Well FYI dark blue gets pretty dirty easily too. Home Depot also offered a decent selection of grey carpeting as well.

We went with a medium pile mid grade carpet from HD, color was called sierra if I recall correctly but basically a dark blue. I like the look it goes well with the charcoal blue color I went with on the ceiling. The installer loved the quality of the carpet and nothing but good things to say about it. Good luck.

One word for you: GALLERIES

Set up your pictures in different galleries so it is easier to view. Sort them by date or something. Going to one gallery with 700 pictures takes too long.

Just for you buddy! (http://picasaweb.google.com/epayne11)

Just for you buddy! (http://picasaweb.google.com/epayne11)
Much better!

The builders just told me the house will be ready by next week Friday... so a lot of things are happening in the last two weeks.. Plumbing is going in today, brick is done, siding is almost done, trim is almost done. Next is carpet... Builder gave me a few samples of carpet I can use in the theater room... one is definitely out (looked like 70's carpet). The other two are a solid black or a solid dark blue.... I am going to bring the samples out there today to compare.
Few things I have concerns with.
All I hear from everyone about the black is that it will show dirt too much.
I also heard that if I went dark blue that it will look like I tried to hard to match the wall color and that you can never match a carpet color to wall color exactly...
The grey carpet they could find was more industrial looking and didn't think it was too comfortable... Kids will be sitting on it in the front, so I want it comfortable.
The room is plenty dark already, so I don't need to do black to help darken the room at all, but I doubt you will notice the blue at all when lights are off.


Yes, black carpet will show dirt better, though its really not that bad if you stay ahead of it. A pattern of some sort also helps quite a bit.

Another suggestion would be to do the stage in black carpet and do the rest of the room in some other color (most anything would work, though I'd try to stay with the same carpet style as the black for a better texture/pile match)... or something with a pattern.

I like the album much better. Your house is really coming together very nicely. You will have a beautiful home.

Regarding the carpet I would try to stay darker for sure but not necessarily black. Pattern would help break up the solid dark carpet. A dark gray would look good as well as a dark sand color to blend with the walls. I too would steer clear of blue due to the problem mentioned earlier about the matching. Here are some ideas (http://www.htmarket.com/lighting--signs--decor---carpeting-home-theater-carpeting.html).

Don't worry about the kids too much. Throw'em a couple of beanbags or a overstuffed sleeping bag and your good to go.

Regards,

RTROSE

Wife just told me that she might be able to let me have 1000 for speakers and receiver. I know it is not much, but I think any 1000k system out there is better than the 15 year old stuff i have.

Looking at HTS9100TSX from Onkyo (http://www.onkyousa.com/model.cfm?m=HT-S9100THX&class=Systems&p=i)

Wife just told me that she might be able to let me have 1000 for speakers and receiver. I know it is not much, but I think any 1000k system out there is better than the 15 year old stuff i have.

Looking at HTS9100TSX from Onkyo (http://www.onkyousa.com/model.cfm?m=HT-S9100THX&class=Systems&p=i)

HTIB?

How about this:

http://www.wwstereo.com/#/ecommerce/store/Speakers/33/144559// $400

use two of your old speakers for the rear surrounds until more $$ comes.

Plus this:

http://www.hsuresearch.com/products/stf-2.html $388

Then beg for another $150 or so, and get the successor to the yamaha 663 (665 or 765) off ebay for $350, or one of the new pioneers. Don't get the 663, I think it has a video problem.

Yamaha
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1117292
Pioneer
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1105865

Put it all towards speakers and wait until you have more for a receiver upgrade. Otherwise you'll be short changing yourself on both ends.

So get the RF-10 Klipsch (http://www.klipsch.com/products/details/rf-10-home-theater-system.aspx) stuff then huh... :)

The reason I say that is because receivers depreciate a lot quicker than your speakers will. Good speakers will last you years. A receiver's technology quickly dates, so you'd be able to get a much better receiver for the same price if you're willing to wait.

Local dealer having sale on speakers this weekend.
Klipsch
2 RF-10
2 RS-10
2 RB-51
1 RC-10
1 RPW-10
$1445

Thoughts?
I am trying to search now online to compare

Looks like searching amazon it is around 1425...

I think I just realized that he showed me the RS-42's but looked up RS-10's and quoted me on that price.... Trying to figure out the difference between the two.

Oh, by the way... I really like the sound of these... very impressed.

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_I736LwG8S_I/SZZAHTDvHTI/AAAAAAAADPU/GOy24GebgU8/s640/DSC05461.JPG

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_I736LwG8S_I/SZZAH3rfxNI/AAAAAAAADPc/m7p7Ln1Of-8/s640/DSC05462.JPG

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_I736LwG8S_I/SZZAI_KSUrI/AAAAAAAADPk/vVR7AIElJlk/s640/DSC05463.JPG

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_I736LwG8S_I/SZZAJoU7DII/AAAAAAAADPs/LbF5jj5p24Q/s640/DSC05464.JPG

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_I736LwG8S_I/SZZAKoYeQvI/AAAAAAAADP0/cQv6pM4_C6E/s640/DSC05465.JPG

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_I736LwG8S_I/SZZALbDSDZI/AAAAAAAADP8/Adg2Rr4ixJU/s640/DSC05466.JPG

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_I736LwG8S_I/SZZAMFmKluI/AAAAAAAADQE/dD9jyWa6atE/s640/DSC05467.JPG

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_I736LwG8S_I/SZZANc3RpnI/AAAAAAAADQM/rUtaJV6lvpU/s640/DSC05468.JPG

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_I736LwG8S_I/SZZAPPpYM1I/AAAAAAAADQg/qep9s2EIs74/s640/DSC05470.JPG

I think i like the RS-42 instead of the RS010's for the sides.
As for the rears, if I went with the RB-51 I am wondering how to install them.
First, If I just hang them on the wall I am worried they would protrude to far out from the wall and you could hit them when you walk through.
Second, can you install these in a wall... should you install these in a wall? I hear people say that the speaker manufacture made the speakers in there own box and you shouldn't put them in a different box when putting them in a wall, etc, etc. Would in wall speakers be better (meaning ones that are meant to be installed in the wall)

Not to mention, I was just going back through my old pictures, looks like when they framed up that wall, there is a 2x4 right in the middle of where the hole in the wall would be...

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_I736LwG8S_I/SZSCT9qSBjI/AAAAAAAACH8/oFU75TC8vHU/s912/DSC04886.JPG

I second the thought on the speaker vs. receiver issue. Spend your money on better speakers and use your old receiver until there is more money allotted for that. Onkyo makes great equipment but some have said their speakers have room for improvement. There are some situations where HTIB's make perfect sense, however I don't think your application is one of them.

Regards,

RTROSE

Hmm.. crutchfield is telling me that the RS-10's is the recommended surrounds for the RF-10's.... Not that the RF-42's aren't better, but the other ones are part of a set

Hmm.. crutchfield is telling me that the RS-10's is the recommended surrounds for the RF-10's.... Not that the RF-42's aren't better, but the other ones are part of a set

That's correct. However, I wouldn't put as much thinking into the surrounds. If you need to break them up, that's fine. The most important is that your front soundstage be consistant.

As far as the sub, I think you can do much better elsewhere than Klipsch for the same amount of money. Don't get me wrong, I love my Klipsch speakers, but they're not a subwoofer company.

I received my screen yesterday.
Funny, my first thought was, there is no way this will fit in a Honda Accord.
My father in law (with a bigger vehicle) helped me get it setup.
Took much longer than expected, but I had to work at his pace. He is a great guy and is quite the handy, but he likes to take his time... I can't complain though, he makes sure things are done right.
One thing (or mistake) that happened is when we screwed up the wall brackets and connected the frame together, we test fit the frame to the wall before putting the screen on. Now we followed the directions and measurements, but we thought we put the bottom bracket to high (didn't make sense to us because we followed the directions) so we moved it down a quarter inch. I guess I didn't realize how much you had to stretch and pull the screen material to get it to snap on (no way I could have done this myself). But after we had the screen on and went to go put it back up on the wall, I really had to pull down hard to get the bottom to lock in... Not that this is bad, feels more secure to the wall now, but I bet we didn't have to move the bottom bracket after all, due to the screen material pulling the frame tighter. I will upload more pictures when I have time.

I also had a real bad scare, went to go hook up the projector again and the lamp LED was blinking RED, then solid RED. I freaked, great, lamp is burnt or brook... I was ready to pack it back up and go home and call to get a new lamp... but I turned it off and cleaned up our mess... right before I took it down I tried again, this time it worked... wheshw...
I still need to tweak the mount to first get the wing bolts to set more firm and also to adjust it to fit the position of the screen.

I need to get more than just CARS in blue ray... getting tired of that movie.. need something else to compare it to. I was thinking about picking up Transformers. Is there any Blue Ray demo disks out there? or any recommendations (bet that is going to be a loaded question)

Well, The builder found 2 sets of 3 theater seats from a local furniture store (sorry don't know the name brand, I think they said something like signature 378), originally 1,400 a piece, managed to talk them down to 945 a piece (after much haggling). So after tax and ship, it is about 2k. Originally I was planning on saving a little money and just buy some regular couches for now and upgrade to theater seating later (then re-use the couches in other parts of the house) but because we found these, I might just get these instead. Of course, this probably means that I will NOT be able to get the speakers after all... I really like the speakers and really want them, but since I technically do have speakers that will work and since I don't currently have seating, I guess I can suck it up.... for now.
The chairs are brown leather, manual recline and seem to be fairly comfortable.

Well, The builder found 2 sets of 3 theater seats from a local furniture store (sorry don't know the name brand, I think they said something like signature 378), originally 1,400 a piece, managed to talk them down to 945 a piece (after much haggling). So after tax and ship, it is about 2k. Originally I was planning on saving a little money and just buy some regular couches for now and upgrade to theater seating later (then re-use the couches in other parts of the house) but because we found these, I might just get these instead. Of course, this probably means that I will NOT be able to get the speakers after all... I really like the speakers and really want them, but since I technically do have speakers that will work and since I don't currently have seating, I guess I can suck it up.... for now.
The chairs are brown leather, manual recline and seem to be fairly comfortable.

Do you have access to a Costco? There are some Berklines there for $499 for a set of 3 right now (if still available). That saves you almost a grand, enough to get your speakers still.

looks like the closest one is in Middleton WI, which is several hours away.
Do you happen to have a link for those chairs? I don't see the ones for 499

looks like the closest one is in Middleton WI, which is several hours away.
Do you happen to have a link for those chairs? I don't see the ones for 499
They are not on Costco's website. I just came back from there, the chairs look and feel quite nice though. May be worth a trip! If I were building my room right now I would be picking up at least one set.

Sorry, for some reason I just noticed the door and trim on the previous page didn't work, I edited it here (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=15818222#post15818222)

Like I mentioned before, no way this will fit in a Honda Accord
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_I736LwG8S_I/SZwXA4jYvRI/AAAAAAAADTg/5baPLb7DK2Y/s640/DSC05472.JPG

I didn't take any pictures of just the carpet yet, but here you can see when I was assembling the screen.
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_I736LwG8S_I/SZwWyiyYVGI/AAAAAAAADSI/H80_AxtwRF4/s640/DSC05476.JPG

You can also see the finished the trim around the cabinets in the back of the room. Right side is for equipment and left side is for media storage.
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_I736LwG8S_I/SZwWyB74vWI/AAAAAAAADSA/hjtj3D13xUk/s640/DSC05475.JPG

My camera doesn't seem to do the room justice.. I tried a few times to clean off the lens, but spots still show up, I will try a different camera tomorrow.

