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PTAaron's English Way Cinema and Bar

79K views 917 replies 63 participants last post by  LNEWoLF 
#1 · (Edited)


Intro:
(updated 3/13/17)
In my first apartment I put together my first surround sound setup and was blown away - I knew from that point on that I was eventually going to have a home theater. In 2010 my wife and I found the perfect house - and it happened to have a room in the basement that we both agreed would become our "movie room". Over the last 7 years the plan has morphed and changed quite a bit as you will see documented in the following pages. The emphasis has been on creating the full "Cinema" effect rather than just creating a dark dungeon for watching movies. Our current setup (as of March 2017) includes a ticket booth, concession area with popcorn and candy, a bar with pool table and poker table, and a Home Theater PC running Kodi with CinemaVision to give the full movie theater experience when watching a movie.
I will be keeping this first post updated as things change - hope you enjoy the thread!

Current status (as of 7/10/17):

  1. Phase 3 is complete! Click Here for start
  2. Building an arcade machine for the bar area...
  3. Harmony 1100 has been replaced with Harmony Elite
  4. Front wall was covered in Roxul Safe 'n Sound

Demo of the CinemaVision system with Insteon lighting control:


Front of the room (2/14/17)

*this one is a little blurry... will retake it later*









Equipment in the room: (Updated 1/15/17)
BenQ HT2050 Projector
DIY 117" 16:9 spandex acoustically transparent screen
Harman Kardon AVR 3600 - as a preamp/processor
Harman Kardon AVR 635 - as the amplifier
Speakers: Pioneer SP-FS51-LR front towers, Pioneer SP-C21 Center, Emotiva ERD-1 surrounds, Dayton rears.
Subwoofers: Elemental Designs A2-300 (x2)
Sony BDP-BX58 (S580) Blu-ray Player and SACD Player
Motorola DCX-3200 Cable Box
HTPC running OpenELEC and Kodi
AppleTV2 (1080p version)
PS4
PS3
PS2
Wii
XBox
Pioneer S810S tape deck
(retired)
Mitsubishi 73" DLP TV - 73740 (retired)
Toshiba 57h94 CRT RPTV (retired)
Infinity TSS-450 5.1 system (retired)

System controlled with Harmony Elite remote and hub
Harmony 1100 and RF extender (retired)
Lighting controlled by Insteon hub

***Pictures in posts prior to 2016/2017 may be missing... Thank you Photobucket! I am going to be slowing moving them over to Flickr... so be patient.***


Note: I have moved the content of the "original" first post down to the second post... not that anyone will probably notice ;) I'm reserving the first post for updates to the current status.
 
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#239 ·
Ticket booth update: I have ordered the plexiglass sheet for the window and I'm still trying to decide exactly how the part above the window will look.
I'm leaning towards doing a row of lights or getting a light up sign. I've been looking at LED scrolling signs on Amazon, but it is hard to justify the expense right now. Truly if I were going to add a scrolling sign it would probably go above the theater door anyway ;)

Ran into one snag yesterday. I don't own a table saw, so I was planning to have a coworker cut a groove into the window frame for me. Driving to work with my 6' board in the back of the jeep I kept going over things in my head. (some of you may already see the problem - but let me go on...) The groove will be 1/2" deep on 3 sides - leaving me with a 23" wide 35.5" high window (no frame at the bottom). So that means each side will be 35.5" high on the inside dimension... and 23" on the inside dimension at the top. Coming from a 6' board... Approximately 3' + almost 3' + almost 2' from a 6' board... DOH!! Original plan called for a 18"x24" window!! I forgot to get a bigger board when I upped the window size!!
Glad I realized it before I handed him the board and left him to explain math to me! LOL!
 
#240 ·
First, great setup and nice toys...er...collectibles, but.....



this room screams projector. So say you have 11'2'' and you want to work with 9 feet or 108 inches. That would give you a 123 inches in 16x9 for sports/TV and a 117 inches for a scope movie in 2.35:1. So Deadpool in 69 inches with the Mits or Deadpool in 117 inches.

