TV vs Projector - room size

[simong800]

Hi all,

I am a complete novice in the home cinema department....currently in the midst of a home renovation and we have room for some form of cinema room/TV room.

I have attached images of the floorplan as is, along with a poor attempt out outlining a modification we are making to slightly increase the size of the existing study and turn it into a cinema/TV room.

My question is - is the room big enough for a projector, and would it be worth doing? I have spotted a 75" sony TV at sub £2k which would be the TV option, but could a projector be a better shout or is the room too small?

Would welcome any opinions or options

Many thanks

[Cupramax]

You would need to be clinically insane to put a projector in a room 12' long, a 75" screen would also be too big. I'd say the max you'd need is a 58", 65 at a push.

[KamSandhu44]

My living is slightly bigger, 5.5m x 4m.

I have a 75" Sony TV and it is too small, wish I has gone for the 130" projector screen.

[davek_964]

Cupramax said:

You would need to be clinically insane to put a projector in a room 12' long, a 75" screen would also be too big. I'd say the max you'd need is a 58", 65 at a push.

Guess I'm clinically insane then.

My lounge is about 12ft wide - maybe even slightly less - and I have a projector onto a 72" screen. I'd say it's about perfect size.
At the next upgrade, I'm tempted to switch to a big TV - but I think a 65" would be bigger than I want for normal TV and a tad too small for films / PS4. So may well have another projector, but only when 4K ones reach sensible prices!

[kingston12]

davek_964 said:

Guess I'm clinically insane then.

My lounge is about 12ft wide - maybe even slightly less - and I have a projector onto a 72" screen. I'd say it's about perfect size.
At the next upgrade, I'm tempted to switch to a big TV - but I think a 65" would be bigger than I want for normal TV and a tad too small for films / PS4. So may well have another projector, but only when 4K ones reach sensible prices!

This is one of those arguments that will always polarise opinion.

I'm with you on this one. I sit about 10 feet away from a wall with a 55" TV mounted on it.

Last year, I bought a cheap projector and a 92" screen thinking I'd just use it for the odd film and sporting event.

As it turned out, the TV is now only used for content that is just too low quality to put on the projector - probably only about 10% of the total viewing.

In objective terms, it is definitely too big but it seems just right to me.

[simong800]

Thanks for comments thus far chaps, useful hearing such different opinions.

For clarity the 12 foot odd is the width of the room, the 9'9 is the depth if that makes sense. The screen would be on the solid wall that is 12 wide, sofa on the wall under where the front of the house window is so viewing distance is the 9'9. That might have been helpful information from the outset Does that change anyones advice?

[leemanning]

Personally I would say 75" at 9' 9" is too big.

As a test, mark it out on the wall using carboard. I know you can't see moving images but you'll get an idea.

[craigjm]

If you will be sitting less than 10ft away from a screen (lets say 9 to allow for chair thickness) then the screen shouldn't really be over 48 inches max. Beyond that and you are setting yourself up for sitting far too close and headaches etc. With a projector then you should do calculations similar to this - http://ethomecinema.co.uk/what-is-the-correct-scre...

Need to consider the height of the room too for acoustics

[Magic919]

Some of these articles speak of screen width, whereas they are traditionally measured across the diagonal.

I use a projector and sit about 12' or so away from a 100" screen. It's about 7' wide, so I'm a bit over the 1.5x screen width. You can start by projecting onto a wall and adjust the zoom until it looks fine.

For something smaller I'd contemplate a TV these days as you can buy some fairly large ones for reasonable money. Bit more versatile than a PJ. Once I can get an 86" plus 4K TV for ok money I'd probably buy one.

[karma mechanic]

I just did some measurements on mine to see how it fits in with the link above.
Seating distance is 4.8m (15' 8"). Screen diagonal on a 16:9 screen is 105" (screen width 92").
That gives a viewing distance of 1.8x diagonal, or pretty close to 2x the width.

I'd say that viewing a wider image in my room would still be comfortable, so sitting at 1.5x the image width sounds fine assuming a good quality projector and source material. Sizes that work for projectors always seem insane if you talk about TV sizes - but then it is the big image that gives the immersive experience. I've never once thought that it was too big for the distance.

Other stuff to consider: placement of speakers since that's a big part of the experience. How you darken the room in the daytime. Where the projector actually goes.

Something else to consider: you'd get a much better sound setup if the seating was moved away from the wall. The surround speakers could be further from the people instead of crowding them. With the seating away from the wall you might find that a large TV was a better match since the viewing distance is now reduced.

[craigjm]

karma mechanic said:

Something else to consider: you'd get a much better sound setup if the seating was moved away from the wall. The surround speakers could be further from the people instead of crowding them. With the seating away from the wall you might find that a large TV was a better match since the viewing distance is now reduced.

This is why i mentioned acoustics. 10ft from screen to rear wall is not very wide for a cinema at all because once you place the speakers and move the seating the required distance from the rears you are really squeezed for anything decent sized at the 1.5x ratio.

[Guvernator]

I sit about 12ft away from a 100" projector screen although my screen has borders and the image is slightly zoomed in so I'm probably only watching about 95", it's absolutely brilliant. You may need to downscale a bit since you'll be probably be about 9ft away when you take the sofa positioning and screen into consideration so I'd say you could get away with a 90" or even 85" screen.

I've seen 75" TV's, they just don't compare, even if you a 85" screen as the projector\screen combo just adds a whole other level of ambience IMO. Plus even if it's only 10" bigger, every inch matters (that's what she said )

[simong800]

Thanks all, some really interesting opinions and ideas!

Going to wait until the room is done (wall taken out and rebuilt etc) and see what I am left with, perhaps drawing out some sample screen sizes on the wall etc. Budget might win (lose?) the day and leave me with TV sadly, but going to see where we are at! How do people ever stick to budget doing up a house

[parabolica]

craigjm said:

If you will be sitting less than 10ft away from a screen (lets say 9 to allow for chair thickness) then the screen shouldn't really be over 48 inches max. Beyond that and you are setting yourself up for sitting far too close and headaches etc. With a projector then you should do calculations similar to this - http://ethomecinema.co.uk/what-is-the-correct-scre...

Need to consider the height of the room too for acoustics

My living room is 16ft x 16ft and I sit around 8ft away from the wall; I have a Merlin mini projector throwing a 78" screen and I find it just perfect - no headaches or anything. It's amazing how fast you get used to it.



OP I don't think you'll have this issue as it looks like an internal room, but if you have windows make sure to invest in decent blackout curtains if you don't already have something similar. Love my projector but its not the brightest so until recently could only use it when it started to get dark outside!

[craigjm]

The headaches statement refers to the TV option not a projecter as the picture is different

Plus one on the blackouts though. Even a door seal needs to be light tight