Finally in my New House...basement plans - Page 4

I've still got one more light wall to cover with some dark GOM type material yet.....this one vvv...and my room will be a Total cave (just the ceiling left)


Every time I add a little more room treatment (dark fabric walls) for improved video performance, (and better acoustics) My black levels improve.

I found a great 20' long x 42" strip of really thick Black Velvet to go along the top half of the rear wall for $20
If I could only find enough to finish the rest of the room that cheap!


Last night I had my Pioneer Kuro turned on, nothing else, room nearly pitch black, no signal at all to the TV (Black screen) and it was glowing grey.
I guess its been a while since I've done that, but now that my room is REALLY dark...
the 5080 was actually looking kind of bright to me for the first time. Either my eyes were playing tricks on me,
or my projected black was just as good or better

So I dropped the big 120" down and fired up the 1080UB,
same thing...completely black screen with no signal...

To my amazement it was as Dark, dare I say even slightly Darker than the Kuro black screen.
I know the blacks start to drop off a little when you start projecting any content on the screen with whites or other colors,
but as you can see by the the last Earth shot....the ANSI contrast still looks pretty darn good.

Once I get my components racked off to the side I'm sure that will help too.
It's amazing how much ambient and reflected light gets absorbed by the velvet...

There's no way a painted drywall surface, no matter how dark, can match material for light and sound absorbing qualities.


I like to call this series of shots from the PS3 visualizer

the "How Big is Your World?" photo's



















So How Big is "Your World"?..and shouldn't it at least be larger than You?

476% larger is a good start

Hey uptown! Good to hear from you Bro'
You must of hurt somebodies witto feewings huh? Haha
I had to go back to Jan. 08 to see WTH happened Funny $#!+ !!!

Ya I'm not too anxious to do any sheetrock now, the audio is pretty good... I still need to finish my bass traps for the rear corners though.
The twin Velo's shake the whole freakin house, but the real deep LFE frequencies seem to be canceling out right at my seating position.
I suppose it would be better if I corner loaded my subs instead of front firing.
The Bass is really emphasized in the corners of my room right now...almost makes me want to go sit in the corner to watch.

I may even try turn my room layout 90º one day so I can increase my throw distance and bump the screen up to 150"
That's another benefit to leaving the sheetrock off the walls/ceiling.
My layout is still flexible and nothing is permanent.

My room is 16'-9" x 14'-5" and normally peeps choose the short wall as the screen wall for a longer throw, bigger screen and two rows of seating.

I chose the go with a wider room, shorter throw because I didnt want the side seats so close to the side walls. (10' wide 3-seater)
My g/f and I are usually the only ones watching movies, and for game nights its just my two younger bro's and me so I didnt see the need for two rows of seating.

I cant see that going to a 92" screen would make the blacks any better for a FP,
but it would make the pixel structure smaller and allow you to sit closer without getting the SDE (screen-door-effect)

What kind of throw distance and seating distance are you looking at?
Get the biggest freaking screen you can get your hands on!

120" at 10' freaking Rocks!

Sounds like you're good to go,
18' is a pretty long throw, but it looks like you'll have plenty of Lumens
(provided you can control your room lighting).
Do you know what gain your screen is?
Any chance you can ceiling mount your 6100 closer to the screen?

I'm fairly certain that corner loading my subs will give me the Max LFE,
but simply putting traps in the corners would be easier, look better, and still solve my standing wave issues. Hopefully, for my G/F's sake
I've already got a couple bundles of R-14, I just have to stack them in the corners to see how well it works before I start actually building anything.

My eyes adjusted to my 120" screen at 10'-6" viewing distance within a couple weeks. At 1.2 screen widths, its the perfect seating distance for me
(120" Diagonal screen is about 8'-9" wide x 1.2 = 10'-6")

My eyes are exactly 10'-6" from the screen.
My PJ's throw is 12'-6" (distance from lens to screen)
and I double checked before hand it would throw 120" from at least 12'



When doing your PJ research its helpful to use the calculator at projector central. Plug your numbers in and make adjustments.

Not all PJ's will work for every room configuration
Mounting locations, lens shift, zoom, lumen output, screen size and gain all have to work for your rooms parameters.
You'll also want a PJ that has minimal lag or motion blur for Gaming
Make sure you're not sensitive to DLP rainbows too.
LCD's in general are more flexible for mounting locations and lens shifting.

http://www.projectorcentral.com/Epso...ulator-pro.htm



If there's anyway for you to demo several systems in person that may be best for you.
A demo can also give you a feel for what screen sizes your eyes can handle at different distances.

I desperately need to get some more tools now that I'm a home owner.
I have a hammer, measuring tape, level and a staple gun...and not much more. No power tools at all (except a drill).

So I decided to just staple some deep chocolate brown Chanille fabric up on the side wall.
Lazy and cheap...but effective for a temporary solution on budget install


Pretty dramatic change ... (bottom half of rear wall is next, but I ran out of material)


Here you can see where reflected light can still bounce back into the room


No more reflected light bouncing off my screen onto the insulated wall to my left
Sometimes you dont realize how much a distraction the lighter walls are to your eyes until you remove the distraction.
With no peripheral interference my eyes are very happy now, not to mention the PJ's performance is up yet another notch towards perfection.



