Dr. G's Humble HT aka "The Escape Pod" - Page 2

Thanks Tedd. You can think outside the box. I hadn't even imagined a number of things you're suggesting as possibilities.

I talked about some of the ideas with my wife. I am forbidden from using the cold storage - but it was out anyway because it is full to the brim with apocalypse-mitigating foodstuffs.

The doors aren't going anywhere - they're framed in and the one coming into the room is in a bearing wall. If the door to under the stairs is closed generally I _think_ we should be okay most of the time. This was a peeve of mine but I couldn't to much about it.

I am glad you brought up some of the points about the theater space - I can't do the dedicated option as we have decided the space needs to be open with the window so the room can be a standard family room or be used for sleeping in the future (I don't know when it ever would)

I thought about putting the equipment under the stairs, but was forbidden to take up that storage space too - our house is already short on storage space as built.

The other thing I thought about was to put the equipment closet on the south side of the room, by the entrance. That is still a possibility and leaves the whole depth of the room open to seating. My wife doesn't like it because it is a little constricting upon entering the room, it affects the "open space" feeling. But I might play with that idea some more.

I actually am planning to get a Grafik Eye, and reduce the number of zones of lighting. I think the lights will stay about the same, but I have figured some ways to combine the zones and reduce the switch count.

I have to have the south soffit - there is HVAC and plumbing already there that I can't reroute. And call it OCD but I couldn't bear to have the symmetry messed up so that's why I'm putting in the north soffit. I am making the soffits as small as I can, but they'll still be 10"x12" or so. This takes the ceiling down to about 6'8" under the soffits. With 12" platform, that's 5'8" under the soffits. Something I am worried about. If they only stick 12" from the wall, I am _hoping_ that people won't bang their heads.

I am considering an AT wall for the reasons you said. I am going to design for a regular screen and wall up until the room is finished, but I am putting in some conduit and other things in the wall to the front of the room so I could convert to AT in the future, especially if the speaker setup doesn't suit me. I'd probably have to lose a row of seats if I did, but I plan for this to be a kind of experimental room that I can try various ideas in over time as I get the bug.

What about a center speaker both above and below the screen? Does that make it sound like dialog is coming from the screen better than one just below it?

Thanks much for your posts - it's that kind of stuff that helps me consider all the possibilities!


The rear soffit is totally optional, and I haven't decided for sure whether to do it or not. If I move the equipment closet, then I probably won't do it for sure.

Thanks for reminding me of this. The biggest concern I have had is that since it is under daytime living space, what will people walking around/talking/living upstairs while I try to enjoy my show going to do? What about those quiet parts of the movie? Will I be able to hear the nuance? Am I going to be turning it up to drown out unwanted noise within/entering the room?

As an engineer, I'm paid to converge on the ideal solution. So I am having fun doing that for my HT. But for some reason I am always disappointed some with the solutions our teams come up with at work due to almost always these three things: 1) time, 2) money, 3) the status quo. The latter is usually the customer resisting change and/or being uneducated.

I have found it is the same while building my theater - constraints and things to consider that take me away from the ideal, or change my idea of what ideal even is:

1) Time - since much is DIY, and my wife wants the basement DONE (so do I too I admit)

2) Money - And sometimes I have to spend money to save time...

3) Space (or lack of it) and the configuration thereof. Can't raise the ceiling. Can't move the ductwork, can't move the bearing wall, can't drill that big of a hole in the joist, can't move the power panels, can't move that blasted cold storage door, can't make the room wider, or deeper, etc.

4) My own preferences. I love lights, for example. When I was a boy I took all the lamps in the house and hooked them together outside under all the bushes, hanging from trees. Used all the extension cords from the house. Then I lit up the yard in the middle of the night. I did this once again (after receiving a tip-off) to scare the @#$%@# out of some kids toilet papering the yard. So I know there are things that "do it" for me, that may not for others. That's why I keep having to scale back my lighting plan. And I guarantee most will think it was overkill. But it's fun for me. So when it comes to preferences, that's a big input. Plus my preferences change. Part of that moving target.

5) My lack of knowledge. Definitely a constraint. One guy at work says we should have the funds for every project to design a prototype, then start over again from scratch. And do that twice. I read things on here and it's constantly changing what I think is important. Hard to hit a moving target. And I always worry about what I'm missing.