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_I736LwG8S_I/SZwWx1woAVI/AAAAAAAADR4/Ix2cGINoIQI/s640/DSC05422.JPG

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_I736LwG8S_I/SZwWxo0iAqI/AAAAAAAADRw/ulEY_QmNVPI/s640/DSC05499.JPG

With Flash on:
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_I736LwG8S_I/SZwWxA8_OxI/AAAAAAAADRo/46ojyBI2Zu0/s640/DSC05498.JPG

Flash off, lights off
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_I736LwG8S_I/SZwWwy_aI6I/AAAAAAAADRg/iUBRkKiByYU/s640/DSC05497.JPG

Lights on flash off
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_I736LwG8S_I/SZwWwqnG9ZI/AAAAAAAADRY/XsMW2U5R2-U/s640/DSC05496.JPG

With the lights on you can see the outlets on the stage, but not when the lights are off... The stage wall facial will be done at a later point in time, so all of those outlets will be hidden.

Well I ran out of speaker wire and will have to order some more. Wife isn't happy with me that every few days I have to ask for more money. I need to get two more wall plates for speaker wires in front, I was going to get the keystone jacks, but since they don't have them in light almond yet, I will just get two of the recessed ones (since those come in light almond).

The seats will be delivered first of the month (we pushed the delivery back a few weeks because of the 90 days interest free financing, which starts on date of ownership, we spent to much money this month already).

I need to switch out my new and old receiver in my living room... yuk, going back a decade in living room sucks... I don't think that old yamaha receiver has digital optical audio...

Still need to mount the rear speakers over the cut outs in back, one of the old Polk Audio speakers has a broken bracket, so I will have to figures something out for that.

I also have a DIY project, I had an old room mate that air brushed on my speaker grills several years ago, it was kewl back then, but stupid now... I tried to wash off the paint, but that didn't work. I called around to fabric stores and no one had any speaker cloth, one of the AV stores had some, they charge $17 for a yard... I think that seems pretty high, anyone know where I could get some online?

Well I ran out of speaker wire and will have to order some more. Wife isn't happy with me that every few days I have to ask for more money. I need to get two more wall plates for speaker wires in front, I was going to get the keystone jacks, but since they don't have them in light almond yet, I will just get two of the recessed ones (since those come in light almond).

The seats will be delivered first of the month (we pushed the delivery back a few weeks because of the 90 days interest free financing, which starts on date of ownership, we spent to much money this month already).

I need to switch out my new and old receiver in my living room... yuk, going back a decade in living room sucks... I don't think that old yamaha receiver has digital optical audio...

Still need to mount the rear speakers over the cut outs in back, one of the old Polk Audio speakers has a broken bracket, so I will have to figures something out for that.

I also have a DIY project, I had an old room mate that air brushed on my speaker grills several years ago, it was kewl back then, but stupid now... I tried to wash off the paint, but that didn't work. I called around to fabric stores and no one had any speaker cloth, one of the AV stores had some, they charge $17 for a yard... I think that seems pretty high, anyone know where I could get some online?
Try Parts Express for the grill cloth. Or better yet, buy some black spray paint. A couple bucks at your local hardware store.

By the way, room is looking good. Don't worry about the equipment right now, you can always upgrade that.

I will check that place out, the grill cloth is pretty worn due to some cats before they were de-clawed, so I think I would rather replace it.. depends on the cost... again I am not the handy type guy, so spray paint might be easier... This thread really just turned out to be a photo gallery of progress, I don't think I really offered much help to others as far as tips and tricks.

I will check that place out, the grill cloth is pretty worn due to some cats before they were de-clawed, so I think I would rather replace it.. depends on the cost... again I am not the handy type guy, so spray paint might be easier... This thread really just turned out to be a photo gallery of progress, I don't think I really offered much help to others as far as tips and tricks.
Well, since the cloth is worn I would replace it.

shoot.. monoprice is all out of the 14AWG and 12AWG wire, not sure if I want to go with the 16AWG for the home theater.. I found monoprice to be the best price, any other places I can look into?

If it's just speaker wire, try partsexpress. Monoprice is usually pretty quick and getting things back in stock though.

Looking good man! I like the stain color for your trim and doors. There seems to be a trend to go back to stained woodwork vs. paint. We go through 7-10 yr. cycles here about the paint vs. stain look. I personally like the stain (although it is much more labor intensive) but is not done a whole lot. Typically here we see it more on showcase homes (like yours) and the paint on "spec homes". Very nice.

You could also get 12 ga speaker wire from one of the big box stores if you are in a real pinch.

Keep it up.

Regards,

RTROSE

I personally like the stain (although it is much more labor intensive)
Not for me :)

I envy those double doors.

Great choice on the carpet ;) reminds me of the carpet used by this other AVS'er...now if I could just remember where I saw it....:rolleyes:

Oh yeah how could I forget :D it looks like mine.
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff231/oman321/HTRugInstall013.jpg

Looking great, really nice progress. I love the trimwork and double doors look awesome. Are you planning to switch the outlets to black? Pretty easy to do.

Not for me :)

HA! You think your out of the woods just because your not DIY? You may be clear of "getting your hands dirty" but I assure you, you are paying the preimum for stain vs. paint. Do yourself a favor and DON'T ask your builder what the difference would be if you had gone painted vs. stained. You would be shocked at the price difference. That is why I did it DIY so for me it is labor intesive you on the other hand are just paying for the extra labor. Trust me it is still there.

So have you gotten another BR other than Cars to try out your system? The screen looks really nice too.

As I said before it is coming together very nicely. CHEERS!

Regards,

RTROSE

yeah, key word would be "me"... I didn't have to do anything ;)
I think they pre-stained it at the factory, the trim guy just had a small bucket of stain he touched up on the ends...

Are you planning to switch the outlets to black?
For now just light almond for the showcase, but I might due the blue paint color afterwards.

Well, since the cloth is worn I would replace it.
Money is a little tight, I think I will try the spray paint trick as suggested, I think my father in law happens to have some.... the speakers will be far enough away that you won't see the worn edges.... if the paint works, I will just leave it until I replace the speakers...

So have you gotten another BR other than Cars to try out your system
I have a $50 GC for BB, I might pick up Transformers this weekend... Any other suggestions?

I have a $50 GC for BB, I might pick up Transformers this weekend... Any other suggestions?
Also check your local Circuit City. Right now they have 50% off their DVDs and CDs. Unfortunately my local store only had a bunch of junk left, but you might get lucky.

I saw Max Payne the other night and while I'm only able to enjoy my movies in Dolby Digital the soundtrack was pretty impressive. I enjoyed the movie also, they had some good scenes which jumped to black and white. Pretty dark scenery overall but the imaging of the film seemed good.

Yup, very slim pickings at CC as far as movies go.
The HT receiver and speakers are still $200 above amazon

Yup, very slim pickings at CC as far as movies go.
The HT receiver and speakers are still $200 above amazon

My local CC only has open box receivers left and very few speakers. They are already starting to sell off the fixtures as well.

Transformers is a fantastic transfer in HD-DVD (what I have) and I have heard that the BR is as good in not better. It would be a great pick. I would also guess that Batman The Dark Knight would be another. I never tire of watching Transformers though.

Regards,

RTROSE

I went out to the house today to show a friend the setup. The project lamp just flashes RED. I know I was extra careful with it. I only had it on maybe 4 times each for under 15 min. This happened once last weekend when I was mounting the screen as well, I turned it of for like 10 minutes then back on and it worked, but not today... Damit!

Well I tried to spray paint the speaker cloth

Before
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_I736LwG8S_I/SZ9zxaWF3SI/AAAAAAAADVs/pGGdnGAVzIo/s912/DSC05501.JPG

First coat without flash. Yeah it works!
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_I736LwG8S_I/SZ9z2eESHzI/AAAAAAAADWc/NLm4iGPhpSY/s912/DSC05508.JPG

First coat with flash.... ah crap
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_I736LwG8S_I/SZ9z4juaCVI/AAAAAAAADWk/0e2hMUuWCoA/s912/DSC05509.JPG

Tried a second coat, still no luck. The air brush bleeds through... And as expected the cloth feel hard and crusty.

I guess I will just leave the speaker covers off for the showcase and then replace the cloth later

Well,

What about your projector problem?

Regards,

RTROSE

Spent a few hours tonight cleaning up the wires in the network closet.

Before
https://g7fkhq.bay.livefilestore.com/y1pZTcBWyE8wqpXUZE5jQHvs5_2LG35JHO4zgw1VPIA2T-QrcNosW-VgzWK0CW44PSCJiqzNSbucy6YRy1avtR-8g/DSC05505.jpg

https://g7fkhq.bay.livefilestore.com/y1ppjXzCb4iri5SbnxEYUAvTvWCQ5OvW4GKs8YQ5hFweYJM1LUfO27Q0Qs-Dk3QEc9YuqY9iqINux3YQVYvJZDa_g/DSC05506.jpg

https://g7fkhq.bay.livefilestore.com/y1pag3waszljTQMY9L9yoe6om48_Tsju2XV_ixYltvCsA0p8J0XcZAf1k-pC6-A9gulaBP5Vg03siOg_UvkqOqV1g/DSC05507.jpg

After, top part will be in the ceiling.
https://g7fkhq.bay.livefilestore.com/y1p4OujNub5TPsoh6i-t3wOfR4kB9ntzlarTRBhv3bP-p0FI5LDcsjE6VmM7wysoPO_UhfoIC1x3TgxyIYaHNMtTA/DSC05514.jpg

https://g7fkhq.bay.livefilestore.com/y1p8Lk2Bd9J8IyFLDT4A2ICIoPrXH8denDL1_QSBefBZqApnQfwUplYP1WuI BOBpOZucxL84YyC2F8l5xPMiY0DqQ/DSC05516.jpg

https://g7fkhq.bay.livefilestore.com/y1pcWkVP_vJWscHBSGzsNkixLsY77CQ9gfmEFLmjZCetia68ejB42QTQ75my 41RUnEmDdTT6Jq90BQny1JseSwTYQ/DSC05510.jpg

With Rack
https://g7fkhq.bay.livefilestore.com/y1pJ3j3eGVOBF9zw7hD5WkUwAadrV3e_7i-c32E8LQXeRVl3JLBGyZM76RbQQ7PU_q70WJ_03PtXqfezfo09pvhEg/DSC05522.jpg

https://g7fkhq.bay.livefilestore.com/y1pdpSqF2JsoN-oXaSFu6x1e6yC155u_SdVYKJg0Z1dfUWjkYe977PrXLfjVf6mGmA2A04zoU_ FHvT_amAZZoBS-g/DSC05521.jpg

https://g7fkhq.bay.livefilestore.com/y1pHh5JEBQGOFZhS23WVa9HA9eleP0ef-HNz5IJf6Blc0P6prrRAiC_2ESeWkl1ymgopcoPGzOJ8O_voq8NsmE3rg/DSC05520.jpg

A friend gave me a ladder rack about 6 feet long. I am going to cut it down and install it above the rack to attach the cables to.

What about your projector problem?

I called projectorpeople tech support and they said sometimes the lamp connector wiggles loose during shipping. They suggested I remove the lamp and reconnect it.
I did tonight.... and it worked!