Just my 2 cents worth but even if you only spent 800 for an entry level 1080p projector and a DIY screen. You could always sell it to a friend when you want to upgrade.
 
#241 ·
Thanks ;)

Plan is to go to a projector/screen this winter. There is no budget for it right now after doing the room upgrades and the upcoming house repairs (2 new sliding doors and front patio repairs).
I'm going for a 16x9 DIY screen and a BenQ 2050 projector. Most likely I'm looking at doing a 8' or 8'6" wide screen (110-117" diagonal 16:9 screen). Mostly limited by available height since the screen bottom needs to be 28-30" off the ground for back row viewing. Also there isn't depth available to do an AT screen (closet door at front of the room)... so the space between speakers is limiting the width.
 
#242 ·
Something to think about is how often do you use the back row for 16:9 content. On the 2.35:1 which I assume is mainly what you would use for most gatherings (Deadpool) the height will be better for the second row when you lose inches from the top and bottom. For example, the bottom of my screen is a little over 21 inches from the floor for 16:9 and with 2.35:1 the bottom is about 31 inches from the floor.

Before you short the width and by default the scope of movie night, a 2.35:1 screen might be the way to go unless you watch a lot of TV. Ouch, it hurt to write that since I like my TV....16:9 big.
 
#243 ·
Something to think about is how often do you use the back row for 16:9 content. On the 2.35:1 which I assume is mainly what you would use for most gatherings (Deadpool) the height will be better for the second row when you lose inches from the top and bottom. For example, the bottom of my screen is a little over 21 inches from the floor for 16:9 and with 2.35:1 the bottom is about 31 inches from the floor.



Before you short the width and by default the scope of movie night, a 2.35:1 screen might be the way to go unless you watch a lot of TV. Ouch, it hurt to write that since I like my TV....16:9 big.

Good point on the narrower scope screen and the height...

I'm going with a 16:9 screen for sure. I did renders of what a CIH setup would look like and I don't want the 16:9 to be so small - and I am not able to afford a projector with lens memory and all that jazz.
I use the room probably 50/50 for gaming/movies so biggest 16:9 I can do is important to me.
Biggest 16:9 also gives me the biggest 2.35:1 - so I'm in the CIW camp ;)

I'll post up the 3D renders I did in a few minutes, I can't remember if I put them up or not.
 
#244 ·
Here are the renderings I did to decide on what I wanted for a screen... These were done using an 8' wide screen. First one shows the 8' wide 16:9



Scope screen 8' wide (constant image width):



I did a couple of "constant image height" comparisons... but for some reason I added the 73" TV back into the rendering...

Starting with the scope screen:


Sticking with CIH that would make a 16:9 screen that is barely bigger than my current 73" TV - so what would be the point?


So yeah - biggest 16:9 I can fit between my speakers is what I am going to do... and keep it CIW. I don't buy into the CIH argument that scope should be the "most impressive".
 
#245 ·
Generally it seams that if you are height limited then 2.35:1 and if width limited then 16:9.
IMO the 16:9 is the better fit for your room.... but I am bias as I am also doing 16:9 :cool:


I've been following your build for a while.....keep up the good work!
 
#246 ·
Thanks for stopping by!

I agree 100% with your assessment. If I had been able to go full width of my front wall, and was able to afford a projector that had the necessary features I would have been more apt to consider a 2.35:1 screen because it would still be able to give me a fairly huge 16:9 image. The "CIW" option is less work - although I have plans to make masking panels for 2.35:1, depending on how it looks without them.
Being that I use CinemaVision for my movie nights, I'm not sure the masking panels will be practical... the pre-show trivia and all of the bumpers are 16:9, so manual masking wouldn't be practical and motorized may be a little out of reach at the moment.
 
#248 · (Edited)
PTAaron's Movie Room/Basement Bar and Game area

Picked up the second A2-300 on Saturday...






The forum member that sold me the sub also included the platform that he had made for it - unfortunately I couldn't fit the sub with the platform into the available space under the edge of the TV screen. That is probably a good thing since one of our cats decided to make it his new bed!


