"Xzener's Dedicated Theater" Construction Thread - Page 9

I have attached pics after my try at getting this cloud ceiling done. I am not really happy with the clouds so wondering to get someone to redo it. What do you guys think?

I am planning to add soffit to have the star ceiling next but I have question on how the lighting done.

As you can see it in the last two pictures, it pops out because I have used fluorescent lamp. So but it looks like there is NO blacklight rope lighting available because I was planning to use fluorescent to light the clouds then blacklight rope to power the stars. Is that possible?

What is the best option to pop the clouds and starts because I have very limited space in the soffit crown molding.

Awesome job!

See you soon! Im at least in the same time zone as you... and should be able to be there Wednesday to just add a few things to your star ceiling. BTW... you did a great job already, so I'm not sure Ill have to do a lot, but Im excited to have you teach this non-artist how to paint clouds. I'm almost giddy. :-)

You'll love the Milky Way, I hope. I drove through Las Vegas a couple of nights ago... and when I was about an hour and a half away, I pulled over (no moon out so it was very dark), got out and stood, leaning up against my car for about an hour just taking it all in. The Milky Way was so incredibly bright. Amazing. I feel sorry for people who have never seen it. So... that is a must in your theater room ceiling.

Oh, one quick side note... I was practicing taking night shots with the camera and I was focused in on the Big and Little Dippers. While the shot was exposed... a huge, bright, long-lasting meteor flamed across the sky and burned out just after entering the frame that I was shooting. It looks really cool on the small screen of the camera. I can't wait to see how it looks on a large screen.

OK, I'm rambling. See you soon!

Make sure you share that image! Would love to see it!

OK.... It'll be a week or so before I'm back home... but I will. I couldn't believe it showed up as I was shooting the picture. I was hoping that I'd get part of it... and I got the last part of it before it burned out.

I'll post it when I get it on my comp.

From where you live.... forget Vegas! Head up to the redwoods. It'll be just as nice.

Hey, don't expect me too early in the morning. I'm sitting in Frazier Park right now, at a little ( was much larger, it seemed, when I was younger) lake that I used to fish in as I was growing up. May just stay the night here and head out early in the morning. I'll be in touch.

Just so you know... I was soooo stuffed with food that I only made it to Bakersfield before I had to pull over and find a place to sleep. What an incredible meal!!!!!!!!!!! Great family. Awesome theater room. Had a great time... and learned how to do clouds. Well, they're close to looking like clouds. Maybe after a few more.

Thanks for letting me come by and add a few stars to your already awesome ceiling. I hope the pics come out. Should have them to you by Monday. Then off the the KC area.

Jeff

Here're a couple of pictures that I took just outside of Las Vegas last week. One shows what look like two shooting stars ( I was looking somewhere else if they are)... and the other shows the meteor just entering the right side of the picture before it burned out. I got so excited to see the picture that I let off of the shutter and didn't let the stars get exposed long enough. But, I can probably lighten the stars in photoshop.

Anyway, I said I'd put it up when I could.

Guess it helps if I attach the pics. Still getting used to the IPad.

The Milkey Way came out pretty good. However, I am not 100% sure those are 2 shooting stars. Its very likely that they were satellites that you picked up.

There is a way to verify as you can do a lookup using your coordinates of where you took the shot and the date and time and check what satellites were passing by, ISS or even iridium flare activity (perhaps that is what you caught in the 2nd shot). You can get this from a sight called heavensabove.org

I agree. I thought that they were either planes or satellites... but a friend kept saying, "no, those are shooting stars!" I'm inclined to believe what you're thinking too.

BTW... I have a couple shout where the MW came out really nice. I just downloaded those two pics onto a friends computer and enabled them to myself ( to get them onto my IPad) when I get home any get he pics onto my own computer... I'll put up a couple nice pics of the night sky ( probably on my thread ). I had a quick peek at them and they are pretty cool.

