This is my home theater. It is nothing more than an unused bedroom that was slightly modified during construction so no closet would be inserted. The equipment and bookcase is the section the closet would have been. The room is 13x12x10ft high. The floor is maple (the ends) hardwood and the curtains are ikea.
The room is 12x13x10 high. So its a 13ft distance to the screen from the back wall. The three surrounds are simply mounted on L-brackets and screwed to wall facing up. I'll post more pix soon.
Update: I removed my Carver TFM-15 amp which was powering my (4) aura bass shakers and replaced it with an old Kenwood a/v receiver sitting in my brother's closet. Initially, I plugged the inputs into CD, thinking now that I had more gain control (aka volume) I could get better responsiveness from the shakers. Yes, there was some but not much more, even when I turned the volume so high I practically shorted the receiver and its goes into protection mode.
Then I changed inputs and plugged the rca jacks into the PHONO input. WOW!! A Huge difference in response! I'm barely above minimum volume and already these shakers are movin!
If you are going down this route and using a stereo receiver to power your shakers, try using the PHONO input and see if the responsiveness of the shakers are better than using TAPE or CD. You'll be quite surprised as I was!
Cheap theaters are the best - no need to spend time worrying about expensive equipment. I've got an AE700u putting up a 96" picture onto 200 dollar Elite matte screen in theater-dark conditions most of the time, using only a small section of a larger room, a cheap rock bottom Dolby 5.1 receiver and some old BOSTON ACOUSTIC speakers - shooting from a shelf distance 11 ft (straight level shot) dead center- avg viewing distance 6 to 8 ft using COMCAST HD and also with a Toshiba HD-DVD
Well, here they are. They are mounted on L-brackets and pointed up. The lucky part was that the subwoofer was the same thickness, so I was able to hide it back there also.
I have also added another update to my system. My friend was unloading his old tower speakers, of which they were the same Audio Concepts design as the rest of my speaker system, to me for free. I was also having the problem that my center was a little too low soooo-
I killed two birds with one stone and used the main towers as my new left and right, kept the original center but augmented it with another satellite speaker not being used and mounted above the screen. Now I already know about the don'ts of having 2 centers in a ht system, but I've broken enough "established" laws of ht so why stop now
A new addition to my theater, a diy backlit cardboard Darth Vader with a motion-activated voice box. Cost my wife $10 at the local thrift store and practically nothing for putting it together.
Quote:
Originally Posted by victor-eyd /forum/post/0
A new addition to my theater, a diy backlit cardboard Darth Vader with a motion-activated voice box. Cost my wife $10 at the local thrift store and practically nothing for putting it together.
I was thinking of making one myself once I get the room done. I think it would be fun. The only issue is my backyard slopes a bit so it will be a little more difficult to get a ton of folks in. The nice part is we are retiring a few Sanyo 4:3 1024x768 3000 Lumen LCD projectors with remote zoom at the office. One of these should work out nicely for a backyard theater. All I need to do is find some cheap speakers and a sub. Craigslist sounds like a great source.
BTW -- how did the bass sound in the open air? Could you still hear it or did you need to crank it to get some response. Did any of your neighbors complain?
The bass add fullness to the sound. You'd be very surprised just how much better a sub, even my puny 6" sony htib orphan powered by a 45 sub amp from partsexpress, will do to any outdoor system. My nearest neighbor is about 50' away and he can't hear it the reference volume we set it at, which isn't very loud to begin with.
No need to crank the bass, just balance it with the rest of the system and you're all set.
The XGA should be a great pj for outdoor use. Warning: If you set it up now and your outdoors are very warm at night, don't be surprised enjoying it as much (if not more) as your indoor (when its done) ht.
Its a terrific experience watching a movie outdoors. Enjoy!!
Check out the other setups at backyardtheater and see which app might work for you. You don't need to spend a lot to get a lot.
The screen color was based on research on diy screens forum. As to the walls, they are a personal preference and I wanted a room color scheme that integrated with the rest of the house in terms of color and decor.
Here is my latest addition to my theater. Framers refer to this as a sandwich frame. It is primarily 2 pieces of large plexi with screws all around to secure the pcs together. Another 2 small pieces of plexi is used on the back to hold up the frame to the wall. To frame a poster, simply tape the corners of the back of each poster and center on the rear plexi. Then place the front plexi and screw in place.
It cost me about $150 dollars at my local plexi fabricator to make.
I like that it has a very thin profile, so it clears the door knob when opening or closing. Also, at a future point I can backlight this poster quite easily.
Victor
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