Help on basement theater setup

[newguy88]

We're renovating our basement now and adding a home theater setup. I'm doing research, but it's so much info all at once especially with the new technology, ultra short throw, HDR, Dolby Atmos, HDMI 2.1 with gaming, etc that I'm really overwhelmed. Looking to this community as I've watch many LTT videos and thought I try LTT forum first for recommendations.

 

My main idea for the is

1. Projector (overhead or ultra short throw)

2. Projector screen. Looking to get fixed, not hearing good things about motorized. What do I need to look for specifically?

3. AV receiver, prefer 4k and low latency for gaming (not sure if that's the right term). Don't have any latest consoles, but hoping to grab myself one

4. Surround speaker

 

Any help would be much appreciated!!

[Dedayog]

I'd head over to avrforums.com, much more dedicated Theatre sections.

 

https://www.avforums.com/forums/

 

Otherwise, add a budget amount please.  It kinda starts there.

 

For the screen, you can always use screen paint to make it permanent on the wall and not need an additional screen.

[Bombastinator]

Big big screens are either motorized or non retractable, or at least used to be. If you go non-retractable and have a sufficiently flat wall the possibility of screen paint comes up. There are a bunch of different types going from just flat white which will give good viewing angle but can be less bright than desired, to grey (they used to use these in theaters.  It’s where the term ‘silver screen’ comes from) there is also one that has glass beads in it.  This one has higher brightness but poorer viewing angle.

[newguy88]

Budget maybe $10k for whole setup. Decided on ultra short throw.. seems like best option for my setup. Optoma CinemaX P2 seems to come up as a good choice. Any thoughts?

 

as for screen, fixed I think is best. Don’t need moving parts or retractable screen.

 

now looking at AV receiver and speakers. Probably 5.1 is enough for me. Not looking to go crazy. Preferably an AV receiver with modern features such as airplay or chromecast. As I already spent $5k on projector.. any thoughts?

[tikker]

3 hours ago, newguy88 said:

now looking at AV receiver and speakers. Probably 5.1 is enough for me. Not looking to go crazy. Preferably an AV receiver with modern features such as airplay or chromecast. As I already spent $5k on projector.. any thoughts?

Denon or Maratnz are my goto garden-variety AVRs. My Yamaha recently acquired is also doing just fine though. I have Denon X1400H for my 5.1.2 setup and a Yamaha HTR-4072 for my 2.0 PC setup. Can't say much about higher end brands other than having heard good things about Anthem and NAD. Those come at a price though and my Denon is just fine for my living room setup.

 

Speakers are subjective, so the advice is usually to try and listen to them at a dealer or something. Personally I'm using Dali speakers (Zensor 5 [FL,FR]+ Spektor Vokal [C] + Spektor 1 [SL,SR], Alteco C1 [FDL,FDR]) and an SVS SB1000 Pro sub. More than enough for my 15m2-ish living room. I often read that Klipsch tends to sound "bright". My Dali's sound very neutral to me while my pair of Wharfedale Diamond 220 at my PC sound a bit bassier.

[Bombastinator]

8 hours ago, newguy88 said:

Budget maybe $10k for whole setup. Decided on ultra short throw.. seems like best option for my setup. Optoma CinemaX P2 seems to come up as a good choice. Any thoughts?

 

as for screen, fixed I think is best. Don’t need moving parts or retractable screen.

 

now looking at AV receiver and speakers. Probably 5.1 is enough for me. Not looking to go crazy. Preferably an AV receiver with modern features such as airplay or chromecast. As I already spent $5k on projector.. any thoughts?

7.1 may actually be easier to get these days. 5.1 has become a bit old fashioned.  You can do it with older equipment though which may represent a cost savings.  One thing I worry about with 5.1 is it may actually become more difficult to get stuff coded for it.  It can be derived from straight stereo though which has advantages with older stuff.