Bu again, I think that you're right... probably satellites.

Thanks for posting the pics! The MW looks great!

Jason.... I'm so happy that you guys like your slightly touched up mural. I was happy o do that and it was great meeting your family. I loved my time there... and I will hopefully be able to paint those clouds as nice as you did them.

Thanks for the offer to stay with you guys... that is very nice of you! And, if you guys eat like we ate when I was there... I may just take you up on that. You know... I ate a small amount of the food your wife sent home with me (along my trip back home) but wanted to save some for my wife to try out. She loved it all as much as I did... and so did my daughter who caught me with the plate. Seriously incredible dinner!!!!!!! Wow!

And, what a cool theater room. I went downstairs to measure the room that I've been considering for a while, but thought was too small. You've inspired me. Yours turned out soooo nice. I loved it.

I look forward to sharing your "testimonial" on my site... and appreciate your offer to tell others about your experience.

BTW... I'll get the pics to you later today, hopefully. Still moving really slowly after all that driving. Oh, I got some great shots of the night sky & Milky Way on my way back home.

Thanks for your hospitality and for the ideas I got from your theater.

Jeff

Nice job bringing out the Milky Way!

Let me just add here that the real look of the ceiling is like you see in the second picture... Only with
the Milky Way crossing the ceiling as seen in the third picture (only more cloudy looking, not so noisy). But, to even get it to show up is great.

I love the set up you have in that room, Jason. It's inspired me. I can just picture my family enjoying the room I've always wanted to turn into a theater... but thought was too small. It really isn't, and you have plenty of room. Love he room!!!

I saw a page or two back that you have an X-Box Kinect in your theatre. Did you extend the wiring for that back to a rack somewhere? I have been thinking lately about how I can extend wiring for a Wii sensor bar, Kinect, etc. Thanks and congratulations on the beautiful ceiling!

There are plenty of testing software out there. Maybe check the manufacturers website. Or you can use the one built into windows. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/w...isk-for-errors

By the way, nice work on the home theater setup. Tastefully done, much like your work over at the mediabrowser forums. I'm a big fan

The best utility I've used for drives is SpinRite. But given that you rescued the data already I suggest that you just scrap the 'ol girl. And shame on you for not having backups!!

I hear ya. I had a hard drive with movies but more importantly pictures from a trip to Italy. After that died I was kicking myself and now have a server for media with raid to protect it. It takes an event like that to push you and take more effort to protect your data.

Anyways, can't wait for Hydra. Hope it actually gets released on the 9th.

RAID is not backup. Ask me how I know.

I do have an actual backup process in place now for files and self-generated media. Not for recordings, music, or ripped DVDs (backup cost is not worth it, for me). But I still have holes in my plan - my backup is a separate hard drive in my main server. So I'm still vulnerable to something that destroys that computer. I have a 1TB removable drive that is ostensibly backed up to monthly - but I'm not diligent about that. That would provide some measure of protection against fire... provided I was home to grab the drive on my way out the door. I really should be rsyncing data to a remote site - the big expense there would be setting up a separate computer at a friend or relative's house, or buying a cloud storage account somewhere. Since backups are incremental (and I'm not backing up media), it would make sense to do the initial backup on a LAN, and then hook up the computer remotely and do the incrementals over the WAN.

You have to balance the benefit vs the cost/effort. I've pretty much decided copying to a second disk nightly (with critical files - pictures that my wife would be distraught over losing, etc - backed up to a removable disk that can leave the house in case of emergency) is sufficient for me.

Sorry for gumming up the thread with a tangential post.

Edit: Oh, you can download a Linux LiveCD, boot into it, and run fsck on your failed (?) drive. This should attempt to repair any filesystem errors. There are MS equivalents - CHKDISK and SCANDISK - but I have no idea if they are even included in recent distributions of Windows, or if it's all via GUI tools in the system maintenance area of Windows now.