Our New Home Theater

[Jimboy]

You should take this show on the road. I still have studs on the walls, wanna finish mine?
Looks nice!

Curious...what is the distance between the screen and the first set of eyeballs in the front seats?

[Steve Mann]

You should take this show on the road. I still have studs on the walls, wanna finish mine?
Looks nice!

Curious...what is the distance between the screen and the first set of eyeballs in the front seats?

Ha! Yeah, some sort of 'While You Were Out' remodeling show? I could do that. :-)

Truthfully, I had a contractor doing most of the work. I took about 4 days off of work and worked weekends to do my part (installing studs, insulating, running speaker wires, clean up, humping drywall down the stairs, painting etc.) so that I could reduce overall costs a bit. It worked out well. I saved quite a bit of money and now feel like a played a major roll in the construction.

The screen to eyeballs, in a direct line, is almost exactly 13'. It works perfectly. It's not too close and not too far. The Panny is a great projector and the picture is great at that distance.

[StarvingForHDTV]

That is really nice.  The lighting and design really give it a movie theater feel.

Will it always be for two people, or do you plan to add more capacity?

[Steve Mann]

That is really nice.  The lighting and design really give it a movie theater feel. Will it always be for two people, or do you plan to add more capacity?

Thanks! That's exactly what we were going after. The 'authentic' feel of theater. The carpet will obviously add to that effect. I also have some Dolby and DTS theater style plaques that I'll be putting up at the 'entrance' that should add to that theme.

It's mostly my wife and I that will be using the theater/screening room. However, there's a row of 4 theater seats (picture a few posts back) that will be going in on the rear riser once the carpet is installed. So, for most occasions, we'll be able to accommodate 6 people. There's also room to temporarily add a couple other chairs for special occasions. Say a Packers Super Bowl.  

[gparris]

Though I cannot find a schematic drawing of your theater layout from your log, my guess is that the "Private" room in the pictures is actually the door to the room behind the equipment rack and it allows quick swapouts of cabling and additional equipment-allowing too, more air circulation? IS this true?
-That square metal looking thing on one of the equipment pieces - is that your remote control?
-DO you  plan on getting a HD DVD/Blu-ray player for even better picture on that super-large screen of yours?
Samsung's BD-UP5000 is about $799 at Crutchfield...just a suggestion.
Otherwise, it looks very professional.

[Steve Mann]

Yes! Damn... I've been meaning to take a pic of the component room. That's exactly what it is, plus it allows access to the water softner and sump pump which are located behind the screen wall. You can see 3D rendering of the design here.

Good eye on the remote. Yes, it's a Harmony 1000 remote. I kinda like it, but I'm not completely used to it yet.

As for the HD DVD/Blu-Ray.. yes. I do intend to get one or the other. I'm still sitting on the fence trying to make the right decision on the way to go. If I would have had enough left over after construction, I would have considered the dual format player out there. But, that didn't happen. Thanks for the suggestion... I'll check it out. I'm definitely itching to upgrade to HD DVDs.

Thanks for the 'professional' comment. We tried to do a good job on it and make it have that 'theater' feel. The carpet gets installed on Tuesday. After that and the wall art we have to put up, I think we'll be pretty satisfied with it all.

[Steve Mann]

Here's a couple of pics of the room behind the component rack.







I bought a used oak equipment cabinet off of Craig's list here locally for $50, took the back off, and mounted it in backwards in the wall to create the component shelf/rack.

The wiring could have been a bit neater. I may try to clean it up some yet..

[gparris]

Thank you for your reply and your layout looks great with the 3-D layout you linked.
As for the combo high-def DVD player, it will do (when it comes out before the end of the year) BOTH FORMATS: HD DVD and Blu-ray.
It also has the Reon HQV chip in it for upscaling standard DVDs to look their best  on your very large screen.
Additionally, it has 7.1 audio inputs (if you don't have any HDMI inputs on your AV Receiver) too, so your home theater can offer the very best in Dolby TRUEHD and DTS-HD, a step up from standard DVD audio, a big step, in my experience.

PM me if you have questions before you buy!:wave:

[Steve Mann]

PM me if you have questions before you buy!:wave:

So... that one is a dual format. Cool... I hadn't looked at it yet. I'll be sure to drop you a line before I make any final decisions. Thanks for the offer.

[Paul S.]

Is that VWC you have on the walls?

[Steve Mann]

Is that VWC you have on the walls?

It's early yet and for some reason that abbreviation is not ringing a bell. VWC?

[Todd Wiedemann]

It's early yet and for some reason that abbreviation is not ringing a bell. VWC?

VWC = Vinyl Wall Covering ??

Maybe ?

[Gamera]

Very cool project, nice job.  I love the two pull-out dog beds built into the design.  All you'll need is one of these near the entrance:  



I love the 3D renderings too.  I always do the same thing when tackling a similar project, saves an enormous amount of time later and I find it extremely useful in getting the wife on the same page with my ideas.  What software are you using for those?

[Steve Mann]

VWC = Vinyl Wall Covering ??

Maybe ?

Ahhh... Possibly. Or vinyl waines coating?

Neither were used. It's all paint. Regular red/wine latex and the the top was a 'faux finish' using the Behr Bellagio Faux product. It turned out very nice. It's tough to get a good picture of, but in person it looks pretty dang good, if I may so. We're pretty happy with the effect. It brightens up the room just a bit, but doesn't have too much reflectivity.

[Steve Mann]

Very cool project, nice job.  I love the two pull-out dog beds built into the design.  All you'll need is one of these near the entrance:  

Thanks! I'm sorry to say we nixed the dog beds towards the end of the project. It was just going to be a time consuming project and decided to do without them. We still have our dog beds/pads that were going to go in the 'drawers', but now they'll just lay in front of the stage. It's easy enough to pick them up and put in the back room when needed.

And yes! We'd love to have one of those popcorn carts. However, that's a little too big for the space we have. We do have a little redention that is actually a hot air popper that we'll display on a shelf or something.  

I love the 3D renderings too.  I always do the same thing when tackling a similar project, saves an enormous amount of time later and I find it extremely useful in getting the wife on the same page with my ideas.  What software are you using for those?

I was so happy I found the software to do those when I started the project. It made EVERYTHING so much easier. From just laying it all out to providing the contractor with measured drawings. I used Google's Sketchup and loved it. It does a killer job and is unbelievably FREE.