House & Home A question for those with theatre rooms

I am going to build a theatre room when we move and I can't quite decide between going the projector route or a 75" TV.

The projector is "authentic" feeling for movies but the TV is a better option for high motion display.

The display will also have a playstation plugged into it.

Any thoughts on the best option?

Also with regards to sound (I know nothing about home audio). Is a soundbar and sub good enough or is the old multi speaker setup considered the better option?

Is Bluetooth to the receiver pretty much a standard thing nowadays or do I need to look for something specific? I would imagine if I went the TV route I could BT to the TV which would then repeat out to the amp.

Thanks to anyone who can offer advice, I am a bit clueless on this stuff.

 

Go for both. Wall mount TV and have a ceiling recessed motorised screen that comes down in front of the TV.

Use HDMI fixed cabling

 

As DaveM said... i'm not sure how gaming on your PS4 would get on projector.

I use Sonos through out my home for Audio... extremely happy and 100% reliable wireless and not impacted by other wireless network / devices.

 

I might add, this is in a dedicated room, we will have a wall mount TV in the lounge room, this is in the "Granny flat" as it currently is but will be turned into a theatre room upon moving in. I don't really want to have both projector and wall mount in there as it will get expensive.

Also with the audio, it will be on a closed system, the rest of the house will be on it's own audio system.

 

Then looks like you have answered your own question... TV + wired front speakers/sub and Bluetooth to rears. Great set-up for both movies and gaming.

 

As a past neighbour to a few people who installed these (to me) waste of space spaces ... please add soundproofing.

Really didn't like being kept awake at 11.30pm on a work night by the deep base sound of bombs dropping and gunfire ... and having to wait for a lull in the movie so they could hear me bashing on their door to "turn it down"

 

Thanks, The main thing I wasn't sure of was the speakers so this helps me out .

This is a big thing for me, I have already looked into the soundproofing and the anti vibration cornice thingies, upsetting my new neighbors is the very last thing I want to do .

 

I have Sonos wireless speakers everywhere in the house, each room has a speaker
I also setup Sonos surround sound (5.1 for my home theatre, large TV mount on wall)

I went for Sonos because it neat and tidy and it was a long time ago when there wasn't anything around... but their surround sound options are limited and you got to do a bit of hacking to get the way you want it,

If I start fresh again today I would look at other wireless options like Bluesound or Yamaha MusicCast and do a comparison but back then Sonos was the top dog (not in term of sound) but Apple like usability and ease of setup and nice interface.

It is still pretty good today with countless services support that many rivals don't

but I spent thousands of $$$ on the dozen of their speakers and sub so couldn't be bothered by an alternative and everything works perfectly in harmony now and so reliable I dread not having my music wake up or sleeping or instant surround for all the movies we watched

maybe when stuff starts to break down I may look at it again.

 

For future proofing run a pvc pipe through the roof/wall. At least 50mm diameter. Make sure turn radius for bends are generous.

( except my builder botched it and put elbow joints in )

I therefore have cat 6 cables and use hdmi extenders. Will swap to new 4K extenders if I upgrade my projector.

 

Look at investing in wireless speakers, it has come a long way and depend on your consumption of music and movies (I only use stream service these days (Spotify, Netflix), I got super fast limitless data on my internet so wireless is a logical choice).

I start out having my own streaming collection on the NAS many years ago that why I went wireless and as technology catch on and many streaming services available I switch to them and ditch my own storage on the NAS

 

Crazy neighbour, we don't watch anything past 10pm even with teen kids, follow strict rules of the house about staying up late or watch tv during weekday etc...

plus we don't crank it up, just loud enough to enjoy but certainly, my neighbour won't be experience anything like that, the knock on their door will be louder than they hearing our sound

 

What is your budget? Are you aiming for a 5.1 or a 7.1?
What are the room dimensions?

Wired connections and separate receiver and amplifier is still the way to go for best audio quality. Brands like Rotel, B&W, Denon, anthem SVS are know to be good value for the experience they deliver.

The problem with the projectors is the preparation of the room required (motorised or static, throw distance, screen quality, projector lamp lifespan). A TV is just a matter of hanging it on the wall.

 

I do like Yamaha so I may look at their offerings.

Everything is Cat 6 already, there are 4 outlets in the building that will be the cinema room, they all run back to a main point inside a cupboard in the lounge room .

Not sure of the size of the room but it's a "decent" size. It's a granny flat (or rather a really big shed with power, aircon, toilet and kitchenette) so like a small studio.

Office Inside by Dan Donoghue posted 20th Nov, 2017 at 1:33 PM

Budget is around the 10K mark for display and audio and installation. If we go the TV route, we won't need that much, we just got a 75" for $3,995 so would probably go the same thing.

My current setup is similar with the NAS as we only have 1.2MBit internet but I have organised unlimited on the 100MBit line up there for the NBN so we have cancelled Foxtel and are going to go down the streaming media path .

 

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My current setup is similar with the NAS as we only have 1.2MBit internet but I have organised unlimited on the 100MBit line up there for the NBN so we have cancelled Foxtel and are going to go down the streaming media path .[/QUOTE]

Faster internet opens up lot and lot of options and there are literally heaps of good freebie streaming and on-demand stuff around ... SBS free movie streaming site is a gold mine, ABC on demand etc..

The only time I really ever watch free to air TV is news, everything else on demand streaming and good with the kids too, they get to do their important home work and other important things to them and when they have some spare cycle they can watch their fav show any time

 

This is the main thing I am looking forward too with decent internet, being able to consume on demand, we currently use the NAS for everything and it's a pain to have to do that. Once we have Netflix and other providers, we will be able to reduce the NAS use to basic "Fave's that aren't on the streaming databases"

 

I'm using Plex at the moment wirelessly between the PC and Samsung LED.

 

We moved into our new house in May 2012. By November 2016, I had to buy a new lamp for the projector. The lamp is rated for 5,000 hours. This means we used the theatre room for an average of 3 hours a day (given how much travel we do, obviously it is more than that). In our house, our theatre room is the most used room, besides the bedroom.

Totally agree with this. We have sound proofing in our walls. Great when the kids and grandkids stay with us.

 

My husband used to program AMX and Crestron control systems, including small cinema setups.

He says that Samsung QLED TVs would be his preference. He doesn't like projectors as he isn't a fan of the refresh rates and colour replication is not as good as the QLEDs (by his standards).

He was unenthusiastic about soundbars and says that Denon or Integra receivers are quite good. He claims that HDMI 1.4 will be advantageous long term.

I hope that's helpful and posting opinions on products hasn't made me unpopular...

 

Ensure you apply acoustic treatments to the walls that will echo like crazy.

Good names noted there. I have an Anthem MRX receiver, Paradigm Studio 60 speakers and SVS 12" sub, does very well on 2 channel audio too

 

Go the full 7.1 wired if you can, much better sound quality and reliability. We've had a Yamaha amp and Richter surround speakers and subwoofer for years. Still totally awesome, and that coupled with a 60" Sony makes us very happy.

Dont forget... with wireless speakers you still have wires, they have to get their power from somewhere so you're not actually reducing the wire count!

If I get to build a theatre room proper, I'd still go wired and the biggest OLED I could afford.