Brand New Home Cinema

AudioNoobie

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I am in the middle of a new Home Cinema build and am at the stage that the speaker wires and plasterboard are due to go up. I have some important decisions to be made.

  • What is the ideal size of screen for my 5.5m square room?
  • What is the ideal viewing distance?
  • What is the ideal placement/distance fromt he screen for the surround dipole speakers?
  • I have all soft furnishings (Carpet, couch and curtains) and have put in acoustic plasterboard and special soundproofing insulation but what other:
    • 1. Room Acoustics can be made
    • 2. Sound proofing can be done
I am at a critical part of the build where some important decisions will effect the overall viewing/listening pleasure so any help will be greatly appreciated.

many thanks
 
Whilst your routing cables please do not forget to future proof as much as you can, so whilst cat 6e ethernet cable is cheap it is best running some near your equipment and terminating them to wall plates.
 
what is the ethernet cable used for?

Lots of things

BD Live
Google TV, DLNA (Lots of the new TVs have ethernet ports)
HTPC or Streaming Devices
Games Consoles
 
All of those are what wireless what invented for :)

You'd struggle to stream a non compressed blu-ray rip over wireless.

My room is about 4 x 5 and I've gone for a 92" screen which I think any bigger would have been too big. You might be able to get away with something around the 100" mark but I think you'd be happy with 92"

Good luck
 
You can't rely on wireless, you cannot beat a wired system especially on a dedicated AV setup. Click on the link below and have a read through my thread. It will guide you through the proccess of building a home cinema.

Ditto with Danb's thread

Good Luck!
 
All of those are what wireless what invented for :)

You'll be kicking yourself in maybe a year or so when technology and your requirements change. Whilst wireless is capable at the moment, it has many disadvantages like cost, consistency, signal strength, interopability issues, interference from other devices etc. Whilst the walls are bare it would be rude not to lay down some cables.
 
You might be right, but I have a wireless connections for my consoles and HDMI 1.4 for the projector - given the projector is brand new I don't plan on changing it for 3-4 years at which point I will probably me moving.

But good advice, so I have order a cat 6 cable.

Thanks everyone.
 
You might be right, but I have a wireless connections for my consoles and HDMI 1.4 for the projector - given the projector is brand new I don't plan on changing it for 3-4 years at which point I will probably me moving.

But good advice, so I have order a cat 6 cable.

Thanks everyone.

You can do HDMI over Cat6 too to the projector ;)

anyway sorry the thread went OT hopefully someone will answer the other questions.
 
You'd struggle to stream a non compressed blu-ray rip over wireless.

My room is about 4 x 5 and I've gone for a 92" screen which I think any bigger would have been too big. You might be able to get away with something around the 100" mark but I think you'd be happy with 92"

Good luck

Agree you can stream dvd's wirelessly but bluray - lol....forget it. 100meg Wired network hits the mark. I have a TVIX media box and that streams from the home server MKV files - works nicely. Wireless N might be ok. I flood wired the house here as wireless is very poor as i live in a 1950s pre-fab with metal external walls. humm nice.
 
You can do HDMI over Cat6 too to the projector ;)

anyway sorry the thread went OT hopefully someone will answer the other questions.

You need 2x cat 6 cables to extend HDMI cables over ethernet cable remember.
 
Nobody has yet answered your questions, here's some input from me:



I am in the middle of a new Home Cinema build and am at the stage that the speaker wires and plasterboard are due to go up. I have some important decisions to be made.

  • What is the ideal size of screen for my 5.5m square room?
  • What is the ideal viewing distance?
  • What is the ideal placement/distance fromt he screen for the surround dipole speakers?

These all inter-relate, and are also affect by your PJ choice, but, for a 16:9 screen, if you had a clear walk-way of 1200-1500 behind your sofa/seats, your ideal screen width would be between 3 / 3.5m - you may be limited by height more than width.

Rear speakers would mount on rear wall, i.e. 1200-1500 behind you. (Although opinions vary).

  • I have all soft furnishings (Carpet, couch and curtains) and have put in acoustic plasterboard and special soundproofing insulation but what other:
    • 1. Room Acoustics can be made
    • 2. Sound proofing can be done

Hard to say without knowing more details about room geometry - consider using de-coupling bases for subs, and it would do no harm to use acoustic tiles/foam (perhaps over-trimmed in cloth) on the rear wall to prevent reflections from the front channels.

A common trick is to set walls so as not to be parallel or perpendicular - i.e. at funky angles - although it's probably too late for this.

What's going on with the ceiling? Try to keep it high and flat, if possible.

I am at a critical part of the build where some important decisions will effect the overall viewing/listening pleasure so any help will be greatly appreciated.

many thanks

Dependent on the amount you've spent on kit, it could be worth meeting up with a bona-fide acoustic consultant - they'll be able to go over your drawings and give quantified solutions, rather than general advice.

HTH
Chris
 
change the room dimensions if possible, 5m square = bass hell. can you change the dimensions at all?
 
Really? Why is that?

Changing the room dimensions is a big thing. The room is actually 6m x 5 and I am putting a false wall to house the media cabinett etc so it will be 5.5 x 5 so not exactly square.
 

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