conventional lamp-based projectors have a similar warm-up time.