Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[fitbrit]

I just spent a lot of time arranging and captioning these pics, so I thought I'd share:
The making of My theatre.

[EDIT]
See lower down for new update of hardware.

[Sandy B Ridge]

Fitbrit,

A *really* nice install. You must be very pleased!

SBR

[JimH]

Wow!  Great job!  Thanks for sharing.

[fitbrit]

Thanks guys. I have some pics of standard and theater views that I should add too. As well as music visualisations in MC.

[Matt]

I love it.

How do the lights above the screen work if you want a little ambient light?  I put track lighting above the seating that points away from the screen, but it's hard not to end up with some light in your eyes using them.

Also, only 11.2 for speakers?  15.4 is so much better

[newsposter]

Ikea makes some really nice/cheap colored LED task lighting that works well for HT ambient lights.

Otherwise, have a look at what is available here:

http://barlighting.com/index.html

[kensn]

Very nice indeed....

[fitbrit]

I love it.

How do the lights above the screen work if you want a little ambient light?  I put track lighting above the seating that points away from the screen, but it's hard not to end up with some light in your eyes using them.

Also, only 11.2 for speakers?  15.4 is so much better

Thanks, Matt.
If I want just a little ambient light, I normally use the "Poker-Zone" lights above the seating area (firing down) or my wall sconces which are not shown in any of the pics. You can see where they were going to be installed in pics 10 and 11 I think. They look like this and suit the room very well:
http://www.graveyardmall.com/product_images/l/567/111__01135_zoom.gif

Both the sconces and the "PokerZone" cans may be controlled via remote. I'm using X-10 because of the (low) cost, and have various macros programmed into my Nstinct remote. "HT-Go!" for example, dims all the lights to off, turns on the subwoofers and the buttkicker amps.
The remote is IR and RF for X-10. Remarkable value at $30-$40 and can be programmed quite easily. Not as slick as my numerous Harmony remotes, but I find I use them less and less now that I can control lighting etc. with the Nstinct.

The lighting above the screen is used when working out in that room, or when guests first arrive. The rearward facing lights are angled upwards, so never get in your face. Soon those will all be X-10 controlled too. Unfortunately these two additional zones have about 600W of lighting, and the dimmers required for that are much more expensive, especially if they're to be installed next to one another.

[fitbrit]

Added some new pictures of the sconces, media cabinet (especially cooling) and Theater View at 120"!

[AVTechMan]

Very nice setup. Puts my small setup to shame (and im still learning MC). But then again when you have money you can do just about anything.

[fitbrit]

Very nice setup. Puts my small setup to shame (and im still learning MC). But then again when you have money you can do just about anything.

Thanks! The total cost wasn't too bad if I hadn't had to redesign things several times. I had an excellent contractor who was charging just $20 per hour.
The projector was $1175.
The screen was probably around $250 with all the labour charges to make it.
The speakers are very inexpensive, at about $1000 for the full 11.2 set-up of 14 speakers and two subwoofers. It does sound great despite the cost.
All six seats were under $225 in total.
The buttkickers and bassshakers cost the most at about $1200 including five amplifiers, two wireless buttkickers, three buttkicker LFEs, 4 Aura bass-shakers and 4 K-Woon bass shakers. All of these were bought used or from eBay in the case of the K-Woons.
The AVR was $1200, used, but it was a top-of-the-line model in 2011.
The cabinet was $140 before modifications, haggled down from $200 at a liquidation centre.
Then the wiring, which admittedly was overdone was maybe $300 in materials, with probably 400 feet of speaker wire left over.
The most expensive thing was the labour over all. I just got used to handing over half my paycheck to the contractor for several months. There was no way I could afford to pay for this in one shot, so it worked out well.

But really, a ~$1k projector, a $300 screen and a $300 Home Theatre in a Box (HTIB) would get a lot of people some big-screen satisfaction. www.monoprice.com is your friend!

[AVTechMan]

Thanks! The total cost wasn't too bad if I hadn't had to redesign things several times. I had an excellent contractor who was charging just $20 per hour.
The projector was $1175.
The screen was probably around $250 with all the labour charges to make it.
The speakers are very inexpensive, at about $700 for the full 11.2 set-up of 14 speakers and two subwoofers. It does sound great despite teh cost.
All six seats were under $225 in total.
The buttkickers and bassshakers cost the most at about $1200 including five amplifiers, two wireless buttkickers, three buttkicker LFEs, 4 Aura bass-shakers and 4 K-Woon bass shakers. All of these were bought used or from eBay in the case of the K-Woons.
The AVR was $1200, used, but it was a top-of-the-line model in 2101.
The cabinet was $140 before modifications, haggled down from $200 at a liquidation centre.
Then the wiring, which admittedly was overdone was maybe $300 in materials, with probably 400 feet of speaker wire left over.
The most expensive thing was the labour over all. I just got used to handing over half my paycheck to the contractor for several months. There was no way I could afford to pay for this in one shot, so it worked out well.

But really, a ~$1k projector, a $300 screen and a $300 Home Theatre in a Box (HTIB) would get a lot of people some big-screen satisfaction. www.monoprice.com is your friend!

I've used monoprice before and gotten all of my HDMI cables for a great deal. Some day I would like to go the projector and 'big screen' route, but until then I am content with what I have. I am surely not downing what I have, I pretty much have everything I need and have a great system. Besides I live alone so it would be tough to sink money in a huge system when it would just be me looking at it lol. You're lucky to have a contractor that only charges $20 an hour....very difficult to find a really good one who will do a decent job at a fair rate. Obviously if you shop and bargain carefully, oftentimes you can build things like this for not a huge cash outlay.

Btw, I also have a newly built unRAID server...just a baby at 3TB right now but will be expanded in time.

I'm still trying to learn MC and though I am making progress, I still have a ways to go. But as with most things, its a work in progress.

[fitbrit]

A BIG thumbs up for unraid from me. And, despite being a Beta team member, I'm still learning MC. The scope of the program is so huge that I learn something new each week, and there are still many things that I have been putting off getting to grips with. My systems will truly be one amazing integrated setup when I learn more about MC. To this day, I'm not sure why I'm on the beta team, but I sure am glad that I am!

[fitbrit]

March 2014 Update
I've now gone 3D with an Epson 5020UB, and the image is mind-blowingly good for the price. I have also added two racing cockpits for head-to-head racing simulator fun.
The projector was a low-hours demo model from a trusted dealer. I got it for $1900 CDN.
I also now have an 11.1 system, using the Onkyo NR5010 AVR (slightly used ~$2000 USD), with and additional stereo amp running the front wide speakers. The two Pinnacle subs have been replaced with a single BIC America F12 ($200)





7 seconds of video of racing in action. This was with the lights on, and using my older Epson 8350 projector.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FA0HfFi1t7k