6) Reselling the house. This is our first home. As such, I know I'll be selling it and want the room to double as a regular recreation space. So the riser(s) will not be built permanent, and my wife and I want the room to be able to feel open and bright (maybe with a coat of paint)

7) Lifestyle. Do I invite gobs of people over? Do I need to maximize seating? Do I listen to music or revel in the details of a soundtrack? Do I love to be overwhelmed visually? Do I watch sports, action, cartoons, romantic comedies, or old TV shows most? how do I balance all this if I LOVE variety? (which I do)

8) Other people's preferences. As I share my ideas, inevitably people have different parts of the hobby they are big on, or different preferences. Ultimately, my wife's preferences matter - a lot. So do my friends since they'll hang out here. To be honest, the preferences of those on the forum matter less than just their sheer brilliance and experience.

Selfishly (and I am sure all would agree) - in the end I want my theater to suit myself more than I care how it suits anyone else. One of the reasons I am on avsforum so much reading is that I don't know what will suit myself! But in the end that's my goal. I will guess that it is impossible to build a theater in a given space and have the choices made completely please everyone that ever sees it or comments on it. But if in any way you have helped me build a theater I love, I'll always be grateful to the community here.

It is also impossible to share with all of you all the nuances in the decision-making process. I have had discussions with others - why the heck did you do that? - oh, well there was a beam here holding up my roof that couldn't move, or I couldn't possibly route that duct, or code restricted me to X lights on a circuit, or I couldn't get inside the wall here, or other such little things. Some can be creatively worked around, some just end up changing your plans.

Now to try out some other floorplans on my wife...

When it comes to speaker placement, I'll probably redesign the whole thing again! Should I put two center speakers in, one above the screen and one below? Do I need amp to do that? Can I drive them in parallel if I do? Just a sampling of the questions that riddle my mind.

There should be a "psychology of home theater" forum...

Good to know - by why? Is it likely to make dead spots, where the speakers cancel each other out in areas of the room? I have a feeling it might be complex if you weren't able to elaborate quickly...

I have a few more ideas I tossed around. I don't think I'll actually do any of them though for various reasons. But I might be able to be convinced


Here's an acoustically transparent screen version of my plans, which I may do down the road if I want to improve my audio experience or hide the speakers, or make the screen bigger:





This next option is moving the equipment closet over to the other side of the room. Strangely it ends up limiting some of my storage options. It also makes the soffits a pain, as I have to have more low-ceiling areas to get the conduit I want around some of the joists. It does open up the back of the room, which would make it easier for deeper seating if I did AT screen in the future, but strangely as the seating moves back, the equipment closet still ends up blocking passage. (ignore the treadmill and the table - according to the picture they're on the lawn)





This is another seating option that makes things easier if I move things toward the back of the room. But the pesky cold storage door forces an aisle where I don't want it. The missus it pretty adamant she have regular access to the room (she uses it quite a bit for food storage and is in and out almost daily - one of HER hobbies) and doesn't want to climb up and down a 12 inch platform - I can understand her point . With that aisle, it makes it hard for the second row to see over the first row heads without moving the screen up higher than I want it. Ideally, I want to cram all the seating as close to the center of the room (front to back) as I can, so people hear similar volume levels, see a similar screen size, and can see over each other. So I'll pack as tight as I can without it feeling too cramped. So this idea was out.





This last option seemed fun to me because it gives a nice room to hide gadgets galore and have plenty of space to work on them, but actually forces me to put the platform against the north wall and have that pesky aisle to the cold storage. It also means I have to get wires/conduit to that corner, which is quite a bit harder than the other corner. Also with this the door has to open out, forces seats to the north side, and makes some difficulty getting up and down the room from front to back.



I'll continue to let my mind churn on these ideas in my head (along with Ted's) and see if something else pops out, but I think I'll end up sticking with what I have. Too bad - none of the options are exactly ideal, but the space and my other priorities do constrain me.

I'm not worried though, I think with still 21 feet front to back I have plenty of space. I can ditch the bar if it doesn't fit. I plan to make the bar and platform "portable" - in that I'll build them after the room is finished and I've seen exactly what I have to work with. I am reserving extra carpet for the platform. So no matter what, I'm excited!

