[The Home Theater Thread] I'll show you mine if you show me yours

midgetspy

This thread was inspired by the "show us your workstation thread", but I've got a selfish reason for posting it up as well. I just moved into a house (from an apartment) so I'm researching and building my own home theater at the moment. The real reason I made this is that I'm hoping that I'll see some great ideas in here that I can steal for my own :0)

This thread is NOT for your computer/desktop/workstation/office area... I'm talking about TVs and surround sound and stuff. If it doesn't have seating for more than one it probably doesn't count, hehe. Unfortunately I can't start it off with my own example, but hopefully somebody will do me proud and kick it off right. Obviously pictures are king but a description of what components you're using would be interesting as well.

I currently just have a normal TV/speakers setup but I'm thinking about getting a projector instead... does anybody here have any experience with the finer points of projector usage? Specifically I'm wondering how loud they are - will it be annoying if it's 3' from my head?

RandomEngy

I've got a Panasonic PT-AE2000U 1080p projector with a 130" screen. The projector itself is whisper quiet.



It looks really nice:



I made the screen by custom ordering a large piece of blackout cloth from this random dude, then stretching it over a wooden frame, stapling it in place and spray painting the cloth. However the main problem with the setup is that the room is white, so you get a lot of light reflecting back onto the screen and making the black areas not as dark. The house is being rented so I don't want to go and paint the room black.

As for sound, it's a simple Onkyo 5.1 setup, but it sounds quite nice. Have all the consoles back there hooked up to the projector, plus an HTPC hooked up to a media store elsewhere in the house.

ImDrawingABlank

This is my dad's setup, but aside from the speakers and TV itself, I picked out everything for it. The media is for the htpc is stored on a hard drive run on my own computer. The speakers and TV im not completely satisfied with, but it is not my setup, they are bose speakers that were admitedly a great price for the value, and I could not convince them to buy something else.

Rigor Mortis

ImDrawingABlank wrote: »

.... they are bose speakers that were admitedly a great price for the value, and I could not convince them to buy something else.

I feel your pain, I really do.


(But on the other hand, they clearly aren't the bose minicubes. That's an inestimable relief.)

Fraz

Rigor Mortis wrote: »

ImDrawingABlank wrote: »

.... they are bose speakers that were admitedly a great price for the value, and I could not convince them to buy something else.

I feel your pain, I really do.


(But on the other hand, they clearly aren't the bose minicubes. That's an inestimable relief.)

My step dad was the same way with Bose, but he didn't get such a great deal

At least he's happy. (or has convinced himself to be happy)

KalTorak

That cat is sweet.

PeregrineFalcon

Note to self: Take photo, post in thread, defend self from mockery. :P

midgetspy

Well RandomEngy I'd been leaning towards a projector for a while and your post pushed me over the edge to bite the bullet and pick one up :0) The 1080p projectors were a little expensive for my budget so I ended up ordering your projector's little brother, the PT-AX200U. My walls are already painted a brownish color so hopefully I won't have a problem with the light reflection (or not as much, at least). I'm really lazy so I just bought a screen instead of making one, lol.

I'll post pics when it arrives.

Has anybody tried those video calibration discs that you can get? Are there any free images or video clips that work well to calibrate your brightness/contrast and colors?

RandomEngy

Cool beans!

I just used the default color settings. Looks fine IMO.

midgetspy

OK here's my setup:

- Dedicated room with darkened walls, no windows, and automated lighting. Seating for 6 comfortably, 8 if you squish, 9+ if people sit on the floor ;-P
- 720p projector projecting onto a 106" screen
- 5.1 Polk surround system
- Media Center PC & PS3

Here are some pics. The ones of the screen didn't really come out right but I couldn't figure out how to shorten the shutter time on the camera. So they're all overexposed... ah well. It's more to show off XBMC than the picture anyway.

XBMC Home Screen (background image changes every few seconds)



XBMC Movies:



XBMC TV Shows:



Front of room:



Seating:




The lights automatically fade up/down when I turn the projector on/off but I can't really post a pic of that, hehe.