I also picked up Transformers and 300 tonight with me BB GC.
WOW...
The carpet guys were out tonight and one guy said he was just a million dollar house that had a home theater room and it was no where as nice as mine :) He said my projector was so bright!

Moves are not as good without sound... next week I will setup the speakers and receiver.

I have to connect my PS3 to the Internet (had it since release and only hooked it up to the net once). I know there is a ton of updates I need to download, hopefully if I start it tonight it will finish by morning :)

I bet 300 looks good too. I liked the movie and it has a different look to it (intentional of course) and I'm curious to see how you like the visual appeal. There is no doubt that for visual appeal Transformers is stunning.

Glad to hear that the projector problem was a simple fix.

Regards,

RTROSE

hmmm.. for some reason had issues with the small pictures, had to post the large pictures of the network rack..

I spent some time tonight mounting the rear surround speakers.. Yeah, couldn't afford anything right now, so I just used the ones I have.. oh well.

Bracket
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_I736LwG8S_I/SaC2FaGc7sI/AAAAAAAADZk/qdY7uYzBCMI/s800/DSC05523.JPG

Speaker
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_I736LwG8S_I/SaC2GeAVKII/AAAAAAAADZs/Iw-6XfgilbU/s800/DSC05524.JPG

Speaker side view
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_I736LwG8S_I/SaC2HBskUmI/AAAAAAAADZ0/JVzJOW274Mg/s800/DSC05525.JPG

Shot from front to back
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_I736LwG8S_I/SaC2IM6yVcI/AAAAAAAADZ8/BAyI8XlTkFg/s800/DSC05526.JPG

I wasn't happy with the wires in the network closet, so I put up a piece of board, then cut some conduit, then screwed them to the wall and ran the wires through.

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_I736LwG8S_I/SaC2Dd6prUI/AAAAAAAADZQ/68OxGY4cVag/s800/DSC05528.JPG

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_I736LwG8S_I/SaC2ETkh_rI/AAAAAAAADZc/StYDry4-Ssk/s800/DSC05529.JPG

Looks much cleaner, still need to tie wrap a few more wires, good thing I bought a thousand tie wraps... used about 300 already, cut them all off 3 times now.

I cut the ladder rack that sits on top of the rack, but I have to drill some holes to put bolts in them to hold it on. Then I will tie wrap the cables to it.

The top (right under the brackets) will be up in the ceiling. The white pvc pipe in the middle is ran down the soffit of the home theater room and it will contain all the wires that will run to the equipment cubby.

That is a lot of wire.

Sure is.. about 5000' of cable. I have 20 main drops in the house, at least two per room, 3 in the office. Each one consisting of 3 cat 5e (Blue = Computer, Red = Telco, Yello = TV media center extender) and two coax cables. Along with the main drops I also have speaker and data going to 7 wall plates for future volume\intercom, etc. I also ran a cat 5e both behind the stove and fridge (future digital appliances... hey it only took a few minutes to run, who knows what kind of appliances there will be in the future). Actually I didn't get a chance to run some behind the washer and dryer, but I will.

Anyone ever hear of Essential Home?
I was at KMart today (doing the honey due list for my wife) and I seen these home theater chairs.
1 two arm chair is 237 and 1 one arm chair is 209.
I sat in them and I think they are comfortable. They have cup holders. I don't see a handle for the recline, looks like you just have to push back. Looks likes you can make different combinations, like a love seat in the middle, all singles, etc...

I haven't heard of them I just want to see if anyone has them

Their's a thread about them in the theater items sub forum.

Projector is having the same issues, Red lamp light just flashes.
I called projector people and then emailed me a free shipping label and I just sent it out. They have to process it the next day and it takes 5 days to ship out again, so I won't see it back till next week.. I am hoping they can get the processing done sooner so I can have it by this weekend, but who knows.

Anyone ever hear of Essential Home?

Well after much debate on weither I can save money, I think I will stick with what I have ordered. After all, it was the number one thing on my priority list from the beginning (although some things have changed since then :) )

Projector is having the same issues, Red lamp light just flashes.
I called projector people and then emailed me a free shipping label and I just sent it out. They have to process it the next day and it takes 5 days to ship out again, so I won't see it back till next week.. I am hoping they can get the processing done sooner so I can have it by this weekend, but who knows.

Sorry to hear about your troubles, but better now while it's still easy to get an exchange rather than later trying to have it repaired. Recently my hdmi switcher scaler which I have had for a little over a year, had 2 of the HDMI inputs go bad. Luckily it has a 2 year warranty so it's been shipped hopefully for a replacement, but my initial unit had HDMI audio issues as well and that unit was replaced also, so I'm starting to loose confidence in the product.

As far as the zip ties I still use those sometimes especially if they'll be buried away in the ceiling and your not likely needing to undo them again, but I like to mostly velcro ties which can be found at HD or Lowes. I forget how many come in a pack but it's something like 30-40 for like 5 bucks. Very easy to use and most importantly redo.

As far as the zip ties I still use those sometimes especially if they'll be buried away in the ceiling and your not likely needing to undo them again, but I like to mostly Velcro ties which can be found at HD or Lowes. I forget how many come in a pack but it's something like 30-40 for like 5 bucks. Very easy to use and most importantly redo.
Indeed, I do like the velcro straps better, but 1000 tie wraps for 6 bucks.... :)

Berry from tech support at projector people rocks!
He was able to speed up the delivery time from next week Monday to this week Thursday. Now I will be able to have the whole weekend for tweaking. Last weekend left before the showcase!

That's good news. They rock over there at Projector People. That's where I bought my projector from, great service and speedy delivery. Wish I had the funds to upgrade to the Panny :(

1000 ties for 6 bucks, I would've been all over that too.

1000 ties for 6 bucks, I would've been all over that too.
Yeah, actually was on end cap, not sure if they were clearance or what... Funny, I was actually thinking about getting a couple of bags... But after I tie-wrapped my wires 3 times now... I still must have 800 left!

More Pics,

From back of closet, home theater wires running into closet
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/iP72I-AQ1G6cwZwgwOOgJQ?feat=directlink

Side View
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_I736LwG8S_I/SaahS2WomgI/AAAAAAAADak/Q4JDpydbbDQ/s912/DSC05532.JPG

Angle view
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_I736LwG8S_I/SaahUaR9gcI/AAAAAAAADa0/tqctL50Lcso/s912/DSC05534.JPG

Front View
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_I736LwG8S_I/SaahVHt6KLI/AAAAAAAADa8/N-qnuTGNnqg/s912/DSC05535.JPG

Underneath view
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_I736LwG8S_I/SaahV7w9s4I/AAAAAAAADbE/r-PUFAIv2a4/s912/DSC05536.JPG

Still not done, have several more patch panels to put in as well as punching down all the cable, but ladder rack is installed. Some of the holes in the rack will have to be re-tapped.. fun.


BTW, here are some updated pics of the whole
house (http://picasaweb.google.com/home)

More Pics,

From back of closet, home theater wires running into closet
https://g7fkhq.bay.livefilestore.com/y1p-KvGf5MejbPCiQQPmNBEv34obfyAhzpDBOzwSKdukDy5u_XW8F2zc_XFUTAc6 59OKo62t0QzTp8/DSC05531.jpg
Side View

https://g7fkhq.bay.livefilestore.com/y1p9eCo5YaiF3iBVE-7IWjdL3gl4YbrLJ6K1shpF34rHxG76_2XbufCNqtUpns6wM7fnfKXYv3uHO4/DSC05532.jpg

Angle view
https://g7fkhq.bay.livefilestore.com/y1pRr-X_2_S2EN62FykP8gHE4nIcwKqNeFrlpiTjFFDGtAuVJxgzoZOJ9Z-VeAWKFESdgr3oFGRIio/DSC05534.jpg

Front View
https://g7fkhq.bay.livefilestore.com/y1pz-QTOT63af27GBU8wPq6_mq2rQFQos502Sryqeece901E0OlXScvW_R7jq_dDz C5EXrTnQ-sdac/DSC05535.jpg

Underneath view
https://g7fkhq.bay.livefilestore.com/y1pwM5iAbKr_Kn2OEQPu4KhKGigyyNiMJckdC2PnKiLbrYDbCl6shdqINTRy 5OsKInSzddzTetKdKs/DSC05536.jpg

Still not done, have several more patch panels to put in as well as punching down all the cable, but ladder rack is installed. Some of the holes in the rack will have to be re-tapped.. fun.


BTW, here are some updated pics of the whole
house (http://picasaweb.google.com/home)

damit.. anyone have issues with embeding pictures and you can see them in the preview and initial submit, but if you refresh the page they disappear? I can edit, copy the link, paste in browser and it is indeed the right picture..

Get a photobucket account. Whatever your issue is, that's the cure.

I use both windows live and Picasa.. for some reason Picasa is finicky

damit.. anyone have issues with embeding pictures and you can see them in the preview and initial submit, but if you refresh the page they disappear? I can edit, copy the link, paste in browser and it is indeed the right picture..
Well in your first post of this last round of pics the first URL does not contain ".jpg" at the end. The rest do, but they have a different beginning to the URL so you are not using the right URL for the images is my guess.

Picasa
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_I736LwG8S_I/SaahVHt6KLI/AAAAAAAADa8/N-qnuTGNnqg/s912/DSC05535.JPG

Live
https://g7fkhq.bay.livefilestore.com/y1pz-QTOT63af27GBU8wPq6_mq2rQFQos502Sryqeece901E0OlXScvW_R7jq_dDz C5EXrTnQ-sdac/DSC05535.jpg

They both have .jpg right now.. picasa doesn't seem to work but live does... I know I got picasa to work before

Picasa
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_I736LwG8S_I/SaahVHt6KLI/AAAAAAAADa8/N-qnuTGNnqg/s912/DSC05535.JPG

Live
https://g7fkhq.bay.livefilestore.com/y1pz-QTOT63af27GBU8wPq6_mq2rQFQos502Sryqeece901E0OlXScvW_R7jq_dDz C5EXrTnQ-sdac/DSC05535.jpg

Interesting! If I take the link within the image tags for Picasa and paste it into the address bar I can see the image. This has me thinking that you do not have your permissions setup properly in Picasa to allow image embedding.

EDIT: OK, now it is working! STRANGE!

I only see the Live stuff.

yeah see... I have picasa setup for public view....

Setup the speakers last night

Right
https://g7fkhq.bay.livefilestore.com/y1pDIoqUtLGn6kIODpXlCom5wZDbE2FH6NGYGmDh6s_-xXZu6v2Px_2Sd31X7lXDwrhKgA-BcGcWAQ/DSC05542.jpg

Center
https://g7fkhq.bay.livefilestore.com/y1pe8gkC32Hn-lHDSRTrVjggdKIF3V2bR6bSkPLb4G5ByBH7Qxvm8ZCB2exlhk7sgAkI96LnA Ofkz4/DSC05541.jpg

Left
https://g7fkhq.bay.livefilestore.com/y1pl6w6oBTUPMcJgWxxz5v8gLikd-JXuNOo96rqneH4q9NO_ZDPe9rbtS7PDcPkG2ZmBu2KNTGvgC4/DSC05543.jpg

Front (actually this is the best shot of what the room color really looks like, most of the other pictures makes the room look to bright, in this shot you can really see how dark it is).
https://g7fkhq.bay.livefilestore.com/y1pFue7I-tFoXXbG2ftiCOjX_ya2ncWFPJISCL5-pTZa6aScgrPveROF1LGXQ1vw7L9Iq56XLtdMo0/DSC05537.jpg

I managed to hide both the left and right power outlets on the stage, remember there will be a facial on the front wall later on so all of those will be covered anyways. I am going to build a temporary bot to put the center up right under the screen and it will cover the middle power outlet.

