It's time for change, part III of the RIDKAHT is underway! Once again my plan is to do it as inexpensively as possible while simultaneously convincing anyone who steps foot in it that I am made of money. Here are some of the changes that I have planned:
1. Carpet being replaced with laminate wood flooring! The flooring is already picked. It's being purchased at Sam's Club tomorrow. The color is called Eastlake Cherry and it costs $17.31 for 17.5 square feet. That's less than $1 per square foot, and this stuff is nice! It comes with the foam underlayment pre-installed on the back of each piece. I'll be installing it myself with a friend. Total square feet needed for the room is 204 so the total cost to put a new floor in the entire room will be $225.03. That's 13 boxes (12 needed + 1 extra box just in case) at $17.31/box=$225.03. That's dirt cheap to install flooring in a 16 x 12 room!
2. Reorienting the HT so that I can move the computer area out of the cramped closet. Basically the entire setup will be turned 90 degrees so that the projector will now be throwing across the shorter dimension of the room. I will have to go from a 120" screen at a 16 foot throw to a 100" screen at a 10.5 foot throw to make this work. In exchange I will free up half the room for a much more comfortable computer setup. Anyone want to buy a mint condition 120" Elite fixed frame screen?
3. Thinking about selling the current audio gear and downsizing that too. Possibly with a set of satellite speakers to go with my Velodyne sub.
4. Going to build the screen this time. I've built 3 screens over the past 5 years of my HT obsession. I was kind of burned out on building screens so in my current HT I bought the Elite. Now I am going to build the 100" screen but with a difference; integrated masking! All of my screens to date have had retrofitted masking panels. These work really well but are less than convenient. The new screen will have at a bare minimum masking that will be built in and manually operated and take the 1.85:1 screen down to 2.35:1 or any other ratio the movie may be presented in. Ideally and this is where I hope to go with this; integrated motorized individually remote controlled upper and lower masks. Much of my inspiration comes from this thread: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1090889 . Thanks for the great idea deewan!
5. Possible (likely) 1080p upgrade (finally). I'm having a tough time parting with my PT-AX200U. In my most recent bid to upgrade I tried out a PLV-Z700 for a few weeks. Other than maybe a bit of noticeable resolution improvement, the Panasonic trounced the Sanyo in every way. I certainly could not justify the cost. Well with the throw distance in my room changing from 16 feet to 10.5, 1080p might be a lot more noticeable. I'm thinking it will help tremendously with screen door at this shorter throw and it will also provide a punchier/brighter picture than I saw from the 1080p Sanyo at 16 feet.
6. Completely concealed equipment. With the new floor I am going to have to pull off all the baseboard moldings prior to installing it. While the molding is off I am going to cut a channel into the lower end of the drywall to create a wire channel. In doing so I will be able to place equipment anywhere in the room while the wires will be completely concealed. By taking the computer out of what used to be the closet, I can put the closet doors back on and use it for the equipment. Then all I have to do is run the wiring in the channel I created all the way into the closet. My only concern with this wiring scenario is that once the baseboard moldings are back in place any additions to the wiring would be quite a pain. Consequently I am considering this product: http://www.wiretracks.com/prod-nc.html . Unfortunately the company is out of business and liquidating their remaining inventory. I can still get my hands on the product if I decide to go that route. Basically you place one part of the track under the drywall where you cut a channel and the other part of the track goes on the back of your molding. Then the 2 pieces snap together to conceal your wires and keep the molding in place. Obviously this means the molding can be snapped on and off at will to perform upgrades or make changes.
7. Completely new desk in an L shape. This will give me a much more spacious and comfortable area to geek out in. Also unlike having a small desk in the closet as I have had, I will not be staring at a wall all the time. I'm going to set up the desk so that when I am at the computer I am facing out into the room, looking at the HT area and the room entrance. In addition because I am changing the layout of the room, my screen will now go on a different wall. Currently the screen is hung over a very large window which was the only way I could make the previous setup work. With the window now unblocked I can get some light in the room during the day, this will remove a lot of the dungeon like feeling that I am currently dissatisfied with.
8. Basically everything is changing. The only thing that I am certain I am reusing are my set of 3 Berkline motorized HT recliners.
9. Ceiling mount the projector. I have never had a ceiling mounted PJ, in the current HT the projector sits on top of an audio rack at the rear of the room, in my previous HT it was mounted under a shelf on the wall. I'm optimistic that ceiling mounting the PJ will reduce the audible noise from it and also eliminate the annoyance of someone walking into the picture when they get out of one of the chairs.
