My Credit Crunch Home Cinema/Gaming/Music Room Build

[kidgloves]

I normally take extended holidays every year for a bit of R & R but this year, with the financial crisis and the weakness of the pound, i've decided to stay home and convert my 2nd bedroom into a cinema come gaming come music room with the help of my bro Andy. The room im converting is nearly done but this is the progress so far. All pics were taken with an iphone so image quality is sketchy and the photos might appear huge. The room is 15ft x 9ft on the 1st floor of my 3 bed house and the existing insulation (both sound & heat) is not the best so the 1st job was to rip out the existing internal walls & replace with something more modern and with better insulation properties. On goes the plasterboard Everybody is showing an interest & helping out Because im using a projector, i decided very early on that i was going to project the image directly onto the wall instead of a pulldown screen. This would give me the freedom to decide what size of screen i could have later. We fixed the plasterboard horizontally so that the viewing area wouldn't show too many seams Next up was a false ceiling to help insulation, support for the projector and to hide a few cables. I wanted to be able to have the choice of either back or front lighting the room so we installed a new lighting pattern. All the AV equipment is being hidden in a cupboard which will be temp controlled and vent the hot air out into the loft keeping the equipment as cool as possible The projector bracket and some funky touch sensitive and remote controlled switches, Choosing a colour scheme was one of the hardest decisions because when you are using a projector light control and reflections have a big impact on the image quality. "Batcaving" the room is the ideal solution but i didn't want the room looking like a dungeon. I eventually chose a Dulux paint called Firecracker 2 which is a matt burgundy colour that darkens as the day wears on. After marking the screen out the surface is sprayed on. The paint used is called Black Widow mix which is 2 commercial paints mixed together that help make the colours "pop" and the image better. In goes the radiator and curtains. The AV cupboard Speakers, sofa and carpet The projector i've bought is a Sony Bravia Full HD 1080p which is a total beast. Imagine 2 PS3's stuck together. The finished screen size is 105" diagonal (9ft approx) and the pic is outstanding Hatton getting his arse handed to him last weekend by Pacman Both the sound and pic quality turned out to be better than expected and i couldn't be happier with the finished room. Some movie posters to finish it all off. If anyones interested better quality pics can be found here http://www.flickr.com/photos/38262462@N06/

[Exatreides]

Very nice! That projector is a beast, I can only imagine the cost of it. I always have a bad tendency not to blink when gaming on a projector for some reason.

[MikePizzoff]

Nice! I wish you lived in my neighborhood!

[axlish]

Impressive! I plan to do a similar transformation to the back half of my garage. I think I'll use your idea and document my proceedings as well

[kidgloves]

Very nice! That projector is a beast, I can only imagine the cost of it. I always have a bad tendency not to blink when gaming on a projector for some reason. It wasn't that expensive. Cost £1600 about $2500. Its gone up in price as people have discovered how good it is. Nice! I wish you lived in my neighborhood! Impressive! I plan to do a similar transformation to the back half of my garage. I think I'll use your idea and document my proceedings as well If you've got the time & space to do it, its great fun designing and building your own cinema. I was lucky enough to have my brother around while he was waiting to emigrate and a few friends in various trades mucked in as well. I designed it, my brother built it with limited help from me. In some ways its better than going to the cinema because everything is calibrated to your own taste.

[AcesandEights]

This is great and all, but you didn't need to hedge around for a reason to invite us all over to your new home theater. All you had to do was ask Seriously though, it looks like you did a great job, now enjoy the fruits of your labor! PS--Where is the topmost movie image, that looks as though it's a roman legionary, from?

[bassman]

Looks great, man. I just turned my basement into a similar type of room...

[kidgloves]

This is great and all, but you didn't need to hedge around for a reason to invite us all over to your new home theater.. All you had to do was ask Seriously though, it looks like you did a great job, now enjoy the fruits of your labor! PS--Where is the topmost movie image, that looks as though it's a roman legionary, from? Cheers. The romans from Life of Brian

[axlish]

Cheers. The romans from Life of Brian At first I thought it was a grab from Caligula

[kidgloves]

Bloody amp failed yesterday. Dont ever buy an Onkyo. The HDMI switching was failing for a long time and finally gave up yesterday. Bought this beauty today to replace it. Yamaha RX-V667

[Neil]

^^ I've got an old Yamaha 461 amp. Fairly good sound IMHO (for the money), but I'd have to say for music it's average. Still would have to say a dedicated stereo amp produces nicer stereo (music) sound. But it's a necessary evil having the single jack-of-all-trades amp I'm always wondering if a newer/better amp would improve music audio quality. I had a problem with it a couple of months ago and contacted Yamaha via email. They replied back with hours and mailed me a firmware upgrade out ASAP, and it fixed it! VERY impressive support! QUESTION: My front (L&R) speakers are bi-amp speakers (the center/rears are not). Can the 667 control bi-amp speakers (ie: if they are wired in bi-amp fashion)? Say just the front L&R? EDIT: The manual implies yes! You can run a standard 5.1 setup, with the front L&R running as bi-amp ps: Your Onkyo wasn't a R940 was it? Look at the first user comment about half way down here by SeeGnet http://reviews.cnet.com/av-receivers...-34137032.html

[kidgloves]

^^^^^^ The Onkyo was a 606. If you google 606 HDMI it will tell you all you need to know. The guy at Richer Sounds said they had loads of returns of that model. Design fault apparently with the heat sink.

[kidgloves]

Goddammit. My new amps failed now. Exactly the same issue as the Onkyo. The hdmi handshake isnt working properly and isnt switching over. Just get a green screen. Strangely the tv set top box is fine but nothing else works. Luckily Richer Sounds are loaning me an amp until mines fixed but the thought of disconnecting and reconnecting all those cables again is making me feel physically sick.

[Neil]

Still under warrranty?

[kidgloves]

Still under warrranty? Yeah. Manufacturers standard 1 year. After my experience with the Onkyo i took out a 5 year one as well. Was peanuts so i thought why not. Glad i did now cause it seems that if modern av amps are going to wrong its going to be the hdmi that fails.