[tikker]

3 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

7.1 may actually be easier to get these days. 5.1 has become a bit old fashioned.  You can do it with older equipment though which may represent a cost savings.  One thing I worry about with 5.1 is it may actually become more difficult to get stuff coded for it.  It can be derived from straight stereo though which has advantages with older stuff.

There's no issue getting 5.1 content really. I don't think any streaming service offers audio beyond 5.1 or 5.1.X (DD+ with Atmos), for example, and plenty of Blu-ray stuff with 5.1 audio exists as well, especially non-english audio I haven't seen listed beyond DD 5.1. The main audio tracks do seem to be pretty much always Atmos/DTS:X or TrueHD/DTS-HD MA 7.1, but that's no problem either as long as your  AVR can decode those audio streams (which most can do, except maybe Atmos, but you'll need at least 5.1.2 for that anyway). It'll downmix the sound to the number of connected channels. Dolby Surround and DTS Neural:X upmixing also sounds rather good in my opinion.

 

As for AVRs in my experience only the cheapest units stop at 5.1. Most intermediate ones are 7.1/2 capable, with two of those 7 channels being flexible and capable of doing 5.2.2 for Dolby Atmos. The expensive ones allow you to to 9.2 or 11.2 or even 13.2 if you've got money burning a hole in your pocket.

 

OP: that's one more thing to consider if you're interested in Atmos. Are you fine with 5.1 + 2 Atmos speakers (= possibility of budget friendly 7 channel AVR), 5.1 + 4 Atmos speakers or do you want 7.1 with 2 or 4 Atmos speakers.

[newguy88]

Thank guys for all the comments. Actually I’m still stuck on the projector. Ultra short throw was good thought, but my basement is low already and if I want to go 100 or wider, that means the projector will have to site pretty low. Some researching brought me to Optoma UHD38. It came up because lots of good reviews with gaming (which I’m only casual but still like a good experience). Anybody have any ideas on the projector? Or if there are other projectors that is better but may not be good for gaming?

[newguy88]

As for speakers, still not sure. May wire for 7.1 in case. I haven’t been able to find many choices for 5.1 so maybe it is getting old fashioned.

 

for now I think I’ll focus on projector and then fix screen first. Please provide suggestions or recommendations if possible. Want 4K HDR capable at least. Gaming is nice but not sure if it’s a must at this point. 

[Bombastinator]

3 minutes ago, newguy88 said:

As for speakers, still not sure. May wire for 7.1 in case. I haven’t been able to find many choices for 5.1 so maybe it is getting old fashioned.

 

for now I think I’ll focus on projector and then fix screen first. Please provide suggestions or recommendations if possible. Want 4K HDR capable at least. Gaming is nice but not sure if it’s a must at this point. 

There are some LTT videos on that specific subject that may prove useful. There is 3lcd, dsp, and laser. Dsp should be vastly cheaper but for whatever reason seems not to be.  It’s famous for unreadable type. May not matter.  Laser is the brightest and all round best acting, but also the most expensive.  May be the only option for ultra short throw. 

[tikker]

7 hours ago, newguy88 said:

As for speakers, still not sure. May wire for 7.1 in case. I haven’t been able to find many choices for 5.1 so maybe it is getting old fashioned.

Not sure what you mean with finding many choices for 5.1. Very few AVRs support just 5.1 nowadays, that's true, but it's "backwards compatible" if you will. That is to say a 7.1 or 13.1 AVR will handle 5.1 just fine nor are you forced to connect all 8 or 14 speakers. The receiver will know what to do with the signal, and downmixes it if you have fewer channels. If you connect a 2.0 setup, it will downmix 7.1 surround to stereo, if you make it 3.1 it'll downmix to 3.1 etc.

 

If you are running wires through walls and such during this renovation then I'd say there is benefit in "future proofing" by already wiring for 7.1.4 or 7.2.4 if that can be done easily (bonus if you can get the Atmos speakers overhead). Adding speakers and upgrading an AVR is easy, adding new wire runs through walls later isn't.

 

Can't really comment on the beamer part. I'm an OLED person myself.