I'll let this settle in my mind during work this week, then continue with the sketchup plans! If you have any suggestions, criticisms after reading my dissertations (sorry a bad habit to be wordy) then let 'em flow!

University of Utah - that's where I got my B.S. - ( in both senses of the acronym ) Sounds like you know the Salt Lake City area pretty well. Maybe I will take a little trip over there some lunch hour as it's only about 20 minutes from work and see if I can find someone. Always nostalgic to visit the old stomping grounds too.

I thought much about under the stairs, but discussions with the missus said we just don't have enough climate controlled storage. She has plans for it which I agree with. Plus with the fireblocking requirements for the city (I'm doing this on a basement finish permit) and framing around the under stairs it would be hard to vent and get conduit/wires in and out of.

It's funny, all my alternatives seem to have some logistical or aesthetic or spousal reason they won't work, and I keep coming back to this layout. I am starting to accept it and think it will be fine. It gives me an unencumbered theater depth of 21 feet (19 feet if I do AT screen wall - mine won't be more than 2 feet deep). That meets the criteria I found here in this post. My screen will be 4.5 feet high so my room at 21 feet is 4.666 ratio. Plenty for two rows of seats, and I like sitting pretty close - usually 1 screen width away.

Ted, is there any reason beside depth that this layout worries you? Acoustics? I'm hoping that I can do other things to mitigate if that's the case.

I want to possibly put in amps and a tower HTPC at some point, so I want plenty of space

That's a bearing wall, so I'd have to build in storage between studs. Plus the room on the other side is a library/bedroom which my wife has plans for - the bookshelves will be in the space on the other side, so I probably can't eat into it.

Thanks for the tip. Updated my plans. As for the venting, I was going to put a vent in the bottom of the rack and I have a super-quiet 90 CFM bathroom fan in the ceiling of the closet that I am going to vent outside. I wanted this for the equipment AND so it wouldn't get stuffy - 15 CFM ventilation per person is what I read - I figure the fan should help with both.

Planning to use 1/2" or 5/8" MDF on the bottom of the soffits to save some space, and if it's cut straight helps ensure a nice plumb soffit.

This stage is hard. I feel like I am making concessions left and right from the "ideal" HT. But I figure that's just part of the process, balancing needs, wants, money, time, and other non-HT priorities for this room, which we want to remain somewhat multi-purpose. I think I already may have driven aaustin away with my concessions on sound isolation. Hopefully once I hone in on a final plan for layout, I can plow forward from there and just make the space the best it can be with the constraints I have.

That's a great idea. I was planning on something similar - I have some track lights I'm planning to put in that I can use 12V fixtures in for very directed lighting for reading or other task lighting. I could put in cans or another track on the rear soffit too. In fact, I never thought that the bar could be used for homework, paperwork, etc. during a show, I just thought of food and drink but that would be another definite way we'd use it.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Well all, thanks to Ted I have seriously considered getting the equipment closet out of the main room. I thought - Ted has a point, and he has experience, and he is dwelling on this, and so I should try my best to do something about this, I'll probably be glad later.

First, I have this childhood-based obsession with easy access to the back of the equipment. I have many memories of trying to recable the VCR or the stereo system, or the computer, or pretty much anything, and always cursing as I rolled around under/next to tables or cabinets, or had to pull things out of shelves and the cables weren't long enough. So I have always had a fantasy that I could just walk behind the equipment and, with enough room (and plenty of light), just make the changes I wanted. What is a HT if not to live our fantasies! I'm not willing to give this one up, so I must have easy access to the back of the equipment. This theater will be an experimental place and I don't expect the equipment to always just sit there, I plan to tinker. But not so much tinkering I can't have a table next to the door most of the time.

I liked a lot the idea of using the bearing wall the way Ted suggested (awesome drawing), and thought - I could have an opening on the other side (in the library/bedroom) to access the rear. I talked it over with the wife, and we decided (together, right? ) that we didn't want the sound leaking in, or an access panel/door in another room that might be awkward in the future. So a no on that.

