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The Heart of Texas Theater begins.

post #1 of 52
9/26/06 at 8:40am
Thread Starter 
Well, after 9 years of wanting my own dedicated theater, the time has finally arrived. My family recently moved into a new home. Other than the extra space for the family, the house has a dedicated 20x20 enclosed space that we plan to use for a theater. On a whim I decided to pick up a JVC DILA 56" 1080P RPTV set for the house, but bought a projector instead when I got a really good deal on it from the same retailer. My wife and I had been seriously discussing putting in a projector, and now we had no excuse. So, The Heart of Texas Theater, or at least the beginning of it, was born.

I'm currently in Phase I, which is to get the theater usable for my daughter's birthday slumber party. Since the room came pre-finished, this will be the easy part.

Phase II will be removing all the carpet, reinforcing the floor and running cables in the drywall, followed by a later of green glue on all four walls, ceilng, and floor and another layer sheetrock or plywood.

Phase III will be building out a proper theater, complete with riser, stage, can lights and star ceiling.

The layout and basic design

Here is the second floor floorplan. The theater is in the "Optional Extended Bonus Room" over what is the garage.

The proposed space layout. This will be what it looks like after phase III. Rotate this pictue 90 degrees to the left and you get the proper orientation for the above floorplan.

9/5/2006

It's just like Christmas!

The best present ever! Thank you, me!
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post #2 of 52
9/26/06 at 8:49am
You've got plenty of width which is really great. Plan look great.
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post #3 of 52
9/26/06 at 9:01am
Good luck with your project Joseph!

You may already be aware, but in case you aren't - a square room is problematic from an acoustics perspective - not an intractable one, but if balanced frequency response is a concern, something you will want to take into consideration while you're in your planning phase.

What are those on the sides between the bonus area and extra bonus area (rear riser) - little walls? If so, how are you going to place your side surrounds so that they will be effective for both rows of seating?

What kind of seating are you modeling, and are they drawn to scale (just comparing to my own renderings, they look quite narrow - I modeled Berkline 088s, and they took up more horizontal space than I initially expected they would).
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post #4 of 52
9/26/06 at 9:23am
Thread Starter 
9/7/2006
I'd been hearing a lot about laminate countertop material for use as a DIY screen in the DIY Screen forum. After some impressive screenshots of the Wilsonart Designer White laminate and hearing of how well it withstood poor treatment as compared to fabric or painted screens, I decided it was for me. Having four kids from 8 to 14 months means it needs to be pretty stout stuff to survive our house. After propping it against the wall and running the projector on a box, it looked very good.

Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of the rolled up laminate or the projected image. Just imagine a big white 5'x10' sheet rolls up and you get the idea.

9/15/2006
It took me some time to figure out how I was going to mount the frame. After viewing the master DIY screen building thread in the DIY section I decided to go with a frame built of 1" square aluminum tubes. The dimensions will be 60" tall x 98" wide. After the 1" masking is applied, the viewable image will be 58" x 96" with 112" diagonal.


The base materials. Four 1" square x 96" aluminum tubes, the laminate, a miter box, and my knee.


Putting the corners together.


Completed... but not complete. I should have known better, but for some reason I thought I wouldn't need to support the inside of the frame. I was wrong.


9/18-20/2006
Tracking down the parts for my Monkey_Man DIY mount. It's not easy finding metric stuff in the DFW Metroplex. I was able to find everything I needed from Home Depot and Lowes, but it took three different HD's and one Lowes to get everything together.

9/21-22/2006
While doing a search for stage pictures, I came across a web page where the owner did a DIY screen with an aluminum frame. Taking some tips from his design, I added some cross bracing. The web page was for The Bridge Home Theater, and I believe the owner is here on AVS. I apparently bought almost all the straight 1" square x 96" tubing from all the Home Depots in a 10 mile radius when I built the frame the first time. There was only one tube to be found at one of the two stores I'd previously bought from. The local Lowes wanted $33.96 for the same size tubing that HD only charges $11.96 for. Fortunately there was another HD within 12 miles that had another straight tube.


Adding the cross bracing. Notice I like to keep my work area tidy. Two 56" tubes placed vertically 32" from the sides (leaving 30" in the center), with one 32" horizontal brace on the outer thirds and two 30" horizontal braces in the center space.

Cutting the new cross bracing.

Now the screen is much stiffer and almost perfectly flat.
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post #5 of 52
9/26/06 at 9:43am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brad Horstkotte View Post

Good luck with your project Joseph!

Thank you. I think I'm going to need it.

