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The Timelapse Theatre - Planning n' Build Log

151K views 1K replies 104 participants last post by  J_P_A 
#1 · (Edited)
#1,078 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by jdanforth  /t/1323919/the-timelapse-theatre-planning-n-build-log/1050#post_22607932


I have been thinking a lot about my sound treatments lately. I have a big, long wall on the left of the room and I wanted to put something large that made a statement up there while still being fuctional.

My wife and I saw this reproduction of an awesome map of London in Restoration Hardware on Sunday.


They're selling the thing for $1400.


I located the ultra high resolution scan of the map on Wikimedia Commons and ordered a 42x54" print of it from Spoonflower on the Kona fabric... for $36 shipped.
I'm going to build a frame for this map and put 2 inches of OC 703 behind it. Sweet! I used to live in London years ago and this is a great reminder of my time there.

I have toyed with the idea of some custom sized "spoonflower treatments"

Looking forward to seeing this one come together !


In the meantime - Have a great Thanksgiving!
 
#1,082 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by J_P_A  /t/1323919/the-timelapse-theatre-planning-n-build-log/1080#post_22669195


How did you find that image on wikimedia? I've been trying to find a painting or print on there and I can't seem to get the search function to cooperate.

It's on Wikimedia Commons. I just searched for 'bacon map london' and up it came.
 
#1,085 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter M  /t/1323919/the-timelapse-theatre-planning-n-build-log/1080#post_22692157


I love the time lapses ... but am amazed that they seem to show so much productive work !

A time lapse of my efforts would be hilarious ... most of it would be searching for tools, redoing stuff, scratching my head and generally making little progress !!

Cheers,

Thanks but maybe you should look at the videos a little closer! :)


Editing hides many flaws! There's PLENTY of footage of me scratching my head, hunting for stuff, and breaking things. Maybe I'll put it into the Director's Cut.
 
#1,088 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by jdanforth  /t/1323919/the-timelapse-theatre-planning-n-build-log/1080#post_22718802


FYI, the company that makes the motion control rig that I use, Dynamic Perception, is having a giveaway! You can find out more here: https://www.facebook.com/DynPerception?sk=app_228910107186452

I use the Stage Zero dolly and it's one of my favorite pieces of camera equipment.

edit: apparently you can only register via Facebook.

Thanks for letting us here in the Forum know! I think we all love your videos and would need the equipment to even have a chance to replicate. Heck, I've even gone back a few times and watched them again. Hmmmm...maybe you can get on the Netflix streaming rotation
Speaking of your videos, I just started your last video when my phone rang, so I paused your video and this is where it stopped:




I don't know why you were giving me stink eye, but I made sure to NOT pause your video again!!! LOL!



I would love to enter that contest, but it takes you to another page to associate the RaffleCopter application with your Facebook account, fyi. (GRRRR) What ever happened to the good 'ol days when you didn't have to allow unknown companies access to all of your personal data for the chance to win a gift card? *SIGH*
 
#1,089 ·
HAHAHAHA That's awesome!


It reminds me of all of my camera-check snaps. Before each shot I stand directly in front of the camera to make sure that it's blinking and snapping away. Because I was doing it so much I almost always had a stupid face on. I should organize all of those into an animated gif sometime.
 
#1,092 ·
I ordered a new toy. :p My collection of digital media has finally outgrown my Drobo DAS unit so I've sprung for a big mamajamma NAS from Synology. I bought the EIGHT bay Synology DS1812+ unit! Yes, it has far more horesepower than I need today but the expandability sealed the deal. Rather than struggling with always having the latest bleeding edge drives for my four-bay unit I'll be able to take it a tad slower with the eight-bay.




What's a NAS? I'm glad you asked.


A Network Attached Storage unit is a purpose-built PC (usually running Linux) that has easily accessible drive slots. You slap in as many or as few drives as you want and the hardware uses RAID (or something like it) to tie all the discs together into one big disc. RAID even supports an emergency scenario where one drive can fail but you still maintain your data. Very cool.


Since it sits on the network and is, essentially, a PC, the device can run all kinds of server-type applications. Synology, in my opinion, excels in this regard. In addition to just making the raw data files accessible to any computer or "smart" appliance (AppleTV, Roku, SmartTV, etc.) it can also host programs that behave like Dropbox, Logitech Media Server, Plex, email hosting, web hosting, etc. You can configure the device from a very cool web interface, access (and stream) files from your mobile devices via apps, record security camera footage to it... the list goes on.