I got everything calibrated... it was interesting to see that my original A2-300 with the updated Infinity drive in it was quite a bit louder at the same level setting on the receiver. Makes me think I should invest in another Infinity driver for the new sub eventually ;) Was also interesting to see a 7db gain when both were running! I ended up setting the subs 4db hot and ran some test clips - I have to say the improvement was incredible!


*This was going to be a longer post but apparently I fell asleep writing it, so I'll add more tomorrow night ;)
 
#249 · (Edited)
I had a little time on Sunday to work on the ticket booth...

First thing was to add some blocks to attach the facing to the lower half... these will keep the blocks lined up properly and also add some reinforcement for the fairly heavy door...




Added a few more blocks that I didn't get pictures of... ended up with this:


The lower half is almost done... The opening will be covered by the door once I get it cut down to size. All gaps will be filled with wood putty and sanded down.

I have all of the boards for the top portion ... so that shouldn't take much time.
Plexiglass arrives tomorrow - I have a plan for the frame, so we'll see if it works ;)

Also - wow my garage is messy! LOL!
 
#250 · (Edited)
Spent the weekend staining my deck... 1 hour Friday night, 4-5 hours Saturday, 10 hours Sunday! Only the last 2-3 hours were spent actually staining the flat deck surface - the rest of the time was spent doing the railings and stairs! A bit of advice: Don't do wood railing on your deck! LOL!



Anyway - I ended up with an unexpected day off work today - so I spent a few hours on the ticket booth.
A few weeks ago I bought a 12" board for the top section... it was wrapped in plastic and I didn't open it up until today. Discovered a minor issue with it once I opened it:

I can see straight through it!! Luckily I was going to be drilling holes anyway - so it should be ok. I would have exchanged it, but I have no idea where the receipt was and I didn't want to waste any more time.

Added some 2x2s so that I could run some screws from behind and not have any visible screws from the front - save me some time later:


Drilled dome holes in the frame so I could run wiring up to the top portion:


Here we are with the facing on the upper portion...


Test fit of the plexiglass:


Cut the pieces for the frame for the window - this will be held in place with magnets so I can pop it open to change things out as needed. Friend will be cutting a 1/2" deep groove into the frame for me for the glass.


I was getting ready to cut the piece to make the "door" on the lower portion and decided I needed a better way to do things. I was going to use a spare piece of MDF that already had a piano hinge on it - but I realized it was going to be too heavy and not look very good. Talked with a friend of mine that builds cabinets about options - and he is going to make me a door! So that is kind of cool.

When I was talking to him I did a little sketching on my phone to show him what I needed - thought I would share it here:


Trying to decide on what to do for letters... Michaels has lighted letters on sale for 60% off that look like an option, but they are powered by individual batteries so I'm not sure how to make that work off a switch. They also have regular wooden letters - but that's kind of boring.

EDIT: Wow... that "drawing" looks awful! It didn't look that bad on my phone... LOL!
 
#251 ·
My friend sent me some pictures this morning - he already built me a door before I even had a chance to buy the wood for him to use!



He even put it on "soft close" hinges!


Hopefully I can get it from him soon... I'd love to get this thing painted and into the basement!

Have to decide on colors...
 
#252 ·
Picked up the door this morning and dropped off the boards for my window frame on my way to work... got a text message about 20 minutes later that it was all done! LOL! Must be nice to have all the right tools for a job ;)

Hopefully I can pick up the frame on my way home from work and get everything assembled this weekend.

Just need to do a lot of filling in with wood putty, a bunch of sanding... then I can prime it and start looking at options for colors. Black seems like the easy way to go... but since this will be out in the main area of the basement I'm not sure that is the best way to go.
 
#253 ·
Spent a little time on the booth today...
Filled in some holes and seams with wood putty, sanded it down, installed the door, took the door back off, and painted the "inside" black with some spray paint to save the trouble of trying to get it with a brush later ;)
Also picked up a can of primer - but it was just too hot and humid to work on it in the garage.





