Complete 130" Home Theater for under $2,000, If I can do it, so can you! - Page 5

Thanks guys. I am still in shock that I have a theater in my basement... And I have had it now for over 2 1/2 years!

My wife and I were watching Prince of Persia, on new years eve (great movie btw) on blue ray, and I was pinching myself again. It is so much better than the theater, no kids talking, crying, beefing, or kicking my seat, and talking on their phones, and I always get the best seat, and can put my feet up in my recliner...

And free food and drinks!

I don't know why anyone would want a regular tv after seeing one of these systems in real life. It is insane how cool my system is for the money I spent.

Good question.

When purchasing a projector system, I always wondered what the "dimming" over time aspect would be...

My system has been in quite a while now, and this past weekend we had another family Wii party. And a few weeks ago I looked at the hour notice and saw that I am over 2,000 hours with it set on "HIGH" brightness. (around 2,200 hours so far).

I went ahead and ordered a new one, just in case the morning of the party mine decided to die...

Last week it arrived, and now I am trying to decide if I should go ahead and replace a bulb that still works... since the company has a 30 day warranty on the bulb I bought...


I think I will go ahead and replace it and put my old bulb in the box in case the new one goes out, I will have a "old" but still working spare.


I have not noticed any decrease in brightness. Not that it doesn't exist, but I can't tell it is less bright than it was... It could be... But, I haven't noticed.

I will let you know when I replace the bulb if there was a difference in brightness.

This many years later it still looks great. I have a projector TV upstairs (62 inch Hitachi) and I have replaced the bulb in it, and never noticed a decrease in brightness before it went out, or after it was replaced.

I am still planning on replacing that bulb... But, it is paintball time of year for me, so I have been busy shooting my friends having a "blast".

I made a video last weekend instead of replacing that bulb.

Editing video footage on a 130 inch screen is super cool btw.

Here is my latest video if you are interested in what I do in the winter.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IURhQ3GBrk

First off, I changed my bulb over the weekend. And yes, I could tell that the new one is brighter. (but I hadn't noticed it dimming... the old one still looked fine, and I will save it for when my new one goes out.)...

But, over time there is a decrease in brightness. I had 2,200 hours on high on mine when I replaced it.

I only know about the HC1500. It is a VERY bright projector. When I was deciding on it, I looked at the "better" mitsi projector which had "more" brightness than the 1500... Except it didn't. It only cost twice as much, for less actual light...

Brightness "ratings" are a scam in the projector business. (did I just let the cat out of the bag?...). Seriously, I don't know how they come up with the lumens, as I have looked at a bunch, and ones that they say were twice what my HC1500 output looked noticeably darker than mine... So your best bet is to actually look at one for yourself if you can find one... Don't trust what they "say" the lumens are... I don't know about epsons, as I haven't even thought about projectors since I got mine. I'm totally happy with it. Especially since I put in a blue ray player. The picture quality is incredible.

IPT, Yeah, my fishtank (compact florescent bulbs 2-96 watt) is pretty bright. It usually kicks off about halfway through Friday night movies, as I have it on a timer. It does add light to the room (even though it is all the way in the back of my room). But, I don't like it super dark when I watch a movie... I like a little ambient light, and the fishtank does that well. It doesn't bother me at all.

It makes no difference on the brightness of my movie screen having the fishtank on. I can even run almost all the lights in my basement with no problem. The only issue is this time of year, when there is snow on the ground and the light coming into the basement from the sliding doors... That can wash out the image in the morning light. But, blinds fix that.



Goear. Speaker placement is key in any home theater. I like the way mine is open, as it accomidates way more people than a closed theater would, and I use the theater when doing other things in the basement (like the craft room, where you can see and hear it fine from all the way across the room) Or while playing pool... Or even in my woodworking shop across the way next to the bathroom. I can see the screen from my workbench, and I wear my headphones if the wife is upstairs and I don't want to bother her with the sound of my speakers.

I have one of my back speakers mounted on the side wall (where it drops down) on the open side, so it has proper placement, and from the theater seats... The sound is amazing.

I have never been disappointed to have it open instead of closed off. It is much more usable when you have plenty of room to do other tasks.

I even have a side business doing hand bindery projects for my families printing company.

And I get to use my theater when doing that!



As you can see I have all the lights on and it is no problem, (and that is with the old bulb...)

Quickhands; yeah go big! I have never once thought I should have gone smaller... The 130 inch is perfect for a basement. It is 10 feet wide, and really make you feel like you are AT the theater.

Nothing better than picking up a pizza and spending some family time in the basement watching a movie. Press the button for the fireplace, and pass the candy!

Nope... I'm totally happy with the 720 resolution, especially now that I finally got a blue ray player to watch movies.

