Got the entertainment center assembled and put in today. Still have to build the decorative sides, but all the main stuff is done. I drilled 1.75" holes in the back of each the speaker "stalls" for their wires. I used some desk grommets to dress it up (as if anyone can see it :)).

Need to drill the peg holes for the adjustable shelves too.

Time to build the door fronts, but it looks pretty good "as is."

Boy, this was a big hurdle to overcome!

Enjoy some pix...
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/CIMG2927.jpg
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/CIMG2924.jpg
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/CIMG2922.jpg

Looks great Dave. I really love the oak woodwork.

Yes - Fantastic work there. Looks great Dave.

Thanks guys! Im really happy with the oak too.

I finally got the thumbs up from my wife the other day too when she said something only a wife could say, "I know its cost a lot of money, but I really like this room. Its really comfortable." Mostly she digs the microfiber sofas. :) I do too. Now that I purchased leather sofas for upstairs and the microfiber's for downstairs, I can safely say the microfibers blow away leather for pure comfort. I have no doubt the leather will last much longer though.

I owe everyone a construction update soon too. I've slowly been plunking away trying to finish things up...

Havent fallen off the map quite yet.

I touched up a bunch of the ceiling paint that I dinged up when putting in the columns. Glad I still had a smidge of the purple/blue paint left.

I finally decided to tackle my base moldings some more. I had 3 outlets that were in the line of fire of the molding. The adjustable Carlon boxes came in handy now. I adjusted them out a little less than 3/4". Then I built a tiny picture frame around the blue outlet box itself using some scrap 3/4" oak. That allowed me the then notch the molding around the picture frame and get everything dry fit before staining and installing. I used my jigsaw to make the notch cuts.

My kids DS's in full charge. They were bummed when I killed the power to the HT while I played around with the outlets. :)
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/out3.jpg

Outlet behind the sofa on the riser.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/out1.jpg

This one took a little doing. The outlet is in an irregular spot so I just had to be patient and make little cuts until I was happy with the fit. Little crooked in the pic, but Ill fix that up when I stain n nail them in.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/out2.jpg

After some ordering chaos with Parts Express, I finally got my 3/8" magnets. I am using this to make my "speaker grills" on the entertainment center. Wow, those little magnets are strong! Ive struggled a bit to figure out a way to attach the magnets on the cabinet and have them align closely with magnets on the grill frame.

I first used 3/4" x 3/4" little blocks of oak and drilled a 3/8" hole with a forstner bit. The magnets were hot glued into the wood block. No particular reason for hot glue other than it was my latest toy I wanted to try out. The blocks of wood/magnet got glued to the corners of the cabinet. I made sure the magnet itself was flush perfectly with the front edge of the cabinet.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/mag1.jpg

Scratching my pencil on the magnet and then putting my grill frame over the magnet left me an imprint of where to drill for the matching magnet hole. Wasnt sure I could measure it perfectly so I "cheated" with letting the installed magnets be my guide. :)

Here's the back of the frame with the opposing magnet.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/mag2.jpg

Here's the frame "magnetized" in place.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/mag3.jpg

OK, the funny part of this has been getting my magnets in the entertainment center to stay in place! The magnets are so strong that when I pulled the frame off a few times, the little blocks of wood that I wood glued in, just popped right off the cabinet! Wow. I think I need to make my little blocks a bit deeper into the cabinet to give more surface area for me to glue it on stronger.

The reason for the hot glue gun was I want to use it to attach my leftover acoustic fabric to the frames. Didnt want a bunch of staples on the back if I can help it. I figured out that hot glue is messy though so Im sure to have fun with trying not to get that everywhere when attaching the fabric.

First things first, stain the base molding!

BTW, I found some inexpensive crushed black velvet at one of the local fabric stores (I know its unmanly to say I frequent fabric stores now. :)). I was thinking of covering the rest of the fireplace brickwork with it. Try to pleat it like a valance over the top of the screen and then drape it down the sides of the screen and wrap it around the side into the entry way (where theres still floor to ceiling brick to hide). Maybe sew on some gold fringe onto the bottom.

Anyway, I need some ideas as to how to hang the fabric from the ceiling for a pinch-pleated look. I really dont want to drill more holes in the brick. I figured I could somehow attach it from the drywall on the ceiling, but how? Need some extra brain power for ideas. Help!

Easy.

