Building a Home Teater

[sirkus]

On the 1st of November my roommate and I will be moving into a house and getting out of a god awful apartment. My roommate has always been into having a nice theater for the apartment. We currently run a 72" projected screen through a Mitsubishi HD1000U projector. HD-DVD/Blu-Ray player with around 60-70 movies. We have 5.1 surround with mainly Polk Audio speakers. However, The 2 fronts are Bose 401's. He just bought a Onkyo TX-SR804E AV receiver to push a beautiful sound from all of these speakers. Right now we have this whole setup in a 16x12 room which limits us to the small screen and being in an apartment makes it hard to turn up the sound. We will be moving into a house that my dad has owned for several years and I am planning on buying it. The basement has a 18x26 room in it that will be made into a theater room (I will post pics of the progress.). Right now though, the room isn't completely finished. Some of the walls need some sheet rock put up and we still have to run the HDMI/Component cables and speaker wires. I am trying my best to make this room a bad ass theater with around an 120" picture. There are no windows in this room either so it will be a perfect blackout with the lights off.

I was just wondering though if anyone has built a home theater and actually went through the trouble of buying lights, switches, wall plates, etc.. just trying to make it a beautiful setup. If so please post some pictures because I'm looking for some ideas. I am looking to get this room finished in around a month of so... maybe two. I need to find an electrician or someone who knows how to move switches and run power for lights in the front of the room. I'll also need someone who can teach how to do drywall. Or even knows someone who can come in and finish some drywall and get it ready to paint for cheap. I'll post a picture of the room as it sits now (crappy cell pics.. minus all of my dads junk laying in the floor.). The room will be painted a dark color and the projector will be mounted on the ceiling. Plan on getting it were we can seat around 6 and still have a nice experience.

I've also included a pic of our current limited space that we are using..

I'm interested in seeing what some people on here have in their homes.

[Jimmy B]

Projectors are not the best for theaters, get a 60" Plasma

My brother and i install them,... good luck, take your time, and make sure the speakers are positioned right

[ueyedgr8tness]

Reps man i like it...

[ATK_Designs]

looking goood there mang.

Mine at home are more of the eastern culture.

[Jecht]

I'll go take a pic of my setup.

[sirkus]

Projectors are not the best for theaters, get a 60" Plasma

My brother and i install them,... good luck, take your time, and make sure the speakers are positioned right

Those are really nice but they're a bit pricey. I like projectors for the fact that you can run 120" with $1000. It's pretty crisp and clear and runs at 720p. Works for now.. until I get a lot of money.
Speaker wise, my room mate pretty much calibrates the audio every day. He can always tell imperfections in the surrounds or how much the center is getting compared to the LF and the RF.. Do you use any sort of high end calibrator? We are using one that come from Radioshack that works.. but I'm sure there's better.

Also, do you recommend any kind of HDMI cables? I found several 75ft. cables that I can use but I'm not sure if I should go with HDMI 1.3 or just the normal cable. I know that the PS3 is the only thing in our living room that supports 1.3.

Reps man i like it...

Thanks a lot.. Reps back to ya

looking goood there mang.

Mine at home are more of the eastern culture.

Have any pictures? I'm interested in seeing some of you guys layouts. Give me some inspiration.

I'll go take a pic of my setup.

What all is in your setup?

[Frög]

ill post pics of mine this weekend.. my dad and i built it, and its a true home theater.. back row seating is raised, 150 inch screen.. its not finished, but ill post the pics of how it looks now.. as you know; projectors are the best way to go.. DVD high def, with a screen, its perfect quality.. projectors have really improved and prices are very cheap..

[Frög]

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=3/

[Jimmy B]

Those are really nice but they're a bit pricey. I like projectors for the fact that you can run 120" with $1000. It's pretty crisp and clear and runs at 720p. Works for now.. until I get a lot of money.
Speaker wise, my room mate pretty much calibrates the audio every day. He can always tell imperfections in the surrounds or how much the center is getting compared to the LF and the RF.. Do you use any sort of high end calibrator? We are using one that come from Radioshack that works.. but I'm sure there's better.