I will be connecting this device primarily to my XBMC in the theatre. The XBMC will access the files via an NFS share. My main computer will have access to the files too, of course.


I have been doing this from my Mac Pro tower for quite some time now. It works perfectly well but the Mac Pro is a power hog... 500w draw for a network server is ridiculous. The 1812+ pulls fewer than 75w while under maximum load.


I don't recompress my Blu-ray discs when I back them up. I'm slinging around 40GB MKV files on my network at a delightfully fast file transfer rate of about 40MB/s which is more than sufficient for streaming 1080p.


I'm not positive yet but I *might* be able to stream to the Roku at my parent's beach house. It all depends on my upstream bandwidth, of course.
 
#1,093 ·
DUDE! This is the EXACT NAS I was looking at buying, but I am waiting just a bit longer because the update to this NAS is going to be available in just a few months according to my friend who is the IT Director for Verizon Wireless' Mid-Atlantic region. Here's a snippet of an e-mail sent to him by the Synology product manager regarding their impending product line update:


"...faster CPUs, and more RAM, plus they’re getting USB 3.0 which would be critical if you’d want to say, dump 2TB of data to an external USB hard-drive. You’re talking a factor of 10x between USB 2.0 and 3.0. …"


He goes on and on about other new features and existing benefits, but he is really big on Synology for the same reasons you listed above.


Thankfully my own NAS needs are not immediate, considering I have zilch, nada, zero, nothing in terms of equipment for any room, let alone my whole-house system. You made an excellent choice, my friend!


But to be honest, I'd love to hear a bit more about the process you went through to set up XMBC on your Mac Mini and the different features you have installed / are available. I know this system functions through your iPad and smartphone, but have you tried to have Crestron or some other third party control system control the Mac Mini? Is there a TCP/IP control protocol? Can the Mac Mini share meta-data with an enabled touch panel device? I am hoping to lean on your experience a bit in this area as I plan out the front-end of my streaming media server if you don't mind....


EDIT: Typo!
 
#1,094 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by TMcG  /t/1323919/the-timelapse-theatre-planning-n-build-log/1080#post_22720601


DUDE! This is the EXACT NAS I was looking at buying, but I am waiting just a bit longer because the update to this NAS is going to be available in just a few months according to my friend who is the IT Director for Verizon Wireless' Mid-Atlantic reason. Here's a snippet of an e-mail sent to him by the Synology product manager regarding their impending product line update:

"...faster CPUs, and more RAM, plus they’re getting USB 3.0 which would be critical if you’d want to say, dump 2TB of data to an external USB hard-drive. You’re talking a factor of 10x between USB 2.0 and 3.0. …"

He goes on and on about other new features and existing benefits, but he is really big on Synology for the same reasons you listed above.

Thankfully my own NAS needs are not immediate, considering I have zilch, nada, zero, nothing in terms of equipment for any room, let alone my whole-house system. You made an excellent choice, my friend!

But to be honest, I'd love to hear a bit more about the process you went through to set up XMBC on your Mac Mini and the different features you have installed / are available. I know this system functions through your iPad and smartphone, but have you tried to have Crestron or some other third party control system control the Mac Mini? Is there a TCP/IP control protocol? Can the Mac Mini share meta-data with an enabled touch panel device? I am hoping to lean on your experience a bit in this area as I plan out the front-end of my streaming media server if you don't mind....

I've been an early adopter long enough that I should know better than to get bummed about my new purchase after reading that. I SHOULD know better but I can't help but feel a little disappointed now.
Ah well... this thing will serve me plenty well for years to come. I honestly don't need or want most of the features built in this one already!


It's certainly possible to control XBMC via Crestron. I am, after all, a certified Crestron programmer thankyouverymuch! The interface is a bit cumbersome at the moment mainly because parsing and thrashing XML is such a chore in Crestron's SIMPL+ that I don't even want to bother. The new 3-Series stuff is a whole different ball game. The new SIMPL C# is dead sexy... anything you can do in C# you can do in Crestron land now. XML is now just handled with a freakin' library. That's the way to get data about cover art, etc. out of XMBC. Controlling the Mac Mini isn't really the goal... controlling the programs running on it is, instead, what you should shoot for.


The XBMC installation was dead simple. I followed the suggestions in the HTPC Chat forum but I recently decided to switch back to the default skin, Confluence. Confluence seems to run a WHOLE LOT smoother. Menus are snappier, windows open faster, etc. There are a few things about the UI that annoy me but not enough to ditch it.