Quote:


You may already be aware, but in case you aren't - a square room is problematic from an acoustics perspective - not an intractable one, but if balanced frequency response is a concern, something you will want to take into consideration while you're in your planning phase.

Yes, I had heard that. I'm not quite sure how I plan on dealing with that just yet, but I'm hoping I can get some help with that here.

Quote:


What are those on the sides between the bonus area and extra bonus area (rear riser) - little walls? If so, how are you going to place your side surrounds so that they will be effective for both rows of seating?

Those are steps down. The room floor is currently a good 10" below the regular floor in the rest of the second floor. When you come into the room, there is a step just inside, and then the floor below it. My plan is to make the riser the same height as the rest of the second floor, and just have steps down on both sides.

Quote:


What kind of seating are you modeling, and are they drawn to scale (just comparing to my own renderings, they look quite narrow - I modeled Berkline 088s, and they took up more horizontal space than I initially expected they would).

Berkline 088's. You're right, they are too narrow. I got the dimensions and modelled new seats, but that is the older picture. The plan is to get 5 singles in the front row and one loveseat and 4 singles in the back.
Here's the accurately modelled image.
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post #6 of 52
9/26/06 at 9:44am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by pathdoc View Post

You've got plenty of width which is really great. Plan look great.

Thanks. I'm hoping to use it wisely.
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post #7 of 52
9/26/06 at 9:47am
Looking good - I'm signing on to this thread to keep an eye on your build. I have been mulling the screen construction over in my mind for some time and never considered those aluminum tubes from HD. I have stopped and held them in my hands on many occasions thinking "what can I use these for".....now I know....

Good Luck,
Lewis
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post #8 of 52
9/26/06 at 10:28am
Thread Starter 
9/23/2006
Monkey_Man here at AVS developed a really nice DIY projector mount. In keeping with the DIY sprit of the project, I decided to make one. After taking the time to get all the pieces rounded up, I finally put the proejctor part together.


The projector part of the mount.


Closer...[


CLOSEUP!


Clearer closeup shot.

Ahh... Time to paint the screen wall in preperation for the screen. The paint was Glidden flat from Home Depot in their Dark Secret color. Of all the blacks they had, it was the closest to my liking. Eventually it'll be covered by a false wall and GOM/Velvet, but it will make a good base coat and serve it's purpose of absorbing stray light right now.


The screen wall before paint.


The black wall of Savannah... After 1-1/2 coats. I say half because most of the wall was completely covered and there were only a few spots that needed touch ups to get full coverage. Overall, I was impressed. We used a lot less paint than HD said we would, and should have enough to paint the ceiling as well. Unfortunately, the weather turned warm again, so I can't open the windows and air the house out, so painting will have to wait until we dip down into the 70's again. Looks like that's sometime next week.
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post #9 of 52
9/26/06 at 11:37am
Quote:
Originally Posted by JosephShaw View Post

Berkline 088's. You're right, they are too narrow. I got the dimensions and modelled new seats, but that is the older picture. The plan is to get 5 singles in the front row and one loveseat and 4 singles in the back. Here's the accurately modelled image.

Cool, that looks more to scale, and I bet the extra seats will look great in there. My room isn't quite as wide, so I'll be limited to 3+4 or 4+4. Then again, my width at least provides a constraint on how much I spend on the darn recliners!

I'm planning on the same Wilsonart DIY screen, so will be following to see how it works out, as your progress in ahead of my schedule. Thanks for the tips on the frame.

Suggestion: post your images inline, instead of as attachments - so we can see the pics straight away without having to click through the attachment links.
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post #10 of 52
9/26/06 at 1:42pm
Thread Starter 

9/24/2006
Making the masking for the screen. Here are a few pictures, but it was very simple. I picked up some 1-3/4" by 1/4" wood trim from Home Depot and 3 yards of velour from Jo Anns fabric. I wanted velvet, but they were sold out of black. Still, they seem to absorb the light really well. I used 3M 77 Spray Adhesive to adhere the fabric to the wood. Word of warning: wear long sleeves, especially if you have hairy arms like me.


Basic masking off of the frame.


Masking on the frame.


Adding masking between the laminate screen and frame to hide the frame.


9/25/2006
I got the projector mounted! It's starting to feel more like a theater, but it's not anywhere near where I want it.


Monkey_Man DIY mount from the side!


From the front, where the magic comes from.


My wife, in a brilliant move to help with screen placement, taped out where the front colums/gear rack area will be.


Left side of screen/side wall.

Right side.

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post #11 of 52
9/26/06 at 1:57pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brad Horstkotte View Post

Cool, that looks more to scale, and I bet the extra seats will look great in there. My room isn't quite as wide, so I'll be limited to 3+4 or 4+4. Then again, my width at least provides a constraint on how much I spend on the darn recliners!