Google "ceiling pleat hook" or just "pleat hook." Lots of things come up. Here are a couple.

http://www.accentdraperies.com/safesnap.htm

http://www.beaconfabric.com/vindex.html?cat221.htm

Btw...I too frequent fabric store now. I even have my own sewing machine. :) Nothing wrong with that. Chicks dig a guy who can sew. Well...not really...but that's what I tell myself.

Chicks dig a guy who can sew. Well...not really...but that's what I tell myself.
LOL!

Thanks for the links and ideas. Good stuff. That gets me moving in the right direction. Thanks!

Got back from a week long stay in Dallas on business and I got a new toy to play with for the theater. My dad sent me his rarely used telescope. Its a beauty! Now I have an answer for what I was going to put into the corner of the HT. Of course, a telescope in rainy Seattle might be hard to use sometimes. :) Its a Celestron NexStar 8"
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/p3-3.jpg

I finally built my "speaker grills." Hides all the speakers. Now it appears that my wife and kids are using the shelves, Ill have to make some more covers to hide that stuff. I'm just glad the shelves are coming in handy to keep stuff off the floor. :)
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/p2-8.jpg

I hot glued a little block on the side of the frame and drilled a 1/2" hole through it for mounting the IR repeater sensor. Worked out really well. This is on the center speaker grill.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/p1-9.jpg

After a week on the road, it felt great to kick back in the theater again. Hotel TV's yuck. I was so glad to be back that I finished nailing all the base mouldings and filled in all my nail holes with a dark wax pencil. Yay, another of the "last" touch-up details finished.

The hotel did have ceiling mounted curtains so I got a nice look at what I can get for hanging some curtains around my screen. Ill have to pursue that soon. May have to get the shades for the windows first now that summer is on its way with some extra sunlight.

BTW, I used hot melt glue to attach the acoustic cloth to the frames of the speaker grills. The hot glue worked out great. No staples needed! Went on very fast and easy. I suppose for the wall acoustic panels, hot glue and staples would have been great.

As I suspected, building some extra panels really cleaned up the entertainment center appearance. I really like using the hot melt glue to attach the GOM to the wood frame. Goes on really fast and easy! I debated at one time long ago about building drawers and/or doors in the entertainment center, but I like having these removable panels. I think it helps tie the GOM look together on all 4 sides of the room. Of course, my eye is less distracted now too by whatever stuff is on the shelving. With the lights dimmed all I see is black up there now. :cool:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/panel.jpg

Dude thank you so much for the details in making the your own panels for acoustics ans such this is an easy item to save $$$$. Btw I love the plush look up front.

~Bobby

Dude thank you so much for the details in making the your own panels for acoustics ans such this is an easy item to save $$$$.
Good deal. Glad to help! :)

Finally got around to ordering up some room darkening shades. Couldnt find a good roman shade that fit my rooms color scheme so I went for some straight black honeycomb style shades. Mylar on the inside. Good insulation and no light can get through. Cant go wrong with all black!

Still need to get some crushed velvet to make some curtains around the screen. Thatll be a project for a rainy day.

Today I got my shades finally installed. They are Hunter Douglas Duette Shades. Color: Elite Eclipse - Black Magic (ooooooh, magical :rolleyes: ). Boy, its dark in the room now! "It's like, how much more black could this be? And the answer is none. None more black." - Spinal Tap. :D

The shades are basically flush with the front of the 4x4 post there. Draw strings are next to the post on each side.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/shade1.jpg

You can see the light gap here. Its really inconsequential. 1/4" maybe (thats between the wood post and the shade).
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/shade2.jpg

On the rear window, the shade is flush with the front of the window box. I had to brighten the image because I took the pic with a flash completely in the dark, and the flash wasnt bright enough! :cool:
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/shade3.jpg

Incidentally, you can tell a huge draft difference in the room now when you raise up the blinds. Wheeee! Feel the drafty windows! My wife kept saying how cold it was in the room at night now. We'll see if she notices the difference now, hehe.

David - the entertaiment centre looks great - I'm sure it makes it less distracting when watching movies. The blinds fit right in too.

You can't have much left to do now.

Cheers,
Mark

Blinds look great. It's all coming together nicely.

Thanks!

Yea, the entertainment center definitely removes a lot of eye distractions now. I barely notice it with the dark fabric panel fronts. Its almost a shame that I dont notice it since its one of my favorite things in the theater (sniff), ha.

Yep, really not much left to do at all. I have a couple of drywall dings to smooth over and the velvet curtains around the screen to create, but these are all 'side' projects as far as I'm (and my wife ;) ) concerned now.