Also, do you recommend any kind of HDMI cables? I found several 75ft. cables that I can use but I'm not sure if I should go with HDMI 1.3 or just the normal cable. I know that the PS3 is the only thing in our living room that supports 1.3.

to be honest, as long as its a good quality cable, you arent going to tell MUCH of a diffrence.. a diffrence yes, but not much.. just get a good, high quality cable, thats not gojng to break your bank and you should be fine..

my brother has a calibrator, i do not.. he and one of his buddy's do all that, his buddy is great at it

[fire7882]

Sheetrock is a PITA to do right. If you have never done it, hire someone or you will go crazy trying to get everything perfect.

On the other hand, the electrical stuff is fairly easy as long as you do your research.

Projectors are a lot better for dedicated theater rooms for many reasons. Plasma's and lcds are way to bright for a dark room and can cause eye strain plus the sizes are very limited.

If you are looking for a large screen, chech out this link.

http://atlanta.craigslist.org/ele/462847234.html

I bought 2 100" ULTRA 16:9 screens for $15 each and they were new in the box. He has so much stuff you need to make the drive up there and look around.

Good luck with the build.

[ATK_Designs]

I'll take some pics once we clean things up.

[sirkus]

Sheetrock is a PITA to do right. If you have never done it, hire someone or you will go crazy trying to get everything perfect.

On the other hand, the electrical stuff is fairly easy as long as you do your research.

Projectors are a lot better for dedicated theater rooms for many reasons. Plasma's and lcds are way to bright for a dark room and can cause eye strain plus the sizes are very limited.

If you are looking for a large screen, chech out this link.

http://atlanta.craigslist.org/ele/462847234.html

I bought 2 100" ULTRA 16:9 screens for $15 each and they were new in the box. He has so much stuff you need to make the drive up there and look around.

Good luck with the build.

I've heard from several different people that it's a real pain to do drywall. I only need to move some air duct and run the lights and move a switch here and there.. easy stuff. Thanks for that link too, I'll have to look in to getting a REALLY large screen. This guy has some really nice prices.. I was thinking about buying this stuff called Screen Goo too, it's just paint that you put on your wall how ever big of a screen that you need.

to be honest, as long as its a good quality cable, you arent going to tell MUCH of a diffrence.. a diffrence yes, but not much.. just get a good, high quality cable, thats not gojng to break your bank and you should be fine..

my brother has a calibrator, i do not.. he and one of his buddy's do all that, his buddy is great at it

Cool, I've heard that HDMI is HDMI no matter the cable. I was just seeing if you had one you would recommend. I ordered a 75'(22AWG) cable from Monoprice.com for $76. I'll be ordering a component cable too within the next week or so. I also bought 200' of 12AWG speaker wire to run through the walls. So I should be in nice shape when it comes to running the wires.

I'll be 100% moved in Wednesday so I'll be able to get my hands dirty every day..

[Jimmy B]

yea, thats not to bad of a price at all.. and you only got 200 feet of it? you might want some more.. when i do the theater in my basement, i will have no less than 500 feet.. and when i do my whole house with in -room speakers, ill prolly use about 4000 feet of it

[sirkus]

yea, thats not to bad of a price at all.. and you only got 200 feet of it? you might want some more.. when i do the theater in my basement, i will have no less than 500 feet.. and when i do my whole house with in -room speakers, ill prolly use about 4000 feet of it

I thought about getting more when I bought it. 200ft. seems like a lot until you run the same path 4 times over for the surrounds. I'm glad you pointed that out. I know I'll need more now. I'll just get another roll of 200-300ft when I get the component cables.

[thinkfast®]

I GOT A HOMEY THAT CAN KNOK THAT SHEETROK OUT FOR YA, LMK

[Jimmy B]

ricky, you do? i need my basment done in a few weeks..

i will ahve all the sheetrock up, it will jsut need mudding and sanding.. (im really impatient when it comes to sanding.. lol)

[thinkfast®]

yea man, he does the hanging and everything else I think, Im somewhat of a frail individual so I dont work too much w/ my hands

Ill find out and shoot ya a PM homey

[SL65AMG]

i can do sheetrock and painting.

pm me if u got questions

[sirkus]

i can do sheetrock and painting.

pm me if u got questions

PMed both of you guys. Any and all help will be great!

