Cinema in Garage Room

[slg]

Hello

Looking for some advice on the following if you don't mind?

Have a room above the garage i'd like to put a basic home cinema package in. Picture of the garage just now:



It's approx 8 metres in length with 5 metres to this side of the pool table. Due to the hatch in the ceiling i think i'd have to bring the projector screen this side it but that only leaves about 1 metre to the front of the couch.

If I put the seating on this side of the pool table it would allow the space to view properly but table lights would be in the way - thinking I should change all the lights for adjustable spots and just suffer some shadowing on the table.

Equipment I was looking at (all at Richer Sounds):

Optoma HD600XLV projector
Onkyo TXNR414 & Tannoy SFX 5.1
Cambridge 5m HDMI
Projector screen - Sapphire SWS270WSF-ASR2
Ceiling bracket - Omnimount WM3-PJT

Bluray and 3D to play through PS3.

Any advice on the equipment or whether this will even work? So far this looks to be approx £1k on the equipment & not really looking to go any further until I find out if it's used enough to merit. I can't see a way of putting it in without changing the lights to the table and if i'm going to do that I can move it closer to the screen wall giving more space for seating and a better view.

All thoughts / amendments / improvements welcome.

Thanks

[MagicalTrevor]

Have a look on avforums.com for inspiration.

I can't find a link but quite a few guys on there have elected to paint their wall rather than use a screen. The chaps on AVforums found a suitable paint (a grey colour) that was particularly good. It would save you having to buy a screen and you won't have restrictions on size

[OldSkoolRS]

Have a read in the screens section of AVforums:

http://www.avforums.com/forums/projector-screens/

There is talk about using foam board, MDF, painted walls. I went to a guy's house who simply has a 4 metre wide painted wall with a black painted border round it (and some black side curtains). Given it's a custom built outbuilding made purely as a cinema room you might have expected a 'proper' screen, but it works very well. For reference I have a tab tensioned electric 2.35:1 screen myself that retailed at over £1,500 so it's not as if I don't know what a decent screen looks like.

The projector you listed is a high output model, so may not be needed unless you plan on having lights on or projecting very large size (like 140" or more). However, you could take advantage of the high output and have a grey screen which will give better blacks especially if the rest of the room is decorated in light colours as the room can make more difference to the final result than the choice of projector in some cases.

[Junior Bianno]

I used the Dunelm Mill blackout blind material that quite few people have advised. Works great - just made a frame using 2x1 strips of wood screwed to the wall, and stapled the material round the edge. Used dark speaker cloth to frame off wall. Looks the business and cost very little.

[slg]

Hi

Thanks for the replies, had a look on avforum for ideas and reviews. I'm keeping the tv on the wall as it will still be used plus it's sitting on a frame to hide all cables so painting isn't an option. Been given a couple of other options on the projector now, the Optoma HD23 or a Benq W1070 - now to see if the pool table will move.