Basement Home Theater Basics You Must Have

By cinema
In Home Theater

3 Awesome Basement Home Theater Basics You Must Have

You don t have to break your wallet to enjoy an immersive movie experience at home. These days it is possible to have a fully functioning comfortable home theater room with as little as $1,000. But you can splurge and spend as much as $30,000. At the extreme end are home theater rooms that cost upwards of $100,000. Whatever your budget is, there are basement home theater basics that are needed in your planning. If you are setting up a basement home theater, get these basics right. Your guests will find it hard to leave your home theater.

Room setup

A rectangular room works best for acoustics. Regular drywall works to some extent in modulating the acoustics. To better acoustics, you can install acoustic panels, also known as sound absorption panels. These come in 1 ft. x 1 ft. or 2×2 feet panels. If you opt to leave the wall as it is, ensure to break it with heavy fabric drapes which absorb sound very well.

Hardwood and concrete flooring can reflect sound, distorting it to some extent. If you want to leave the hardwood floor visible, use a few heavy large rugs to break the surface. Otherwise, deep wall to wall carpeting works best and is comfortable to step on.

Screen setup

The largest TV you can fit into the room is not always the best for viewing. So, if the screen is too large, the viewing angle forces a lot of swinging eye movement that makes viewing uncomfortable. The viewing distance should be at a maximum of 2.5 times the size of your screen. The same formula works in reverse. If you have a 10 feet viewing distance divide by 2.5 which would be 4 feet or 48 inches. So remember that a screen’s size is measured diagonally.

The best viewing height is at eye level. If the screen is at an elevated height, it should be tilted down and the viewers seated at a reclined angle.

Sound set up

You need 5.1 surround arrangement for ideal surround sound. Three speakers should be placed at the front of the house plus the woofer. The other two should be placed slightly behind the viewers. So all speakers should be placed at least 20 inches away from the wall.

The woofer should be placed such that it distributes the bass throughout the room. A corner position works best. Remember to fine-tune the front center speaker because it gives the largest sound output. If the speakers have individual settings, control for delays so that the sound gets to ears perfectly.

So do you agree with our basement home theater basics? Let us know in the comments section.