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Mike and Katie's media room & bar

6K views 40 replies 16 participants last post by  pittsoccer33 
#1 · (Edited)
I've lived in apartment buildings my entire adult life, so a lot of my home theater dreams were just that - dreams. No real chances to let a subwoofer loose or set up front projection.

This summer I finally found a place in a part of town I liked and best of all it had space I immediately could plan out in my head.

Here are some before pics of the basement:





I knew I liked the open "media room" concept over a dedicated home theater. When my friends get together at someones house it is often a special sporting event - Kentucky Derby, Super Bowl, Pitt games, etc. So I favored a place that prioritized entertaining above absolute perfect sound and video (as if I had the budget for either ;)

This is what we came up with:



The main components:
Epson 2030 projector
Onkyo TX-NR626 7.2 receiver
2x Sony SS-F5000 tower speakers
1x Sony SS-CN5000 center channel speaker
4x Sony SS-B1000 bookshelf speakers
2x Sony SA-W2500 subwoofers

Why so many Sony speakers? Well, for a while I worked at Sears on the side and Sony was about the only speakers they carried. I was able to get a bunch of open box items far off the normal selling prices. Someday I'd like to have better speakers, but for the time being I'll be blissfully ignorant of what those would sound like :)

I went with a DIY spandex screen, using silver over white. Im not 100% confident I made the right choice, but I am happy with it. I tried drapping the pieces of fabric over the frame before stapling, and the silver seemed to give me "deeper/more saturated" hues. The colors just looked richer.

I had every intention of trying to hang the screen off of the wall and I just propped it onto a tv stand while I was setting everything up. But given the projector and mount geometry it is the perfect height off the ground. So it will stay until I can build a little "cabinet" to sit the screen on. And I know I need to hide the subwoofer cables a bit better before we have company.

I have a 50" Panasonic TC-P50S1 I am going to put in the area to the right of the screen. I just need to finish clearing out my apartment this week so I can get the tv stand from there into my basement.

My sources are:
Niveus Vail HTPC running LibreELEC
Raspberry Pi 2 running LibreELEC (3D MVC player)
Xbox One (primary streaming and bluray disc player)
Xbox 360 (primary cable/DVR/ATSC device)
Chromecast Audio

Everything is set up in the area behind the bar on a large shelf. I'm using a Monoprice IR repeater and a Harmony 650 to control everything.

I'm a WMC pro, but a total novice when it comes to Kodi. In my living room (and in the past) I've tried to cram as many functions into my HTPC as possible, so WMC was really the only option for cable. But in the basement I am trying to specialize functions a bit more.

I bought the Niveus PC on ebay a few years ago dirt cheap. It has a bluray drive but I haven't figured out how to make that work with Kodi. I installed a small SSD and LibreElec boots in seconds.

I intend to learn Cinema Experience on Kodi and have it serve as my main movie player. I can get most of my cable channels on it as well, but I still use WMC as my DVR so I often flip over to that for television.

I have a series of HDMI splitters and matricies set up so I can play my Xbox One up in my living room, as well as put it on any display in the basement. I can also utilize my Silicondust tuners to get live tv into it as well, and I can then send three different sources to the projector, the soon to be 50" Panasonic tv, and the 37" Element LCD inside the bar.

A few other pics of the basement. I know I still have some tidying to do, but I've been enjoying it too much to finish!













Network map:

 

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#6 ·
I've done some home brewing in the past (in bottles only) and i'd like to get back into it. This time in kegs though. So I've been keeping my eyes peeled for a minifridge that could hold two thin kegs.

My girlfriend is a bartender and does a great job mixing drinks. I've never been a cocktail person but I do really enjoy the ones she whips up.

Unfortunately about the only thing I have to serve is Bud Light Platinum (there might be a few Lagunitas Little Sumpin Sumpins left too).
 
#4 ·
Great room or should I say man cave (....I mean man and woman cave). I really like the Reagan 80's idea and of course, now I want Reagan on my wall.
 
#5 ·
I really like the Reagan 80's idea and of course, now I want Reagan on my wall.
I'm 31 and feel like movies peaked around the time I was born. Terminator, Ghostbusters, Back to the Future, Indiana Jones, Star Wars - so many of my personal favorites and Hollywood keeps going back to them. I've always really taken to 80s music too (for some reason).

I was at a party supply store and noticed the Reagan portrait. They had a bunch of different presidents, presumably for school teachers to hang up in the class room.

We are big Red Letter Media fans and in one episode of Best of the Worst they had Reagan's portrait in focus in the background. So I bought it as a gag and we decided to hang it below that puzzle. Well, I decided to. She thinks he looks creepy.

And besides - he was an actor - that seems appropriate as a theater decoration :cool:
 
#10 ·
We debated what dark wall color would work well with them - dark green, maroon, blue. I kind of tried to do a Pitt scheme (hence the yellow bar stools and coming yellow pub table) so thats where the blue walls came from.

I'm the 3rd owner, and I get the sense the original owner was into wood working. They finished the basement themselves, and outside in the back of the room there are some really intricately cut shelves. And along the stairs - the wood going up the wall at the stair well is so perfectly measured and cut.
 
#11 ·
Nice job with the space. Seems like a great place for everyone to hang out and your ready for football season too.
 
#12 ·
Nice setup you have there and looks like a great area to hang out.
. I'm glad you finally made your dream....a reality.
 
#13 · (Edited)
I finally finished clearing out my old place last week and set up my 50" Panasonic S1 plasma. I'm using an Xbox 360 as the source. The Steelers open the NFL season against the Pats on September 10th, and the Pirates are also in action that night. So I'm thinking that will be the first big event at the house.