Besides, most stuff is recorded in 720 anyway, as 1080 cameras/switchers cost a fortune, and most studio equipment was purchased in the 720 format. They "upconvert" it to 1080. Which my receiver does to the signal (albeit not as good as high end broadcast upconverters) as well.

So, no I haven't even considered changing out my HC1500. I love the picture quality, and the brightness is perfect in my area.

I did move my mount back about 6 inches when I changed my bulb and I adjusted it, so it so it needed less keystoning adjustments. Which let me get it to fit my screen better, even when playing on the wii. No more black bars anywhere on the image edges. I don't know why I waited so long to do that...

I remember looking at the HC3000 when I purchased the 1500, as it was "much better" according to the sales rep. I wasn't impressed, as the image that the 1500 put out easily beat the 3000 in my opinion, it was much brighter, and had better color saturation, and blacks.

And now that I am happy, I just can't see spending more money on the latest and greatest, as the improvements likely wouldn't be worth the price tag to upgrade. I'd rather buy something I don't have, then upgrade an existing piece of tech.

But, that is me... If getting the new one will make you happy, and you have the cash to do it... go for it. At the end of the day, we all make choices about what we spend our money on. Something that is not important to me, might really matter to someone else, no one can say someone is "right" or "wrong" with their choices (cept Chris obviously... the dealer that posted earlier in this thread. lol.)

So I have a question and figured the experts here would have a solution...

I sold my playstation 3. (back when they lost their network for a few months...) I just didn't play it enough, once I beat the fun parts of Grand Tourismo I sold it.

So I am thinking about getting a blue ray player. But, I'm a tightwad, so I don't want to spend a bunch of money. I see Sony BR for around $79 but they don't have wifi, and I figured I need wifi so I can watch internet video (like youtube).

What do you guys recommend? Can I get a low cost blue ray player that looks good and has wifi and internet ready access to hulu, youtube, and netflix?



Oh, and I got out my racetrack this week "for my kids"... Lol Had to order more AAA batteries already as we used every one in the house!

Well, I decided to wait, as I wanted to spend less than a hundred on a blue ray player, and I wanted wifi, and none of the ones I saw had that feature yet in that price range...

So I got a new action cam for my paintball videos instead!

Contour Roam mounted on my helmet and a Sony SR series on my gun with zoom so you can SEE the paint flying and hitting other players.

yeah! Pretty sure I am the only paintballer doing two cams one with a zoom!

 

Tons more videos on my youtube channel many in HD. youtube.com/trailsofdoom

Edited by FreeEnterprise - 11/13/12 at 4:49am

So it has been 4 years since I put in my theater... Still using ALL of the same gear, and it all works great. I had a friend over last week, and he was completely BLOWN AWAY by my system, and when I told him what I paid, he almost fell over. He has more in his TV set than I do in my entire theater. He said he wished he had known what you could do for cheap before he bought his "tiny" 65 inch tv...

I am getting close to needing to replace my bulb for the second time, as I probably have close to 4,500 hours on it now. It still looks great, and my only "upgrade" is I sold my playstation 3 (back when their system went down, I got tired of needing "updates" every time I wanted to play a game for a few minutes.) So I had no HD input except over the air.

I put Direct TV back in my house, and put a HD receiver in the basement. Wow... The quality is amazing. I have the whole house DVR, but I haven't been able to figure out how to get the video signal from my basement HD receiver to any of my other TV's in the basement?... So if anyone knows how to take a hdmi signal and make it a video signal again, so you can send it through your video cables to your other old style TV's let me know.


But, this theater has been so awesome. Our family has really enjoyed going to "the movies" at home for the past 4 years. Our popcorn sure costs a lot less. And we can pause when kids need to go to the bathroom...

And the only time my feet stick to the floor, is when I step on some velcro and it sticks to my socks!

I'm glad others have been able to use this thread to build their own low cost theaters.

AUrator,

Glad you liked my woodsball video work. That has been a TON of fun over the years and I am finally getting to the point, where I can capture what I see on the field while playing. I play in the fall/winter/spring, so new videos will be coming all winter. And I do everything in 1080HD now, so it looks great on the large screen. I even do my stuff in 5.1 surround sound, so when I watch them from my personal files, I can hear the guys behind me and in front of me, which is pretty cool. But, youtube can't handle 5.1 yet...

Having your own food at your own theater is so much fun. We have a special collection of good "movie" candy, and popcorn for special movie nights. Very fun.

Glad to hear others are doing the budget theater too. I still can't believe I have a theater in my basement!

Xmods were sold by radio shack here in the states up until about two years ago, they retailed for $60, but would sell them cheap when new models came out... Sadly they don't sell them anymore, but you can still find them on ebay... They are awesome!