The Cinemar Home Theater Construction Thread - Page 77

Thank you very much Dale.

We had a few friends over on Friday night and the front row was a pretty big hit as well as the star ceiling.

I have a few more kinks to work out. I bought some inexpensive HDMI baluns online a while back that don't seem to be keeping their signal. So I ordered some other ones from monoprice that will hopefully do the trick.

I have things a bit more automated with the remote control. The Emotiva Amp has a trigger for powering it on. THe only problem is the Onkyo 3008 only has a trigger for Zones 2&3, which I can't use since that would eliminate some of the Wides/High speakers I'm using. So I eneded up using a Zone on my Cav66 to trigger on all the equipment. So from the remote, I blast an IR code that MLServer catches. MLServer then turns on the CAV zone for the Theater which has a trigger run to a Belkin PureAV PF60 power filter, this then has another trigger leading to the Emotiva Amp and then also turns on the Onkyo 3008 receiver. Complicated, but ended up working out pretty good. The other good thing is that if the CAV zone is on, I know for sure that everything is powered on and that something is going on in the theater...so I can build other conditionals based upon that. I was thinking of using the trigger on the projector, but I think I may just control that via serial...just in case I just want to listed to music it won't have to be on.

Thanks for giving me a heads up on not including the link back to this thread. It's now there.

I shot the video with an old Panasonic still camera. I should reshoot it with my HD video camera. I'll try to tackle that since I think it would look much better.

To me, and everyone else who has heard it, the theater sounds great. I'm sure it can be improved though. The sub could probably use another brother, but the D-Box kind of makes up for it in some respects.

I will eventually start doing some room measurements once I have it all controlled and the bugs worked out. Yet another thing I'll need to learn.

I've just used Audyssey through my Onkyo and it seems to have done a great job. You can really crank it, although I still have some head room to go that I haven't reached yet.

The video looks fantastics, but again, I'm sure another projector would give me some more brightness. I can tell from outside the theater that the picture isn't as bright as the LED in the bar area since you can see both together as you walk in. But really the room is really dark so the picture just pops with the Seymour AV screen.

The video and audio though are like everything else, you don't know what you are missing until you have something to compare it to.

I have to do some official testing, but the sound proofing has worked very well. I did hear the DBox platform though in my daughters room up above. It sounded like distant thunder. But here's where I may have screwed up a bit. I failed to DD/GG the theater foyer. I've found when entertaining, the theater door remains open. So the sound leakage may actually be in the foyer area. I need to perform some more tests though with the theater door closed to see what I can hear upstairs. But I'm extremely happy with the results. The fact that I can listen to it at the levels I am at 3am without anyone complaining is an incredible feeling.

In hindsight, I also should have disconnected the area below the DBox platform from the entire floor structure. That would have prevent any vibrations from stretching out to other areas. There are rubber pads under the DBox actuators, but I'm sure some energy is still being transferred.
Edited by mcascio - 8/19/12 at 6:22pm

That's a great idea...the only problem is I don't think my camera will have a wide enough lens. But I'll give it a shot. I'll need to figure out a way to secure the camera.

I have the masking panels from Seymour AV. I just didn't have them up when I shot the video. The corner cabinets work great though for storing them.

Ok. So I tried videoing the car scene from the movie "2012" while sitting in the front row with the DBox on.

Unfortunately, my video camera doesn't have a wide enough angle lens to show more of the room. It just looks like a guy with Parkinson's disease in the front row of the theater trying to pirate the movie with his hand held camera.

You can tell when the big bumps hit though, the camera just bounces around.

That's the nice thing about doing the painted mural over the fiber optics. You can do it after the build is complete...assuming you planned for black lights. Hopefully you can make it work.

I opted for having the mural done instead of purchasing another sub or saving for a better projector. I figure I can get by with the sub and projector I have for now and officially call the room construction itself done.

Here are some pics of the theater that remind me of some of my earlier renders. I shot these from a ladder.

Thanks tbraden32.

Not yet. Hopefully I'll have some spare time soon though.

Thanks Anthony.

I'm using a Panasonic AE4000u projector.

The DBox actuators I'm using are no longer available. You'd want to check with a local DBox dealer to get pricing on their new systems. The D-Box website has a dealer finder.
Edited by mcascio - 8/21/12 at 9:21am

Back by popular demand...here's a composite 3D render with a photo with the chairs included.


There is an angled divider. The left upper is real and the right lower is 3D.