controling light to see menues isn't realy that big of deal, but I only have two small windows and am in the basement. I thought about going with a 55 or 60 inch plasma or lcd but I have a 52 inch upstairs so I want to make the one down stairs more of an experiance.

One thing I do need in a reciver is the ability to putput two different HDMI feeds. (or 1 HDMI and one componant) I am going to have the projector and a 42" plasma behind the bar and want to make it stupid easy to pick which one I am going to have on. so if the reciver can't do that it is out by default.

Steve

Your thoughts on 7.1 audio are a little off, what I would suggest is to do a 5.1 theater and have an amp that handles a second zone for the bar speakers.

If you take a 7.1 system and move two of the speakers out of the field your going to run into sound issues. You will get surround sounds out of the speakers your placing by the bar, not full range. Unless I'm misunderstanding your post.

The way you have your theater set-up now isn't a great set-up for a 7.1 theater unless your willing to hang speakers from the ceiling. The left surround would be too far from the listening area.
http://www.argos.co.uk/wcsstore/argo....1_diagram.jpg

Could you flip the area?

Sort of like this?

http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/a.../StirCrazy.jpg

Something like this but with a fireplace instead of a tv:

Most likely the screen wouldn't come down far enough to cover the actual fire place.

http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n...1/IMG_1793.jpg

http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n...1/IMG_1773.jpg

I looked at that stuff befor, have you used a cloth screen befor to give you a comparason between the two?

Had another thought, are you planing to output to the two displays at the same time? Most of the midpoint receivers don't offer dual out at the same time... I know some of the high end ones do.. a few from Marantz, Denon I believe has a model that does it... There may be a bunch more now.. it's been awhile since I've looked around.

Nope won't work, the couch is 12' wide so if I flip it sideways I will have about 1 foot of space for trafic to pass through, not acceptable to me.

as for the 7.1 I was thinking it right, I was going to turn off the surounds and basicly reasign them to only be on in sterio mode. this set up gives you more even power than when you use a second zone setup. so yes I was only going to use 5.1 for watching movies. I have 6.1 upstairs and it is pretty much useless as I have only found 2 movies that are in 6.1, asside from starwars.

Steve

well I would like the option to be able to do that, but probably not, just one at a time. Yamaha makes one that has dual HMDI and will output both at the same time.. I was originaly looking at this one as then all I would have to do is turn on the tv I wanted to watch

Steve

Cool, the whole time I was typing I was sure I was misunderstanding.

No I never have, the budget ran out. I was just going to go with the misty grey paint route but I figured I'd give these guys a try.

As for light concerns, I've had a Sony and now a Panasonic projector and I can still see the screen with the lights on.

Is your basement already framed? Fireplace is in?

A couple of the best ideas I stole, a PVC conduit in the ceiling from the projector to audio equipment for running wires. A closet behind the screen to access everything from the back. Remote dimmers for the lights can be learned by your remote.

Here's a pic from construction, cutouts for center speaker and equipment rack.

I went widescreen because we watch more movies than TV or computer. It ended up just about 100 inches.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12.../Inwall011.jpg
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/htt.../Inwall011.jpg