The Dark Knight Theater - Page 5

And my budget! I've gotten side-tracked by other projects. The latest is ripping all of my DVD's, BluRay's, and HD-DVD's to a networked media player (HDX-1000). I hope to get back to the theater sometime in the next couple of weeks.

Also, your theater is coming together nicely. Only a few more days!

CJ

I just finished ripping all of my movies into my NMT's hard drive (1.5TB doesn't go too far), so I was able to find a little time this weekend to work on my theater.

I finished putting in the putty pads around the receptacle boxes. Before putting up the insulation, I decided to measure the studs to make sure that the drywall would line up correctly. I'm glad I did, since there were quite a few sheets that wouldn't have hit studs at their edges. To rectify this, I started cutting 2x2's to add in. I was one short, so I'll have to finish up this weekend (if I don't go skiing).

CJ

The NMT is basically a media player that has hardware decoding for DVD's, BluRays, etc. There are several different brands. Most of them offer an ethernet jack and USB jack for playing video streamed over a network or from a USB hard drive. Some, like mine, have internal connectors for a hard drive. The newer ones have HDMI 1.3 outputs, supporting 1080p video and TrueHD audio (among others). Mine has component video, coaxial digital audio, optical digital audio, and analog audio outputs as well.

Here is a pic:


When it's first set up, the GUI is pretty basic. With a little work, you can get one like this:


It takes a bit of setup time, but once it's going, it's great. Here's a forum with more info: http://www.networkedmediatank.com

CJ

I was able to spend a significant portion of this weekend working on my theater. Much of the time was cleaning up various small to-do items. I almost finished installing the drywall blocking (was short 1 piece). I moved the power inlet for the projector to behind my rack- I'm not too sure what I was thinking when I put it in front of my rack to begin with. I secured all of my low-volt cabling with zip ties and staples. I also started cutting insulation battes. I'm hoping to get those installed this week.

CJ

It is an off-the-shelf product. This is the one I purchased: http://www.hdx1080.com/index.php. The most popular one and the one with arguably the best support is the Popcorn Hour A-110: http://www.popcornhour.com/onlinesto...id=6&main_id=0.

All of the NMT's use the same chipset for decoding audio and video. Most of the differences are in the ways that they output audio and video, and the aesthetics.

CJ

They aren't that expensive. However, they don't hold anything without adding your own hard drive! I added a 1.5 TB internal hard drive for another $130 and have quite a few movies on there now.

This is a media server. However, most other media servers don't do 1080p or require putting together yourself (HTPC).

CJ

Each HD movie takes 20-25 GB of space, while each DVD takes 3-6 GB. I have around 40 HD movies and around 100 DVD's. You can also add an external USB hard drive or stream movies over the ethernet (from a networked computer or NAS).

CJ

Not at all. It's fairly cheap- around $200 for the NMT and another $130 for the 1.5 TB hard drive. It's a bit more if you don't already have a BlueRay reader on your computer ($130) or have to purchase AnyDVD HD ($100).

CJ

Thanks- build is coming along slowly. Partly due to my lasiness, partly due to the economy. Glad I could help.

CJ

It's not quite that easy. If you want something that easy, look at Kaleidascape and start saving your money! However, it's not that onerous either. You rip the DVD (or BluRay or HD DVD) using your computer, over the network (or USB connection or internal SATA connection) to the drive that is hosting the files. It is pretty straight forward using DVDFab for DVD's. BluRays and HD-DVD's are a little more complicated.

Then you run a program, YAMJ that goes through all of the video files and creates an index file that lists the video and pulls their info off of imdb with their genre, actors, video synopis, etc. and creates the graphical interface that I posted.

This is how I did it. There are other options for ripping the files and other programs to display them.

CJ

That's up to you. I tend to rip the main movie at full quality. I ripped a few of them as iso's so that I could keep the menu system. The NMT can also read avi's, mpg's, and a few more if you want to compress them. However, with hard drives being as cheap as they are, I didn't see the need.

CJ

Thanks, though much of the work was done by the people who build the NMT's and develope the software. All I had to do was the ripping and configuring!

CJ

Just a quick update- I've finished the blocking and am now working on insulation. Based on comments by Ted White, I won't have to insulate the inside portion of the staggered (exterior) wall since the outside portion is already insulated.. that will sure save some time!

CJ

I liked that the HDX uses brushed aluminum for the case, while the Popcorn Hour uses plastic. Also, the HDX has both optical and coaxial digital audio outputs and the Popcorn Hour has just optical. However, the Popcorn Hour is more popular and does have much quicker response on firmware updates. Both are made in China.

Since the NMT's use the same chipsets as the Blu-Ray players, I would think that they may have the same problems, which can also be corrected with firmware upgrades. That said, I've only had problems with two disks- Kill Bill and Kill Bill Volume 2.

CJ

Thanks for the comments. I went with the NMT over an HTPC (which I've set up in the past) for two reasons- ease of control and the support for HD formats.

CJ