Casino Royale 50" plasma vs 120" screen and pj combo (for about the same price)










sorry if the focus is off a bit (hand held camera, no tripod)




oops, forgot to turn the camera flash off


Even with some ambient light the picture is still pretty good now that my walls are darker


but once the lights are out it looks like a giant plasma screen


and last but certainly not least, the view from my center seat, trying to holding my camera steady while fully reclined






and a couple from the latest Bond bluray, Quantum of Solace





Now that's pretty darn close to Kuro Black!

Despite my lack of tools, progress on the room hasn't totally come to a grinding halt just yet
Check out the difference a few yards of dark fabric, a staple gun and about 30 minutes can do for ambient/reflected light control.

I used to think having a basement "cave" just meant blocking out natural light...
What I didn't take into account was reflected light from my screen bouncing off the white insulation

Before...way too much light bouncing around


Now That's a "Cave"!


I decided to continue the Black Velvet from the back wall around to break up the large brown side wall..What a difference that simple change made!
The black top section really makes the room feel larger.












Back wall, the camera flash doesn't even light up the fabric at all (click pic to turn the lights on)















I'm pretty happy with the results so far,
The basement feels very cozy for an unfinished area...I guess you really can polish a turd when that's all you can afford to do.

I'm amazed with the video and audio performance. The insulation and fabric combo absorbs light and sound reflections better than drywall/paint.
If there's one area that my room is lacking, without DD/GG there's very little sound isolation from the rest of the home. If there's a movie on, the whole house hears it.
...not too much of a issue though since it's just my G/F and I, no kids (except One Big one -->me)

I'm very satisfied with my cheap ebay screen, still no major wrinkles or waves after five months.
The small creases in the bottom third of the screen are just barley visible, but only with a very bright full white projected image. So faint my camera cant even pick them up.
The motor and switch have been perfect, very smooth, very quiet and never a problem.

Just last week I finally figured out how to set the adjustable drop distance so
I can just hit the down button and let it drop to my designated distance (just short of touching my center channel speaker)
without having to watch it closely and hit the stop button when it looked "close enough".

If I had to it all over again, I'm not sure I wouldn't change a thing. A powered drop down screen has allowed me to have the best of both (Plasma/PJ) without having to choose.
Having a TV for a tv program or a quick view of the local news or weather channel beats the heck out of firing up the PJ several times throughout the day.

When its actually "Movie Time",
dropping the BIG screen down in front of the plasma and dimming the lights with a click of my remote when we have company over never fails to get everyone excited with anticipation.

In all honesty I thought I would eventually be looking for a more expensive brand name screen, or building my own fixed screen/masking system once I determined my actual needs.
This one was just supposed to be a cheap temporary first screen to get my feet wet in the FP pool without diving too far into the deep end only to discover I needed a higher gain, higher contrast material, tensioned, or a larger size etc.

I find my image is more than bright enough even now that my bulb has over 400 hours on it, so no need for a higher gain.
I also find my blacks look amazing and that I dont need to worry about a higher contrast screen or a masking system for widescope 2.35:1 movie's.
The black bars on scope movies just seem to blend into the dark background of my room.

I have seen more expensive screens, and more expensive projectors in person, in action,
and I dont feel like they offer anywhere near enough over my setup to justify the additional cost.

Info on where I got it and how much I paid are a few posts back (#39 I believe)

These screen shots came out a little too dark, but it looks amazing in person with no loss in shadow detail at all.
After calibrating my PJ to use low lamp mode the blacks are even better than ever now.
...unfortunately my camera isnt good enough to capture the image without losing some shadow detail.

I should probably just use a brighter setting on the Epson for screen shots I suppose

It really is amazing how much better a projector will perform in a totally Blacked out Cave...not just an ambient light controlled space.
...and thanks to stereomandan for his Epson Calibration settings, I'm now using Natural mode, with the low lamp setting.

Ceiling treatment is next on my list, maybe some more black velvet or a fiber optic star field, but I need to insulate first.
With my wallet feeling the pinch along with the economic downturn lately I guess my build thread is going to be more of a screen shot collection for a while

Here's some of my favorites from my HD media shelves
CGI Animation and Bluray/HD DVD concerts...





























































































My First Home Theater
...When a Kuro plasma still isnt enough, make your movie Experience Larger than Life with a Projector!

Thanks for the update xb1032

I'm glad you finally figured it out.

It's hard to put into words when trying to convince a die hard Kuro plasma fan that a projector is the way to go for a better movie experience.
But even the best TV you can buy is still just a TV. Having a Kuro PDP and a Kuro PJ is the Ultimate combo (IMHO)
I would have loved to get in on that deal when they were clearing them out.

I'm still pretty happy with my screen so I dont think I'll need a high power unless I see a very significant drop in my bulbs output (currently at around 600 hours).
As you can see in my latest "a Bug's Life" screen shots I get plenty of "Pop" even in low lamp mode The Epson is a pretty bright PJ.











Monsters vs. Aliens