Putting XBMC on a Mac Mini is a cheater's way out, I'll admit it. I wanted a small, quiet, ready made solution. The Mac Mini, though it costs $200 or so more than a DIY box, fit that bill perfectly.
 
#1,095 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by jdanforth  /t/1323919/the-timelapse-theatre-planning-n-build-log/1080#post_22721213


I've been an early adopter long enough that I should know better than to get bummed about my new purchase after reading that. I SHOULD know better but I can't help but feel a little disappointed now.
Ah well... this thing will serve me plenty well for years to come. I honestly don't need or want most of the features built in this one already!

It's certainly possible to control XBMC via Crestron. I am, after all, a certified Crestron programmer thankyouverymuch! The interface is a bit cumbersome at the moment mainly because parsing and thrashing XML is such a chore in Crestron's SIMPL+ that I don't even want to bother. The new 3-Series stuff is a whole different ball game. The new SIMPL C# is dead sexy... anything you can do in C# you can do in Crestron land now. XML is now just handled with a freakin' library. That's the way to get data about cover art, etc. out of XMBC. Controlling the Mac Mini isn't really the goal... controlling the programs running on it is, instead, what you should shoot for.

The XBMC installation was dead simple. I followed the suggestions in the HTPC Chat forum but I recently decided to switch back to the default skin, Confluence. Confluence seems to run a WHOLE LOT smoother. Menus are snappier, windows open faster, etc. There are a few things about the UI that annoy me but not enough to ditch it.

Putting XBMC on a Mac Mini is a cheater's way out, I'll admit it. I wanted a small, quiet, ready made solution. The Mac Mini, though it costs $200 or so more than a DIY box, fit that bill perfectly.

Thanks for the explanation and apologies if I made you feel bad...certainly wasn't my intent.


I didn't know if it was possible for XBMC to accept direct control language or not. I haven't even touched the front end of my streaming system research very deeply so I am still awash in the informational muck for the time-being. I have leanings toward the more commercials routes of Dune HD Max, Popcorn Hour and the like. But you just can't beat the computational power provided by a dedicated mac mini. The other consideration is that I would like to have my streaming system tie into a greater whole-home automation system with distributed HDMI. So it appears I will have to purchase the same number of players as I want individual streams. I can see that being two initially, hopefully not more. I think this is the area Dune shines with their miniature versions. I hate the thought of buying multiples of expensive mac-minis but it may just come down to it. I dumped my AMX system in favor of Crestron and am now dumping that in favor of Savant, so everything will already be Apple-based....this is the other consideration for me going the same route as you.


By the way...a bit of a shameless plug, but I believe you were giving me some well-deserved guff about not starting my theater build. Well, my friend, my own build thread is now up and running.
:D
 
#1,096 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by TMcG  /t/1323919/the-timelapse-theatre-planning-n-build-log/1080#post_22721661


Thanks for the explanation and apologies if I made you feel bad...certainly wasn't my intent.

I didn't know if it was possible for XBMC to accept direct control language or not. I haven't even touched the front end of my streaming system research very deeply so I am still awash in the informational muck for the time-being. I have leanings toward the more commercials routes of Dune HD Max, Popcorn Hour and the like. But you just can't beat the computational power provided by a dedicated mac mini. The other consideration is that I would like to have my streaming system tie into a greater whole-home automation system with distributed HDMI. So it appears I will have to purchase the same number of players as I want individual streams. I can see that being two initially, hopefully not more. I think this is the area Dune shines with their miniature versions. I hate the thought of buying multiples of expensive mac-minis but it may just come down to it. I dumped my AMX system in favor of Crestron and am now dumping that in favor of Savant, so everything will already be Apple-based....this is the other consideration for me going the same route as you.

By the way...a bit of a shameless plug, but I believe you were giving me some well-deserved guff about not starting my theater build. Well, my friend, my own build thread is now up and running.
:D

No offense taken. Technology improves relentlessly. If I waited for the next upgrade I'd never buy anything!


You don't really need the computational power of a Mac Mini to do HTPC playback... an AppleTV has the same processor as the iPhone 4 and it can sling 1080p just fine. If you're doing h.264 encoding / ripping / live TV capture then that's another story! I use my Mac Pro to do all that business though.


You're going to distribute HDMI throughout your house? Bold. The *only* HDMI matrix routing system I would consider is Crestron's DM system. They have solved about 60% of the HDCP headaches out there... the competition has solved more like 25% of them. I just decided to stream my "illegal" legal blu-ray rips instead. Much easier.


