Is Your Room Too Small For A Home Theater?? No....it's not

Is my room too small for a home theater? This might be the most common excuse for someone not converting a room into a home theater. Today we debunk this myth and talk about some of the things to look out for if you're building a home theater in a small room such as a bedroom.

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[Davidjune]

They are lying. The most common excuse is not having the money lol

[TriMuXx]

Haha, YES!! I've been telling Friends and family this for YEARS now! Finally a video from someone that explains that clearly you can fit a projector in a LOT smaller spaces than you thought you could! I love how you said something to the tone of "....the end up going with a larger screen size and sit closer to the screen..." lol.

Another great video! Keep it up!!!

[DGaryGrady]

Excellent information as usual. In several ways a small room can be better for a home theater because it will be easier and cheaper to cover windows and walls in order to dampen reflected light and sound, and since you're likely going to end up sitting closer to the screen, a given screen size will give you a wider angle of view.

For reference, with a 16:9 screen, the height is 0.49 times the diagonal and the width 0.87 times the diagonal. So a 100-inch screen (not counting any border) has dimensions of about 87 by 49 inches. A 120-inch screen is about 105 x 51 inches.

The horizontal angle of view depends on the screen size and the eyeball-to-screen distance. For casual viewing many people are content with an angle of 30 degrees or even less. SMPTE and THX lean more toward 40 degrees for movie watching. Of course, for the even wider angle you prefer, you could go as high as 50 degrees. Here is the ratio of screen distance to screen diagonal for each of these:

30 degrees: distance 1.63 x screen diagonal (casual viewing)
40 degrees: distance 1.20 x screen diagonal (conventional home theater recommendation)
50 degrees: distance 0.93 x screen diagonal (sort of home IMAX)

Note that for 40 degrees this works out to almost exactly one foot of viewing distance for each 10 inches of screen size, which means watching a 100-inch screen from 10 feet away or a 120-inch scree from 12 feet away.

I personally think 50 degrees is a bit too much, so I hereby propose a new, slightly reduced standard: a 47-degree horizontal field of view, which conveniently gives a viewing distance almost exactly equal to the screen diagonal. For a 120-inch (10-foot) screen, this would mean sitting 120 inches (10 feet) away. I further propose calling this the Majestic View. How about that?

[BuildMontage]

I built my whole channel off having a small sized room for my home theater. Seated position should be your first consideration as everything stems from that, including screen size - I learned that the hard way when I first started. Nicely done - awesome you can help your family and friends to build rooms.

[cameronwallis]

I have that Target Blockbuster tshirt! I bought it in San Fransisco in 2019 visiting from Australia🤙

[ddeep]

Hi... Very motivating video... Initially I planned to use my living room into multipurpose room. My room dimensions are 16X24. I made arrangements for 7.1.2 setup and a projector mount at 10.5 feet from the screen.
But lately I noticed it is not convenient to use speakers in living room as the sound is little irritating to my family members in other rooms.
So now I decided to have a dedicated movie room, which is one of my bedroom. Dimensions are 14x 17. But my seating will be appx 12 feet from the screen. So i felt ur video is very useful for me.
I have denon 3800h and Polk signature series with 2 Atmos speakers.

[jeffjensen]

You Would Be Freeing Up So Much Space If You Ditched All Of The Big Bulky Looking Speakers 🔈 . In Wall Speakers is the Best Way To Go. Clean Look.

[jhvesterjr]

Awesome, Just installed a 75in so glad that I didn't go any bigger. The 7-10ft range fits perfectly to my living room. Got a Sony Bravia. Now working on my 5.2.2 theater system and the hyperion light setup

[RONO]

This video has me thinking about putting my Yamaha RXV1 in the living room. I have always been concerned about space. Your videos are great, keep ‘em coming Chris!

[JCperfection]

No, my room isn't small, it's my bank account.

[JasonSmith-voyf]

Great video! I’d love to see some videos of small rooms that you have helped put together. Small home theater tours. With dimensions and equipment.

[carcar]

My room is 11x12 and it rocks! On your recommendation I painted all walls including ceiling pencil point gray. No light reflection at all. 7.2 all klipsch all around. Calibrated with a sound meter and it sounds great. TV is 65" 4k but want to go to a 75". And it only sits 2 people. Got nice home theater seats though. Onkyo tx rz820 reciever. Carpet. Absorption panels and diffusers in strategic places.. very happy.. buy of course I want more!

[nicolajohnson]

Excellent video, but being close to the screen would hurt my eyes, but we do use the screen alot, we watch alot of movies per week.

[pf]

Most people think their room is too small because they want to have the biggest screen and a very large screen is not always the right fit for every room.

[TyEichele]

Great video and explanation as always! I agree - bigger screen is better than not big enough - as long as I'm not having to move my head around to see everything on the screen.

[Mrworlwad]

WOA you answered all my questions in a short video. masterful.

[EastwoodEscape]

I bought a used projector cheap. It's in my son's room which is a 10'x10'x8' in terms of width, length, and height. And the projector is up on a shelf above the washer and dryer. For movies in scope, it fills the wall. Movies in 16:9, you have to scale it, but, it's fine.

[sudorelabs]

Dude i have the ultimate build for a budget build. I have a Denon Avr 3801 & Avr 3802 & avr 3803 - cost £300 Each amp is 7.1 but the 3803 is 7.2. I have each amp doing multi zone all in one room with Bose 301 Speaker x 9 and Two set floor bose speakers which are quads with 3 subs which are JBL Active as well a some sony high end book shelf speakers handling the mid part of the room and two centre speakers from bowers Sounds amazing with no distortion total cost £800

[bloodcarver]

I think it's nice that ppl have theaters of any size. BUT, there is a LOT more acoustic problems with a small room vs a large one. The sound will usually be a lot better with a big room. As long as one acknowledges that - run with what you have.

[chrichtonsworld]

A fully dedicated home theater room is not an option for me. I always find it funny that a small room in the US is still a whole lot bigger than a small room in my country (The Netherlands). It's a legitimate reason for many people living here since most places simply are too small to have dedicated home theaters. Although mine is even smaller than that. It's one of the reasons why it took me so long to purchase a 4k TV of a relative big size (55 inch). I had to put in some work to make that happen. In hindsight I could have gone bigger because you get used to it real fast. So after a while I did decide to do so. I opted for a projector and a hanging screen (retractable / 100 inch 16:9) since that is the most practical for me. That way I can pull down the screen when I want to watch a film that warrants use of projector (BenQ TK700STi gaming beamer) without having to adjust already existing setup.

I think I am very lucky that the distance is just right. Had my living room been smaller I would be too close to the screen and then I don't think it would be much fun. Gaming on this projector certainly is a little overwhelming. Perfect for horror games to intensify the experience but I prefer the TV for more action orientated games.


I do want to add while I understand that you are trying to say that basically anyone can have a home theater of some sorts I do think that most people don't really want one. For film fans like me it's a no brainer. But for casual viewers a TV usually is enough.