Cinema rooms - what have you got?
Discussion
One of the 'must haves' in my next house is a cinema room. It will most likely be a bedroom I think, and I'm thinking big comfy sofa (that converts to a bed so it could still be used as a spare room occasionally), HUGE television opposite, surround sound and whatnot.
One thing I really like the idea of (not sure how easy it would be to create) is a false ceiling with lots of tiny LEDs in, like stars. Think of the Starlight headliners in Rolls Royces - that kind of thing. Even better if they could gently 'twinkle'.
So in the meantime, would love to see anyone's cinema room set ups for inspiration and love to hear any thoughts, suggestions, must haves, must avoids and so forth.
One thing I really like the idea of (not sure how easy it would be to create) is a false ceiling with lots of tiny LEDs in, like stars. Think of the Starlight headliners in Rolls Royces - that kind of thing. Even better if they could gently 'twinkle'.
So in the meantime, would love to see anyone's cinema room set ups for inspiration and love to hear any thoughts, suggestions, must haves, must avoids and so forth.
In our build I wanted a cinema so converted the existing family room to meet this need.
I also wanted an image larger than 100” so went for an Optoma short throw projector which casts a pretty decent 120” for about 12” from the wall.
It’s powered by an Apple TV with our reasonable movie (1500 films) and tv (60odd series’) library in Plex and Disney+, plus it has a SkyQ mini box for normal use.
Sound remains needing to be sorted as it’s all powered of an old BOSE acousticmass 3 system I had but will replace with something more substantial at some point.
We went for one large 4 seater sofa with a chaise extension and a cuddled chair (that easily seats 3).
I’ll try and get a decent pic of it.
I love the idea of the ceiling ... fibre optics might be cheaper and easier though than LEDs
I also wanted an image larger than 100” so went for an Optoma short throw projector which casts a pretty decent 120” for about 12” from the wall.
It’s powered by an Apple TV with our reasonable movie (1500 films) and tv (60odd series’) library in Plex and Disney+, plus it has a SkyQ mini box for normal use.
Sound remains needing to be sorted as it’s all powered of an old BOSE acousticmass 3 system I had but will replace with something more substantial at some point.
We went for one large 4 seater sofa with a chaise extension and a cuddled chair (that easily seats 3).
I’ll try and get a decent pic of it.
I love the idea of the ceiling ... fibre optics might be cheaper and easier though than LEDs
This is ours:
A mish-mash of many things from over the years...
The 5.1 surround speakers are a Sony system from way back when via ebay, currently with an Onkyo 5.1 Receiver with a Sony Bluray player for the spinny things and a surface tablet streaming from an old Netgear NAS stuffed with disks. The projector is an Acer 1080p with a 90-ish inch screen - the most we could fit in.
Nothing too exotic, but it sounds decent and is an enjoyable place to spend the evening.
The cinema room is in an old cattle store (under what was the hay loft) so is a reasonable size - about 6m square (low ceiling but that doesn't really matter here). Lights are just strung between the beams due to the height, but they are hardly ever on. We have a big L-shaped sofa that fits us two, two dogs and as many cats as will come in... Smeg gas fire for the cosy effect. Best room in the house.
Also, the nearest cinema is a 80mile round trip away so the room is a real boon for us.
A mish-mash of many things from over the years...
The 5.1 surround speakers are a Sony system from way back when via ebay, currently with an Onkyo 5.1 Receiver with a Sony Bluray player for the spinny things and a surface tablet streaming from an old Netgear NAS stuffed with disks. The projector is an Acer 1080p with a 90-ish inch screen - the most we could fit in.
Nothing too exotic, but it sounds decent and is an enjoyable place to spend the evening.
The cinema room is in an old cattle store (under what was the hay loft) so is a reasonable size - about 6m square (low ceiling but that doesn't really matter here). Lights are just strung between the beams due to the height, but they are hardly ever on. We have a big L-shaped sofa that fits us two, two dogs and as many cats as will come in... Smeg gas fire for the cosy effect. Best room in the house.
Also, the nearest cinema is a 80mile round trip away so the room is a real boon for us.
alorotom said:
I love the idea of the ceiling ... fibre optics might be cheaper and easier though than LEDs
Turns out there are companies that make them so you can just fit them! This one even included occasional shooting stars, that's brilliant! https://www.starceiling.com/
Looks like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sHugPocx2I&fe...
Om said:
This is ours:
A mish-mash of many things from over the years...
The 5.1 surround speakers are a Sony system from way back when via ebay, currently with an Onkyo 5.1 Receiver with a Sony Bluray player for the spinny things and a surface tablet streaming from an old Netgear NAS stuffed with disks. The projector is an Acer 1080p with a 90-ish inch screen - the most we could fit in.