Why are you dumping Crestron for Savant? I won't try to talk you out of it but I'm genuinely curious. Crestron is SO powerful provided you have a good programmer.


I subscribed to your thread. I'm already humbled by its quality and grandeur.
 
#1,097 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by jdanforth  /t/1323919/the-timelapse-theatre-planning-n-build-log/1080#post_22722559


No offense taken. Technology improves relentlessly. If I waited for the next upgrade I'd never buy anything!

You don't really need the computational power of a Mac Mini to do HTPC playback... an AppleTV has the same processor as the iPhone 4 and it can sling 1080p just fine. If you're doing h.264 encoding / ripping / live TV capture then that's another story! I use my Mac Pro to do all that business though.

You're going to distribute HDMI throughout your house? Bold. The *only* HDMI matrix routing system I would consider is Crestron's DM system. They have solved about 60% of the HDCP headaches out there... the competition has solved more like 25% of them. I just decided to stream my "illegal" legal blu-ray rips instead. Much easier.

Why are you dumping Crestron for Savant? I won't try to talk you out of it but I'm genuinely curious. Crestron is SO powerful provided you have a good programmer.

I subscribed to your thread. I'm already humbled by its quality and grandeur.

I know one thing....before I make any streaming device purchasing decision I intend to solicit your opinion first as you have the first-hand experience and understand all the pros and cons between divergent setups. I have a hardwired gigabit network in my home with a small business level 48 port Gigabit switch with a very robust "backplane" for ultra high-speed data interchange. With any luck, I won't have any bottlenecks from multiple simultaneous streams when I reach that point.


I agree with you that the Crestron system is truly world-class....but extremely expensive. I am a man with limited means, so I have to find a viable alternative. I looked at units from Atlona and CE Labs which seemed to have very good alternatives. Gefen has very nice products, but was way overpriced and not a good value for the money. And then I found a company called SnapAV which has an 8x8 HDMI matrix product that seems to tick all of my boxes, including price. Here is a link: http://www.snapav.com/p-1074-b-300-hdmatrix-8x8.aspx The nice thing I found with this Matrix is that it does HDMI 1.4a over a single shielded Cat6 wire, has both cat6 and normal HDMI outputs active at the same time, allows for full third party control, is 1U in height and is one heck of a bargain, comparatively speaking. From the reviews I have read, this piece is very reliable and has fairly quick handshaking. To save myself $11,000 over a similarly spec'd Crestron system I think it's worth a shot. If I put a display in every location I wanted, I would have 13 potential TV locations. Ideally I would like to have 11 functioning locations and realistically I could live within the 8x8. However, with both sets of outputs active, that allows me to double up rooms on a common output signal which would rarely be used at the same time - such as the Garage and the guest room, the office and the theater....that kind of thing. In this way I could have 100% of the rooms "attached" to the matrix switch. Let me know your thoughts.


I wanted to trim down on the "heft" and cost of a full-blown Crestron system and the thousands of dollars in programming it takes for the GUI and control code to work seamlessly. It's not uncommon for a Crestron system to take a full week to set up, which I am sure you know. Savant is an Apple approved partner and can truly run native Apple code for control and interfaces. Buying an old iPad2 for a couple hundred bucks is much better than spending a couple thousand on the equivalent Crestron. I really like one of Savant's remote controls, the Savant SSR-1000 which is essentially an iPod Touch glued to some hard buttons, almost like a Logitech Harmony remote on steroids. I also liked the fact that the Savant controller will allow four simultaneous iTunes streams as a native feature. That alone is tempting enough to start ripping everything I own to iTunes, but like I said, I have a long way to go to figure things out.


Savant does have its limitations, but after nearly 14 years of unlimited control options with AMX and Crestron I think I am going to wave the white flag, kiss the King's ring and live within the box of the Savant Control system. Control4 has similar limitations, but I find their system intolerable with reliability issues despite recent gains.


Thanks for subscribing to my thread. I sincerely look forward to your opinions and input.
 
#1,098 ·
I'm working again! Progress!


You may remember the fugly space heater that was installed in my theatre when I bought the house:



I always intended to rip out the thing and install some recessed shelves to store Blu-rays, booze, etc. but I'm running into a bit of a problem. First some progress pics:








That's where it stands right now. The opening is 5' tall and 16" or so wide, obviously. The trick is with the depth. As you can see, the booze n' Blu-rays are deeper than wall cavity can provide. I have been thinking about building up some depth by using case molding and then installing some glass shelves and a light at the top.

How would you tackle this? I like what this person did:


Here's a thread that has lots of photos of this design.
 
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