Corey76's Extreme Budget Theater!

Ok so after looking at everyone elses theaters, and what not, perusing the forum for ideas, gathering necessary equipment I've decided I should go ahead and put my project that I've just recently started out here.

My house is a new home built in 03', it has what is called a dedicated media room upstairs that has up until this point housed my old Toshiba 57" CRT HDTV and a few miscellaneous components for surround sound. I had a Media PC hooked up to it running through the RGB connections mostly used as a very nice progressive scan DVD player. I also recently switched from DirecTV to Time warner because they actually offer better HDTV offerings and their HD-DVR is free. The dimensions of the room are 18'x13'x8'. I hope to conceal the equipment and media in a media center shelf unit that comes 2' from the wall to surround the existing projection CRT while the 76" screen is hidden in a cabinet mounted to the ceiling in front of the shelving system. With the media center in place it will bring the length of the room closer to 16'. It's already drywalled and carpeted and essentially like a large bedroom with no closet. In the end I hope for the project to look something like what I've illustrated below.

http://65.65.5.149/fawcett/MediaRoomtext.jpg

Now before I begin I have to give special thanks to:

Walmart, without their really cheap paint and clearance hardware and fabrics this project wouldn't be possible.
Woot.com, without them selling me the Infocus Screenplay 5000 with pull down screen for $735 shipped this project would be dead in the water.
Lowes, thank you for having that sale on lumber, it really helped!

So what is the goal of this project? Well to be honest it's to build the best acoustic and aesthetic theater I can for under $4000 I have a running total right now and it's funny I've already spent most of my budget and I've still got to get seating, so in the end this may get fun and creative. Here's a short summary of what I've purchased thus far and what I already have.

Infocus Screenplay 5000, $735 woot.com
50' x3' x 1.5" roll of linacoustic $140
100' x 3 a 1" roll of linacoustic $180
Lots o' lumber on sale from Lowes $187
Misc. parts and supplies from Walmart $80
Hy-tech paint additive (waste of $32)
Paint $68
Fabric from Walmart clearance $40
Roofing Felt $20
R-19 Insulation $25
Garage door hinges $12 (I know you're thinking huh)
Staples, Nails, and screws, glues and putty $70
Crown Molding $220
Mounting bracket for projector $35

Subtotal :$1844

What I already have and intend to use:
Receiver Pioneer VSX-D811
Yamaha vintage 15 year old speakers (still sound great and are of high quality)
Sony powered 10" sub
Home built media PC with a DVD rom

Various pics.

Before:
http://65.65.5.149/fawcett/before1.jpg
http://65.65.5.149/fawcett/before2.jpg
http://65.65.5.149/fawcett/before3.jpg

Cleared out:

http://65.65.5.149/fawcett/before4.jpg
http://65.65.5.149/fawcett/before5.jpg
http://65.65.5.149/fawcett/before6.jpg

Painted:

http://65.65.5.149/fawcett/painted1.jpg
http://65.65.5.149/fawcett/painted2.jpg
http://65.65.5.149/fawcett/painted3.jpg

Lumber:

http://65.65.5.149/fawcett/supplies1.jpg
http://65.65.5.149/fawcett/supplies2.jpg

Not much got done unfortunately, we had some rain, and a wedding to go to. I did get my Rack/shelf completed. I also got all my tools and much of my supplies upstairs which in of itself was no easy task.

http://pub.xedice.com/CoreyPics/Medi...helf-rack1.JPG
http://pub.xedice.com/CoreyPics/Medi...helf-rack2.JPG

http://pub.xedice.com/CoreyPics/Mediaroom/

You can check all the pics on that last link. So far so slow..... Not sure if you can tell but theres a hinge on the shelf, that hinge along with 2 others will be anchored to the 2x4 that I've bolted up in the corner.

http://pub.xedice.com/CoreyPics/Medi...inylVeneer.JPG

I think this looks better with a little veneer.

Ok, now I have a problem to report! I need some help! Ok I've completly sealed off the doors to the theater. With foam weatherstripping and vinyl door jams. Now when I turn on the A/C after I've completely sealed the room the room pressurizes and the door bust open while at the same time the pressure is felt by my ears.