Need to work on my wife for the HD Directv DVR now. I know the kids are behind me on this one! ;) Standard TV is so blurry now on a 84" screen! :) Movies look fantastic and then I switch over to the hockey playoffs and yikes!

David,

No post in a while. Anything new?

Nope, not yet. Been busy working away on my yard while the short summers last in Seattle. All 2 weeks of it. :)

I still intend to make some curtains around the screen to finish hiding the brickwork. I'm a bit leary of making my own curtains though. I know I can get some really nice velvet material for them, but Im not a sewing guy and I think theyd have to be custom fit around the screen. I only have about 5" from the ceiling to the screen so I know a standard sized valance for that probably doesnt exist. I'm thinking of getting an adjustable curtain rod along the front for the valance to just loop through and pinch pleat it together as best I can.

Anyone have any experience making their own curtains so I can see some examples?

I was also mentally debating building a short decorate oak "box" along the ceiling line in front of the screen to hide the brick work along the top of the screen. Then I'd only need to have some drapes along the sides of the screen and the wraparound brick where maybe standard length curtains could be used.

In short, Ive been enjoying the theater a lot at night! I also have a mental plan to build a couple of oak end tables. Especially one to house my PS2 thats currently just laying on the floor next to my game center ports on my riser. All in due time. Maybe winter projects (which is coming way too quick).

Thanks for the ping!

Hi, havent had much going on in the HT other than my utter enjoyment of it. :) For anyone wondering if they should have a dedicated HT room in their house. By all means do it!!!

Recently, I gave up several weekends in a row to meet a ridiculous schedule at work. I got pleasantly surprised with a nice bonus check from my boss. What a guy! Anyway, it was timed almost all to coincidentally with my learning about the Panasonic AE-2000. Ooooh, I'm drooling over that 16000:1 contrast spec.

I have the Panny AE-900 and finally had to replace the bulb on it after almost 3000 hours. Couldnt have been happier really with it. However, my eyes are starting to become aware of the loss of detail now in the dark scenes. For sports, its great and clear with DirecTV HD. However, I notice in movies with dark scenes I'm starting to think the image is not bright enough now. Even after changing out the bulb I still think its a little dim.

For my mother in law I bought her a Toshiba 37RV530U. Its contrast is 15000:1, and it looks very impressive even on the SD 4:3 DVD's she has. So I'm really drooling over the Panny AE-2000. Tempting, tempting... Gotta go read the official thread on AVS.

Welcome back

Thanks! I'm always nearby lurking in the darkness. ;)

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/a2.jpg


What kind of moulding is that you have on the inside of your frame? Is it sitting flush with the outter surface of your frames or recessed in a bit? (thinking cover, but cove moulding is usually 3/4" which looks to be what you have for your frames)

Correct. It is a 3/4" cove (gotten off the shelf at the big box stores). It is flush with the 3/4" frame. I had to do some slight sanding in places to make it perfectly flush from variances in the wood, but generally speaking its all flush.

Boy, the slippery slope of technology! I went down the path of the AE2000 projector only to discover the Epson Home Cinema 1080UB. Looks impressive too. The better blacks is attractive to me because the AE 900 washes out dark scenes for me even with a brand new bulb and lots of tweaking of options. Reading about the Epson sounds like its got issues that might drive me nuts. Fan noise being a big deal for me. Not so sure about all this "misconvergence" talk. I clearly need to read more, but its scary to think the manufacturing yields on this are low enough to read about lots of returns. Yikes. :eek: Makes the AE2000 all the more tempting, but dang those black levels on the Epson...

Suffice to say, I found a local Epson dealer that is setting up a demo system for me to go witness in person this Thursday. Hopefully, thatll put at least the Epson to bed one way or another. The local Panasonic dealer hasnt even returned my calls or emails. BOOO!!! :mad: That wont sway my order other than confirming in my mind the "DIY" mentality.

I then realized another slippery slope. My Yamaha RX-v2600 receiver "only" does 1080i/720p. Will I now need a new rcvr to realize the new projectors potential with the PS3 blu-ray? Hmmm, hmmmm. I "think" I can "live with" the 1080i/720p for awhile, but still more stuff to think about and research. Onkyo, Yamaha, or Denon? Hmmm.... One issue in my closet is depth. All those wires get bunched up pretty tight. It is a pain twirling around the unit for access occasionally. A more shallow unit would be great. I like the THX rating on the v2600 and have been really happy with it in general so Ill probably just stick with it if the projector upgrade can improve on the brightness and darkness. BTW, the AE900 is still a great projector. Its amazing how fast these things get obsoleted (just like PCs).