Then I thought I could build an equipment closet with the front wall where the shelving connects could swing out, equipment and all, and I could work behind it while swung out, then close it again. I went with this idea for a few days, doing drawings and so forth. I don't have the budget for fancy spinning racks on railings or any of that stuff, so it would be homegrown or bust. I decided it would be possible but hard, and don't want to undertake it, and would require longer cables and cable management since they'd have to be able to extend as I "opened" the front... All this to save a little of the footprint just wasn't worth it to me. Okay, so I dropped that idea yesterday.




The decision I finally made this morning is to have the equipment rack in the southeast corner, facing north. I will NOT put the lighting junction box in the equipment closet but over in the northeast corner still, and just paint it and cover with media storage. This new makes a few things harder, but I'll live with it:

- more soffit to build
- longer cable runs. About 4-5 ft for the projector, another 15 ft or so for runs to the front of the room. I planned to do a lot in conduit. More conduit. I can live with it.
- getting used to a new idea after planning much around the old one was hard

There's a lot of pros though:

- can put exercise equipment in the very back if I ditch the bar - it's one or the other - but at least I have a choice now
- better access to the seating, more open
- A large separation from the dimmer switches and lighting panel, so EMI from that stuff is less likely.

I think this is the absolute best I'll be able to do, with my priorities as they are. So here's the new floorplan:



Edited by danielrg - 7/27/12 at 6:59pm

I thought of the rack rolling out and the swivel idea - the AXS slide out rack is slick - and can find for $750 or so on ebay. But I'm going to stick with my little door behind. Hard to fight with those boyhood fantasies, and it saves me money. I can go with a slim5 if I want a rack, and I am still sizing the opening for the slim5 model 5-29

I don't want to do any built-ins. My wife and I want the space to be very versatile. One nice thing is I can always add built-ins later too, so I can go back on that decision if I want. I modified my equip closet plan to allow storage space for the full back wall if desired, and put some storage space in the equip closet (for movies we don't want kids to have access to or storing blankets, ugly old keepsake VHS stuff, etc.)

Have a soffit on the back wall. Not going to put one up front, I want to be able to put center speaker there above screen if I don't to AT. Plus I want to be able to put the screen higher if necessary. Plus this is something I can also add later (if I keep some extra paint around...)

I thought about that possibility too. In fact wife and I talked about counter, built in for that stuff. But we're not very excited about a microwave/fridge down there, so that's really just an afterthought. In my new plans they are there, but sort of crammed in. We could put them on the north side against back wall too, but we probably will just do the cooking/fridging in the kitchen. In our small house it isn't a big deal. And the noise floor issue goes away

For brightness I wanted to place the PJ closer, I read that at the closer zoom the brightness is better. But I went and looked at the calcs for my likely PJ choices, and I think that 14-18 feet is the range I'd want it in. I put it at 15' in my drawing.

I put the cable drop 12" off center at 17 feet back, because I want to be able to place the projector anywhere for depth, and if I move it close to the screen I don't want cables running 6 or 7 ft from a drop, and if I put it far I don't want to run into the drop or have it in front of the lens. Any thoughts on a non-centered drop?

Exercise equipment will only fit if we ditch the bar, and we aren't planning on it, it's only for way down the road if we have to move it for another bedroom. Treadmill does fold up a little bit but not enough to make a difference in things.




Edited by danielrg - 7/28/12 at 4:39pm

Okay, okay - I am posting layout after layout. This is a hard thing to get right!

Anyhow, I decided to put a separate drop for power on one side of projector, and a drop for the video (low voltage) on the other side, each 12" off center. I put them far enough back they won't be in the throw field for having projector lens up to 20' from the screen. (or with the lens up to 6" off center).

If I decide on a projector and screen before sheetrocking I might just solidify, but this leaves me many options for projectors/screens/distances in the future, and only having to run the cables up to 5' along the ceiling at most, which I'm okay with.

I also plan to put blocking between joists for 14' through 21' throw distances so I can anchor a mount anywhere along that range.

Alright - speaker layout.

You can see where I have speakers in my last set of drawings. I hadn't really thought about it. I just put them there.

What should I do for my long room for surround speakers?
Do I need two side surrounds?
Or can I just put side surrounds for the rear row and that serve the front row fine?
Do I want to use dipole surrounds?