Actually I won't build it, I can't build anything, my father-in-law who has been helping me out a lot is quite the handy man. Actually he is the one that re-did my speaker covers as well... I didn't take just a picture of them by themselves (I will next time I go back) but if you remember this is what they used to look like.
https://g7fkhq.bay.livefilestore.com/y1p_nmh5dj37ZJu6hg2fHJ6DmwVnp3Z6FWKR-Eg9gbb6MiHhCM6rTuE9gtRky02W6-eQjw4FQ_1jmU/DSC05509.jpg

Spray painting them never worked, they still bleed through after 2 coats and started to get crusty. I picked up some speaker cloth and a local AV store and had just enough to finish the left, right, sub and center. They actually make the speakers look brand new.

Spray painting them never worked, they still bleed through after 2 coats and started to get crusty. I picked up some speaker cloth and a local AV store and had just enough to finish the left, right, sub and center. They actually make the speakers look brand new.
I don't think there is anything you can do to make those speakers look brand new! :p

Hey.... I ran out of money what can I say.. actually over budget right now..
Back in the day (15 years ago) those were kick ass speakers!

Crap, I just realized that the old receiver I was going to put in the living room (remember newer receiver was going into the home theater room) doesn't have digital optical in.. only RCA cables in as well as SVideo (I told you it was old, high tech back then). My VMC box only has digital optical out and that is how I connect it to my newer receiver.

I do have a standard line out on the motherboard... Any chance I can take a radio shack cable from stereo line out to RCA in and have it work?

http://5cci2a.bay.livefilestore.com/y1pZY9WQbGWJPnGSUaoanvkzzDfu1I3qg4GWQhRNVxOdzAG-ePbiYmBrf2wZEhF0bJgX737tMHA4Mh4UXgaVu1uQg/MSI%20Audio%20Out.jpg

I picked up a Onkyo 706 from Circuit City for $400 bucks.
Amazon has it for $560

Only thing is it is just the unit.. Now manual (big deal, can download it from Onkyo website), no setup Mic (friend has one) and no remote (that sucks, going to see if I can call Onkyo to see how much one is). It has a full manufacture warrenty

hmmm.. also notice that my MTX sub has speaker wire connectors only.. all receivers that I see that are new just have a single jack... how the heck do I hook that up?

I think I figured it out. The sub woofer was part of the old 5.1 setup. Where the front left\right speaker outputs of the receiver would connect through the sub woofer, then from there left\right speaker connections out to the satelight. looks like I will have to connect it like that for now... don't have any more money for speakers.. I was shocked when the wife told me I could get the receiver, so I didn't hesitate...

I installed my rear surround sound Bose speakers in the tray ceiling today.

https://g7fkhq.bay.livefilestore.com/y1pMQHKaWl2JOI730x988TL1gFP1iwK8EFQ13NMhniUdSF_Qh60WGllFjtWq 5vv8YqP_u_ZJDQY0tEhh1nFfCjbug/DSC05575.jpg

https://g7fkhq.bay.livefilestore.com/y1pEnVe8ErhNWWy3IekgPOKO86dbyyFfR2wY1NLx89Z4vkMJmGZr0jQOQY3T h-KjwWD7jhMqUf00YnQVSXmbIxxlQ/DSC05579.jpg

https://g7fkhq.bay.livefilestore.com/y1pZsw2QpGeZ6S3HrFigmuBfQjEKePPEY-Jxa1Zfvxqw5arXGGZT43Ej_kORZuCnV7BkANB1p3pHoevtR1pvtEu-g/DSC05580.jpg

Few more picks of the living room and Foyer

Foyer (http://picasaweb.google.com/epayne11/Foyer#)

living room (http://picasaweb.google.com/epayne11/LivingRoom#)

Hooked up the replacement projector this weekend.. so far so good!

I have to give a shout out to Chris Berry (tech support) and Donna Moretz (sales) at projectorpeople for all there hard work and efforts to quickly replace my projector.. you guys are awesome!

Well a friend of mine has an Integra, which I believe is made by the same company that makes Onkyo. He has an expensive learning remote and wasn't using the remote that came with it so he let me borrow it... So far all the buttons seem to work on my receiver, plus he has the mic as well... so the only thing I don't have is the paper manual (well besides the FM\AM antenna's). I was able to download the receiver manual... So.. not bad for 400 I think....

The builder wasn't too happy with the way the speaker wires look coming into the room on the stage.. Now I know I was going to finish off the stage and put things behind a fake wall and stuff.. but I just decided to do that later to save some costs... He also didn't like that the sub was on the floor... They are now talking about build a shelf box type thing to be able to set the main speakers on top of, in the center of the screen, and be able to place the sub underneath. This will cover the wires coming into the room and hide the sub. They are going to put that same type of speaker cloth over the front like what we used for the speaker replacements. They are also talking about taking the left over carpet and covering the box... I told them to just make sure it is removable and not to fasten it to the wall if I don't like the look of it I can remove it... The other builder (brothers) said we have extra hand rails left over and he wants to put them up in the theater room on each side... he said because it is so dark in there and because he stumbled a few times he things it would be safer. People will see it an know there are steps... I think he will end up putting up where I would like future acoustical treatments would go... but oh well.. I bought the wood already for the house, might as well not let it go to waste.. Again, I can always take it down and patch the holes if I don't like it.

I know most of us are focused on the theater, however the other areas of your home have turned out very beautiful as well. I'm glad Projector People have taken care of you. It is nice to see excellent customer service in action.

Regards,

RTROSE

Some pics of the new theater chairs.
The chairs are brown, but in the room they look black.. the camera flash shows it more brown. Chairs are pretty comfy, although the were cold right off the truck

https://g7fkhq.bay.livefilestore.com/y1puGax5b99s9-u8w_lsGtSyuPRs_SVlYWtLiPomtr3NC0PVDyolF60g1MkQ7Vkdu3sTLF_fDh c9LOq2_RFfDKvYQ/DSC05597.jpg

https://g7fkhq.bay.livefilestore.com/y1pUbkjz-Rx50hlLq1tDrvv4dPdFqZMakBQJnAViHty4AWyvQMdS8HFXtwY7-kAiLgb4TNKwzOyz0h8nK1RA9E26Q/DSC05596.jpg

https://g7fkhq.bay.livefilestore.com/y1pJawwt36e_Sk1TOPGd0oWo64At7RGjrQ7pUDwyuAUeXEMYoZ2Pm3KLn98i YxyJKCjUT6w4J9iUjsS_QfLSqrbEQ/DSC05595.jpg

https://g7fkhq.bay.livefilestore.com/y1p9cKqTzE-cAGv6CamTVThdcSPFW6mF03B-eWWy1T8co9DtaHdJHIZrytCWIuMF5oYO-Qji4-sHXEegEoVaSrxMw/DSC05593.jpg

https://g7fkhq.bay.livefilestore.com/y1pJEtfE2BtceS6VEShcLiIzudkihk75bmr80yFZfx8IP_znPkuyWo93yNwU Su2OcL2SFMQ1MYTRApONiHbZ5LBJQ/DSC05594.jpg

https://g7fkhq.bay.livefilestore.com/y1p_Q9RiU-xnPaN-08OqRh1ASz0JyU5r8ss2Aw1szR_2Cr2e9VxoITLjaqMn7Xfrh5S2xweoHsrS mjb1Pwvf3FSiQ/DSC05592.jpg

the other areas of your home have turned out very beautiful as well
Thanks

I know most of us are focused on the theater

Yes, I mean to keep this thread to just the home theater room itself, that is why I try to only link to the other pictures, instead of embedding them

The Panasonic AE3000 still looks great, trying to fine tune it.. is there any special documentation or links for this?

I do seem to see what I think they call "noise" in the background of the pictures.. I remember seeing this at the AV store initially but the AV guy did some tweaking (not sure what) to fix it.

Here are a few shots of the boxes they built to hide the speaker cables. Again they made them removable.. I am not sure I like them too much, but they do cover the wires.
https://g7fkhq.bay.livefilestore.com/y1pKYDf5pHu8nYU_tFxs-fR1CEczhtreYg9k226dx1aSspbCHIcwo6fdj2x7nUYaqdubhUfY7P7zdFG5p a_5kMqJg/DSC05634.jpg

https://g7fkhq.bay.livefilestore.com/y1pUVS7c_6-Hp3HJIxWvI1hlIKB6ynB9BKF2CUEWopPKcX0AwdE6o03egYVh-xqe9ajpZGTxUyMK9tTOyn5PCHF3g/DSC05632.jpg

https://g7fkhq.bay.livefilestore.com/y1pMd1f2ijTm0VhKbVEG_ny5fqPbyRVgIG7jb5hHf5VSOHn6EcsUb1ZN4EVN Cc9ybia9MUiTF4eFbSn_aIszwRqyw/DSC05633.jpg

Builders said 3' step requires hand rails by code and since the housing inspecter is coming in tomorrow they had to put some on. So they put 4 small hand rails on either side. We had the extra rails that we paid for already, so we might as well use them. After all I can always take them down if needed. The hand rails them selves look good, just not sure if they look good in the room yet.

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_I736LwG8S_I/Sa89Jmmv_lI/AAAAAAAADmE/wySR-k2HY9g/s800/DSC05630.JPG

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_I736LwG8S_I/Sa89K7dAgGI/AAAAAAAADmM/5mxAzv4osYo/s720/DSC05631.JPG

https://g7fkhq.bay.livefilestore.com/y1pjwPmkFFv_l9vkpHtowZ6H4aJ7XXn_B_rD3yKfuz69Al64ex6hXm7-bXPhTtlE1Vo_wARbCQRj2Q/DSC05636.jpg

https://g7fkhq.bay.livefilestore.com/y1pkUfy0UdSVEZ4tDLGIg9dNRmdJx6e7QDMf0TcA8gZE1fpxiLoJU8XxWFFj LQWDag8q9cdAUQlvI0/DSC05635.jpg

This whole time the wife kept on saying, "well if you home theater room didn't take up the whole basement...", "I don't think i will go in there that much...", "My mother said that room was a whole complete waste of money...". Well on the way home tonight out of the blue the wife said, you know, I really like the home theater room!!!
She sat in their for about 30 minutes watching cars.. said the picture was great, it sounded really good, the chairs were really comfortable.
Course now she is mad at me because with the 50 GC from BB I bought 300 and transformers blueray's and not a movie that she would like.. haha.

In fact, all of the builders (whole family) were out there, cleaning up for this weekends showcase, and they all came in and sat down to watch for a while. The builder once told me that he doesn't get many request anymore to build home theater rooms and he doesn't think he would ever have one in his house, but tonight his daughter loved it and he says he now has to put one in his new house.

Paint your screenwall and the boxes black, then you won't notice the boxes at all (and you should do it anyways). I think your curved marquee should be a different color also. I would do it in gold, and add some trim to it. Those are my suggestions.

