Over the last few years I've slowly grabbed a hold of all the things for me to create my own home theatre.
I started buying TV's, speakers and so forth because the girlfriend and I always enjoy watching movies and shows together, but it has eventually evolved into a great place for friends and I to watch starcraft 2 tournaments and just a good social room.
Almost all of the sound is connected to the receiver via optic, with the exception of the xbox, which is just standard RCA Red/White cables. The same goes for Video, all HDMI except the Digital TV box and Xbox. I'll add pictures of each of the devices and the room as well as the decor and furnishings.
2 Questions for Team Liquid:
Do you like my theatre and what do you guys think I should add? (No upgrades of anything Ialready have please.)
I'm looking for something for me to use as a media center, to play my movies I've downloaded and to watch streams / starcraft 2 tournaments. I don't want to add a whole desktop because I think it will take away from how well everything looks. I'm also not a mac fan so, what suggestions do you guys have for me?
I'm also happy to answer any questions you might have with the product, or even with your own theatre.
EDIT 3: Here are those pictures I promised. I'm still in the process of moving things around in the room and waiting on some cables I ordered. The biggest problem I have is room size, the room that my theatre is in is much smaller than I'd like, and do to the properties of my house, I have to take short cuts to get things to work.
The video is projected in 1080p at 60hertz. It fills a 92inch white matte electronic screen. The surround sound is not well positioned, but due to room size I can't get it much better.
EDIT 4:
So I finally have (almost) everything figured out. I did decide to actually convert one of my older PC's into a HTPC using XMBC. The guide posted in one of the comments below was amazing. XMBC, OPENELEEC, and more guide! Finally, my Home theatre is turning into something even I feel good about showing off. + Show Spoiler +
This is my mahogany couch, the camera actually makes it look a lot lighter.
Projector at the top, Rear Left and Right surround speakers on the sides, the subwoofer is actually behind the couch. (There is about 2, maybe 3 feet of room behind it) You can see the two windows located in the rear of the room and the left side (if your facing the screen).
Light is was a problem but I bought blackout blinds and curtains and its virtually pitch black during a sunny day. Not the most appealing looking, but I'm shooting for quality of cosmetics, or sorta at least.
The Carpeting is a tannish/dirty white, I purchased the large rug you see in the photo to fill most of the room, this drastically made a difference in atmosphere.
(Facing Projector screen) Rear right speaker and generic picture
(Facing Projector screen) Rear left speaker and another generic picture
Rug I purchased from lowes. Makes a huge difference
Projection screen (92") Front and Right surround speakers and my harmony remote (projection screen is controlled by my remote)
For those who were curious about what my devices were on. A mess right now, but this was leftover from my 50" Samsung LED TV that I was using beforehand. I'll most likely hang on to it for a while before moving things around.
Taking pictures of it doesn't do much justice. By no means do I have a top of the line anything, but its still one hell of a picture. Coming from my 50" 1080p LED Samsung TV it seems right on par with the exception of the deepness of blacks. (Netflix through PS3) A large movie board. Made out of wood and framed. Trying to stay classy with the classics.
Another one of my many problems. My house has radiant heat... or at least I think thats what its called. Basically the entire ceiling is the heater, and we cannot have anything mounted to, or installed in the cieling, so everything has to be mounted on the walls.
Every seating part of the sectional reclines, and pushes back to a near laid down position. Very comfortable
EDIT: Added info for sound/video connections EDIT2: Added Remote! EDIT3: Pictures added
On December 27 2011 20:26 Bourneq wrote: Pictures or it didn't happen!
Their coming I promise! I was planning on waiting until I finished moving everything around and installing the new screen but I'll get some up here tomorrow. I need to sleep first.
Great equipment list, i'm sure you already know about this, but if you don't, the dedicated home theatre construction thread on avsforum.com is by far the best resource for anything related to home theatre. some of the guys there have a ridiculous budget, but there is alot of "reasonable" people too.
i'm also in the process of constucting something like this in my basement, and have been collecting equipment for some time.
i guess to answer your questions, i would want nothing other then a computer to supply video to my theatre, while the ps3/boxee/appletv etc all work great, nothing beats the flexibility of an actual computer, in terms of what formats it will play etc.
most of the dedicated theatres have a "rack" for their equipment, so adding a computer to the rack wouldnt be a big burden.
what are using to store all your equipment now? how are you laying it out?
Why would adding a desktop look ugly? Surely you could put it and the X360+PS3 together in a media center cabinet thing. Can't wait to see pics. Also, if you don't mind me asking, around how much did it cost you overall?
I'm a bit of an audio nut so my biggest piece of advice would be to make sure you have your acoustic treatment down. It makes an enormous difference when you have it done right. I personally use products from GIK Acoustics. A lot of people like Auralex, but I'm just not a fan of foam...
The Scarface one would have been good if it wasn't a giant empty billboard 90% of the time. It just blocks what otherwise looks like a fantastic view.