There are sure to be many more changes to document along the way, these are just the major ones off the top of my head. I'll be sure to update this thread frequently with them all.
1. Carpet being replaced with laminate wood flooring! The flooring is already picked. It's being purchased at Sam's Club tomorrow. The color is called Eastlake Cherry and it costs $17.31 for 17.5 square feet. That's less than $1 per square foot, and this stuff is nice! It comes with the foam underlayment pre-installed on the back of each piece. I'll be installing it myself with a friend. Total square feet needed for the room is 204 so the total cost to put a new floor in the entire room will be $225.03. That's 13 boxes (12 needed + 1 extra box just in case) at $17.31/box=$225.03. That's dirt cheap to install flooring in a 16 x 12 room!
2. Reorienting the HT so that I can move the computer area out of the cramped closet. Basically the entire setup will be turned 90 degrees so that the projector will now be throwing across the shorter dimension of the room. I will have to go from a 120" screen at a 16 foot throw to a 100" screen at a 10.5 foot throw to make this work. In exchange I will free up half the room for a much more comfortable computer setup. Anyone want to buy a mint condition 120" Elite fixed frame screen?
3. Thinking about selling the current audio gear and downsizing that too. Possibly with a set of satellite speakers to go with my Velodyne sub.
4. Going to build the screen this time. I've built 3 screens over the past 5 years of my HT obsession. I was kind of burned out on building screens so in my current HT I bought the Elite. Now I am going to build the 100" screen but with a difference; integrated masking! All of my screens to date have had retrofitted masking panels. These work really well but are less than convenient. The new screen will have at a bare minimum masking that will be built in and manually operated and take the 1.85:1 screen down to 2.35:1 or any other ratio the movie may be presented in. Ideally and this is where I hope to go with this; integrated motorized individually remote controlled upper and lower masks. Much of my inspiration comes from this thread: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1090889 . Thanks for the great idea deewan!
5. Possible (likely) 1080p upgrade (finally). I'm having a tough time parting with my PT-AX200U. In my most recent bid to upgrade I tried out a PLV-Z700 for a few weeks. Other than maybe a bit of noticeable resolution improvement, the Panasonic trounced the Sanyo in every way. I certainly could not justify the cost. Well with the throw distance in my room changing from 16 feet to 10.5, 1080p might be a lot more noticeable. I'm thinking it will help tremendously with screen door at this shorter throw and it will also provide a punchier/brighter picture than I saw from the 1080p Sanyo at 16 feet.
6. Completely concealed equipment. With the new floor I am going to have to pull off all the baseboard moldings prior to installing it. While the molding is off I am going to cut a channel into the lower end of the drywall to create a wire channel. In doing so I will be able to place equipment anywhere in the room while the wires will be completely concealed. By taking the computer out of what used to be the closet, I can put the closet doors back on and use it for the equipment. Then all I have to do is run the wiring in the channel I created all the way into the closet. My only concern with this wiring scenario is that once the baseboard moldings are back in place any additions to the wiring would be quite a pain. Consequently I am considering this product: http://www.wiretracks.com/prod-nc.html . Unfortunately the company is out of business and liquidating their remaining inventory. I can still get my hands on the product if I decide to go that route. Basically you place one part of the track under the drywall where you cut a channel and the other part of the track goes on the back of your molding. Then the 2 pieces snap together to conceal your wires and keep the molding in place. Obviously this means the molding can be snapped on and off at will to perform upgrades or make changes.
7. Completely new desk in an L shape. This will give me a much more spacious and comfortable area to geek out in. Also unlike having a small desk in the closet as I have had, I will not be staring at a wall all the time. I'm going to set up the desk so that when I am at the computer I am facing out into the room, looking at the HT area and the room entrance. In addition because I am changing the layout of the room, my screen will now go on a different wall. Currently the screen is hung over a very large window which was the only way I could make the previous setup work. With the window now unblocked I can get some light in the room during the day, this will remove a lot of the dungeon like feeling that I am currently dissatisfied with.
8. Basically everything is changing. The only thing that I am certain I am reusing are my set of 3 Berkline motorized HT recliners.
9. Ceiling mount the projector. I have never had a ceiling mounted PJ, in the current HT the projector sits on top of an audio rack at the rear of the room, in my previous HT it was mounted under a shelf on the wall. I'm optimistic that ceiling mounting the PJ will reduce the audible noise from it and also eliminate the annoyance of someone walking into the picture when they get out of one of the chairs.
There are sure to be many more changes to document along the way, these are just the major ones off the top of my head. I'll be sure to update this thread frequently with them all.