I plan to get a 9.2 amplifying receiver. I am partial to Onkyo myself, but I can be persuaded

Will the extra 2 channels do me any good? They are supposed to be front right/left "height" channels, so they go near the ceiling on front right and left, right? For my narrow room, I am not convinced extra front speakers would be very useful. Do some receivers let you put those two channels in other places, like doubling the rears or the sides for different room configs?

Does anyone have a 9.x receiver? I thought it might let me choose where I want two extra speakers, then I don't have to worry about amping extra side speakers for my long room.

Location of speaker wire drops

Screen Wall Speakers
As for the junction boxes, I think I'll put boxes up front for left/right regular and height channels with conduit between so I can change my speaker config. I am already putting three boxes for center speaker configs, one above, below, and one behind the screen.

Not sure how I might use the "behind" the screen speaker drop though - as AT needs 12" between speaker and screen minimum - in which case I'd put in a false wall and then the location of the wire source wouldn't matter.



Surround Speakers

I think I am going to put side speaker drops at each row (including bar) and run conduit between to pull the wire, then I can put speakers where I want. I'll have three drops for rear surrounds, and will just choose the ones I want to use, and have extras for the future covered and painted. The picture kind of shows my idea (overkill I know) - the aqua boxes represent cable drop locations, the orange boxes are my current idea for speaker placement.



Subwoofer(s)

I don't know what to do about subs for sure. I am not a huge bass fan (or my wife) but I want to have it be capable. I'm pretty sure I'll just place subs in the front, and wire from the 2-gang A/V boxes in the front. I am planning to put powerbridge drops to the two front sides of the room.

I don't know if putting a subwoofer in the rear of the room would do any good? If I thought I might, I'd need powerbridge and a cable drop, I don't have one planned.

I'll be researching this for the next little while. Equipment Closet location set, lighting locations set, speakers next!

I haven't posted to this thread for months. But still much has been going on. I finished the theater design in Google Sketchup at the end of the year, and started physically working on everything in earnest at that point.

Framing is done. Electrical I finished a couple weeks ago. Conduit just before that.

I have conduit all over the place, but I am also running wiring outside the conduit to most areas where I know what wires I want - conduit will be for future expansion.

I have been working 4 10s at work (Tues-Fri) and 2 12s on the weekends (Sat/Mon) the last 2 months to get ready for my 4-way inspection. Very grateful for a flexible employer.

Spent the last weekend doing fireblocking and some odds and ends. Pretty much ready for my rough inspection.

I learned that being an experienced framer could have cut hours off my fireblock work and better prepared my walls for drywall. I hope the drywallers don't laugh at me. Live and learn!

I'll be taking a short break from the basement/theater work - at least the physical part of it - over the next 2-3 weeks. I'm planning to post some pictures and my final layout during that time.

Next Stage: Running low voltage wiring for the basement (and for the rest of the house while the basement is still open)...

1100 feet Cat6
400 feet 12/2 speaker wire
100 feet 14/4 speaker wire
600 feet RG6 (video and subwoofer)
120 feet of HDMI (various runs)

Oh the joy! Fortunately most of it will be through joist/stud bays and soffits, I'm tired of drilling through studs! I'll have to tidy up my fireblocking a little after I'm done too.

I'll probably spend a lot of time testing my cabling and electrical before insulation and drywall.

As always, the community here at AVS forums is incredible, and has been a great help so far!

I was going to just buy bulk RG6 for my coax. But it came to something like 650 feet, and I had to get tools to put the connectors on and everything. So I finally decided to get preterminated sub and satellite/tv coax cables of fixed sizes from monoprice. I think it will work out well, because one end I don't mind coiling up and they'll be in the utility room or equipment closets. And if I have to I can cut and terminate one end and not both - and it came to less than just getting a 1000 foot roll.

I was also able to test all the coax cables at work. One sub cable didn't work and I fixed it at our solder station, RMA avoided!

I now have all the speaker cable from monoprice as well, and my HDMI cables. One of them was bad too but couldn't fix that at a solder station! Had to RMA that one.

Going to get the cat6 at home depot or locally.

Had my basement 4 way inspection Monday and passed!

Next inspection is insulation inspection. But it will be a while. I'm going to run low voltage, test all my electrical work, and run a couple more conduits to some upstairs rooms. Then I'll do lots of insulation cramming.