I was also wondering something. As for running the cables to the projector, are there any other cables that I should run other than HDMI and Component? I heard VGA would be nice but I can't seem to find a wallplate for VGA. Any other plugs that would make it a whole lot easier to upgrade to?

[ep9716]

Im Not Done Yet....It Cost Too Damn Much LOL..I Should Be Done In Sometime In Dec.
Check It Out..Guys Tell Me What Yall Think.

[ep9716]

Heres One More

[sirkus]

Hell yeah man, looks good. I like the trim. Gives it a real traditional look. How long have you been working on it?

[ep9716]

I Been Working On It..Like A Year Dude...I Think Its Gonna Be A Year This Nov.
It Used To Be A 2 Car Garage It Also Has A Storage Closet To The Right And A Bath Room To The Left.

[sirkus]

Damn man.. looks like it's going to be well worth the wait. I like that tile too. You're really making it look sweet. Whats your finished plan look like?

[ep9716]

Well Its Just Going To Be A Like Chilling Room Ima Pop A Nice Tv In There Im Thinking 42 In Or Bigger And Nice Sound. And A Desk For A Computer. Not Really A Theater But W/E Its Gonna Look Sweet...And Yes I Am MEXICAN LOL...

[jaystar]

Mine should be done in Jan 08 i cant wait. iAM waiting on black friday 2 pick up the tv

[sirkus]

Mine should be done in Jan 08 i cant wait. iAM waiting on black friday 2 pick up the tv

Hell yeah, we're going to go and pick up another HD DVD (HD-A2) player that day. Post up some progress pictures if you don't mind. I want to know what I should expect to be seeing.

[NewGen33]

This is something I plan on doing once we move into a new house.

[ep9716]

Being Mexican FTW!!!...

[Seymour222]

Kewl thread. I just got through doing some research on home theater setups. The install is set for the 5th. Im pretty amped. If I was "ballin", I would have liked to have done the whole floating floor and ceiling setup. Does anyone know if anything is 7.1 capable yet?


Oh yea, Ive also heard it is a good idea to pane every other set of studs, it is supposed to help with the acoustics.

[sirkus]

Kewl thread. I just got through doing some research on home theater setups. The install is set for the 5th. Im pretty amped. If I was "ballin", I would have liked to have done the whole floating floor and ceiling setup. Does anyone know if anything is 7.1 capable yet?


Oh yea, Ive also heard it is a good idea to pane every other set of studs, it is supposed to help with the acoustics.

Hell yeah man.. Post pics of it when you're almost finished.

I'm going to look into adding panes to the studs. If money allows it.

Well, we got moved in tonight. We just sat the projector on the table and shot it up on the wall to see what kind of picture we can get. It's pretty freakin huge. I think we got pretty much what we were shooting for. Now all we need is that room finished and the projector mounted to the ceiling. And a really big screen!

I've got 2 pics that we just took to show how big the screen is (I'm 5'10" btw). When it's day light I'll take some better pics of the progress. We come in and cleaned the room a good bit getting it ready for work to be done.

[Jimmy B]

Kewl thread. I just got through doing some research on home theater setups. The install is set for the 5th. Im pretty amped. If I was "ballin", I would have liked to have done the whole floating floor and ceiling setup. Does anyone know if anything is 7.1 capable yet?


Oh yea, Ive also heard it is a good idea to pane every other set of studs, it is supposed to help with the acoustics.

accually yes.... my brother and i (jb tech) will be installing a 5.1 AND a 7.1 in a home in about 2 weeks...

they are both TV's also,. no projectors

[ISAtlanta300]

Hell yeah man.. Post pics of it when you're almost finished.

I'm going to look into adding panes to the studs. If money allows it.

Well, we got moved in tonight. We just sat the projector on the table and shot it up on the wall to see what kind of picture we can get. It's pretty freakin huge. I think we got pretty much what we were shooting for. Now all we need is that room finished and the projector mounted to the ceiling. And a really big screen!

I've got 2 pics that we just took to show how big the screen is (I'm 5'10" btw). When it's day light I'll take some better pics of the progress. We come in and cleaned the room a good bit getting it ready for work to be done.

Looks badass, but get rid of that ceiling fan...