I know what you mean. I'm looking at a significant investment in chairs, which is somewhat scary. We'll have to see what my options are. I want Berklines, but will I have Berkline money when it's all said and done?

Quote:


I'm planning on the same Wilsonart DIY screen, so will be following to see how it works out, as your progress in ahead of my schedule. Thanks for the tips on the frame.

You're welcome. They were taken from others here with my own tweeks, so I can't take all the credit.

Quote:


Suggestion: post your images inline, instead of as attachments - so we can see the pics straight away without having to click through the attachment links.

Yeah, I was trying to not bombard the thread with images since they're pretty big, but I also enjoy inline images. I'll go edit the thread and make them inline.

Thanks for all the comments guys. It's weird to be more than a spectator now.
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post #12 of 52
9/27/06 at 8:58am
Sorry I missed you this weekend, Joseph. I've got a phased plan myself that I hope to kick off in the next few months. Hopefully we can meet up in the next few weeks. I'll be sure to bring my work gloves just in case.
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post #13 of 52
9/27/06 at 9:05am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ridebreck View Post

Sorry I missed you this weekend, Joseph. I've got a phased plan myself that I hope to kick off in the next few months. Hopefully we can meet up in the next few weeks. I'll be sure to bring my work gloves just in case.

No worries Matt. We didn't get home until nearly 5 on Saturday, and I had 8 disgruntled 7-8 year old girls because our game was cancelled due to lighning. Fortunately my son got to play, but it started late and really messed up our schedule. Just let me know when you want to swing by.
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post #14 of 52
9/27/06 at 9:39am
Thread Starter 
Well, no updates today. I got stuck at work yesterday beacuse of a problem with one of my servers, so I didn't get home until after 8. I decided to enjoy a little over the top cinema and watched Bad Boys II with my wife. A fun, but bad movie.

Since I don't have any updates (I was hoping to get the screen mounted and masked last night), here are some pics of my helpers.

Jeffery, whose superhero powers (at the age of 2) appear to be making explosives out of common household chemicals and picking up the hose attachment of the vacuum and going "BOOM BOOM! BOOM BOOM!" I don't know where he got it, but it's cute. He really likes it when I do my best Oscar-worthy dying performance. I should have been an actor.


The rest of the crew, minus the one year old who couldn't walk when this picture was taken, doing what they do best. And what would that be? Running around like crazy people. If you get them together, they can form a combined destructive force that would make even Voltron envious.
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post #15 of 52
9/28/06 at 10:30am
Cute kids. I've got a 2.5-yr-old and a 17 month old myself. They do feed off one another, don't they?

I'm curious to see your Mitsu. with the Wilsonart screen. I'm currently shooting onto a sheet of white melamine board that I painted with 2 coats of Behr UPW that has s few things added to it. With 2 (soon to be 3) "yunguns" running around, I'm hesitant to get away from something like this. However, if I decide to sell my CRT and go digital, I'm thinking of making an AT screen with the SMX fabric. I may have to put locks on the door if I go that route.
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post #16 of 52
9/28/06 at 1:48pm
Thread Starter 
Matt, Thank you for the compliments. Yes, they do feed off each otehr, but they're great kids. I am certainly never bored. BTW, congrats on having a new baby. That's awesome.

I'm with you. I was going to go with the screen Ruben used initially, but then I realized that my kids would have their hands all over it. The laminate isn't nearly as fragile, and I can clean it with windex or 409 and it's good as new. Until they get a little older, it's the perfect material for my digital projector. But it also works with CRT's. Clarence in the DIY forums is using the Wilsonart Designer White with his G90 and it looks superb. Then again, it is a G90.
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post #17 of 52
9/28/06 at 2:34pm
Hey Josephshaw, nice theater room looking forward to seeing it finished. I just bought a home with a dedicated media room. I live in Richmond, texas. wap
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post #18 of 52
9/28/06 at 7:53pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks Wap. I'm from Houston, so I know exactly where that is. Do you have any plans for your own media room yet?
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post #19 of 52
9/29/06 at 6:44am
Yes, the house is 3 years old and the person who had it b/f me put cotton on the walls and black material on all the walls. He also built risers for the seats. I stumble on this forum and it has been crazy reading all the cool stuff. Where is Savannah?
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post #20 of 52
9/29/06 at 6:46am
ps. i also have 2 kids and one on the way 2 yr boy and 5yr girl and another girl on the way
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post #21 of 52
9/29/06 at 7:32am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wap View Post

Yes, the house is 3 years old and the person who had it b/f me put cotton on the walls and black material on all the walls. He also built risers for the seats. I stumble on this forum and it has been crazy reading all the cool stuff. Where is Savannah?