David,

The PT-AE2000 has 3xHDMI inputs. If you could get an extra line to it then your 1080p PS3 problem is solved. I'm sure the Espon has similar inputs as well.

Mike

Mike,

Youre absolutely right! I guess there was a reason for that expansion tube to the projector after all! Geez, I forgot all about it. :)

Well, after much researching and forum reading, I'm taking the plunge on the Epson 1080UB. I couldnt find any place locally that would demonstrate one to me. I had several that "said" they would, but then my calls were never returned, so screw 'em! I did order mine online but its 'local' to me so I may have it tomorrow which would be sweet!

I did prepare and got a Chief RPA-U universal projector mount which should be a nice replacement for my current Chief mount on the Panny AE900.

Of course, now is the time when I need to figure out what to do with the Panny AE900. Guess itll be up on craigslist soon enough. :)

With luck Ill be drooling over my new blacker than blacks on this projector. Why do I sense a quote from Spinal Tap in there somewhere? How much more black can it get? None, none more black.

Got the Epson 1080UB today! Woohoo! Of course, I quickly hung it up after tearing it out of the box, and ripping the AE900 off the ceiling. What can I say? Black is black! In my haste, I grabbed the first Blu-Ray movie I could reach. 1978's classic Superman. Ha. :p

Unfortunately, as Ive mentioned my rcvr only does 1080i so Im not getting full video assault (which I will fix soon enough), but WOW! It's DEFINITELY clearer than the Panny (which I rather liked). Black is definitely black on this projector. Superman is showing that as the 3 amigos float off into the Phantom Zone at the beginning. Space looks like space!

Pics coming soon after I selfishly watch some more stuff. :cool:

I can say that I shut off the harddrive clicking in the projector (i.e. the dynamic iris). Everyone was right about that on the forums. Thats distracting since I dont always watch with my 7.1 at loud volumes. On the contrary, I watch at normal (ear saving) levels. Its a harddrive above your head. No doubt about it.

Convergence issues? Not that I can see unless Im standing with my nose basically touching the screen while I closely examine the pixels. Maybe red is shifted 1 pixel, but its still exceptionally clear.

Oh no! Krypton is falling apart! Boom! Wow, space never looked so good! Incredible. If youre a sci-fi nerd (like me), then this projector ought to make Star Wars (or your favorite sci-fi) shine! Impressive!

Couple of Epson 1080 UB pix...

Still need to take it down and tuck in the cables. Going to pick up a long HDMI cable to feed direct from PS3 to projector for 1080p (drool). Just watching some HDTV basketball. Its a lot crisper than the Panny AE900.

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/CIMG4847.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m8/drostowsky/CIMG4849.jpg

Just digging the image out of the Epson 1080UB! Even after a couple of weeks, I'm still in awe. If youve got the $$ to afford, I recommend it! Definitely a step (heck a few leaps) ahead of the AE900 in brightness, clarity, and richer colors. Of course, blacks are still impressing the heck out of me.

Watching the Stanley Cup in HD with the Pitts Penguins in their black uniforms against the white ice. The ultimate in contrast. Both colors just pop!

I did manage to work around not running a long HDMI cable through my expansion conduit to get HDMI direct from PS3 to the projector. Since my receiver "only" outputs 1080i, I use its component cable I ran from it to the projector for DirecTV (since it can only do 1080i). Then I used HDMI cable that was my rcvr to projector output to go PS3 to projector. Nice!

The only "drawback" now is the audio from the PS3 to the rcvr is now optical (since its HDMI output goes straight to projector). That max's out at 5.1 so Ive lost my 7.1 (which I stupidly discovered I had turned off on the PS audio output settings anyway). With a little research, I'm going to rectify that. Found the FireFold HDMI splitter. Its a tiny thing that I think will help me get everything I need. I can split the HDMI output from the PS3 so one HDMI goes to projector and the other to the rcvr. Boom, got everything, 7.1 & 1080p! Woohoo! All without running a big long cable or buying a new rcvr. :cool:

Got the FireFold HDMI splitter the other day. Works great! So the PS3 output is split with 1 to the projector and the other to the receiver. Got 7.1 AND 1080p. Sweet! Oh yea, next problem. Where are all the 7.1 movies? :) I did get 3:10 to Yuma on Blu-Ray which is apparently 7.1, so thatll be the first true test of all my audio. Cant wait!

Very nice david, way to solve your issues. Got any screen shots to post?