[4dmin]

when i build my next home theatre i won't go w/ a projector either, i think the colors/shading is far more vibrant on lcd/plasma or highend tv... my parents have this JVC in their living room and it is a freaking monster 1080p + all the options... split screen is sick on this tv as well (two 30"+ pictures).".

http://tv.jvc.com/product.jsp?modelI...Id=139&page=10

[4dmin]

Philips has some nice cheap home theater options for those on a budget and for those not wanting to run cables... they have 3 products that do 5.1 sound w/ 1 or 2 center channels + 1 sub. I have their slot loading system in my bedrrom which you can get new at walmart for 249$ and sound is freaking awesome!

http://www.consumer.philips.com/

[B18c1Turboed]

Im in the process of building my home theater also, well i actually started it already,i bought the movie reclinable seats and all,I had a 42 Samsung Lcd mounted up but i tought the Tv was to small for that room. I am looking at getting 58 or 60 LCD in the next few weeks.

I never liked the way projection screen looked, the quality isnt the same!!

[Jimmy B]

I never liked the way projection screen looked, the quality isnt the same!!

thats what im sayin!!!! lol

[fire7882]

Make sure to pick a darker color for the walls and paint the wall behind the screen black if possible.

thats what im sayin!!!! lol

The only advantage of a flat pannel over the projector is its versility and brightness IMO and the brightness is only good for rooms with ambiant light. If you are building a dedicated theater room with controlled lighting, the projector will look better and be 4 times bigger if the equipment is properly matched and set up. If you don't have the luxury of having a dedicated theater room, I would agree that the flat pannels would be a better choice. In almost all cases but movies, I would prefer a flat panel tv because I wouldn't want to be sitting in the dark watching sports wih a group of friends because that is more of a social event.

I guess it's just a matter of opinion.



HD80 1080p projector
http://www.projectorpeople.com/proje...p?itemid=22991

Screenshots taken from avsforum.com (looks better in person)

[sirkus]

Make sure to pick a darker color for the walls and paint the wall behind the screen black if possible.



The only advantage of a flat pannel over the projector is its versility and brightness IMO and the brightness is only good for rooms with ambiant light. If you are building a dedicated theater room with controlled lighting, the projector will look better and be 4 times bigger if the equipment is properly matched and set up. If you don't have the luxury of having a dedicated theater room, I would agree that the flat pannels would be a better choice. In almost all cases but movies, I would prefer a flat panel tv because I wouldn't want to be sitting in the dark watching sports wih a group of friends because that is more of a social event.

I guess it's just a matter of opinion.



HD80 1080p projector
http://www.projectorpeople.com/proje...p?itemid=22991

Screenshots taken from avsforum.com (looks better in person)

Exactly, It's all really in the projector and screen that you have. Everything looks washed out when you're running a cheap projector that doesn't put out enough light to even barely handle 480i. Our old projector (infocus something) was a 480p projector and you could really tell a huge difference in colors and light when we upgraded to the 720p Mitsubishi HD1000..

Main reason why ours looks washed out now is because it's on a painted wall. We're going to wait to buy the screen until after the painting is done.

My issue is, where can you find a 120" LCD or Plasma?

Looks badass, but get rid of that ceiling fan...

Yeah, that fan will be gone once the drywall work begins. Either have some dim can lights on both sides or 2 sets of track lights. Not too sure yet.

[ATK_Designs]

Again, bad ass setup dood. When I get another house, I'll definitely do my Theater room like that.

But for now, this is good enough for my Bed room, pretty ghetto as of now. But since it's only the BR, I don't feel like spending money on extra furniture stuffs. Saving money for new place.


Sharp Aquos LC-46D64U
Kenwood VRS-7100 7.1 Digital Receiver
Phillips 1080P DVD Player
Toshiba HD-A2 HD-DVD player
Belkin PF60 Power Conditioner
Onkyo 2 Channel Amplifier
Shure Wireless MICs
VocoPro Mixer/Equalizer
Sharp VHS Player - I'm still sporting that stuff though rarely used it for HK Series.
Original XBOX Modded
Polk CSi3 Center Speaker - Hidden
Klipsch 12" Sub
Sony Floor speakers for front stage
Polk R150 for the Sides and Surround back
Polk R50 for the Onkuo amp and Karaoke setup

All linked up to my HTPC on the other side of the room










My Family room setup is kinda similar with couple extra DJ equipments as well