Maverickster's Home Theater

Well, here it is -- finally. 8 months ago, I didn't know the slightest thing about A/V, much less Home Theater, and after lurking in nearly all of the groups here, I began having enough confidence to ask some project-specific question; and, to my pleasure and surprise, I got very helpful project-specific answers! While I am a far cry from an expert, at this point, I have read enough and had enough help from those on this WONDERFUL forum to actually undertake my install.

Now, in keeping with what I have seen others do, Here's the thread dedicated to my HT install.

Thank you to each and every one of you who helped me out; and to all of you, generally, for making this such a wonderful and informative forum. I could go on and on about how the internet has changed our lives (before the internet, I would certainly have had to hire this out), but it'll be sufficient to say that without AVS Forum, there's no way I'd be able to pull this off, but with it, I have the confidence and technical know-how to do it all myself (whether that actually translates into "capability" remains to be seen). So, thank you all for your contributions!

Schematic:



Parts List:



Before Pictures:







--Mav

Updated.

The sound issue, I think I have covered; it's 6300 cf, open on one end and open a little at the top to the 2nd floor; so there are a lot of issues there, but I think I've done what I can do; it doesn't need to be perfect. I have the speaker locations selected already.

The lighting issue is a different story. There's not a lot I can do about it (and the picture was taken at the worst possible time -- that's a west window; picture was taken about 6:30 PM). I don't want to (i.e. was instructed not to by The Mrs.) turn this into a dedicated HT. This is our "primary living area"; the HT component is "secondary" (as "secondary" as a 58" plasma TV can get, I guess). If the plasma won't work, I'm just gonna swap it out for the 52" Sony XBR4 and call it good. That's not my preferred course of action, but I'll do it if the plasma is simply unwatchable during the day.

Thanks for your interest!

Wiring Pictures:

After Pictures:

Before/After Pictures:








The above photos don't do the amount of effort this took justice, but I'm so glad it's finished, I won't regale you with the stories....

Again, thanks to all for your help and your insight!

--Mav

No conduit, but I did run extra pulls and tied them off at the back of the box behind the TV. I fished them down through the basement. Given the location of the wall, up through the attic was not a possibility.

Thanks!

--Mav

All of the cabling is rated for in-wall use. Most of it was acquired from Monoprice. The basement is finished (and has the PERFECT dedicated HT room, so you're right, there is another project in my future), but it has a drop ceiling with about a foot between the top of the drop ceiling and the bottom of the joists, so I could run horizontally in that space.

As for the wall plates, I pieced it together from a number of different sources (Parts express, Monoprice, Ram Electronics, etc.). Look at the parts list in the first post to see exactly what's in there. If it's too difficult to read, there are higher-res versions here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/6293763...7601847942095/

Thanks.

--Mav

Harmony 890 RF Remote controls the whole system.

Thanks!

--Matt

Accidental Post

Thanks!

As of the question, yes, I hate it. Here's the story with that. The picture showing the TV fully-articulated is taken from the kitchen/breakfast nook. It is COMPLETELY out of the soundstage (which ends, more or less, with the back of the oversized chair there in the pictures). So, the audio is really quite annoying when viewed from the kitchen/breakfast nook. The articulating mount was not my idea. The ONLY reason I even have an articulating mount is because my wife required it so that she could watch TV from over there (that's not intended to be sexist, it's true!). Since my wife could really care less about the audio (beyond being able to hear it), this works out for the both of us.

--Mav

No problem. Don't get me wrong; you can still hear it when the TV is turned and you are watching from over in the kitchen/breakfast area, but it "sounds like" you need to be in the family room to really listen to it. That is, it "sounds like" you're not where you're supposed to be. I don't know if that makes any sense, but there it is, and that element of the sound is what drives me nuts. But again, it doesn't bother the wife and happy wife, happy life. So what if I could've gotten a simple name-brand tilting mount for $80 and I had to spend closer to $300 to get a quality articulating one (with a 140 pound TV, those things don't come cheap -- the mount alone weighs something like 60 pounds) -- happy wife, happy life (so I keep saying).

--Mav

Thanks! The mount is the Sanus VMDD26. When fully collapsed, it is just under 3-1/2" deep; when pulled all the way out, it's just over 2 feet. Sanus says it swivels 75*, but although I haven't busted out the protractor, I'm fairly confident I get a little bit more "turn" than that.

The cut sheet is here: http://www.sanus.com/pdf/technicalDr..._cut_sheet.pdf

--Mav

Thanks to all for your compliments. We are extremely happy with it, but the fact that some AVS folks like it too really makes me feel good about it.

The reason I ran all of that cabling is I didn't want to "do it twice" and cables are cheap. Since the cabling (from MonoPrice) was relatively cheap, it was much easier to just run all the cables at once "just in case". So, as you can see from the wallplate, I ran the following:

2 complete sets of component. I am only currently using 1 (for my PS2), but if I have a need to use another, it's there for me right behind the A/V cabinet with no need to run additional wiring; just plug into the wallplate and go.

2 HDMIs. I am currently using both of these for my DVR and my DVD Player. My receiver is the H/K 347, and it has two HDMI In's and one Out (and it processes the audio via HDMI as well), so I had originally planned on running my DVR and DVD Player to the AVR via HDMI, and then running one HDMI to the TV from the AVR (and, consequently, having a "spare" HDMI input to the TV in the wallplate for "expansion" purposes). For various reasons which are sort of beyond the scope of this, I decided not to do it this way, and so I "skipped" this, and just run my DVR and DVD Player directly to the TV via HDMI and then run the audio from those components to the AVR via optical. But, if I ever get another HDMI-based component to add to the rack, it's easy enough to reconfigure it a little bit and run 2 of the 3 HDMI components to the AVR via HDMI and the 3rd one straight to the TV (with the audio going to the AVR via optical). So it's still HDMI "expandable" without running additional wiring -- which was the name of the game.

1 VGA. I am currently using this for my computer; audio is split off to the receiver via composite.

1 complete set of composite. I am currently not using this at all, but it's there in the wallplate behind the A/V rack if I ever need it.

1 S-Video. I am currently not using this at all, but it's there in the wallplate behind the A/V rack if I ever need it.

1 Coax. I am currently using this for my direct feed from my OTA Antenna. The OTA Antenna comes straight to the wallplate, then I split it -- one way goes to the TV, the other way goes to my DVR.

Again, I figured that was the surest way to be able to expand my set of source components without having to run more wires in the wall (which, at this point, would be difficult because the wall is pretty "full" of wires already). Was it overkill? Maybe, but when you look at it, what do I have "extra"? I have one set of component, one set of composite, one S-Video, and one HDMI in case I need to expand. That worked out pretty well I think.

I hope that helps you in your decisionmaking.

--Mav