Home theater done! pix 56k warning!

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25 September 2002
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Vegas....Baby!
After constant planning and whole lot of work our home theater is done! The painting was, well an "experience" at best!

The equipment components are:

-Optoma High Def DLP projector
-Grey Wolf 92 inch glass bead High def screen
-Panasonic AV control/receiver SA-XR55 all digital
-JBL speakers 7.1 surround sound with LFE separate amp 10 inch downfire Subwoofer
-4 Bass shakers installed in couch with separate 100w amp
-Mediacom cable receiver with High def channels
-samsung DVD
-PS2 Playstation
-Emerson VHS
*Soon to add: High def DVD & High def DVR

The experience is better than we thought. The Bass shakers installed in the couch are a great addition. The couch actually vibrates in sync with the bass of the movie!
The last project is to build a concession stand with popcorn maker,etc.

Time to enjoy some movies! :wink:

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donwon said:
Wow,

Good to go!!! Looks like fun! The bass shakers are interesting. How did you wire them? (i am assuming you need a powered output)

Click here:

http://www.partsexpress.com/pdf/series%20parallel.pdf

I used a Dayton 100w amp.
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=300-802
It has auto on. You can see it in the right side inset in the bass cabinet below:

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I can adjust the gain and freq of the shakers. It is beyond great! I watched Star Wars revenge of the sith for the sound only. Not a big star wars fan, but the 7.1 sound with the bass shakers was way better than any movie experience!

Thanks for your nice comments. :wink:

PS: High Def on a 92 inch screen will take your breath away!
 
My Italian Vila themed HT....

Sanyo Z2 LCD Projector. 96" Corada Screen
Outlaw Audio 950 Preamp
Outlaw Audio 7700 Amp (200x7)
Samsung DVD (Universal SACD & DVD-A 720p upsampling + DVI out)
Xbox
Speaker - Atlantic Technology 370 THX ( L/C/R pair of dipoles on the side and rear)
Sub - SVS PB12/2 Ultra (2x 12" woofers & 1000 watts) - so much bass it will knock the wind out of you! :biggrin: :eek: :biggrin:
2 Butkickers with a 2000 watt amp on a platform for the front recliners and rear couch.
Stadium seating - built a 6" high platform fro the couch so you can see over the recliners.


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Nice setup. :cool: Are those presence speakers in the front above your right and left channels? (the ones above the lighted cutouts) I'm not running presence on my 7.1 cause I didn't think they'd do much but do you notice any difference with them or much sound coming from them in movies?

Does your Episode 3 DVD have 7.1 encoded sound or is it simulated 7.1 through 5.1EX? I need to return my EP3 dvd if it does. :frown:
 
Skyguy,
I am in the process of building a dedicated medial room (20x20) and have been lurking in the AVS forum for some information, I have not decided on the components yet, I'm thinking of going with the Infocus s5000 vs the 4805, I am also thinking about painting the wall with screen goo instead of buying a screen, I don't really need a retracting screen. I would like to ask you about the contruction phase and maybe you can give me some insight of what you would do differently if you had to do it again. Let me know if I can pm you.

Thanks,

Paul
 
Square rooms (ie 20x20) are awful for accoustics.

I spent a considerable amount of time taming bass response (if you look at the latter pictures I used ceiling clouds (compressed fiberglass) and also more in front of the windows which are blacked out by the marron drapes.

If you can stay away from square.
 
Re: Home theater done! warning! pull up whoopwhoop

you pooooooor pilots....:biggrin:
we should send you copies of "STEALTH" to enjoy....

anyone tapped their pc's into the home theatre??
that's the angle i'm shootn' for.
 
CL65 Captain said:
Square rooms (ie 20x20) are awful for accoustics.

I spent a considerable amount of time taming bass response (if you look at the latter pictures I used ceiling clouds (compressed fiberglass) and also more in front of the windows which are blacked out by the marron drapes.

If you can stay away from square.

Hmm?
I haven't really thought about the acoustics of the room. I'm just trying to work with the room I have, I'm turning my car port into the media room. I just finished building a 1700sq ft garage :biggrin:

Paul
 
avalon96 said:
Are the rips in the walls (revealing brick) part of the design?

yep... brick is actually wallpaper (see pic #3) I put down and then put cardboard on top, plastered over with a corner of the cardboard hanging out and after dry ripped the cardboard out. Earlier pics are before the redish/brown faux painting I did.

Last pic is the equipment shelves I put into the wall, notice the closet next to it, so I can get back there and easily wire, change stuff out. :)

Jim
 
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I have a Media Center that I have been using for over a year. It feeds my Bose system and 46' Plasma. It also serves media to the deck and kitchen through wireless audio media extenders, a kids TV through Ethernet, 3 PCs (ethernet/wireless).

The true magic of the system is I have replace 6 separate stereo components with 1 powerful computer running the latest Windows XP Media Center 2005 software.

