New house, cinema room

Stinky · 14 Jun 2020 at 15:51

Hi,

I’m moving to a lovely new house next month, and we are loving the idea of a sports / cinema room for all the f1 races and any Netflix etc

the room I’m looking at using is 3.64m x 4.64m. There’s a wall that’s completely flat and screaming for a massive projector screen.

I’ve got loads of Sonos stuff so hoping that will be the sound covered. Up until now I’ve used a 55inch Sony A1 for everything. Now we have the space we want to go bigger.

I’ve tried researching it all but there’s so so much to learn! Max budget around 3k but could go to 5k for an absolutely brilliant setup.

I’ll be looking at mounting on the ceiling

can anyone help me with the best bang for my bucks.

glenimp617 · 14 Jun 2020 at 18:45

are you dead set on a projector? I had a projector and they aren't without their share of issues.

Have you considered a 75" 4k TV instead? or looking at the size of the room, a 65"

Stinky · 14 Jun 2020 at 21:51

TheOracle said:
are you dead set on a projector? I had a projector and they aren't without their share of issues.

Have you considered a 75" 4k TV instead? or looking at the size of the room, a 65"

not dead set on it. I just like the idea of watching f1 on a massive screen

hornetstinger · 14 Jun 2020 at 21:57

Small room so I'd say 7.1 system with a avr,with discrete surround speakers bipoles rather than regular speakers

glenimp617 · 15 Jun 2020 at 08:28

Stinky said:
not dead set on it. I just like the idea of watching f1 on a massive screen

I did the exact same thing when we moved house, similar size room to yours as well. It was a good idea, and like you I wanted a massive screen for sports and movies.

Thing is, in reality it's not as good as you imagine. Honestly, you would be far better off just getting a really good 4k HDR TV.

Stinky · 15 Jun 2020 at 10:33

TheOracle said:
I did the exact same thing when we moved house, similar size room to yours as well. It was a good idea, and like you I wanted a massive screen for sports and movies.

Thing is, in reality it's not as good as you imagine. Honestly, you would be far better off just getting a really good 4k HDR TV.

Noted. Maybe I’ll go cheaper for some outdoor setup and spend more on a tv

glenimp617 · 15 Jun 2020 at 11:55

Stinky said:
Noted. Maybe I’ll go cheaper for some outdoor setup and spend more on a tv

Yeah I would mate

I spent a fortune on a really good setup, but it was never as good as a large TV. The biggest issues I had were:

Went through 3 electric screens before I was kinda happy (still wasn't perfect). Small ripples.
Routing the HDMI cable from the ceiling to the Amp was a pain, and even more of a pain when it failed
Changes in aspect ratios leaves you with borders.....and on a projector unless you have an expensive electric adapting screen you end up with grey borders
Fan noise and heat
It looks ugly
Image quality was good, but not brilliant
I had a high lumens projector, and it was ok in daytime....but again, not as good as a TV
HDR (which requires the darkest of blacks and the brightest of whites) is an even bigger gap between TVs and Projectors

20 years ago when the biggest TV you could buy was a 32" (small number of 36" I think were made but not popular) projectors made sense. Then even when the first plasmas came out at 42" (50" were thousands) they still made sense. 10 Years on and the cost of 50" dropped, it was a 50/50 decision. These days you can get a 65" or even a 75" for peanuts in comparison to what they were 10 years ago. It makes home projectors a hard sell. You really need to be a movie buff, with a big room (at least the size of a double garage) to consider a projector.

VincentHanna · 15 Jun 2020 at 14:09

Spend 5k on an LG 77" CX OLED.

Job done.

Kamakazie! · 16 Jun 2020 at 15:41

Got a slightly smaller room than yours that going to be a tv room (not quite dedicated to cinema) and am going with a 65" TV and 5.1.2 surround sound setup.
For your room i'd recommend .2 atmos over 7. with the extra rears as you are unlikely to get optimum placement at that size room (can't be sure without seeing layout though).

77" screen would certainly provide an impact at those sort of distances.

Howard · 16 Jun 2020 at 15:53

Depending on which wall you're projecting onto, you could probably get a 100+ inch screen.

I have an 80" projector screen in my 11'x10' cinema room and I love it. Yeah I could have bought a similarly-sized TV but A) a good one would have cost a lot more than my projector and screen and B) there's something about the "cinematic" experience of a projector that just enhances the feel. And if you get a good projector and spend a bit of time setting it up, the image quality is brilliant.

Projector ftw.

sk3lph · 16 Jun 2020 at 20:33

I love my projector setup, (details of which are in my sig) but a lot of the budget and effort is tailoring your room to get the best out of it. To me a good TV and sound setup (with Atmos) is probably your best bet from what you’ve described.