What size TV for Man-Cave?

[Cakemeister]

My game room has a TV hutch and bookcases on one wall and a sofa and chair on the other wall.

             
              |----BBBBB TV BBBBB-----
              | G C                           |
              | P                              |<- fireplace
              |                                |
              |                                |
               ------SOFA-----CHAIR--

I have my pinball machine, my Galaga, and my cab on one side of the room, and the fireplace is on the other side.

For TV watching, the distance from the TV to the sofa and chair is about 14-15 feet.

But when I am playing my 360 I sit much closer, more like 5 feet.

There are quite a few sites out there that recommend TV sizes. What size TV do y'all recommend based on my room dimensions and TV usage?

TIA,
CM

[Hoopz]

Instead of one TV, how about 4 or 5? Make a bank of TVs for sports and other stuff.

Makes it easier to watch your Texans fumble games away in the 4th quarter while watching good games on the other TVs!   

[LLUncoolJ]

In my set up, the coutch/chairs are about 10 ft away. I went with a 46" LCD, but as soon as I set it up, I wished I had gone 52".  When in doubt, go bigger, or as big as you can afford.

[AtomSmasher]

The bigger the better.  I have a 100'' screen (from a projector) which I thought was pretty big, then I went to a friends house and he had a 150'' screen and holy crap is that awesome.  It is really cool playing video games on a gigantic screen.  When we play games with 4 player split screens, it's still like everyone has their own tv.

[Epyx]

I  have a "man room" while the man cave build is still pending and in there I have a 50" that I sit about 8' away from. I hate the calculated distances the stores use...for me I like my tv in my face like a movie screen...a bit of panning with my vision as opposed to it being too far away and single frame.

In the cave I will go with a projector (110" @ 12').

There is nothing better than a big screen for gaming/movies/tv shows...and even better a nice complimentary sound system 

[Cakemeister]

Instead of one TV, how about 4 or 5? Make a bank of TVs for sports and other stuff.

Makes it easier to watch your Texans fumble games away in the 4th quarter while watching good games on the other TVs!   

If it hadn't been for the stupid Colts pulling their starters against the Jets, the Texans would have made the playoffs!

The problem with having a really big screen is that I don't want the TV to be too big for me to see what I am doing when gaming.

It's going to be a while before I can afford the TV. While I'm saving hopefully prices and technology will improve.

[Gorotsuki]

I sit about 3' from a 50" tv.
Except for the possible future cataracts,
I don't see any problems gaming
on the largest possible screen you can get.

[Samstag]

The problem with having a really big screen is that I don't want the TV to be too big for me to see what I am doing when gaming.

For gaming at 5' and movies/TV at 14 feet a 46" is probably acceptable.  For gaming from 14" you're probably going to want 60" or more.  Even at 5' viewing distance you're a lot more likely to think "too awesome" than "too big".

[massive88]

I use this in my media room - http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/products/Home_Theater_Projectors/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=1609W2Y

Got it on sale and with employee discount at $571 shipped.  Works great for me, and the price was fantastic.

[lilshawn]

gotta 52" lcd about 20 foot from the couch, it's perfect for games and everything... i'm running diagonal with couch and chair in one corner and tv in the other.

[hyiu]

I would say.... put in the BIGGEST thing in there that you can afford (or that can fit).

I would say this... whenever you go to friend's place / show room and see those HUGE tvs...
you would say... "Wow !! that's a big one !!!..."

but you would never say... "Wow !!! that's TOO BIG !!!..."   lol....

So, depends on your budget and space avavilable, put in the biggest you can afford to put there.

I have a 110 in screen with front projector installed a few yrs ago...
I love it !!  I got that movie feel !!! my friends love it too....


only thing with front projector is you need to keep the room dark.
So, if you plan on all lights on, mame cab shining, pinball machine on and light flashing,
and some other people reading magazines... etc.
Then maybe front projector is not for you...

but I believe front projector is cheapest in terms of $$ and size ratio...

whatever you go with, go with the biggest...

[Justin Z]

I have the 65" version of this TV . . .

http://www.mitsubishi-tv.com/product/WD82737

When it comes to bang for the buck, DLP is easily the best way to go.  I paid $999.00 for my 65" TV, and with some luck, you might find the 82" model for under $3,000.

[drventure]

You can get a panasonic HD projector and a screen for way under 3000$ and it'll be a far bigger (and likely just about as good) image quality.

I've been very impressed with the Panasonic ae900u I picked up, and it's the older model!

And I've only got an 80" screen. I can't even fathom a 150" screen, but I'd sure like to try one day!