Some of the things it does:

1) I can surf Prime and do computer things while watching TV

2) I have 60,000 digital pictures and 9,000 songs. It scanned my songs and organized them into artists/albums/genres. I start up a song list then tell it to randomly play all of my pictures (including automatic an and zoom). Awesome - it is like being at your own funeral

3) I have 3 tuner cards in the machine and it acts a a free Tivo! Not only that - full internet convergence! So it downloads 2 weeks of programming and it will use up to all 3 tuners at a time to record my shows. When scanning for shows - if it is a movie - it downloads the movie cover and ratings/information from the net

4) Instead of running co-ax cable to all TV's - the Media Center now serves Tivo, Live TV, and Video content to any room via Wireless or Ethernet cable. Awesome for the Kids!

5) With the remote I can go to the "internet" and download and stream/play movies, live TV, videos. I love to make my own newscast on MSNBC. I literally pick the stories from the last few days and it queues them up as a single video with no commercials (after a quick 30 second one).

6) The kids have their games on the 46" setup with surround sound. We have every board game known to man on the computer and it is fun to play video games on a 46" plasma with surround sound while still serving up media all over the house.

7) I have 2 DVD players/burners built in for backing up Tivo content or serving up to 2 DVD movies to multiple rooms

8) It comes with neat visualizations so you can "veg out" when listening to music

9) It has IM built in - but I am not into that as much

10) I have 40 hours of NSX and other car videos that are all on-demand as well has home movies from the last 20 years

11) It has a free service that allows you to schedule TV programs from the internet! I can see and even resolve conflicts.

People are blown away with how much a "TV" can do when their is full convergence between the Internet, TV, music, movies, and your picture collection.
 
Oops - I meant to compliment the OP for an awesome setup. Far better quality then most movie theaters and looks awesome. Also - love the Italian villa too!!! Keep up the great work.

Signed AVS wanna be!
 
I put in a home theater PC with everything else. I am using Windows Media Center as the front end. One of these days, everything will be done but it is done enough for me to use. As an FYI, until high def DVD come out with high def discs, instead of using a DVD player with a scaler that outputs at 480p or may upscale to 720p (1080i), look for a used Faroudja NRS scaler which outputs at the output of your projector. I paid $2000 for ours new but I see them now for around $400. Compared the output from our HD DVR which can upscale everything to 720p vs component video to the NRS and then to the projector, NRS vastly superior. Also compared the 480p output from a Krell DVD vs an old Theta David +NRS, Theta+NRS vastly superior. Also, Theta+NRS is better than watching from the HTPC which then upscales to 720p. By the way, both are absolutely beautiful installations and I also agree, don't do the box if possible because you will be asking for standing waves with the bass.

Tim
 
Not to hi-jack and out-do, but I'm going to have to toot my own horn here for my college setup.

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Took us about 25 minutes to complete.

We can turn the volume up and down on the TV, cable box, and stereo....

And just to clarify, there are two other surround speakers that can't be seen, so yeh.
 
Nice work guys. I built mine around a 60" Panasonic DLP RP about this time last year with a Motorolla HD PVR and the Panasonic DVD player with the Faroudja scaler.

This was my second "built-in" design and I must be a slow learner. Although all the built-in stuff is nice, my recommendation to anyone else who's thinking of doing a home theatre would be to try to arrange the room and equipment so you have easy access to the backs of all the devices. This likely means placing the TV and components against a wall that either has a narrow access aisle behind it or maybe another unfinished room.

The temptation is going to be to think that you'll be able to do all the cabling once at the time of install and forget about it. I haven't found that to be true. I've had to pull out the TV and/or components more times than I can count on one hand. I'm about to knock a hole in a side wall and move all the components from under the TV to a rack which will extend through that hole into a utility room. YMMV.

New components will come out (eg. HD DVD) and you'll want/need to hook them up or move some other inputs around or upgrade from cable to fibre .. or whatever....and you'll need to pull them out and you'll probably discover that you didn't leave quite enough slack in the cable .. and ..you get the picture. Consumer electronics technology is rapidly changing and doesn't show any signs of slowing down and since you can't really 'drownproof' yourself, I think it's of the utmost importance to arrange things so you can easily make changes as they will inevitably be needed. Making a diagram of all your connections isn't a bad idea either .. it's amazing what you forget in a year.

Oh, and finally .. don't forget to allocate some $$ for a decent universal remote. I have a Panasonic TV, DVD, and Home Theatre system and not one of the remotes is capable of handling all three .. let alone the PVR/cable functions, the VCR (still have some pre-recorded car tapes), and my D-Link Media streamer thing. Unless your significant other is a certified geek, chances are you're going to need to consolidate.
 
Nice!!! I've also got a 92" screen. Its nowhere near as nice as yours, but I'm lovin it. The room still needs decor, but the hardware is all there...

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