 
#254 ·
Alright... I now have the frame for the window! I'm going to put a couple of notches in the plexi and use removable screws to hold it in place so that I can remove it in the future if I find an easy way to cut out the "ticket hole" at the bottom ;)
For now my wife is cutting me some vinyl decals for the speaker hole and the "ticket hole".
 
#255 ·
So this was the bummer of the evening last night: The groove my friend put into the frame is 1/8" ... the plexiglass is 1/8"... apparently one of those 1/8" measurements is less precise than the other and I can't get the glass into the frame! Dang it, I was REALLY hoping to have this thing painted and in the basement this weekend.
My friend is off work today - so I'll be able to pass it back to him tomorrow and hopefully have it back Friday, so it might still happen.
 
#256 ·
I stopped by Hobby Lobby today to see what options they had for letters...
I double checked my space and with the trim around the top taking up 2.5" and the window frame taking up 2" at the bottom I am left with 7.5" for letter height.

This is what I came up with:

5" tall letters:


3" tall letters (meant to stand, so the rounded letters have flat bottoms:


another 3" option:


Or there is this option - which will mean not adding the trim around the top and require some more filling for the screws that were intended to be hidden by the trim. It will also stick out above the top a bit because the window frame does take up 2" underneath it ( I positioned it to show what it will be like with the frame in place):


There was the option of a scrolling LED sign - but I'm thinking if I am getting one of those I will be putting it above the entrance to the theater rather than on the booth.
 
#258 ·
Personally I like the larger tickets lettering. If there is sufficient spacing around.... don't want it to close to the edges and top trim.
Top trim looks good!
 
#260 ·
Some updates...

Got my window frame with the new enlarged groove - the plexi slid into place almost perfectly. Had to trim the top corners to clear the screws that hold the frame together - nice easy fix with my Dremel ;)


Test fit everything - looks good if you ask me ;)


Drilled some small holes from the backside to mark where the magnets are going to go... used a 3/4" Forstner bit to recess the magnets into the frame:


Used some epoxy and glued the magnets in place... you may notice that there are only 3 sets... there WERE 4 but while I was labeling them the 4th set decided to snap themselves together and shattered both magnets! Quick trip to Home Depot tomorrow morning should fix it right up ;)


 
#262 · (Edited)
Primed and applied first coat of paint on ticket booth yesterday:







I also picked up some grey spray paint thinking I would do the letters and maybe the window frame with it... turned out it was lighter and more "blue" than I wanted. I ended up painting the frame black as well (as seen in the photo above). My wife reminded me that we had 6 different really dark grey paint samples from when we redid our kitchen in April, so I may try something different but this is what the letters look like now:



EDIT: The black is eggshell Mouse Ears Black that I happened to have a new quart of sitting in my basement. The "window frame" was actually spray painted with a satin black that I had picked up for something else. I will probably do a coat of mouse ears on the front and outside edges of the frame tonight.

EDIT 2: Yes... I water my lawn... We haven't had much rain, so watering isn't doing much good.
 
#267 ·
Pointless update... didn't get the booth moved into place - but here are a couple of photos:

The booth is going to go where the "National Lampoons" poster is hanging:


Just to show where that is relative to the theater... my wife's treadmill usually sits on the other side of the closet doors when it isn't being used which explains the line of shoes ;)


Put the glass into the frame... too bad it is clear so you can't see it! LOL!
 
#268 ·
I managed to drag it downstairs tonight!


Curtain arrived today - it is a single panel "blackout panel" that I need to transform into 2 smaller curtains later... but I put it in place just to see what it was going to look like:




Mock up of the letters - they are just sitting on top of the window frame now... I think I like the "dark steel metallic" color:


Inside the lower portion is an outlet so I can do whatever upgrades I want in the future:


I'll be adding one of those hidden magnetic child locks to the door later - just for fun.

Anyway ... that's where we are now! I'm very happy with how it has turned out so far!
 
#269 ·
I was at home depot today looking for options for the "speak through" on my ticket window and ran across this for $2:


Brass color had to go - so I painted it:


I like it because I won't have to actually drill a 3" hole to mount it... just 4 smaller holes for the tabs to slide into.

Also - the best part of getting the booth into the basement: I get my garage back!!
 
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