Thanks,
Yeah The font was\is going to be all enclosed in eventually and that black cloth will be the only thing you see on the front. I was going to do the marquee a different color as well along with trim with rope lighting. I really want to try the DIY star light ceiling like SandmanX did.. I think that would look really cool.

The room is looking great epayne,

I think the hand rails look good. The only thing that stands out is the gold hardware underneath. If you end painting the vent grills and switiching out the wall plates to black you should spray the hardware black. That's what I did for the hardware on my handrail going down to the basement.

The chairs look great and very comfy. I can definately relate what your saying about the Mrs. I got the same riot act and still do at times. The only thing I didn't have to deal with was the mother in law talking smack. Guess she won't be allowed in the room when she comes over, that will teach her!

If you end painting the vent grills and switiching out the wall plates to black you should spray the hardware black
Agreed

Guess she won't be allowed in the room when she comes over, that will teach her!

Amen

epayne11,

Congrats - you have a great space !!

My only suggestions would be to have continuous handrails - (rather than 2 sections per wall) - I think this would flow better, or removing them would also be an improvement. And of course getting the front wall to black.

Again - Enjoy this space - looks great !!

I actually liike those boxes up front. It really gives some character to the stage.

Well the showcase went well last weekend, over 450 people came through and many loved the home theater room. Just one more weekend then I can finally move in and enjoy it.
Funny one of the builders called to say he could not get a movie playing. Turned out he just put the disk in upside down, but with all the messing around they did to try and get it to work they ended up resetting it to factory default. I went out there for lunch and thought OMG this looks and sounds like crap... thought something broke. But after changing the PS3 back to Component and optical out everything was much better.

Few questions. On the projector (Panasonic AE3000) anyone know which setting adjusts the pictures so you don't see the "noise" (i think that is what you call it), looks like a bunch of sparkles, which you can see in the background of dark images. The movie 300 shows this a lot. I did find some settings about NR stuff, but this did not help at all.

Receiver (Onkyo 706) I went to try and run the audisy setup with the mic. Now remember I have a 5.1 system with the old way of connecting the main speaker wires to the Sub, then wires out to the satelight. I don't have the single cable to the sub. When going through the wizard, I hear the test tones for the front left, center, right, and then nothing for the right side, then I hear the right rear.. then it stops, never doing the left rear. The message says Speaker Detect Error. I assume this is because it never found the right side speaker. I see some info in the manual, but sounds like they are saying the speaker is not setup.. well duh.. I trying to go into the speaker menu to just set it up to 5.1 but that doesn't seem to work. Any advice?

Thanks guys

My only suggestions would be to have continuous handrails

That is what I orginaly wanted, but because the distance from the back row to the front row was like 5', the slope at which the rail would have to run for one single pole on two steps would really look weird to the actual slop of the one step...

Few questions. On the projector (Panasonic AE3000) anyone know which setting adjusts the pictures so you don't see the "noise" (i think that is what you call it), looks like a bunch of sparkles, which you can see in the background of dark images. The movie 300 shows this a lot. I did find some settings about NR stuff, but this did not help at all.

I don't really know about the settings of the Panny, but what you're probably seeing in 300 is the artificial film grain that was added by the director. Some movies (BD's) have lots of film grain, and others have been wiped out completely. There are some settings like DNR (Digital Noise Reduction) that might remove some of it.

I'm in the group that says leave it as it was intended. I don't know about the Blu-Ray but on the HD-DVD's extras on the movie 300 they show the before and after affects, that might be a way to see if what you're seeing is intended or not.

Sometimes a bad/failing HDMI cable will cause sparkles, but I don't think thats what you're talking about.

epayne,

Any updates? Are you moved in? Still enjoying the theater? Upgradeitis hit yet?

Regards,

RTROSE

RTROSE,

Thanks for thinking of me :)

Well yes I am all moved in... well... all my stuff is at the new house... :)
I was really concerned with the whole project if I could afford it up front and worried about selling my old house in time. Well I have some good news, we sold it! Two days before we moved! And the best part, for full price! We close on the 10th. The guy who is buying it is a 50 year old man that was living with his girlfriend and her two teenage daughters. The kids and him really didn't get a long... funny thing is, he never told his girlfriend that he bought a house! He came home and finally told her and she kicked him out.. My wife still is holding her breath though until the check is in our (her) hands... But the guy did put earnest money down plus he already is having mailed delivered to the house...

Anyways... I have yet to be able to sit through one whole movie with all the moving going on.. The kids have been down there more than I have... I got to play around last night getting my 360 hooked up as an extender from my media center... few issues with that box crashing my MCE box that I have to figure out yet.

I will be posting some more questions soon, but here is one.
My old Onkyo receiver has 3 digital optical inputs in the back of the unit. Two of the jacks I plug into the cable just falls out. the third jack barely sits in there, like it is not snapped in. I think I need to replace all three of them, Anyone know if you can order these parts or do I have to send the whole unit back in and pay $$$ to get it fixed.

Upgradeitis...Well there a few things that I want to do that I couldn't afford during the initial build
New Klipsch speakers
Anamorphic lens
Bass shakers
Paint wall plates.

But since I was able to do the theater up front my wife wants us to budget out the other things we have to do around the house. They guy that bought our house wanted all the applicance including the washing machine and dryer, so we have to buy new ones of those and we want to get front loaders. We need a few more thousand worth of land fill plus another few thousand worth of landscaping...

I will post some more questions later.

Congrats on the move and the sale of the home.

Might seem stupid that I even say this but I know I did it at first. Did you remove the rubber cover/cap that sometimes comes on optical cables which would prevent it from snapping in properly if at all?

Also let me give you some advice and hopefully spare you some grief in regards to front loaders. We bought some when we moved to our new place in 06. While they work great and are certainly more energy efficient, the salespeople will push the pedalstals that they sit on like crazy. Most people want the pedalstals anyhow but be warned. What the pedalstal does is that lifts the center of gravity on the washer, this causes problems. The first 4 months our washer worked flawlessly, then all of a sudden boom, boom, boom. I couldn't understand what was going on. Had repair guy come out and he said nothing wrong with it, it's because it's on a pedalstal and this is causing the washer to want to dance around when it goes into high speed rinse.

To make an already long story short, I finally got the unit replaced after many fights and repair attempts. Guess what, same thing happened. So ultimately I figured that it must be true about the pedalstal. So what I did was remove the pedalstal from the washer and tested it out. It worked fine, problem was the dryer was still on a pedalstal (no problem has ever occured with the dryer), so to make it closer in height what I did was build a platform for the washer out of 2x10"s and 2 layers of 3/4 inch ply. The platform is as if the washer is on the floor because it is not bolted to it. It simply sits on screwed down rubber feet which would have been placed underneath the washer when it was on the floor. If I had to do it all over again I would save the 400+ for the pedalstals and build a full platform for both the washer and dryer for under $50 bucks.

Hi oman321... yeah I did check the rubber piece on the end of the cable, couple times in fact, thought I was going crazy, but I hooked it up to the front of the receiver jack and it works just fine, it is just the back ones, I can look into the jack and I can see that there are pins\pieces missing from them, and the one it does work on, looks bent to me. Like the piece that would snap the connect down

Thanks for the tip on the washer, we definitely need the more energy efficient ones, especially since we have a mound and well system.. the old crappy ones would have cost more to keep running.

I do agree about the pedestals, the builder told us the same thing... If I remember correctly there were 200 bucks a piece, so 400 total like you said. The builder has built (through the cabinet company) a box specifically for this. It is about 200 bucks, but it is the same material, stain, quality that all my cabinets are done in, so we are probably going to go that route...

https://g7fkhq.bay.livefilestore.com/y1pZsw2QpGeZ6S3HrFigmuBfQjEKePPEY-Jxa1Zfvxqw5arXGGZT43Ej_kORZuCnV7BkANB1p3pHoevtR1pvtEu-g/DSC05580.jpg[/QUOTE]

Just out of curiosity, how do attach the crown molding to an area that is below the ceiling. I would love to do this to my theater but I am wondering how you attach it so the top doesn't fall down. Do you use triangle cut boards behind the crown that are attached to the wall and then attach the crown to that? Thanks!

the picture is a little deceiving... there is too parts to the crown molding, one is the molding itself, the other on the bottom side is a piece of trim wood as well.. This is what nails up through the ceiling into the 2x4's that were installed when the framing went up. The molding just nails to that.. When I was up there I think I seen some support brackets as well... I am off on Wed-Fri to unpack, I can pull the ladder out and go up there and take some pictures for you

Glad to see your still around.

One of these days you'll get around to being able to watch an entire movie. I have moved a number of times, the 5 1/2 years in my current home is the longest I have lived in one place since my graduation from high school. I completely understand about having other things to do after a move. I feel your pain! Good luck with the unpacking!

Regards,

RTROSE

This is number 14 on my moves.... i f'n hate moving....

Contacted Onkyo parts and they said since it is out of warranty it is not covered (I figured that) but I can order the parts and replace the jacks myself. Jacks are 5 bucks a piece... so I think I should have any issues getting the P.O approved by my accounting department.

Hey guys, it has been a long time since I posted. I have been very busy with the new house a new job and the wife and kids so I have been sort of out of it.

I have been using my home theater room at least once to twice a week so I feel like I am getting my value out of it.

Now I am trying to get back into tuning my theater and I have many questions. First thing I would like to start with is Audio. There are so many settings and audio formats I am not even sure where I should start reading. I have the HD20 Direct TV HD receiver hooked up to my Onkyo TX-SR706 receiver via compenent cable for video and optical for audio. I am trying to figure out what is the best setting I can choose on the receiver for audio. There are so many settings and I keep fliping through them, but not sure which one is the best. Best is probably realitve, I guess I mean what would be a native setting for HD Programming. I had thought my old receiver would switch settings based on the single that came in, does this receiver do that? Is there anything like upscale for video pertaining to audio? Anyone have some good links on where to start reading about audio formats like what is old, what is new, what priority should you use, etc.... Ok that is enough for now.
Thanks

I figured out what was wrong with my receiver automatic speaker setup I had a while back. Turns out I had speakers connected wrong. I only have 5.1 and I mistakenly plugged in the surround speakers to the surround back speaker connection. This is the first 7.1 receiver I had and I think I assumed since the speakers are in back that is where they need to be plugged in :). Anyways, once I re-connected them to the proper jack the test completed successfully and now they sound much better.

I have my sub (MTX PSW-101B) hooked up to my Onkyo receiver via the front l\r speaker wire connections. This was the old typical setup where the speaker wires would go through the sub first, then from the sub to the front speakers. I had to continue doing this because there was no sub speaker wire connections, only the banana type jack. I was wondering if I could take the speaker wire from my sub and solder on a banana type jack so I can plug it into the sub out banana jack of the receiver. Right now I don't feel like I am getting enough decent base in the room. I could turn the bass up on the sub itself, but I would like to have the receiver control that. Right now after running through the speaker setup on the receiver it doesn't find the sub (because it is not plugged into the sub jack). I am not sure if this would even make a difference but I think it would.... I am still waiting for the approval of my PO for new speakers... Still recuperating cost from building the house...

