Home Theater/Game Room Thread

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KurganAU

<Gold Donor>
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Nice setup btw attog, do you have any go-to movie scenes you plan to demo it out with?

I'm not much of a handyman but would attempt this process for a wall mounted screen.
DIY Glass Bead Projection Screen

Or if I didn't want to do any work, could always buy a Black Diamond screen.
 

Attog

Blackwing Lair Raider
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I couldn't tell you which kits are better or worse, the only ones I have used are these. I can tell you that their surround kits have been popular and a bunch of the local guys are building those. The thing is most of the kits just come with a bunch of parts for the crossovers, so unless you are comfortable following a wiring diagram and soldering, you don't want to mess with these.

They do have a couple kits that have the crossovers already assembled, or you could hire that part out.

For demo tracks I like just about anything from John Wick, I like the original Jurassic Park, I like the scene in the first Thor movie where they are teleporting to the Ice Giant world. Then there are some good Dolby intro trailers available too.

The speakers are finally complete, we tested them and they work but I haven't got them in behind the screen and calibrated yet.

rrr_img_101749.jpg
 

Aychamo BanBan

<Banned>
6,338
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I fucking jizzed in my pants reading this.

I've been obsessed with building a home theater ever since I saw Interstellar on the "super digital magnificent ultra XD XD sound" screen at my theater.
 

Attog

Blackwing Lair Raider
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I got the speakers installed and calibrated over the weekend. It was a damn tight fit, the Danley sub takes up so much space and the new speakers are quite a bit bigger than the old. I had to do a bit of surgery on the left screen pillar and trim it down so it wasn't covering up the drivers. Hard to get a good photo in that room it is so dark.

rrr_img_102382.jpg
 

Sledge

Trakanon Raider
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How do you like the speakers? I'm thinking about ordering something a bit smaller from that site.
 
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I got the speakers installed and calibrated over the weekend. It was a damn tight fit, the Danley sub takes up so much space and the new speakers are quite a bit bigger than the old. I had to do a bit of surgery on the left screen pillar and trim it down so it wasn't covering up the drivers. Hard to get a good photo in that room it is so dark.

rrr_img_102382.jpg
Hey Attog,

I missed this post somehow. I used to own a full Danley 5.2 setup that included 2 Dts-10s in a treated room. Absolutely the best audio experience I've ever had. I was very proud of my old room.

I recommend some EQ for the Dts-10 there is a nasty 54hz ring that needs to be toned down. Also I would set your crossover no higher than 80hz. The Dts-10 is tuned for 12-80hz. Above that the frequency response gets ugly fast. Be prepared for a serious treat, the bass is insane from that thing.
 

bho

Bronze Knight of the Realm
207
7
anyone have any recommendations? Building out a condo from scratch. going to have a large, open living/dining/kitchen. center of the living room will be the TV, and I'd like to have a decent surround system but dont know the first thing about it. Going with the minimalist thing so probably need speakers in wall or ceiling. anyone have recommendations? Looking for bang for the buck but definitely on the cheap side of things
 

Quaid

Trump's Staff
11,522
7,810
Hey guys. Anyone have any experience with projectors? I'm turning my man-cave into a convertible home theatre room. My budget is in the $1500 range, and the unit will be used for movie watching and consol gaming. After preliminary research, it looks like I have it narrowed down to BenQ HT1075, Optoma HD37 or Optoma GT1080. Anyone have experience with these units, or recommendations of your own? My main concern is a unit with under 50ms input lag.

Also, I haven't done much research on this, but surround sound systems... Any thoughts? $500-750 budget. Room is 10x16ft.

Cheers!
 

Shonuff

Mr. Poopybutthole
5,538
790
I shit up the Mad Max thread with some pics of my home theater. They don't really fit into the Home Theater in a box thread that exists now so I'm starting a new one. Post some pics of your systems.

rrr_img_100956.jpg



Old pic of speakers behind the screen:

rrr_img_100957.jpg


Currently working on building some new speakers, they should be a big upgrade.

rrr_img_100958.jpg
Nice set up. Did you do the walls and ceiling yourself? I'd love to put that in my mancave.
 

Shonuff

Mr. Poopybutthole
5,538
790
Over the last few years, I've probably dropped 40k on the mancave (and adjacent kid cave). At one point, we ran with a projector and screen, but with flat screens reaching 80 inches, I wanted something with not so much upkeep. For God's sake, it took ten minutes for my projector to warm up. We used to rock theatre chairs, but I decided I wanted something a little more comfortable. Sound quality is great, I can't tell the difference between this setup and other higher end systems. I may be tone deaf, though. The flat screen on side wall is for my Hyperspin setup with about 60,000 games, as well as PS3/Wii so the kids can play while I watch football. I just bought a combination coffee table/pull out tray top, so I can game on my laptop while watching movies while the family watches them while sitting on the sofa.

