We moved. Had a pretty nice semi dedicated area in the basement rec room in the old house. Left screen and my old projector for the new owner.

I have sound equipment, receiver, HDMI cable, IN72 projector with under 500 hours.... but possible location serious issues. I would like to use the stuff I have for occasional movie night... at a reasonable cost.

1) walk out basement with three french doors and large windows. SEE PICS
2) small dedicated light controlled media room with 50 inch plasma too small for projector
2) No corner to "dedicate for a theater"
3) Nice sitting area See picture...
4) Not willling to darken room with curtains etc, paint walls or put up permanent screen.
5) Only solution I can work out is to buy a recessed ceiling mount Da Lite Da-Lite "Advantage Electrol" screen with HP screen. COST AROUND $1800. Then cut out ceiling tiles, reframe and flush mount the screen. I counld place it about 20ft from ceiling mount projector, narrow angle of viewing will do well HP screen, seating distance about 1.2 to 2X screen width.....

And thats the dilemna. Not willing to spend so much. Tried to find generic "hat" frame to create recess to mount a cheaper retractable screen.. No luck.

So now it up to the AVS members to throw in their suggestions..

Nick

Sell it, you aren't committed.

Don't give up man. Here are some thoughts...

How about a portable tripod screen ?

Why are you not willing to put up curtians on the French doors ? They are pretty cheap at Walmart.

You have a huge looking basement, wish I had that blessing of space.

Why not hang BO curtains in front of the French doors, hang a pull down screen from the ceiling grid. Da-lite has
a "T-bar scissor clips" that grips onto a dropped ceiling T-rails that you could hang the screen case from (they are $12 / pair in black or white. Move the sectional couch to the opposite side of the room & now you have a media room.

Wish I had your space! Just my two cents...

John :D

How about this....

1) pull sectional out just past the bay window area
2) move the table/chairs into the bay window area
3) Remove that built in/dry walled media rack
(messy part - drywall work, carpet, etc)
4) Mount a fixed screen on that wall
5) ceiling mount a PJ above sectional sofa
6) install curtains to close off the bay area for daytime viewing
7) install speakers/gear
8) enjoy :)

Sorry, I know my idea violates your #4 above, but it seems like the best solution for the space.

eBay.... Let me know when the auctions are up.

I appreciate the responses:

selling on ebay seems reasonable.... I doubt I will get much, but Im not quite ready to give up yet.

Curtains? There is a wall of glass beyond the picture.. but not really a concern as we will use at night only and no outside light.
Tripod screen... reasonable idea but kinda cheesy/ low tech.
move seating , pull out media center. A little unpractical for variety of reasons and the lady will say NO.

Has anyone been able to recess mount a screen without having to blow 2k?

Why the concern about a miserable 2k? For one, we have about 5 TV's in the house with 2 dedicated TV/media rooms already.... one for the kids and one for us. (and I hardy watch TV) While a dedicated home theater is a seriously cool notion, ( I was looking through some of the home constructions on this web site- simply amazing) however those of us without the right space, ambient light isssues, or unwilling to give up space for it are left in a quandry and with serious competition from ever larger plasma/LCD screens which are increasing affordable.

Its not about lack of commitment. I loved the old theater down in the "basement" with low light, amazing 7.1 sound and the big screen. I would really like to keep some form of it. But this is a different space.... with a wall of windows, serving as a transit to the pool and outdoor eating area.

Perhaps I should set up a garden movie theater ( nearest neighbour about 100 yards away) or poolside theater we could use a few months/year????? Nice naturally sloping yard, some big trees to hang speakers! see attached!

Sell it, you aren't committed.
sorry, but I 2nd this.... the desire is not there....

going from a family room setup with tons of windows and open to the kitchen to a dedicated room (bedroom), anything is possible. I see so much potential in this house.

Just to close the book.

I bought 2 12 ft ceiling grid pieces (HD $14), mounted an 133" 16:9accuscreen motorized screen (tiger direct $199) above the tile which neatly drops down beteen the 2 inches gap between the two lengths of ceiling grid. Distance 15 to 19 ft from seating. Biggest problem is the screen is stinky, hopefully will go away.

Center channel was an issue, finally put a Monoprice center channel ($43?) in the ceiling tile in front of the screen. Not the greatest but fairly clear voice. I can assure anyone reading this you have to have a center channel to watch movies.... I tried going without one and it did not work

front speakers are my 15 yr old floor standing infinity, but way too far back.

Rear not installed yet but on the way from ebay (ceiling mounted 6.5' infinity $24) .

Side.... uuh my old bose am5 accoustamatics (circa 1985) (no need to bash me, lots of self bashing already), problem is i threw out the woof woof woofer ages ago so i set the crossover to 180Hz.

So if you are reading this, I want to buy the monoprice in ceiling woofer and pair them with the bose but need to find a 2 way crossover at about 800hz or so that wont break the budget. HELP!!!!!

Next project... old computer into HD DVR with a Happauge 1250 tv tuner.

Personally, I would've bought a smaller house, so that I wouldn't have to "go on the cheap". :p

Response makes some logic, (fanatacism) , and financial times have been and will be a little tough until the old house sells, the stock market recovers, my dividends start flowing again etc etc. There also a sense of poverty when your 401K turns into a 101k....

But that is not why I did it on the cheap. It is about having fun putting together a project done relatively inexpensively for a luxury that will be used infrequently. Total hours on my 2 -3 year old projector are under 200!!!. 2 movies/month.

I might as well go to the movie theater if I was going to throw 10k into this project.

PS I splurged and bought a proper ceiling mount for the projector from monoprice. I will post some pics when completed...

Was about to say pics when I read the last sentence. Glad you stuck with and came up with a reasonable solution. The stink should go away from the screen if you leave it dropped for a couple days a lot longer if you keep it retracted.

Personally, I would've bought a smaller house, so that I wouldn't have to "go on the cheap". :p

LOL, if only it was that easy http://z09a0222gshv273.imageshacknow.info/img/3044/e09e0225fewt/tongue.gif

I doubt anyone will read this old thread but I wanted to answer the naysayes on this thead.

So I got the cheapo screen thing working for about $250 with my old infocus IN72. BAD monoprice mount made picture crooked and I could never get it right. Sound was so so.

Over 2009 I bought a network Blue ray and slowly switched to HD. A good peerless mount, upgraded to a panasonic HD projector(unbeleivable, Im still in shock at the image quality), threw out the bose side speakers and put in my unused Paradigm, new Denon AVR 1909, ran cable and CAT5, HD DVR from comcast which also runs to a regular TV nearby in the Gym! Movie night is astounding.

Only problem right now is left side speaker has a buzz in certain frequencies, i think it is vibrating against wall, center speaker is ok but not great. Center speaker near ductwork and sound was going all over the house wich i fixed with some foam/insulation.

PICTUES ATTACHED