I have my sub (MTX PSW-101B) hooked up to my Onkyo receiver via the front l\r speaker wire connections. This was the old typical setup where the speaker wires would go through the sub first, then from the sub to the front speakers. I had to continue doing this because there was no sub speaker wire connections, only the banana type jack. I was wondering if I could take the speaker wire from my sub and solder on a banana type jack so I can plug it into the sub out banana jack of the receiver. Right now I don't feel like I am getting enough decent base in the room. I could turn the bass up on the sub itself, but I would like to have the receiver control that. Right now after running through the speaker setup on the receiver it doesn't find the sub (because it is not plugged into the sub jack). I am not sure if this would even make a difference but I think it would.... I am still waiting for the approval of my PO for new speakers... Still recuperating cost from building the house...

I think you are mixing up some terms.

A "banana jack" is a plug that fits into a binding post. The binding post is typically located on a speaker, receiver or amplifier.

On a powered subwoofer you generally have an RCA plug that you connect to the receiver with an RCA cable to get the sound to the sub. So if your MTX has its own amplifier built-in it should have this connection already. All you should need to do is connect a cable between the sub and the receiver.

Thanks In2Photos,

Yeah the receiver has the typical rca out. The MTX sub is powered as I have to plug it into the wall. but this is a really old sub + 15 years. The only connects on the back of the sub are speaker wire connections only. There is two sets of speaker wires, one for the left in and one for right in, then there is another set of two speaker wires to go out to the satelights (speakers) for front and left. If I remember correctlly, way back when (+15 years) there was no typical rca sub woofer port, you typically hooked up the sub inline with the front\left speakers (there is also a cross over knob on the back which I have to figure out what to set it to yet). So right now I have to control the sub volume on the back of the sub, not the receiver. The Audysee setup doesn't see the sub (of course because it is not plugged into the RC jack because I don't have that type of connection out of the sub).
So anyways I was just wondering if I could just connect the sub speaker wires (l\r) to a RCA cable and plug that into the receivers rca port. I know this is probably not ideal, but didn't know if I could get a way with it. These old speakers cost a pretty penny way back when and actually still sound pretty good (although not as good as say Klipsch which is what I want to get).

Thanks In2Photos,

Yeah the receiver has the typical rca out. The MTX sub is powered as I have to plug it into the wall. but this is a really old sub + 15 years. The only connects on the back of the sub are speaker wire connections only. There is two sets of speaker wires, one for the left in and one for right in, then there is another set of two speaker wires to go out to the satelights (speakers) for front and left. If I remember correctlly, way back when (+15 years) there was no typical rca sub woofer port, you typically hooked up the sub inline with the front\left speakers (there is also a cross over knob on the back which I have to figure out what to set it to yet). So right now I have to control the sub volume on the back of the sub, not the receiver. The Audysee setup doesn't see the sub (of course because it is not plugged into the RC jack because I don't have that type of connection out of the sub).
So anyways I was just wondering if I could just connect the sub speaker wires (l\r) to a RCA cable and plug that into the receivers rca port. I know this is probably not ideal, but didn't know if I could get a way with it. These old speakers cost a pretty penny way back when and actually still sound pretty good (although not as good as say Klipsch which is what I want to get).

You could try it, but I doubt it will work and here is why. An RCA connection is a low level signal. Speaker wires are considered a high level signal. Amplifiers are designed to receive a specific input to achieve a desired output. If you use a low level output (RCA out of receiver) to the high level input (speaker inputs in the sub) you are miss-matched. The results in this case would likely be a very low output from the subwoofer.

One reason you may be experiencing a low amount of bass is due to the front channels being set to "small" on the receiver. This sends a signal that has been crossed over and the bass is stripped out of the signal.

You could add an amplifier inline or replace the amp on the sub with a newer unit, but in all honesty it would be best to replace your sub due to its age. I expect the results will be extremely noticeable.

One other thing you could try is to set your front speakers to large so that the full range signal goes to the sub. Problem with this is that you would then need to use the outputs of the sub to run to your front speakers if they can't handle the bass. Not ideal by any means.

Oh man... :o
It has been so long since I looked at the back of the subwoofer, I assume what I said was accurate. Here is a picture of the back of the sub.
I do see two RCA jacks one L-LOW and one R-LOW of course they are not hooked up. Current the speaker wires are coming out of the L\R fronts into the bottom connections of the sub woofer which are labeled R-HIGH and L-HIGH. Then from there the wires go from the sub to the L\R satellite. I am assuming this is wrong and I have been hooking it up that way for years. Should I be using the RCA jacks instead? if so there is only a single (I assume stereo) jack on the back of the receiver, would I use a "Y" cable to connect it?
Also notice the Polarity set to Reverse, I am 90% sure the cables are plugged in right (red to red, black to black). if that is true this should be set to Normal, correct?
I am also wondering what x-over freq this should be set to, I never know so I leave it in the middle. Right now I adjust the bass by turning both the gain and subwoofer x-over freq knobs.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2766/4223036601_7518e34c3a_b.jpg

I also include some pic of the receiver speaker settings. I couldn't find where to set "small" unless I am in the wrong menus. But again, I don't think these values are correct (how the hell would i know, right? :)) I was able to run there the audysee speaker setup wizard and I think most of these setting came from that. I was able to find a real old owners manual of the subwoofer (all of about 10 pages) but it really didn't explain what to use, just connect to high if you want high and low if you want low, etc.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2598/4223087387_d231456cf4_b.jpg

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http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2647/4223089883_71f2684857_b.jpg

Anyways any help would be greatly appreciated (again). I do think after running the speaker setup it does sound much better than it did...

Hey buddie,

Glad to see that you have not forgotten us here at AVS even if you are only here because you have issues. Just kidding of course.

I am not familiar with the Onkyo set up you are showing on the screen shots, however I would set your x-over somewhere near 100 hz and see if that makes a difference. On the screen where it shows the sub at 80 Hz can you go in and change that or is that just showing you what it is set at?

My sub has both the left and right RCA inputs and I can use both, but it only requires one, the right input, to actually work correctly. You might want to try to connect your receivers sub out to the left and right RCA in on your sub to see if that makes any difference. One word of caution. Randomly hooking up connectors if not done carefully can cause or potentially cause damage to your equipment. Make sure your sub and receiver is off and the volume all the way down and then turn up the volume slowly and carefully listening and watching for trouble.

Of course I need to add this disclaimer. I am not a professional nor do I play one on TV so use my advise your on your own peril! Oh, and good luck!

Regards,

RTROSE

You will want to run an RCA cable from the LFE output on your receiver to the RCA (low) inputs on the Subwoofer. You can split the RCA cable to both the Left and Right of the sub, but the manual for the sub should say whether to plug into the L or R when you have a mono signal. For paradigm subs it gives a stronger signal by using a splitter and so it is recommended, I am not sure with yours.

Remove all the speaker wires plugged into the sub. Run speaker wire directly to the front Left and Right speakers (as well as your other speakers, if not done yet).

You then need to set the receiver to subwoofer: yes (based on the screen shots, it's set to no). It will then (probably give you the option to run your front with a crossover (select 80Hz)

the subwoofers crossover (dial on the far right) should be set to 150 (turned all the way to the right) because your receiver will handle the crossover duties. The volume should start low,but increase it (as RTROSE says) slowly to make sure everything is working OK. The polarity on the sub should be set to whichever gives you more bass at your seating position, play something with bass and switch between the 2 and pick the one with the most output. You will probably want to set sub volume control about halfway and then run the calibation program (audyssey) to set all the speaker levels, including the subwoofers.

Hope this helps (same disclaimer as RT!)

Greg

You will want to run an RCA cable from the LFE output on your receiver to the RCA (low) inputs on the Subwoofer. You can split the RCA cable to both the Left and Right of the sub, but the manual for the sub should say whether to plug into the L or R when you have a mono signal. For paradigm subs it gives a stronger signal by using a splitter and so it is recommended, I am not sure with yours.

Remove all the speaker wires plugged into the sub. Run speaker wire directly to the front Left and Right speakers (as well as your other speakers, if not done yet).

You then need to set the receiver to subwoofer: yes (based on the screen shots, it's set to no). It will then (probably give you the option to run your front with a crossover (select 80Hz)

the subwoofers crossover (dial on the far right) should be set to 150 (turned all the way to the right) because your receiver will handle the crossover duties. The volume should start low,but increase it (as RTROSE says) slowly to make sure everything is working OK. The polarity on the sub should be set to whichever gives you more bass at your seating position, play something with bass and switch between the 2 and pick the one with the most output. You will probably want to set sub volume control about halfway and then run the calibation program (audyssey) to set all the speaker levels, including the subwoofers.

Hope this helps (same disclaimer as RT!)

Greg

+1 for what Greg says (and RT as well).

Note to self, next time you spend 30 minutes going through the audysee speaker setup wizard for 6 positions do not kick the mic cord during calculation... !@#$!@#$

Ok, I read through all 8 pages of the subwoofer manual :) here are some things it said:

Installation
Depending on the type of equipment in your system, your MTX subwoofer may be installed either by using high level or low level inputs. Both inputs combine the right and left channels. The resulting signal is passed through a variable 50Hz to 150Hz (12dB/Octave) low pass filter for seamless matching of the subwoofer to main or satellite speakers. Note: do not use both low level and high level inputs simultaneously.

Connections using your subwoofer's high level inputs
This is the easiest method of installing the subwoofer in your system. When using the subwoofer's high level outputs, your main/satellite speakers will operate through a variable 50, 100, 150Hz (12/dB octave) high pass filter resulting in increased dynamic range and power handling, lower distortion and improved overall system performance.
Then there is a simple graph (below)

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2562/4223571341_348d218e54_o.jpg

Connections using your subwoofer's low level inputs
An alternative to using the high level inputs is to connect the system using the low level inputs. This can be accomplished by using a set of standard RCA type Y cords and splitting the output signal from your preamp allowing both the subwoofer and the main amplifier to be drive with the same signal. However this method supplies a full range signal to the main/satellite speakers.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2544/4223580207_c6b7e21831_o.jpg

Operating Controls
Gain Control: This rotary control adjust the volume level of the subwoofer only and is used to balance the level of the subwoofer with that of your main/satellite speakers
Subwoofer x-over Frequency: This rotary control adjusts the high frequency roll-off of the subwoofer. Continuously variable from 50Hz to 150Hz, it is used to precisely match the subwoofer with the low frequency characteristics of a variety of main/satellite speakers
Satellite x-over frequency: This three position switch adjust the low frequency roll-off of the satellite speakers. Crossover points of 50, 100 and 150Hz are available. For best performance set this control to the lowest setting that will not allow your satellite speakers to distort while playing your system at high volume. Note: this control is functional only when the high level inputs to the subwoofer are used.
Phase control. This two position switch (0 degree/180 degree) allows matching of the subwoofer with that of your main/satellite speakers. Room placement of your main/satellite speakers in relation to your subwoofer effects overall frequency response. Experiment to determine whether the 0 degree of 180 degree positions results in the most natural and full bodied musical reproduction. Male or Female vocals are recommended for this experimentation.
Steps by step operating adjustments.
1. Turn the subwoofer level control to 0, the phase switch to normal and the low pass control to 50Hz.
2. Set the loudness, bass and treble controls on your main amplifier to normal listening positions.
3. Play a familiar CD, record or video soundtrack that has substantial low frequency content.
4. Slowly rotate the gain control clockwise to achieve correct balance between the extreme low frequencies of your subwoofer and the mid-treble signals of your main/satellite speakers
5. Slowly rotate the subwoofers x-over frequency control clockwise to achieve the best mid-bass blend. If the mid-bass becomes "boomy" you have gone too far and you should reverse the control counterclockwise to the best balance point.
6. Adjust the phase switch to either normal or reverse to determine which position achieves the fullest mi-bass performance. If the mid-bass becomes "boomy" repeat the low pass adjustments outline in step 6 to find the best performance setting.
7. Note: The subwoofer's level control is designed to control the balance between your subwoofer and main/satellite speakers and SHOULD NOT be used as a substitute for the bass or loudness controls on your amplifier or receiver. Adjust the subwoofer's level for smoothest low frequency performance. If more bass is desired, advance the bass and/or loudness controls on your main amplifier or receiver.

