[stansell]

Hey everyone.


I thought I'd post a link to my gallery now that I've uploaded pictures of my basement home theater.

Basement HS-10 Theater


About the room:


I used an existing bedroom in the basement of my 50 year old house for the theater. I was using the room as a workout room when the idea hit me to convert it into a theater instead of fitting the front projector and screen into my living room decor. I'm glad that is the route I took. The room can't hold as many people as my living room, but light control is not an issue and I was able to tweak the room for audio better than the living room.


The room is 11' wide by 13' long. The entrance door is in the back of the room with a closet also on the back wall. The room is very symmetrical with the closet and entrance door evenly spaced along the back wall.


The room is completely painted Behr Midnight Blue (flat) and red low cost indoor outdoor carpeting is glued onto the bottom 4 feet of the walls. I used wood trim along the top of the carpeting to give it a finished look. The existing light fixture was replaced with a track light conversion kit with three spot lights. The spot lights shine on the equipment, seating and DVD rack and can be turned up quite bright without washing out the screen. I replaced the existing light switch with a simple IR controlled dimmer.


I project onto a DIY 74" wide 16:9 blackout cloth screen. For the screen I used 2x2's attached to each other using deck brackets and screws. I cut a deep groove along the outer edge of the frame and used screen door spline to attach the fabric to the frame. This makes for a clean tight screen with sharp edges along the sides. The screen is mounted using slotted shelf brackets 15" from the back wall. A curtain of thin black fabric hangs along the back wall just behind the screen. My front speakers are behind the black fabric and cannot be seen. The effect is the projected image floating in a black space and sound from unseen sources. There is nothing in the front to detract from the projected image. I created Velco-on black felt matting for 2.35:1 movies.



My Sony VPL HS-10 projector is placed upside-down on rubber feet on a shelf in the closet at the back of the room. I cut a hole between the closet and the theater and finished it with black felt and a 8 x 10 picture frame using Edmund's Optical low reflectivity glass. The frame is held in place with Velcro for easy cleaning. I added extra ventilation to the closet to keep the projector and HTPC cool.


Below the projector I built a box from MDF that is open to the theater and accessible from inside the closet. This contains my audio amplifier, DVD changer and laserdisc player. For TV I have a DirecTv TiVo which sits on top of the box in the closet (no need to access it's panels). Simple X10 powermids are used to transmit the IR controls back to the TiVo/ VCR and projector. The AMP and other equipment work well enough from the remote control bouncing off of the screen and to the back of the room.


Under the audio equipment, I built a flip down door (1/4" Plexiglas painted metallic black) that hides the DVD+R drive for my HTPC. Also in the space is a USB breakout panel and a place to store the keyboard and mouse. This allows me to access the HTPC's drive and to use USB devices while keeping the HTPC in the closet for noise control. The HTPC is used for DVD's (video and audio) and HDTV (Fusion100 card).


Having the HTPC, audio and projector in the same closet space makes for short cable runs. The only long cable runs are for for the speakers at the front of the room.


Seating is simple - an over sized sleeper sofa (can be used as a guest room). Should I need to seat more than three or four, the sofa is on glider feet and can be pushed forward to allow office type chairs to be rolled in behind. The office chairs are high enough to let you see over the heads of those on the couch.


Another feature are two square ottomans that double as tables for food and drink by putting a 2x2 finished MDF squares on top.


I'm really happy with the way the room has come together. Nothing fancy, but a very cozy room with super picture and sound.

 

[Disciple Tx]

I like the way it turned out too. Too bad you don't live closer, or I'd come over and see for myself. Great job!


Brian

 

[stansell]

Thanks, I'm really enjoying it as well as my friends. My friends are now insisting that I show their favorite new DVD's in there.


There is one problem with the theater though. Since the theater took up the space occupied by my workout room, I gained about 10 pounds since I started the project. Recently I created another workout area in the basement and I added a treadmill that provides a view of the theater screen. Now I can watch TV on the big screen while I run, so the theater may now help me take off the weight added since installing it.


Just noticed that the link to my gallery was backward - (description / URL mixed) oops. Fixed.

 

[CSAW]

I really think you did a great job on the room. I was thinking of doing the carpeting on the walls also. My questions to you was how did you trim out the walls at the bottom where the carpet of the walls meets the carpet of the floor. Did you use regular baseboard trim, and also, did you install it before the wall carpet??

 

[stansell]

Quote:

Originally posted by CSAW I really think you did a great job on the room. I was thinking of doing the carpeting on the walls also. My questions to you was how did you trim out the walls at the bottom where the carpet of the walls meets the carpet of the floor. Did you use regular baseboard trim, and also, did you install it before the wall carpet??

Thanks,


Actually I didn't do any special treatment - the carpet on the walls simply meets up with the carpet on the floor. The carpet on the floor was there already. Both carpets are simliar, just different colors, so the transition just looks like a color change. I might eventually put some type of trim - something similar to what is along the top of the carpet, but for now it looks fine. One thing I found out about the theater is you can get by with a lot of "rough edges" thanks to a mostly dark room.

 

[ScotWithOne_t]

about how far away is your head from the screen? Do you notice any screendoor from that distance?


-Scot

 

[stansell]

Around 9.5 feet - no screen door from that distance - I used the THX recommended distance for screen size - there is a calculator on the net if you do a search.


I think the screen size is pretty much just right - any bigger and I might see some screen door (but not much with this projector thanks to the resolution). I tested with a larger size screen when I first set up the room and at the larger size of about 100" diag, screen door was not really the problem with the picture. The problem was how much bad film transfers and poor DVD mastering showed up. I also felt like going larger caused more eye strain. I like the size I have, you still get "into" the film, but dont' notice all the littel problems like edge enhancement, grain and such.

 

[Bryan withaY]

Nice job stansell. I like your decor, looks really warm and cozy there. You've given me a couple of ideas for the ht I'm building in my basement.