Inspector said I could run any additional low voltage I need as long as I didn't co-locate high voltage and low voltage runs or terminate in the same boxes. They can cross or run together for very short lengths if necessary though. For my grafik eye I'm okay because the low voltage cable has 600V sheathing, just have to do my best to keep it away from high voltage in the junction box with GE.

Okay, I said I'd upload some pictures. First of all, the updated floor plan with dimensions. Pretty much no doing back on this now. The framing, equipment closet, conduit, soffits, electrical are done!

Well, no going back on those things... The platform, seating, etc. are all in the future still...


Edited by danielrg - 4/27/13 at 10:05pm

Here are some pictures from the Google Sketchup drawing I did. Sketchup was awesome because I was able to plan out and visualize all my conduit/electrical box placement, and fixture placements and how they worked with the joists and studs. I started putting in can lights, electrical boxes, and routing conduits with the knowledge that everything was going to fit, which is a good feeling.

I haven't decided for sure on the color scheme, and I didn't import any special colors, but the furniture I already have and I measured it and created the models to within a few inches.

Below is the floor plan in Sketchup itself with perspective turned off, direct down from the top:



Here's a perspective with the ceiling off from the back. You can see some of the rest of our basement too (framing is all I put in sketchup for the rest of the basement):



This is a side cutaway view of the room, from a couple slightly different angles:





This is the "view" from the second row. I have sketchup set to 35 degree field of view.



This is the "view" from the first row:



And here is looking back from the screen:



It's a pretty crowded space! But at only 10.5 feet wide I have to make some real concessions, and people are just going to have to shimmy around the rows a little bit. I may get rid of the captains chair on the second row or put the recliners right next to each other. I already own all the furniture, but I don't have to have all of it in there.
Edited by danielrg - 4/27/13 at 11:43pm

Couple comments on concessions in my design:

I am making some concessions at this first stage, and almost have a "version two" already forming in my mind. But I don't know if version 2 will be in this house or not.

1) Regarding an AT (acoustically transparent) setup: This room really is very good for it. I have designed the room with future AT in mind. For example:

• I put the screen recessed lights a little further back - 24" or so from the front wall. This would allow an 18" AT space if desired without putting them behind the screen. I'm planning to get lights I can angle for the front cans (they are 3")
• I have two large conduits (1.5") to the front screen wall. I also have two powerbridged outlets from the equipment closet to the front. These are for subs or amps or whatever needs to be up front.
• I have a power line from the lighting control box if I wanted to put a zone of lighting behind the AT screen.
• I put the drops back far enough that I can move the projector back some if necessary for an AT screen setup.

But for now I am going to go with a standard screen - I can always build a false wall with screen later. I would like to try that at some point because I could possibly do a CIH screen in that case and have better speaker placement too, both things I'd like to try.

2) The bar and platform are going to be built after the fact. I am putting a couple electrical boxes kind of close to the floor where I can feed the portable platform/bar power in a hopefully fairly hidden way if I want to put power outlets into them. I was debating on whether to build them in more permanently and wire them, but I want versatility and the ability to remove them if I sell or repurpose the room for any reason (I sure hope not!)

3) My soundproofing is crap. I was going to DD and green glue but all sorts of things got in the way:

• I have TWO electrical panels that have to be in the room. If I tried to pull them out 1 1/4" to be flush with a DD wall, then the wires coming out of them would be in front of the studs and there weren't enough knockouts to locate all the wires further toward the back in the box. PLUS both of them would lead sound like crazy.
• The room is very narrow. I wanted every inch I could get, so double studs or anything on the inside to better isolate was too much of a compromise.
• I have the water main in the room and need to keep it accessible. Another big hole in the wall.
• I have HVAC in the room that couldn't be moved, so I couldn't build the soffits after for some spots, which is better for sound isolation.
• I really wanted can lights, and they made a whole lot of holes in the ceiling. I thought about making sound boxes for the can lights (some threads have explored this) but for good spacing some joist bays had to share the cans with existing HVAC and the sound boxes wouldn't have fit.
• The costs and time and space requirements started to mount, and I ended up ditching the plans. I could have maybe put some resilient channel on the ceiling, but I didn't want to spend that kind of effort for only a halfway job.