Ok, so I tried to connect a Y cable to the standard sub out on the receiver and I get no sound at all. I then tried to connect it to the pre-amp out and I do get sound. Should this be the case?

I set the subwoofer x-over frequency to full, gain to half and left polarity on reverse (I left the satellite x-over frequency alone since this control is not active if you use the low inputs). I then ran through the speaker setup wizard (twice) and this time it does find the subwoofer, although when it got to the sub it was VERY low volume level. The screen shots below show the results of the setup (I only posted the ones that actually changed from the previous post).

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2658/4223985817_ae8611a27b_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4039/4224753178_5eaebf9df5_b.jpg

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http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2565/4224753708_9062a3b213_b.jpg

RTROSE
On the screen where it shows the sub at 80 Hz can you go in and change that or is that just showing you what it is set at?
Yes I can go in and change all of these settings, the screen shots above shows what the setup wizard set them at. Should I change any of these settings? One thing I noticed that if you change them to 80Hz you will see the THX name behind it, I am assuming this is what THX recommends.

IN2PHOTOS
One reason you may be experiencing a low amount of bass is due to the front channels being set to "small" on the receiver. This sends a signal that has been crossed over and the bass is stripped out of the signal.
I still can't seem to find the "small" speaker setting, Do you happen to know where it is or if it is called something else?

It is hard to tell from the crappy cell phone pictures but I took the sub out of the box enclosure and putting it off center a bit. I keep reading post that says don't place it in the corner... It is really tight sitting up on the stage, just below the black frame of the screen.

What does it sound like now? Well after switching over to RCA cables and moving the sub out and running through the setup wizard I would have to say it sounds really good, better than it did before. I have the receiver set to THX Cinema mode which seems to be one of the best sounding listening modes. I did have to turn the base gain up to about 75% to get the type of base I was looking for. The bass sounds good but I think it is not "punchy" enough. it sounds to open (if that would be the right word to use). Seems to fill the room too much. If I crank it up higher I feel the base more, but it distorts so I need to back it down, but I don't feel the heart pounding bass then. The distortion is more of the walls shaking (or seems like it) but mainly the cheap metal lights on the walls, they rattle when the volume is up. I am going to have to figure out someway to muffle that sound.

Ok, so I tried to connect a Y cable to the standard sub out on the receiver and I get no sound at all. I then tried to connect it to the pre-amp out and I do get sound. Should this be the case?


Did you set the sub out to On before making this connection? You should be using a single cable from the sub out on the receiver to the Y-cable at the subwoofer.


I set the subwoofer x-over frequency to full, gain to half and left polarity on reverse (I left the satellite x-over frequency alone since this control is not active if you use the low inputs). I then ran through the speaker setup wizard (twice) and this time it does find the subwoofer, although when it got to the sub it was VERY low volume level. The screen shots below show the results of the setup (I only posted the ones that actually changed from the previous post).

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2658/4223985817_ae8611a27b_b.jpg
I would not run your front speakers "full band". Instead, set them at 80Hz, same with the surrounds. Is your center very small? 150Hz is high.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4039/4224753178_5eaebf9df5_b.jpg


http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2231/4224753432_ed80c87785_b.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2565/4224753708_9062a3b213_b.jpg


These are probably fine.


RTROSE

Yes I can go in and change all of these settings, the screen shots above shows what the setup wizard set them at. Should I change any of these settings? One thing I noticed that if you change them to 80Hz you will see the THX name behind it, I am assuming this is what THX recommends.
See my comments above, but 80Hz for fronts and surrounds. Check the center as it seems high. What kind of speaker is it?

IN2PHOTOS

I still can't seem to find the "small" speaker setting, Do you happen to know where it is or if it is called something else?


For Onkyo it appears that they do not use that terminology. Just follow my advice about the settings above.


It is hard to tell from the crappy cell phone pictures but I took the sub out of the box enclosure and putting it off center a bit. I keep reading post that says don't place it in the corner... It is really tight sitting up on the stage, just below the black frame of the screen.

What does it sound like now? Well after switching over to RCA cables and moving the sub out and running through the setup wizard I would have to say it sounds really good, better than it did before. I have the receiver set to THX Cinema mode which seems to be one of the best sounding listening modes. I did have to turn the base gain up to about 75% to get the type of base I was looking for. The bass sounds good but I think it is not "punchy" enough. it sounds to open (if that would be the right word to use). Seems to fill the room too much. If I crank it up higher I feel the base more, but it distorts so I need to back it down, but I don't feel the heart pounding bass then. The distortion is more of the walls shaking (or seems like it) but mainly the cheap metal lights on the walls, they rattle when the volume is up. I am going to have to figure out someway to muffle that sound.
I think once you change the settings on the front speakers to 80Hz from full range that might help some. You might also want to start adding some sound absorption panels and bass traps to help the sound as well.

Did you set the sub out to On before making this connection? You should be using a single cable from the sub out on the receiver to the Y-cable at the subwoofer.
Yes I did have the sub on (although I had to double check :)). This concerns me a little I am not sure if that is suppose to be working and if so if I should be using that jack. I plugged a Y cable directly to the back of the receiver so single towards receiver and Y towards sub.

See my comments above, but 80Hz for fronts and surrounds. Check the center as it seems high. What kind of speaker is it?
I have a Yamaha NS-AC85 for a center

I set all the channels to 80Hz although I am not sure I can tell the difference. I notice the one setup screen when I turned the fronts from full to 80Hz the Double Bass option grey's out.

You might also want to start adding some sound absorption panels and bass traps to help the sound as well.
Yeah I think that is the next thing to tackle right after I fix the stupid shacking lights. I don't think the builder could have picked a worse set of lights to have in a theater room. They are made of curved piece of metal with a curved sheet of glass that is attached by metal holding clips which are not tight and shake and rattle with only a hint of bass in the room.

This concerns me a little I am not sure if that is suppose to be working and if so if I should be using that jack.
Well it sounds like that I should be using the pre-out jack.
The manual says:
"No Matter how many speakers you use, a powered sub-woofer is recommended for a really powerful and solid bass."
"Using a suitable cable, connect the AV receiver/AV amplifier's PRE OUT: SUBWOOFER to an input on yoru powered subwoofer as shown (graphic of the pre-out subwoofer jack). If your subwoofer is unpowered and you're using an external amplifier, connect the PRE OUT SUBWOOFER to an input on the amp".

I have to say connecting the sub this way does sound a lot better than inline with the front L\R speakers. That and moving the sub out of the box in the left hand corner over three feet (right under screen) seems to really make an impact.

Here is a picture of the rattling lights I was talking about. As you can see there is a sheet of glass connected to a sheet of metal using these little metal clips that are just pressed down against the glass. I was going to try and tape them down a little tighter but I just ended up re-bending all of them and push them down more tightly. That actually worked quite well.
Now the only annoying sound I hear is the wife telling me to turn it down... :)
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2744/4241150253_0cc5aac31b_b.jpg

I would suggest using that foam insulation tape on the light fixtures. You can find in any of the big box stores and it comes in many sizes and thicknesses. Might be easier on your glass than tightly clamping down the metal supports.

You might as well get used to hearing "turn it down" seems to be a common phrase around the RTROSE household!

Regards,

RTROSE

What, no updates? You'd think you've been workin' too hard. :D

No, he only posts when he needs something from us.........J/K of course. It would be nice to hear if my suggestion of foam tape worked for the rattling lights.

Regards,

RTROSE

No, he only posts when he needs something from us.........J/K of course. It would be nice to hear if my suggestion of foam tape worked for the rattling lights.

Regards,

RTROSE

I was also kidding. He works for my company, and he's been working a ton of OT the past few months - nights and weekends for a client. He hasn't had much time to do anything else lately... ;)

I think he did solve his rattling light problem though. Not sure what he did. I'll get on him to respond.

I was also kidding. He works for my company, and he's been working a ton of OT the past few months - nights and weekends for a client. He hasn't had much time to do anything else lately... ;)

I think he did solve his rattling light problem though. Not sure what he did. I'll get on him to respond.

Well then it is YOUR fault that he has not had enough time to post. You can be happy though he is not using company time to surf! My bosses have no idea I'm on this forum and I like it that way!:D Of course I don't talk badly about my bosses, because I love them....:D:D:D:D and I don't "talk shop" here on the forum or post while I'm working so I'm safe!

Let the poor man have a day or two off so he can post will ya!

Regards,

RTROSE

I haven't been getting any email notifications.. weird..

schmidtwi is not my boss, he is JUST THE SALES GUY :)
So he makes money off of me working all those long hours, go figure. how about giving me a cut... or buy me some new speakers to show your appreciation.. haha

Anyways, I haven't done anything different with the lights since the last time I just pushed them really tight, that seemed to work, haven't heard from them since. I will keep the foam tape idea in mind, although I would just like to replace the lights all together, that was one area I didn't want to spend a lot of money up front so the builder just put in a cheap set he found.

I haven't been able to really do anything lately due to the long hours, but I still try to watch 1 to 2 movies a week at least... Next project might be to add a dimmer switch, can't afford the expensive ones right now so it will be a cheap Home Depot dimmer with a wireless controller for now.

Oh, my wife told me that a friend of a friend was asking if I wanted any movie posters, he works for a movie theater and has some from last year he was going to throw out, he was going to sell for a buck a piece if I wanted any! I guess they are all from last year. i told my wife to buy all of them and I would sell the ones I didn't want. We will see if that pans out.

Anyways, I have to run, have a few hours of work to do tonight yet... Need to move a bunch of VM's off of a improperly formatted (misaligned) data store in VMware to free up disk space as well as to free up some ESX hosts that are coming off of lease, sounds fun doesn't it...

When we put our house up for sale before we moved into the new house I moved half of my old house into a friends basement for several months. Now I can return the favor as he is moving and needs to store his stuff in my basement. Besides a Ferrari in my garage he is storing his home theater equipment. Now my friend has a very nice and expense set of Paradigm speakers. I told him I was more than happy to store them and I will ensure they are tested periodically to make sure they are still good.

I just got done hooking the speakers up and listening to them and OH MY GOD.... Unbelievable... what a difference a few thousands dollars make :).

He also has a nice 100" Stewart screen. I about **** my pants when my wife said "you know what, we should move our son's tv into my daughters room, our tv into my son's room and we should hook up my friends projector and screen in our bedroom!". I immediately ran into my bedroom and looked and said I can totally do it. I was a little disappointed when I went back out and she was laughing at me.... Yeah well little does she know I can just take a day off of work and well... let's just say she will be surprised when she gets home.

Glad to see you are still around. I understand the speaker upgrade, you do get what you pay for er ah store. Welcome to the illness we call upgraditis!

I say go for the projector in the bedroom. Hey she is at work so what can she do about it right?

