Brendin's Man Cave - Home Theater and Games Room

Here are some pics of the construction of my home theater and games room. Construction Began Sep28 2006 and ended about January 20th 2007. I'd like to thank everyone on AVS who helped answering my questions and thanks to everyone who posted their pics. We primarily use the HT for movies and HDTV. We also play XBOX360 HDDVD movies and some games using it.

Highlights.

- Panasonic PT-AX100 mounted on custom steel C-beam mount suspended above drywall between joists.
- X-Box 360 with HD-DVD
- Bell Express VU 9200 satellite HD
- Pioneer VSX-1016TXV receiver
- Panonic Upconverting DVD
- Media Center HTPC
- Shinybow component/optical switch (I use it to share xbox 360, and 9200 satellite receiver between the 42"lcd in my office and projector) Works great!
- Klipsch Synergy 12 Sub (way better than the sad 12" sub that came with my polk speakers)
- Polk RM201 in front and center
- Polk satellites in rear

- Custom built arcade machine. I bought an old cabinet and customized it with x-arcade controls and a pc and screen. The cabinet was just a shell when I bought it. Games are awesome on it

Room Dimensions about 17'x14'. About 21' long including the stairway section. I just did standard drywall and insulated all the walls with ROXUL safe n' sound insulation. Of course bass goes through the house but the high freq sounds are hardly heard. For me it wasn't really a big deal to insulate the sound and I didn't go to any extreme measures.

Wiring:

Projector to component rack I ran 2 hdmi, 1 svideo, 3rg6 for component, 1 serial cable for projector control, 2 ethernet cables 1shielded cat5 for future use.

Speakers I ran a 7.1 setup. I haven't put in the extra 2 rear speakers yet but the wires are behind the wall. I ran rg6 to all 4 corners of the room for flexibility for sub placement.

Office to component rack. I ran 3 rg6 for component video and an optical audio cable. I can watch HD satellite and play xbox 360 in my office on the 42" 1080p Westinghouse lcd.

Power: I power the projector with a UPS. I wired an inlet plug near the ups that feeds an outlet near the projector. I think I have a couple of circuits going to power the equipment at the rack. I also ran an outlet to the motorized screen along with some ethernet cable in case I get another screen with some other remote options.

Extra: I ran a shielded and unshielded cat 5e and a svga cable from the component rack to the back corner of the room where the seating area is. I left it behind the wall for now. I was thinking I might have a touch screen monitor in the seating area that will control all of the components eventually.

I am extremely happy with everything now. The sub gives off bass that I am happy with and the sound blows people away. The picture on the AX100 is incredible and I couldn't be happier with the setup. I have about 400hours on the projector now. The room does need some accesorizing to make it look better. Not quite sure which direction to take it.

I'll add some comments to the pictures later when I have a chance.

Brendin

Framing the HVAC soffits

I tried many different projector mounts before settling on the C- Beam isolation mount. I power the projector via UPS through an inlet.

Here is a pic of the C-Beam mount I used








Here is something I tried but didn't use

I used two 10' c beams and joined overlapped them and joined them with about 20 bolts and locking nuts. The c-beam sits on the center beam of the house and on a concrete wall. This mount totally isolates vibration on the projector. I think I could have an elephant upstairs and I wouldn't notice.

I insulated the walls and ceilings with ROXUL safe and sound insualtion. It does a really good job of keep the higher freqency sounds out.

Here you can see how the C-Beam is a couple of inches above the drywall.

Drywalling getting close to complete








Here are some wires I left behind the wall for future expansion

Me doing some last minute HVAC adjustments with my dad

Some pictures of the stereo cabinet I bought to build into the wall... I paint it later on

Pictures of the projector access to the wires above

Done Drywalling!

Tape and mud begin

After sanding here comes the primer coat.

Projector access and wire holes

Used a laser level to project a line on the wall so I could use as I guide when I taped it to paint the dark stripe around the room

Carpet installed