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I am setting up a dedicated movie room that is approx 11' long, 10' high with 8' ceilings. I have an Infocus SP 7200 and a 71" width DaLite Screen. How High of the ground should the screen be? Should the bottom of the screen be at eye level, or the center of the screen? I will be sitting on a standard height sofa. Thanks in advance for any help.
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One of the biggest mistakes I see regularly is a screen mounted too high. Somtimes it's unavoidable, recently did an install where the room was 8 feet wide and the screen was 7' wide. With tall JBL tower speakers the screen had to be moved up high enough to clear the speakers. Another time was at a local HT shop, the the screen was moved up way too high. IMO it was an attempt to reduce the apparent pixel structure from the Sharp DLP. It worked until you stood up but the seating position made it feel the cheap front seats at the local cinema, the ones you get stuck with if you show up late.
For typical HT type seats a screen height of 6'6" is just about right, Yuo shouldn't have to crane your neck up too see the center of the screen. This makes it tough with a 4:3 screen is it puts the center channel on the floor, which is why I like 16:9, AR.
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I think the general rule is to divide the screen height in 3rds and have first 1/3 from the bottom of the screen at eye level when seated. For example with my 92" screen measuring from the bottom of the screen up 15" gets me to the point that should be at eye level when seated.Comment
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There are theater standards for things like this - the trick is your eye should not have to rise above a certain angle to the center of the screen.
To my poor recollection, you should not have to look up more than 12-15 degrees to the center of the screen. Higher than this can cause neck strain over prolonged viewing.
Ideally you should look slighly downward to see the center of the screen. Most modern theaters are set up this way, or have tilted the seats slightly backwards to accomplish this.
Of course for home theater practical room limitations and speaker placement will dictate more.
There's a very nice article about this on my work computer that I will send when I get back in on Tuesday.
~JoshComment
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The bottom-third rule sounds good Andrew. Usually the room layout is the biggest determination for screen height with a ceiling mounted projector needing to match the top edge height of the screen.
I look forward to reading that article Josh if you can find and post it.
-Dean.Comment
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Found it.
Relevant excerpt:
"Viewing Height: Screening room projection standards call for the viewer to be looking straight at the middle for the screen or no more than 15 degrees up to mid-screen. Also, viewers should not have to look up past 35 degrees to see the top of the screen. Human vision is, in fact, most comfortable viewing an image that is 12 degrees below horizontal, so screening room seats are often tilted back 12 degrees to give the audience the best possible vertical viewing angle. So consider vertical viewing angle when figuring out where to hang a screen, and notice how much of a drag it can be to get the projector/screen/sight line relationship to work."
Enjoy.Comment
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