Cool. It sounds like you'll have less work than most of us if you like what the previous owner did.

Savannah is what they'd call and exurb of DFW. We're north of Frisco, Which is north of Plano, which is north of Addison, which is north of Dallas.

Congrats on the new baby. My wife wan'ts another little girl, as does my daughter.
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post #22 of 52
9/29/06 at 11:49am
I just moved from Saginaw, Texas which is NW Fort Worth.

No, I hate what he has done to the walls. I am reading about acoustic material and building colums in the last week. I have started buying my equipment and ording wires.

thanks another child , another girl , Cleaning the old shot gun
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post #23 of 52
9/29/06 at 8:02pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by JosephShaw View Post


Savannah is what they'd call and exurb of DFW. We're north of Frisco, Which is north of Plano, which is north of Addison, which is north of Dallas.


Well then that's not the Heart of Texas. That's the Heart of North Texas.
I'm closer to the Kidney of North Texas. In far South Arlington.

Nice size room and keep the pics coming
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post #24 of 52
9/29/06 at 9:57pm
Quick Question - Is your equipment going to be totally hidden from view?
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post #25 of 52
9/30/06 at 11:28am
Is Savannah an actual city?

I thought it was a subdivision.
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post #26 of 52
9/30/06 at 1:17pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Michigan NSX View Post

Quick Question - Is your equipment going to be totally hidden from view?

Yes, that is the plan. I'm still not sure if I'm going to put it in the front, or make it part of columns I'm considering adding on the sides.

Joseph
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post #27 of 52
9/30/06 at 1:19pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stew4msu View Post

Is Savannah an actual city?

I thought it was a subdivision.

Supposedly they've filed paperwork for incorporation, but I'm not sure where that stands. Technically we're in an unincorporated area of Denton County for the time being. Of course, if they don't hurry up, I'm sure it's just a matter of time before Little Elm, Frisco, or McKinney annex us.

Joseph
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post #28 of 52
9/30/06 at 1:55pm
Thread Starter 
OK, time for an update, lest everyone thing I've been doing nothing.

9/28/2006
Another late night at work finishing up a project deliverable, but I got the screen and frame masked.


The screen is masked. You can see the that the frame masking looks a bit loose. This is because it will be held in place when the screen is mounted to the wall.


A close up of the looseness. The fabric is screwed into the back of the frame at certain spots, but the excess will be used as a buffer between the screen and the wall.

9/29/2006
One step closer... The screen is mounted! The list of things to be done before we're done with phase I is very short now. Technically we're functional, even though the cables haven't been run.


The screen is mounted to the wall using seven #10 x 3" screws and finish washers. There are 4 on the top into the studs and 3 on the bottom.


After screwing the bottom down and re-attaching the masking, I discovered that we've got a nail pop in the sheetrock. I'll tap it down and retexure/paint it this week.

In celebration of our first official Family Movie Night in our last house a year ago, we decided to order pizza and watch Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire on DVD. Last year we watched it on a 32" WEGA CRT. This year, we watched it on a 112" 16:9 screen. Needless to say, the kids were impressed, and I got a better idea of what needs to be done before the sleepover next weekend.

Joseph
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post #29 of 52
9/30/06 at 2:11pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by ifeliciano View Post

Well then that's not the Heart of Texas. That's the Heart of North Texas.
I'm closer to the Kidney of North Texas. In far South Arlington.

Nice size room and keep the pics coming


Heh. Well, I'm originally from a little area east of Houston called Channelview. My dad always referred to it as the armpit of Texas, so I guess we've at least moved up. Our claim to fame was that back in the late 80's we had two girls who were trying out for cheerleader and one of the mom's hired a hit man to murder the other girl's mother. I think Texas Monthly said our only purpose in life was to make Pasadena, TX feel good about themselves. It was a pretty rural suburb when I was a kid (we still have 10 acres there), but it's a pretty rough place in parts of it now.

I must say I like it up here in DFW. We originally moved to Frisco and then moved up here off 380 this year. As hot as it is, it's not humid like Houston. The only thing that gets me is the dry counties up here. I'd never heard of such a thing in Texas until I moved up here. The first time I went into a beer/wine store in Collin County and found out I couldn't get certain types of wine because of alocohol content, I was stunned. I just wanted a bottle of port.
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post #30 of 52
10/2/06 at 5:55am
the screen looks great, keep up the good work and pics.

I also worked for the City of Arlington for 2 years. I will miss the weather in the dfw area.
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