[Gorotsuki]

How large of a room do you
need to have for a projector?
I really want one,
but the largest room I have
is only 15 feet long and 12 feet wide.
Is that enough?
How large a picture could I get with that?

[fatfingers]

There is a lot of advanced math to determine the correct size TV based on the size of your man cave...a brief formula is below:


(Integral(cave width) * Derivative(cave length) * ln(cave width * cave length) * 0)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------    + room width + 10' == TV size
sqrt(ln(davewidth * cave height) * sqrt(arctan(cave width / cave height))^-23


You see, then you get to complain to the wife that your man cave is clearly too small and she must give up her stamping and scrapbooking space to fit the newly expanded man cave.  'Cuz after all....stamping?  scrapbooking?  Really...

[Malenko]

I got a 62" I sit about 5 feet away its awesome, even if  sit 10 feet away

[massive88]

How large of a room do you
need to have for a projector?
I really want one,
but the largest room I have
is only 15 feet long and 12 feet wide.
Is that enough?
How large a picture could I get with that?

Depends on the projector.  YOu can get ones with short throws that work fine.  I believe my projector is only about 10' from the screen, and its pretty darn big.  I have a picture but it appears my webhost is down.

The bigger issue is ambient light.  My current projector is 2500 lumens, and as I said about 10' away from the screen.  With the lights on, you can watch sports on it and it looks pretty good, but watching a movie, or dark video game it would not work well.

That said it doesn't need to be pitch black to be visible either, but if you are a perfectionist about  your blacks and contrasts, and seeing whats in the shadows fully in movies, stuff like that, you will want to be able to get it as dark as possible.  My room has one window that overlooks a covered porch that has blinds on it, and the other side I have blackout curtains.  In the middle of the day, it gets as dark as say, 6 candles, and I game/watch anything like that without issue.  At night its even better.  My wife usually turns on a light on the stairwell nearby (boggle) cause she prefers to watch with some ambient light.

I read somewhere if you have a candle light worth of ambient light the contrast ratio possible drops to something like 800:1, so ambient light for projectors is a big deal if you are a stickler for that.  On the other hand, if you know you will have some ambient light, theres no reason to pay extra money for insane contrast ratio projectors, as you know you will never get that anyway in your setup.

[Cakemeister]

The wife has an entire bedroom devoted to her sewing/quilting stuff, so there is no guest bedroom in the house. Guests sleep on a sleeper sofa in the cave.

I don't like the projector idea as the windows on the cave are on the south side of the house and that side gets a lot of sun. I'd have to get some opaque curtains if I wanted to watch something during the day. There are just mini-blinds on those windows now.

Typically, is it necessary to get a sound system for watching DVDs/gaming/casual TV watching, or are the speakers in most big-screen TVs good enough? I don't even own a stereo system at the moment.

[massive88]

The wife has an entire bedroom devoted to her sewing/quilting stuff, so there is no guest bedroom in the house. Guests sleep on a sleeper sofa in the cave.

I don't like the projector idea as the windows on the cave are on the south side of the house and that side gets a lot of sun. I'd have to get some opaque curtains if I wanted to watch something during the day. There are just mini-blinds on those windows now.

Typically, is it necessary to get a sound system for watching DVDs/gaming/casual TV watching, or are the speakers in most big-screen TVs good enough? I don't even own a stereo system at the moment.

Most of the TV's speakers can be bested by even a $30 set of 2.1 computer speakers.  Personally I wouldn't rely on a TV's speakers.

[hyiu]

since ur man cave has window and sunlight, then I guess get the biggest LCD is better than projector and screen.

As for speakers, if you're not very fuzzy about really high end hi fi...
get a decent speaker setup which has a subwoofer.

for movies, having a subwoofer makes a big difference.

as for speakers, most brands are similar. just pick the one that you think it looks nice, and it sounds decent.

and yes, a speaker setup that costs a few hundred bucks will always beats tv spkrs.

good luck and post a pic on your max cave...
(maybe we can start a thread and post our man cave pics !!)

[Cakemeister]

My existing TV showing where I sit for gaming.....

The picture was taken from where I would normally sit to watch TV.

[Cakemeister]

My comfy chairs....

[Cakemeister]

My other games, pinball machine, Galaga, MAME cab.

[lilshawn]

My other games, pinball machine, Galaga, MAME cab.

what's that note on the mame cab say??!!?!! i'm betting something absolutely ridiculously funny is going to happen to you if (insert action here)....

[Cakemeister]

My other games, pinball machine, Galaga, MAME cab.

what's that note on the mame cab say??!!?!! i'm betting something absolutely ridiculously funny is going to happen to you if (insert action here)....

Instructions on how to use it.