I need to come up with some kind of door for that open space going back to the laundry room. I really don't want to have a traditional door, but I can't think of anything else that would look ok there.





the long suffering Browns fan cheering on her team:



the new Xbox One NFL app, with Yahoo Fantasy updates on the side snap bar:

 

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#14 ·
I tided some things up ahead of our first party.



Last item is being delivered today - a kegerator!
 

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#15 ·
Everything is stocked ahead of the big house warming cookout on Sunday and opening Steeler game the following Thursday.

Our first 2 kegs were Sierra Nevada Torpedo and Shocktop. Trying to decide what to get for Sunday. I'm fortunate to have a large distributor not too far away that has a huge selection of 1/6th craft kegs in stock AND can fill a CO2 tank.



 

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#17 ·
So far we've had two house warming parties and (drum roll) an engagement party!

We've kicked sixtels of the Torpedo, Shocktop, local brew Rivertowne Hala Kahiki pineapple ale, and Landshark.
 
#18 ·
Congratulations on the engagement and I like the multiple displays.

I've got to come up with a way to get a signal to multiple displays like you have. Ever since Comcast required "boxes" to access content, I have only had the projector in my room. I miss the days of having three or four things on at once, but not enough to give Comcast more money each month for more boxes.
 
#19 · (Edited)
I make it happen with a SiliconDust HDHR Prime cablecard tuner. I already have the htpcs, the Xbox 360s, and the Xbox One.

The Prime allows me to turn all those gadgets i already own into cable boxes.

I can tune 3 channels at once with it. I also have an atsc tuner on my htpc that my 360s can access.

My old Android phone (HTC One S) can be plugged into an hdmi display. I can use WatchESPN, NBC Sports Live, and NFL Sunday Ticket on that as well.
 
#27 ·
I have the three tuner SD as well and love having multiple displays. If I run out of tuners I can always stream something to another TV and have even more options.

Can you elaborate on the ATSC tuner and how the 360 can access it? Does it act like WMC with the guide and run live TV as well?
 
#21 ·
did a little christmas decorating in the theater/bar room:







grilling some wings now and going to watch Its a Wonderful Life
 

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#23 ·
I like this setup. Has a nice atmosphere.
I appreciate that. I feel like its a warmer place than pictures can get across, but we really do spend most of our free time down there. I'll watch sports, history documentaries, read, anything. My fiance is doing her masters degree and she will study down there, as long as I'm not cranking up the volume.

What size are those movie posters? Where did you get the frames?
I have three different sizes. Most of them are 11x17. I think I bought several three packs of frames at Walmart. There are a few "normal" poster sized ones at 24x36. Those frames either came from Walmart or Target, you'd be able to easily find those for sure. And the Rocketeer one (one of my favorite posters AND favorites films) is 27x40. There's also a 27x40 Miami Vice print in the bar that I guess I don't have a good picture of.

If you haven't seen the Rocketeer, or haven't seen it in a long time, its really worth seeking out. Its such a great, fun movie. It was just one one of those rare misses where the film works but circumstances (marketing, Terminator 2) keep it from connecting with a wide audience.
 
#25 ·
We had a get together last night with the Steelers and Penguins both on in prime time:



 

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#28 ·
Did you move from WMC to Kodi for TV viewing? I also have an HD Homerun Prime, but I'm still on WMC. I'd like to move to something else, as WMC keeps having problems, but I'm not sure what to move to.
 
#29 ·
I still use WMC as my primary DVR (that PC is in the living room). I'll boot up my 360 down in the basement if I want to watch a recorded program.

But if I'm watching live TV down there (mostly sports) I just use the Silicon Dust add in on the OpenElec computer.

I'm fortunate enough to have a very permissive provider (Comcast), so I can get all my channels in Kodi. I like using it in the basement because of how light weight OpenElec is, refresh rate switching, and the Cinema Experience add in.

My days of trying to cram everything into one HTPC are over.
 
#31 ·
Nice setup, congrats on the engagement. Never have enough house parties.. Great bar and posters. I got my frames from IKEA, some are the 40's and some are the 37's size.. Pass on the beer but I'll have a Jack Daniels..Good luck for the future.
 
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#32 ·
I'm still mulling a turntable for the room. I'd like to put it outside in the main room, but then I won't likely be able to use my receiver's phono inputs.

Other than a Chromecast Audio I haven't added any new gear at all. I have three of them around the house now (living room, kitchen/dining room, and bar) and a fourth will go out on the patio this spring. I can't recommend them enough - I've haven't listened to music this often since I was in college.

We did put up some chalk boards - two to label what's on tap above the kegerator, and a big one behind the bar with drinks choices and other fun stuff on it.

If anyone is considering a chalkboard in their home I highly recommend the chalk board panels that Home Depot stocks. Most of the units at places like Staples were $40 or more. I was planning to buy a piece of plywood and paint it with chalkboard paint. When I got over to the plywood/paneling section we found paneling under $10 that was read to write on. Didn't even need any mounting hardware - I just nailed it to the wall.
 
#33 ·
What a great Party Room! Love the paneling. And the bar. And the screens. And the vibe!

I'm expanding a "Multi-Fun" room with a first projector and having lots of fun and lots of challenges. One small challenge involves postponing an upgrade of my otherwise OK 7.2 AVR to a newer model just to get a second (or more) HDMI output. You mention that you use at least one splitter, and your nicely drawn block diagram seems to show a one-to-three splitter from one of your AVR outs.

Just about every splitter I've researched carries many negative reviews. Can you recommend the one(s) you're using? Do they pass 7.1? 3D? Thanks for any feedback.

I've also recently plugged in a Chromecast Audio and like the way it works with Google Play Music and podcasts. Looking to spread a few out into other rooms as you have done.
 
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