So I brought all the drywall into the basement before framing through a window, and bought it back when I thought I was going to DD+GG the theater. So I am at least going to put 5/8" drywall on the ceiling and inside wall since I have it (it weighs like 2x what the 1/2" does so it should do a little something - a solid door, and I'll caulk all the openings. Best I can hope for I think.

4) I am not going to get the greatest speakers the first time around. I mean, right now (and for the last 10 years) I have been watching stuff on a 31" tube TV with a Kenwood stereo from 1992 for the speakers. Pretty much anything will sound better than that. I have a budget of $1500 to $1800 dollars or so for speakers.

I kind of console myself by saying having anything at all will be awesome compared to how I watch movies/TV now. I'd like to start out simple and upgrade as I learn more. Plus with each jump I can get the enjoyment of having something nicer. I think a progression might be more fun over the next few years than going from 1 star movie watching straight to 4 or 5 star.

I DO plan to treat the room for acoustics at some point soon after I finish.

Of course I don't want to skip doing things now that are easy or inexpensive either, so any ideas people have while reading through the thread are ALWAYS welcome.

So I had a question for the group at large:

Should I go back and edit my first one or two posts occasionally to show the current state of the theater build? Or do people think it's nicer to see the progression of my thinking on it? I have a lot of drawings and ideas in the beginning that have changed in several ways.

Okay, last post of the night.

I changed the name of the thread based on a discussion my wife and I had. For us it certainly will be an escape! My wife was joking about how nice it will be if we are upset about something to go to the escape pod when the basement is finished.

Here's pictures of my theater as it currently stands. I have a pile of drywall in the way of taking the best pictures. I took about 200 pictures at the advice I have read here and on other home improvement forums. I took them until I was sick of it. Then took some more. My camera with the nice wide angle lens broke recently too. Bums me out, and I haven't gotten a new one yet, so I am using an old camera. It is a pain not having that wide angle, I just can't back up far enough!

I spent 10 hours cleaning the basement prior to inspection. Biggest pain was getting sawdust and wood chips out from between the base plates of the walls and the foundation. Ended up having to vacuum, then use compressed air to blow out anything the vacuum could quite suck up, then vacuuming up that mess too. I had sawdust EVERYWHERE, and was vacuuming off the top plates, edges of joists, etc. I thought I'd done an okay job of keeping the place clean while I worked, but there was still a lot of hidden mess. At this point you can crawl on the floor and not get dirty.

Anyhow, on to the pics!

Looking back toward the equipment closet. Entrance to the theater is to the right of the double gang box in the middle of the picture.



Looking toward the screen wall:



This is the rear wall area on the right side of the theater. The four four gang boxes will be for various types of lighting control, and I have conduit running back to a box where I pulled all my lighting zones. I plan to have a Grafik Eye (or two maybe in the future) and want to be able to re-wire my zones. This is sort of my corny pet project of having fancy lighting control and being able to change things up in the future. The panel will be covered with a media shelf in the final room:



Here's the drop for my projector. Power on one side, A/V on the other. I have a 1.5" conduit coming from the right side of the room, another from the left, and a 2" conduit from the equipment closet. I want to be able to have video input from devices in the room, laptops, etc. and have someone be able to just plug in to the projector if desired. I put in a powerbridge feed to the projector drop so I can have power conditioning on the outlet from the equipment closet if desired, and also have a drop from the rear outlets in the room if I want to hook it up direct to a circuit.



One more shot of the screen wall. My old camera is kind of crappy and had a hard time focusing too well. All the conduit on the screen wall is for speaker and AV flexibility. Although I will be running speaker and AV for 7.2 surround sound outside the conduit as well. The boxes on the upper right and left are my left and right height drops, if I ever decide to do it. On my side walls I have drops for the right and left wides also. You can kind of see them in the second picture where there's a blue conduit to a blue box on the left side and a black box on the right side sticking out a little, about 1/3 of the way up the wall.



Here's all the conduit coming from the room into the equipment closet (the two on the left are from the living room and the 2" from the utility room):



So there's the current state! Like I said earlier, I have a bunch of low voltage that I am running next.

Oh, and by the way this has been a lot of fun, especially running the electrical was new and enjoyable for me.
Edited by danielrg - 4/28/13 at 12:41am