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HTIP - Home Theater In Progress

Towen7

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Moderator
I've desired a home theater of my own since I first stumbled on to the Sound and Vision forum looking for advice on how to make my HTIB suck less. Since then I've read about and visited some truly impressive home theaters. I don't think I can ever compete with those spaces (I'm looking at you Batman, Flint, lawdog, Soundound, et al) but I'm finally close to having a space that I think will satisfy my HT desires for a while.

We recently moved into a 26 year old home in NW Houston. We fell in love with the house as soon as we saw it but the fact that it had a game room that I could "convert" to a home theater was icing on the cake. I've posted before about the space and implied that I was helping someone else. Thats because when I made those posts I hadn't yet closed on the purchased the house, and I didn't want to jinx it.

The space didn't really need much more than wiring to make it work. The cabinets will make a perfect home for all of the electronics and media. I've got a good friend who's an accomplished finish carpenter and he's going to help cleanup that center section by adding a partition and three glass doors.

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Since I'm waiting on that I went ahead an installed all the cabling I think I'll need; Six RG6 cables (one for the cable modem, four for the front speakers and sub, and one for the OTA antenna in the attic). While I was at it I ran three cat5e network cables (one to the outside for telephone service, and two more for ethernet to other rooms upstairs). I was dreading this because I know what a PITA it is to run concealed wiring in an existing house. It turned out to be a piece of cake because by some miracle there happened to be a vertical chase between the wall in exactly the right spot. At the font of the room is a small attic so all I needed to do was fish the cables to it. You can see the opening in the shots below. All said and done it took me maybe an hour to run all the cables. What a stroke of luck.

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Re: HTIP - Home Theater In Progess

subscribed................... :handgestures-thumbup:
 
Looks like a great space. Don't forget to pull more wires than you think you'll need. I made the mistake of not doing that and now adding cables is a real challenge.
 
Re: HTIP - Home Theater In Progess

With the help of a good friend in the business I bought a JVC DLA-HD250 projector which I just set it on top of the cabinets at the rear of the room and threw the image on the bare wall to determine the screen size and seat locations. I settled a 110" screen and seating distance of just over 10'.

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I was so impressed with the picture quality of the uncalibrated 250 on just the bare wall that I couldn't see a need to spend big bucks on a screen. I considered a DIY job but I decided that I wanted a more "finished" looking product than I thought I was capable of without a lot of practice. Carada is usually considered to the best bang for the buck but even that would have run about $700. I was just about to pull the trigger when I found Elite Screens on Amazon.com for $300. I asked around and none of my HT savvy friends could tell me why NOT to buy one so I decided to risk it and I'm glad I did. It's a very well put together screen and now that I have one I definitely recommend them.

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I haven't mounted the screen yet for a couple of reasons. The biggest of which is that I'm still deciding how high I'm going to mount it. There will be seating for eight on four reclining HT chairs and four barstools that will sit at two 42" high pub tables. I want the screen to be just high enough for those sitting at the bar stools to see over the heads of those in the chairs. I won't know exactly where that is until I get the tables built.

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Re: HTIP - Home Theater In Progess

Woo-hoo! Party at T7's when it's all done!

:eek:bscene-drinkingcheers:
 
Re: HTIP - Home Theater In Progess

Yeah Baby!!! I'm so happy for you I can't describe it! I'll be following this along with the others...let the GTG rotation begin :handgestures-thumbup: :eek:bscene-drinkingcheers:
 
Re: HTIP - Home Theater In Progess

I've just deleted you from my contacts and I'm considering yanking your mod status. :eek:bscene-birdiedoublered:
 
Re: HTIP - Home Theater In Progess

You know what would look really good between the two windows...one of these!

Is it the camera angle or is that 2.35:1 screen?
 
Re: HTIP - Home Theater In Progess

It's a 16:9 screen. The wide angle lens stretches the z-axis.

It's funny that you mention wall decor because I honestly haven't given it much thought. Beside the spaces between the widows the entire left wall of the room is a blank canvas.
 
Re: HTIP - Home Theater In Progess

PaulyT said:
Woo-hoo! Party at T7's when it's all done!:

Batman said:
Yeah Baby!!! I'm so happy for you I can't describe it! I'll be following this along with the others...let the GTG rotation begin :handgestures-thumbup: :eek:bscene-drinkingcheers:

Nothing would make me happier than to host a gathering. I'd even wear a Jets jersey if Zing would come out.
 
Re: HTIP - Home Theater In Progess

I hadn't noticed the tipped-in walls near the ceiling in your prior pics; that really makes the room look great.
 
Re: HTIP - Home Theater In Progess

Towen7 said:
I'd even wear a Jets jersey if Zing would come out.
Consider it done! I'll even buy you the jersey as a house/home theater warming present. How about #10?
 
Re: HTIP - Home Theater In Progess

Hey Towen,

I know it's an apples to oranges comparison, but how much better is that JVC to the Sanyo I got from you? I love the Sanyo, but was wondering how the two compare and how far aprt they really are from one another. What's the bulb life of the JVC?

is this also going to be a "build" thread? IN other words, do we get the see the progress from start to finish? :handgestures-fingerscrossed:
 
Re: HTIP - Home Theater In Progess

It's been a good while since I sold you the Sanyo so it'd be a little unfair to say that one is better than the other without a recent comparison... Buy hey... I don't get paid to be fair. The JVC is IMHO a significant step up. Once I assembled my screen I wanted to see how well the pj could show detail in dark scenes with lots of detail in the shadows. I intensionally fed it what I would have expected to be a "poor" source image, The Matrix - Revolutions streamed over Netflix from my Roku box.

Maybe it was because my expectations were low, considering the source, but I was very impressed with how much detail could be made out in the shadows. In the scene where Neo wakes up in the subway station I could make out every detail in his black-on-black-on-black outfit. I couldn't be happier with this projector.

As far as the progress of the room goes. There really isn't a ton to do and it doesn't have the detail of a "from scratch" build like yromj's, batman's or lawdogs... but I'll post whenever progress is made.
 
Re: HTIP - Home Theater In Progess

Towen7 said:
I've posted before about the space and implied that I was helping someone else. Thats because when I made those posts I hadn't yet closed on the purchased the house, and I didn't want to jinx it.
Still, I don't know if I can look at your posts the same way anymore. :angry-tappingfoot:
 
So, I take Hwy. 59 South out of Texarkana...

That looks awesome!! It looks extremely warm and inviting. I can't wait to see pics when it's done and take my own pics when you host the party.

John- Who's bringing Zing a Hog shirt
 
You have windows. That's nice.......Wished I had windows.


That's going to look awesome when you get everything the way you want.
 
Re: HTIP - Home Theater In Progess

DIYer said:
Is the sweet spot in the middle?

I knew someone was going to realize that there is no ideal sweet spot because there are an even number of seats in the front row. I haven't even connected the speakers, much-less calibrated anything but my plan at the moment is to calibrate the speaker levels for the center/left position. I considered shifting the seating one way or the other so that one seat would be exactly in the middle of the speakers/screen but I don't think I will. I'll also probably end-up moving the seating back so that the angle to said seat isn't as acute.
 
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