Regards,

RTROSE

Picked up Avatar on Blue Ray this weekend, watched on Sunday morning and OMG, this movie looked and sounded awesome. Wife still doesn't like these types of movies so she didn't watch it, but I loved it. I could tell it was a Cameron movie, at times I thought it was the sound track to Titanic, not that I mind, I am not affraid in saying I like Titanic as well. I would watch it again tonight if it wasn't three hours long...

Can someone say "upgradeitis"???????? Yeah I can tell from here you have it baaadddd!

Regards,

RTROSE

Yeah I got it bad... hopefully my friend will just forget he leant the speakers to me... :).

I haven't done anything besides watch movies in the theater room lately.. I did buy a cheapy popcorn popper though :)

Well, well, well.........Look what the cat dragged in. Glad to see your still around.

Did your friend ever come for his speakers? Congrats on the popper. Nothing like having some nice fresh popcorn with your movie.

Regards,

RTROSE

Actually he is moving in with his girlfriend in a apartment and they had to sign a year lease.... so I get them for at least a year, I try not to remind him they are here.. hehe

Building a new HTPC for the theater room. Just ordered these components:

HTPC
$99.99 - Intel Core i3-530 Clarkdale 2.93GHz 4MB L3 Cache LGA 1156 73W Dual-Core Desktop Processor BX80616I3530
$89.99 - ASRock H55M Pro LGA 1156 Intel H55 HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
$64.99 - G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBNQ
$85.00 - Plextor PX-64M1S 2.5" 64GB SATA II Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) - OS Drive
$139.98 (69.99 a piece) - Seagate Barracuda LP ST32000542AS 2TB 5900 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard - Drive -Bare Drive x2 for DATA
$79.99 - OCZ ModXStream Pro OCZ700MXSP 700W ATX12V V2.2 / EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply compatible with core i7
$79.99 - LG WH10LS30K 10X Blu-ray Burner - LightScribe Support - Bulk - OEM
$0 - Silverstone LC20B case (already had one laying around).
Total $639.93

With some extra's
$107.21 - Gyration GYR4101US Black 88-key Normal Keys 15 hot keys Function Keys 2.4GHz RF Wireless Mini Air Music Remote w/ MotionSense & Compact Keyboard
$185.00 - Hauppauge 1212 HD-PVR High Definition Personal Video Recorder
$32.99 - D-Link DGS-2208 10/100/1000Mbps 8-Port Desktop Green Ethernet Switch 8 x RJ45 8K MAC Address Table 144KB per Device Packet Buffer Memory Buffer Memory


Grand Total $965.13

Everything from new egg accept the HD PVR (Amazon), I had some Gift Certificates I had to use up.

He Lives!

Welcome back stranger! You better post some pics of your HTPC build. Glad to see you still visit these here parts!

Regards,

RTROSE

He Lives!

Welcome back stranger! You better post some pics of your HTPC build. Glad to see you still visit these here parts!

Regards,

RTROSE

Hey RTROSE, yeah I am still alive :)
I have been super swamped at work and by the time I get home I don't have much time for anything.

I will post some pics of the new HTPC as I go along.

Give you two guesses what this is...

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5164/5209752973_a419c1ff59.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4133/5209753501_0e35d49787.jpg

I heard a loud pop and vibration noise coming from my Samsung DLP TV in the living room. I thought the lamp blew, but I could still see the picture, I turned it off and opened it up and found the color wheel broke. You can see the shard of glass fallen in the middle of the color wheel circle.

I have no clue how much it will cost to fix. I haven't told the wife yet because she is in bed already after shopping all last night and this morning for black friday. The TV is probably 5 years old by now, was a pretty nice one when I got it. It still only has DVI on it and no HDMI. Course I have been wanting a new living room tv for a while now... just bad timing...

Interesting, I found a How to replace the color wheel in your samsung DLP TV (http://www.jangro.com/electronics/samsung-dlp-replace-color-wheel/#disqus_thread) guide.
Looks like the part is about $100. I already have half of it taken apart already, I guess I will give that a shot first.

Ouch! Well bad timing and all, but there are some good flat panel deals out there. I would say for a hundred bucks that would be a pretty reasonable fix. It has been about five or so years ago I was looking at DLP tv's and Samsung were the ones I like the most. Did not ever get one, but always thought they were very nice TV's. Good luck with the fix.

Oh, and good thought on not telling the S.O. about the untimely demise after a hard day of shopping.

Good luck.

Regards,

RTROSE

I end up finding a new color wheel for only $85. I Took some pictures of the TV repair process. I followed the guide and it really wasn't that bad. If you are familiar with taking apart a computer you could do this fix.

There was about 20 screws I had to unscrew, here the back of the TV is off and the first circuit board on the left is pulled and swung to the side.
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_I736LwG8S_I/TPme3aa2DKI/AAAAAAAAE2U/K3FP9S69Q-4/s640/IMAG0255.jpg

When pulling out the next set of electronics you can see the lens is tucked away inside some slotted foam.
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_I736LwG8S_I/TPme4GcWKqI/AAAAAAAAE2Y/dqMcwcVCSyU/s640/IMAG0266.jpg

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_I736LwG8S_I/TPme40dbxJI/AAAAAAAAE2c/lHF7QvsI90U/s640/IMAG0271.jpg

The color wheel is right under the green circuit board
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_I736LwG8S_I/TPme5jaoaNI/AAAAAAAAE2g/YiXgFQyM1Fw/s640/IMAG0273.jpg

Color wheel cover removed
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_I736LwG8S_I/TPme6rD6XdI/AAAAAAAAE2k/8a080s438_g/s640/IMAG0277.jpg

There is the dirty little bugger
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_I736LwG8S_I/TPme7Vk43jI/AAAAAAAAE2o/iP8CG4Dc4Ow/s640/IMAG0280.jpg

Wheel removed
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_I736LwG8S_I/TPme8ML5sDI/AAAAAAAAE2s/PMANqVURf9A/s640/IMAG0282.jpg

Up close shot of what the broken wheel looks like
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_I736LwG8S_I/TPme8-DFTuI/AAAAAAAAE2w/3T2Pz237n7Y/s640/IMAG0286.jpg

And finally the new color wheel installed.
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_I736LwG8S_I/TPme-CHR0EI/AAAAAAAAE24/1iDHzaCpdIs/s640/IMAG0294.jpg

And the final product.
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_I736LwG8S_I/TPme9jcOr8I/AAAAAAAAE20/Bam1zzO4Sds/s640/IMAG0293.jpg

The guide says it should take about an hour, well it took me about 6 hours since after I put everything back it would not turn on. I had to unscrew everything again to find out what went wrong, I re-did all the connections I removed and still no luck. I was just about to tell the wife, oh well it was worth a shot, when I noticed a plug in one of my pictures hidden behind another one that I forgot to plug in. Note to self, when taking somethign like this apart always take pictures. I just used my camera phone. After plugging that one in and again putting everything back together I am pleased to say IT WORKS!!!

Everything is back to normal, well better than normal because there is no longer a faint high pitch squeal that has been getting worse day by day until it broke.

So $85 and 6 hours later I have a functioning TV again. Much better than paying 400+ for a repair man to come out and fix, and far cheaper than a brand new TV.

WAF is up and she was impressed I could fix something. :)

I end up finding a new color wheel for only $85. I Took some pictures of the TV repair process. I followed the guide and it really wasn't that bad. If you are familiar with taking apart a computer you could do this fix.

There was about 20 screws I had to unscrew, here the back of the TV is off and the first circuit board on the left is pulled and swung to the side.
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_I736LwG8S_I/TPme3aa2DKI/AAAAAAAAE2U/K3FP9S69Q-4/s640/IMAG0255.jpg

When pulling out the next set of electronics you can see the lens is tucked away inside some slotted foam.
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_I736LwG8S_I/TPme4GcWKqI/AAAAAAAAE2Y/dqMcwcVCSyU/s640/IMAG0266.jpg

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_I736LwG8S_I/TPme40dbxJI/AAAAAAAAE2c/lHF7QvsI90U/s640/IMAG0271.jpg

The color wheel is right under the green circuit board
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_I736LwG8S_I/TPme5jaoaNI/AAAAAAAAE2g/YiXgFQyM1Fw/s640/IMAG0273.jpg

Color wheel cover removed
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_I736LwG8S_I/TPme6rD6XdI/AAAAAAAAE2k/8a080s438_g/s640/IMAG0277.jpg

There is the dirty little bugger
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_I736LwG8S_I/TPme7Vk43jI/AAAAAAAAE2o/iP8CG4Dc4Ow/s640/IMAG0280.jpg

Wheel removed
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_I736LwG8S_I/TPme8ML5sDI/AAAAAAAAE2s/PMANqVURf9A/s640/IMAG0282.jpg

Up close shot of what the broken wheel looks like
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_I736LwG8S_I/TPme8-DFTuI/AAAAAAAAE2w/3T2Pz237n7Y/s640/IMAG0286.jpg

And finally the new color wheel installed.
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_I736LwG8S_I/TPme-CHR0EI/AAAAAAAAE24/1iDHzaCpdIs/s640/IMAG0294.jpg

And the final product.
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_I736LwG8S_I/TPme9jcOr8I/AAAAAAAAE20/Bam1zzO4Sds/s640/IMAG0293.jpg

The guide says it should take about an hour, well it took me about 6 hours since after I put everything back it would not turn on. I had to unscrew everything again to find out what went wrong, I re-did all the connections I removed and still no luck. I was just about to tell the wife, oh well it was worth a shot, when I noticed a plug in one of my pictures hidden behind another one that I forgot to plug in. Note to self, when taking somethign like this apart always take pictures. I just used my camera phone. After plugging that one in and again putting everything back together I am pleased to say IT WORKS!!!

Everything is back to normal, well better than normal because there is no longer a faint high pitch squeal that has been getting worse day by day until it broke.

So $85 and 6 hours later I have a functioning TV again. Much better than paying 400+ for a repair man to come out and fix, and far cheaper than a brand new TV.

WAF is up and she was impressed I could fix something. :)

Good that you fix it cheaply. I have a 65" rear RGB projection TV I bought 6 years ago, still working fine except the front screen shield was cracked at one corner by kid. The TV set is huge, heavy and takes up a big space in my family room. I don't know what to do with it. Certainly don't feel like to spend couple of hundreds to replace the shield, but it is not sell-able neither, now it is just sitting there, my son is the only one occasionally watches it.

Great fix. Very nice that the WAF is up and you saved say a grand or so not having to by a new TV. Now you should be able to apply your savings to start upgrading your theater. :D

Thanks for the repair photos. I have done some computer repair and trouble shooting work before, but I do remember the first time I broke into the back of my PC pretty intimidating at first, but now pretty much no sweat.

Regards,

RTROSE

Hi all, I am having a little problem with setting up my projector. I can't seem to avoid having to manually use the mechanical shift to move the picture up and down when switching between 16x9 and 2.35. I know you should be able to save memory locations. One 16x9 and one 2.35 and you can switch between them with a button press on the remote. Yet each time I try to set it up, i have to crank the wheel on the side of the projector. Since it is mostly a projector issue, I posted it in the projector forums here: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=19831229#post19831229
If anyone has any suggestions I would appreciate it.

Thanks

Set down your beer and let go of your crank. It must be operator error... :D

Set down your beer and let go of your crank. It must be operator error... :D


+1

Probably the loose nut behind the lens shift wheel, that or the fact the sub level is WAY TOO HOT! :D

Sorry buddy, that's all I got.

Regards,

RTROSE