The one that looks the best is the Titanic one, though, as it seems the most comfortable. Really hate the unnecessary roof and wall detail but those chairs... mmm.
Wish I had that money, considering the universal remote alone is 260 GBP. Do you really need the RF?
oh and, consider purchasing a boxee box, I am looking to get one myself since everything I have heard of it is absolutely awesome. ( I have a lot of contact with people owning these kind of things through work ) And the harmony remote can control it too.
I think it might be worth looking into, would probably go very well together with your current setup and it looks slick :D
On December 27 2011 20:11 Distortionz wrote: I'm looking for something for me to use as a media center, to play my movies I've downloaded and to watch streams / starcraft 2 tournaments. I don't want to add a whole desktop because I think it will take away from how well everything looks. I'm also not a mac fan so, what suggestions do you guys have for me?
My entire system cost me like $300 about two years ago. The flexibility you get with a custom built HTPC outweighs anything you'll find in a store. Plus, your Harmony remote can control the PC and if setup properly you won't even need a keyboard and mouse at all.
One question. How is the lighting in your room. My biggest annoyance was getting my room to be completly dark(I have panorama windows >_>) during sunlight hours
Guess ill join in on this. My hometheater is still a work in progress as i make mine based on my student job salary. Anyhow so far i have this:
Projector: JVC DLA-HD350(It is not being produced anymore as they got a new version which offers little in terms of viewing experience, so they are generally fairly cheap but rather hard to track down as new).
I got a popcorn hour for displaying movies. My plans for the future is to get 5.1 sound system and a new amplfieir for sourround sound. and get some real seats for my movie room Anyhow my advice in going for home theater. You can often find some of the stuff fairly cheap, speakers for instance try checking when the hifi clubs do sales of their demo models. They are in really good shape and you can often get them down to around 1/3 of their original price for something that is basicly used very little. My amplfier i bought used though a hifi webforum that was 2 years old for 1/5'th of the price for something that was basicly used very little as well, you can generally find info on your sellers on some of the better forums to see if they are trustworthy
You might also want a spectrophotometer for tweaking your screen or projector.
For the computer or HTPC, you might want to use madvr ( highest quality video render available / better than commercial / don't use VMR9 or EVR-CP if possible ) Customizable Media Players ( zoomplayer/mpc-hc support have madvr support ( grayed out until you install the other one, too ) Lav filters ( fastest video + accurate /audio + accurate decoder / faster than any commercial software ) http://i.imgur.com/ERJvL.png ( for bit streaming or if you don't want windows to touch/mess with anything )
If you do happen to want to use XBMC ( they also added madvr/lav support for their ds player recently )
Very nice, hopefully I'll have a projector some time soon for my setup. I also have some old ass receiver that really needs upgrading(it has a laser disc setting) but it gets the job done. What kind of speakers do you have? I know you say no upgrades but I have a set of really good speakers and it's by far the best part of my setup.
For media, why not just make a HTPC? You said you didn't want to add a whole desktop but the cases you can get for HTPCs are very small and they look very nice still. It just looks like another receiver.
How do you do it for like a thousand bucks? Not all of us have 700000. Probably none of us lol. I have a 400 sq ft studio apt so I could probably sacrifice screen size and sub woofer (due to neighbors).
If you really want to take your home theater to the next level, you need motion seating : http://www.d-box.com/en/home-theatre/ . I experienced one of these in a show room from sightandsoundbydesign.com, it was the most amazing experience, the movie was synced up physically to match the amazing sight and sound experience.
On December 28 2011 06:33 kaiz0ku wrote: Why did you choose a projector over a large TV ? Only because of the size or.. ?
TV's go insanely expensive as size does. A 92" LED TV would no doubt have deeper blacks than my projector, but at an extremely higher price. Overall the picture quality on my project is still great and I can still watch all my goodies in full 1080p
On December 28 2011 01:10 RedPill wrote: Why would adding a desktop look ugly? Surely you could put it and the X360+PS3 together in a media center cabinet thing. Can't wait to see pics. Also, if you don't mind me asking, around how much did it cost you overall?
I would total at around 4-6k at the price I paid for everything brand new. The exact same setup now would probably be a good penny cheaper.
I have a Mac Mini for watching streams, youtube, everyday TL browsing, SC2 tournaments, and as a SNES/GBA emulator. It's slim and the fact that you can use it both for movies and as a regular computer is awesome.
On the home theater i'd go for better speakers. Those small satelites don't look like they can really fill the room. Half the experience when watching movies is the sound imo.
I made this screen (stole the idea from some DIY site). It's it was still somewhat daytime outside. Got the RX-V867, Boston Acoustics 5.1 (add 2 back speakers for 7.1). But in the end I bit the bullet and just made a HTPC. All you need is a i-3 CPU/mobo and get budget RAM/case/ and PSU(300w).
There was just no way else to watch MLG and GSL but with a HTPC on my projector.
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