Excuse the mess, I just set it all up on Wednesday so I haven't gotten around to cleaning it up yet, been too busy watching movies ;-P Also I haven't done any cable management because I'm planning to move that stack of components into the next room, I'm just waiting on some longer cables (yay monoprice).

Specific components:

Onkyo TX-SR605 receiver powering Polk RM10 surround speaker set and PSW110 subwoofer
Draper Cineperm M1300 106" screen, wall-mounted
Panasonic PT-AX200U 720p projector, connected to receiver with HDMI
HTPC running XBMC @ 1080p over HDMI & spdif to receiver
Fileserver with 2 RAID5 arrays totaling 4.5TB, containing 500+ HD and SD movies and over 1000 TV show episodes, connected with gigabit ethernet
PS3 @ 1080p over HDMI to receiver
PS2 @ 480p/i over component to receiver
Logitech Harmony 550 advanced universal remote (controls receiver, TV, projector, and lights)
Lutron MIR-600 IR light dimmer for automated light fading & remote control
X-10 PM5900/RX569 IR extender (so I can control lights, projector, etc. by aiming the remote at the front of the room)

Sharp101

Ok, so I'm shopping for a Wall bracket for my TV (just moved into a smaller condo, need to save space). Any suggestions of products or sites?

Also, for various reasons, I would much prefer a Arm mount instead of a flat mount, but I'm having trouble finding something that will hold my 37" Sony LCD.

I'm in Canada, so Canada friendly online stores would be preferred.

midgetspy

Sharp101 wrote: »

Ok, so I'm shopping for a Wall bracket for my TV (just moved into a smaller condo, need to save space). Any suggestions of products or sites?

Also, for various reasons, I would much prefer a Arm mount instead of a flat mount, but I'm having trouble finding something that will hold my 37" Sony LCD.

I'm in Canada, so Canada friendly online stores would be preferred.

I've found Crutchfield to be a decent place for in-Canada home theater purchases: http://www.crutchfieldcanada.com/TV_Wall_Mounts_s/239.htm

Kris

Ok. So midgetspy, here's the deal: those pictures have ruined my pants. Like, jesus I'm jealous. Got a few questions for you while I'm at it:

1. How well can you see the picture on the screen when the lights are not completely off? I usually spend my Sundays watching football while working on homework, so I would need at least some light in the TV room with the TV on. Does the picture look really washed out and gross?

2. What's the deal with that XBMC? Have you just ripped all your TV shows and DVDs to your computer, and then your 360 accesses them from there? That looks like a seriously elegant solution to swapping out discs all the time.

3. Will you buy me new pants? :P

midgetspy

Kris wrote: »

Ok. So midgetspy, here's the deal: those pictures have ruined my pants. Like, jesus I'm jealous. Got a few questions for you while I'm at it:

1. How well can you see the picture on the screen when the lights are not completely off? I usually spend my Sundays watching football while working on homework, so I would need at least some light in the TV room with the TV on. Does the picture look really washed out and gross?

2. What's the deal with that XBMC? Have you just ripped all your TV shows and DVDs to your computer, and then your 360 accesses them from there? That looks like a seriously elegant solution to swapping out discs all the time.

3. Will you buy me new pants? :P

1) With my lights turned on but dimmed the screen still looks fine. With the lights all the way up it's obviously very washed out - it's only practical to have a projector in a room where you can (mostly) control the lights. How much light you can have depends on how bright your projector is, but with a decent projector you can turn the lights on a bit or have lights at the back of the room no problem.

2) I don't have a 360. XBMC has nothing to do with xbox anymore, it runs on everything (xbox, PC, Mac, linux). For me, XBMC is running on a (Windows) computer that's hooked to my projector and streams all my movies and shows which are ripped onto another computer with tons of HD space. They could be stored on the same computer as XBMC though.

3) Glad you like it, but you're on your own with that :0)

maximumzero

You know I'd post mine but it's pretty much embaressing compared to what everyone else is gonna post. No HDTV, standard Sony 5.1 setup, basic DVD player, and uh, a SNES and NES.