Nothing too exotic, but it sounds decent and is an enjoyable place to spend the evening.
The cinema room is in an old cattle store (under what was the hay loft) so is a reasonable size - about 6m square (low ceiling but that doesn't really matter here). Lights are just strung between the beams due to the height, but they are hardly ever on. We have a big L-shaped sofa that fits us two, two dogs and as many cats as will come in... Smeg gas fire for the cosy effect. Best room in the house.
Also, the nearest cinema is a 80mile round trip away so the room is a real boon for us.
That's a nice ideaA mish-mash of many things from over the years...
The 5.1 surround speakers are a Sony system from way back when via ebay, currently with an Onkyo 5.1 Receiver with a Sony Bluray player for the spinny things and a surface tablet streaming from an old Netgear NAS stuffed with disks. The projector is an Acer 1080p with a 90-ish inch screen - the most we could fit in.
Nothing too exotic, but it sounds decent and is an enjoyable place to spend the evening.
The cinema room is in an old cattle store (under what was the hay loft) so is a reasonable size - about 6m square (low ceiling but that doesn't really matter here). Lights are just strung between the beams due to the height, but they are hardly ever on. We have a big L-shaped sofa that fits us two, two dogs and as many cats as will come in... Smeg gas fire for the cosy effect. Best room in the house.
Also, the nearest cinema is a 80mile round trip away so the room is a real boon for us.
Our projector throws about 96 inches on an electric screen that drops through a slit in the ceiling, we then have a 65inch tv to sit behind the same place where the screen drops to for normal watching. Sky q for 4k as well as Apple TV 4K. I use a dolby atmos processor and went expensive on monitor audio gold speakers and a bk monolith sub that shakes the whole room if wound up.
My advice is make sure you can get to all the wires as you will upgrade later. My projector leads go through the ceiling so hdmi is my limit, after this I will need to redo the room.
My advice is make sure you can get to all the wires as you will upgrade later. My projector leads go through the ceiling so hdmi is my limit, after this I will need to redo the room.
Ours is a TV room rather than home cinema, as it is pretty small at 3.5m x 4m
Room, taken before I paid any attention to the AV setup. This was my old 55 inch plasma.
Hamptons7 by baconrashers, on Flickr
Early lockdown project was to sort out the TV, with a 77 inch LG OLED jobbie, and some proper speakers, amp etc. I customised an old sideboard to house the amps and centre speaker. Repurposed my old Musical Fidelity A3.2 amp and PMC TB2s and XB1 Sub for extra sound quality and bass, so am running two subwoofers. Put some atmos speakers up on the ceiling as well. It all sounds ace!
Still wires everywhere though, but not quite as bad as it looks in this pic. Have some cosmetic bits to sort out.
IMG_20201028_220525 by baconrashers, on Flickr
Tip - don't bother with super-cheap speakers. When I upgraded my old Tannoy system (What Hi-Fi Award winners) to some Monitor Audios, the difference was mind bending - and using my old PMCs as fronts was a real game changer. Better to look for good, old, second hand speakers than buy cheap new ones, IMHO.
Tip - wired connection ethernet for everything in the room. Wifi has its limitations.
Room, taken before I paid any attention to the AV setup. This was my old 55 inch plasma.
Hamptons7 by baconrashers, on FlickrEarly lockdown project was to sort out the TV, with a 77 inch LG OLED jobbie, and some proper speakers, amp etc. I customised an old sideboard to house the amps and centre speaker. Repurposed my old Musical Fidelity A3.2 amp and PMC TB2s and XB1 Sub for extra sound quality and bass, so am running two subwoofers. Put some atmos speakers up on the ceiling as well. It all sounds ace!
Still wires everywhere though, but not quite as bad as it looks in this pic. Have some cosmetic bits to sort out.
IMG_20201028_220525 by baconrashers, on FlickrTip - don't bother with super-cheap speakers. When I upgraded my old Tannoy system (What Hi-Fi Award winners) to some Monitor Audios, the difference was mind bending - and using my old PMCs as fronts was a real game changer. Better to look for good, old, second hand speakers than buy cheap new ones, IMHO.
Tip - wired connection ethernet for everything in the room. Wifi has its limitations.
Edited by Harry Flashman on Wednesday 28th October 22:15
Thanks!
I would probably have a multi-use room (as you plan to) as frankly, we don't watch enough TV for a dedicated room. The TV only ever gets used in the evenings. Our room is quite small and on the ground floor so doesn't work as a bedroom, but I am working out how to use it as a second office.
I would probably have a multi-use room (as you plan to) as frankly, we don't watch enough TV for a dedicated room. The TV only ever gets used in the evenings. Our room is quite small and on the ground floor so doesn't work as a bedroom, but I am working out how to use it as a second office.
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