This home theater is a collaboration: My wife designed the interior furnishings and acoustical treatments. I designed the electronic configuration which uses stock components and was very economical. It has an 82 inch DLP rear projection TV, 7.1 sound with a 1kW subwoofer, two tiers of recliners, RF universal remote control including lights. Equipment is in a closet on the side under the stairs, not beaming into our eyes, with rear access from my lab. My wife is very happy that no cables are visible anywhere. I also programmed the MX-980 universal remote control. That remote is an essential peace-maker! I'll be happy to assist with your theater implementation.

Viewing distance and screen size

Our front row seat's viewing distance is 8 feet. That gives us a 40 degree viewing angle for an immersive experience and allows the second row to meet the THX standard for the back row of a theater. We have the option of adjusting the distance because the room is deeper than we need. We put storage behind and separated it with sliding fabric panels.

To chose a screen size, you can do this: Your fist, at the end of your extended arm, looks about 10 degrees wide across the knuckles of your four fingers (with the thumb folded down). Sit in your favorite row in a movie theater. Count how many fists wide the screen looks. At home, count the same number of fists across the area where the TV will be. Measure that width and multiply by 1.2 to get the diagonal size of the TV that will look about as wide as your movie screen. If it's 3.5 fists or more, it meets the THX recommendation.

I learned the fist method from "The Stars by Clock and Fist" by Henry M. Neely (New York: Viking Press, 1956) as explained by my astronomy enthusiast father Alan, and applied it to theater viewing angles, thinking, "We all have a tool for measuring that!"