This isn't what I had in mind as far as a completely sealed room, ok so I obviously have to install some type of outward bound vent. I have access to an outside wall, should I install a vent going outside as in something like a dryer vent, or should I just cut a hole in the celiing and cover it with a vent? If I have to install the dryer like vent has anyone ever done that?

Nope, no return, wow that's really going to mess up my budget if I have to get a return vent. Where do I go from here? Would a return vent be an issue mounted in the celing?

Great I'm probably going to have to call an HVAC contractor.

Well after deciding that worrying about a return vent can wait I moved on and got a little more work done this week.

http://pub.xedice.com/CoreyPics/Mediaroom/Screen.JPG

The free screen is up and so is some of the framing for the rack and shelves. Man I hope I can get most of this part done this weekend so I can move on to the platform and frames next week.

I agree that the return vent is needed, but I'm just not going to worry about it right now. I'll probably call a contractor next month regarding the issue. I have a lot to work on as it is.

I was thinking about just venting to the game room, but I don't know if that would be an issue or not, the game room has a return vent.

It does get warmer than the rest, that's why I'm hoping to leave the ceiling fan

Well got more done this weekend. Mostly I cut all my wood to build pieces so that I can hopefully just assemble. I got the sub cabinet done and my sand filled box underneath. I also finished out the framing for the fabric covered wall. Oh yea! I also hung some linacoustic too.

http://pub.xedice.com/CoreyPics/Mediaroom/Subcab1.JPG
http://pub.xedice.com/CoreyPics/Medi...creendview.JPG
http://pub.xedice.com/CoreyPics/Mediaroom/Subcab2.JPG
http://pub.xedice.com/CoreyPics/Mediaroom/Sandbox.JPG

Well been really busy, but a lot has changed in the past few months. Got her completely painted, the crown is up and the platform is built.

http://pub.xedice.com/CoreyPics/Medi...llandCrown.JPG
http://pub.xedice.com/CoreyPics/Mediaroom/Platform.JPG
http://pub.xedice.com/CoreyPics/Mediaroom/Frontview.JPG

Well I'm getting very close and the theater is up and functioning although I still have quite a bit of work to do. Been a long while since I updated the thread this time I'm resizing the pics so you can all see without clicking, well because I know how busy or lazy many of us are. Anyway the seats are in and Special thanks to Serge, your reputation is well earned! The rear frames are in with 2.5" linacoustic and the gray gom. It's really taken away alot of the echo in the room with just the front wall and back wall lined with the linacoustic. These pics aren't great, and I'll continue to try to improve my shots as I go along. As you can see the platform is in, and the carpet and pad are in. I'd also like to thank Cammy at Lowes who was just wanting to go home and didn't want to mess with cutting up some new carpet and lucky for this luxury carpet I got there matched my crappy carpet perfectly. Thanks for selling me that $400 roll of returned carpet for $50. I never would have thought I'd be able to carpet that platform with $80 in carpet and pad.

Anyway, with the help of some creative shopping and some incredible luck, like the guy at outdoor speaker depot running out of the cheap model I ordered and throwing in the top of the line surrounds for the same price!! YEE HAA! So it looks like my total is right at $4300 and I only need to spend another $200-300 so not too bad at all if you ask me on to the pics!

Well no comments, surprising.

Well actually I put the projector 11'2" from the screen, so the lense is actually set to its smallest point. Since the screen came with the projector and I was trying keep my budget as low as possible I just used that particular screen. Maybe in a few years if the old Toshiba ever goes out I'll just recess the screen and go with something homemade. There's actually another 26" of space behind the screen now, so technically where the projector is mounted now I could have a 110" if I moved it back.

Oh well, maybe I'm crazy, but 80"s is huge if you ask me!

Oh yea I see screen deals all the time I think Tigerdirect had a deal on a motorized 108" for $129 the other day . I think I'll stick with my small screen for a little while since I designed the theater around it and it will take some effort to change all of that. Besides I used to think 57" was huge, 76" is insane to me!

Like most here I got the seats at www.htauthority.com Serge delivered as promised and he has the best prices I've seen.