I'm open to mancave decorating ideas. I don't want to ask the women in my house (women don't get a vote down there). I'm thinking about buying a life sized Tardis (CD Holder), and also some life sized statues of characters I like (Star Wars, Marvel, Batman, etc.).

I'd love a set up like Attog's, but don't know how I would start. Are there companies that do just the decoration part?
 

Arative

Vyemm Raider
2,981
4,579
Hey guys. Anyone have any experience with projectors? I'm turning my man-cave into a convertible home theatre room. My budget is in the $1500 range, and the unit will be used for movie watching and consol gaming. After preliminary research, it looks like I have it narrowed down to BenQ HT1075, Optoma HD37 or Optoma GT1080. Anyone have experience with these units, or recommendations of your own? My main concern is a unit with under 50ms input lag.

Also, I haven't done much research on this, but surround sound systems... Any thoughts? $500-750 budget. Room is 10x16ft.

Cheers!
I had issues with a circuit board going out twice on an optoma hd20. While optoma covered it, it was enough to make me switch to an epson 8350
 

shabushabu

Molten Core Raider
1,408
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Hey guys. Anyone have any experience with projectors? I'm turning my man-cave into a convertible home theatre room. My budget is in the $1500 range, and the unit will be used for movie watching and consol gaming. After preliminary research, it looks like I have it narrowed down to BenQ HT1075, Optoma HD37 or Optoma GT1080. Anyone have experience with these units, or recommendations of your own? My main concern is a unit with under 50ms input lag.

Also, I haven't done much research on this, but surround sound systems... Any thoughts? $500-750 budget. Room is 10x16ft.

Cheers!
Hey Quaid.

I bought Epson e8500 and it rocks. I think i paid around that. You just need a dark room. I keep it in my living room and bought black out curtains for all windows. I can make it almost full darkness during mid day and movies and gaming is fantastic.
 

Attog

Blackwing Lair Raider
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Lyrical nice Atari and EQ posters. I do all my gaming on my pc and the theater room is strictly for movies, so I can't help much on the gaming projector question.

I did build all my sound treatments myself. The AVS forum has a mega thread on homemade sound treatments and I was able to get an acoustic treatment plan from a similar sized theater to mine and follow it. The guy paid 2k to have the plans laid out for him so it was nice of him to share them with me.

The side walls are treated from about chest height down with 1" of owens corning 703 insulation that is built into the panels. I made the panels by ripping plywood into 2" strips and building picture frames out of it. Then I beveled the outside edge and stretched the fabric over it and stapled on the back. The fabric is standard office cubicle type stuff.

The back wall has a full 2" of owens corning 703 on it and then the front corners behind the screen have triangular bass traps built into them. The back riser is vented and also acts as a bass trap.

I'm going to the CEDIA convention in Dallas in a couple weeks and going to check out what is new in the 4k projection world. Hopefully get to see 4k bluray if it is ready in time for the show.
 

Eomer

Trakanon Raider
5,472
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I had issues with a circuit board going out twice on an optoma hd20. While optoma covered it, it was enough to make me switch to an epson 8350
I'm on my third projector. First was a Hitachi PJTX-100 or something like that. Second was a Panasonic PTAE2000U. Again model number might be off slightly. The Panny was excellent, the Hitachi was kind of a piece of shit that developed extreme burn-in issues after only a couple years. And I was careful about that shit. Both occasionally also had issues with the brightness flickering, and I was never able to resolve it. I got rid of the Panny eventually because it too started to get splotchy in a few places. Not nearly as bad as the Hitachi, but on a monochrome background or browsing fairly plain web pages you could definitely see some blotches. Again, nothing that I did should have caused that.

My current projector, and possibly last, is a Optoma HD-25LV. Not as fancy as the Panny in terms of features, image adjustment etc. It took more effort to set up properly and wasn't as flexible in it's location. But so far the image quality has been excellent and the additional brightness is really appreciated, as I don't have great light control in my place.

At this point I'll replace the lamp in the Optoma once or twice, and then likely go with a smaller LCD. Kind of sick of messing around with projectors at this point. They can be awesome if set up properly in the right room, but I've had enough issues that I'm more or less ready to move on after this one craps out. The Hitachi lasted maybe 2-3 years, the Panny 5-6; if I get 3-5 years out of the Optoma I'll be happy.
 

Quaid

Trump's Staff
11,522
7,810
Thanks for the feedback guys. I can't seem to find input lag data on the Epson 8500 though.