Media room (rent, houses, buying) - Dallas - Texas (TX) - City-Data Forum

rikity · 02-19-2015, 12:44 PM

I'm looking to relocated and have been looking at houses 3500 + square feet around the northern suburbs and have noticed that Media rooms tend to be very common for these houses. I have a few questions for those of you who have them or had them in the past.

How often do you actually use the media room?

Are they worth having?

What type of equipment do you actually have in there? Most houses I've seen have projection type of TVs or displays. I'm sort of a TV nerd and have always thought the picture quality of projection system suck compared to the regular flat screen TVs that can do 1080p displays. Any thoughts about swapping out equipments?

Have any of you turned that room to other use? If so how what did you turn it into and how hard was it?

Any other info regarding media rooms would be appreciated.

Thanks

bamaintex · 02-19-2015, 12:52 PM

My house has a media room, but I don't use it for that. I have a spare bed and a portable closet type thing for guests. My guests get a really quiet night because of the extra soundproofing of the room. Having a larger TV in my family room is all I need, I'm just not that into movies, surround sound, etc.

nissan · 02-19-2015, 12:55 PM

Our last home had a purpose built theater room built (at my preference). At first, we always watched movies down there, but after a while it just didn't get used. Over three years, I think we only watched like 2 dozen movies lol.

I still think it's worth having, esp down here where buyers expect it. If you don't have one, it'll definitely be a negative factor when selling.

Equipment depends on room size. The home we're building down here is large enough that we'll have a projector and screen setup with 7.2 sound. The projectors these days are amazing in terms of picture quality. That, combined with a larger screen size, will def change your perception of projection systems vs traditional flat screens.

MckinneyOwnr · 02-19-2015, 02:01 PM

Our last home had a media room. It was the first room I went to work on to get it squared away LOL. The room was wired for surround sound, had a tiered floor, and had a ceiling outlet for a projector, but the previous owner never used the room (he never actually even lived in the house.) So we had to paint the walls and ceiling a dark color, install a projector (even cheap ones these days can do 1080P) buy a screen, buy theater chairs, etc... because it was basically a blank slate.

We used ours all the time. Not just for movies, but also for tv and video games. Had a 110" screen, which completely blows away any flat screen in terms of visual impact, and we have a 65" for the family room. There's just no comparison.

Our current home has a media room but this time around, it's going to be one of the last rooms we get around to completing, simply because it needs a lot of work to get it the way I want it, and we have a 13 month old so our priorities and free time are more limited now.

I recommend going to Projectors, Projector Reviews, LCD Projectors, Home Theater DLP Projectors at ProjectorCentral.com to read up on what is available for home theater projectors these days... You'll be amazed. 3D, and even 4k is now available, so if you're thinking of buying an expensive 80" 4K TV, you can probably buy a 4K projector that will give you an even larger image for less money.

dallas_cowboy · 02-19-2015, 02:15 PM

These days new construction homes with 3500+ sq ft homes do include or provide media room option. I agree with other posters that if your house is 3500+ sq ft and does not include media room, then it has a negative selling point. At least I was thinking that way when I was in market to buy. We bought 3500+ sq ft new construction home and it does include media room. Though I still need to set it up. Builder has pre-wired the room.

Make sure you spend time reading on AVS forum to figure out your needs and best option for it.

mikestrong · 02-19-2015, 02:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rikity

I'm looking to relocated and have been looking at houses 3500 + square feet around the northern suburbs and have noticed that Media rooms tend to be very common for these houses. I have a few questions for those of you who have them or had them in the past.

How often do you actually use the media room?

Are they worth having?

What type of equipment do you actually have in there? Most houses I've seen have projection type of TVs or displays. I'm sort of a TV nerd and have always thought the picture quality of projection system suck compared to the regular flat screen TVs that can do 1080p displays. Any thoughts about swapping out equipments?

Have any of you turned that room to other use? If so how what did you turn it into and how hard was it?

Any other info regarding media rooms would be appreciated.

Thanks

I have sold many homes with media rooms. Only 10% of the people I sold used them long term. Most people watch tv in living room near the kitchen.Exception, if you entertain alot they are great.

Also, since true medias have no windows there is not much else to use them for except maybe storage. I would never use one enough to make it worthwhile.

I think with large flat screens coming down so much in price, most of them I have seen over the last year have 65-70 Led or plasmas.

shrapr · 02-19-2015, 02:45 PM

Our family watch very less tv and matter of fact do not have cable since 2005. We are building now and it was an option and it was the cheapest way to add more square footage. I think we paid around $70 per square feet and it is the only room in the house that is soundproof. We thought it is a good value. If you decide to add it later, forget it. We did not care for the design center upgrades but went little crazy with prewiring as I had struggled with it with my server equipment in our current home. I have known people use it for other purposes too, music room, craft room, etc...

HockDad · 02-19-2015, 02:59 PM

I think it depends on some extent if you have kids. Our kids love having a room. They can go watch movies with their friends and the family will go up there to watch OU Football, American Idol, etc.

We picked a 75 inch TV rather than a projector so that the family could have lights on and still enjoy the TV.

I agree with other posters- it is expected in larger homes.

We think our media room is pretty great.

BubbleT · 02-19-2015, 03:15 PM

It is useful for some families but a waste of space for most or at least most of the time. I wouldn't want one in my next house.

stephwin · 02-19-2015, 03:17 PM

We try to use ours at least once a month. We mostly rent redbox movies and will occasionally have people over to watch a game.

We have a projector and a screen that's around 100". The previous owner's installed a small shelf on the back wall and that is where the projector sits (not hanging from the ceiling). The room has built-in speakers and then we added our own subwoofer. My husband would love to upgrade the speakers and add more, but it's not a priority right now. We also have a riser and have 7 chairs in there now.