[luclin999]

Note: This is an update as to the overall progress of the room -

Here is a render of the design:

And here is a picture of the room so far:

At this point, I still need to add the molding and acoustical panels to the one wall and build a better housing/enclosure for the projector and equipment.

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Original post from 8/24/07 with updated information...

This is a project where I am converting a small spare bedroom (12'x13') into a dedicated HT/Screening room for myself and my wife.

Overall the plan was to put together the best looking, most functional theater that I can in the space for as little money as possible.

At the same time I'm avoiding any major demo/remodeling as we want the option of returning the room to a spare bedroom when it comes time to sell the house in a few years.

The budget needs to stay low but I'd like the end result to look like a true dedicated home theater and not just a spare bedroom with a projector and screen installed.

Right now the breakdown for the budget is:

- Paint and supplies: $100 Done!
- Furniture (Coaster seating) : $400 Done!(crazy one-time clearance buy)
- Screen (BOC on wooden frame): $50 Done!
- Carpeting (Carpet tiles): $240 Done!
- Acoustic panel materials (OC 709): $150 Not purchased
- Projector (720p) : (Samsung SP-H710) $900 Done! (Died 11/2015)
- Speakers Front Channel (Mirage Omnisats): $90 Done! (Closeout buy)
- Speakers Rear Channel ( Pioneer S-HF21-LR): $20 Done!
- Speaker Center Channel ( Mirage Omnisat): $50 Done!
- Subwoofer (Boston Acoustics PV700): $100 Done!
- Wiring (speaker, electrical, etc.): $120 Done!
- Speaker enclosure materials: $150 Done!
- HD DVD Player (Toshiba HD-A1): $60 Done!
- Samsung BD-P1600: $100 Done!
- Epson 6020 UB (used): $349 (Bought 09/2019)

Total spent to date: $2709 (as of 12/2019)


Here is the layout of the spare bedroom I am converting:

And this is the current plan for the finished room:

And here is a render of the look I am shooting for in the design (as seen from the doorway into the room)

And how it will look from the other wall:

This is the room as it looked when I started work while painting the ceiling black (Lowes Valspar: (flat) Dark Kettle Black). The biggest challenge here was that the ceiling is covered with a "popcorn" texture and it took four coats to finally get it all covered. In the end, if I had to do it again I'd probably just spend the extra day removing the popcorn and re-texturing the ceiling before paining it. Ah well, live and learn.

As you can see on the floor, it was raining little, black pieces of wet popcorn texture down on me the entire time I was painting. I looked like I had been sprayed in tar after it was all over

This is the screen wall after the paint has gone up.

That's about all the progress so far. I am hoping to get the projector and carpet ordered this weekend and be able to push the project a bit further along next week. I'll keep posting updates as things move forward.

 

[victor-eyd]

That's the same size as my room. Good luck!


Victor

 

[luclin999]

Your room turned out very nicely.


That room looks like a very close match to mine except that the window is further along the wall to the left than it is in my room.


I seriously considered placing my screen in the same location that you opted for as it would have added another 12" to my viewing and throw distances but the screen would have been fairly offset to the left side.


How do you like the way it turned out for you?


BTW I love the Backlit Vader cutout.

 

[victor-eyd]

I love it. But I'm now getting the makeover bug and I'm researching on turning this ht room into something else (the screen and seating location will remian the same). Wait and see...


Looking at your config, though, i'm seeing that you used the shorter (12') throw and this means that you will be looking closer than me at the screen itself. If you have not yet see I would definetly recommend measuring out where your're eyes would be relative to the screen and going to a ht store that's displaying a 720p image and see if you notice SDE. I'm also pretty sure that unless you buy an LCD pj, I don't think you're gonna hit 100" on the screen, probably closer to 80-90".


Thanks for the vader comment. It's going to my son's room now. As will all of the other Star Wars stuff..


Victor

 

[luclin999]

You are right about the throw distance being shorter.


The DLP models on my consideration list max out at a 96" diagonal image for the 10' 10" distance from lens to screen.


As for the SDE, with a viewing distance of roughly 10' from eyes to screen (1.25:1 ratio), I am a bit concerned with the potential for spotting screen door. However I haven't been able to find a store in the Houston area which has a decent projector set up to try to get a first-hand look at a 720p machine from my viewing distance.


I've tested the screen and seating in my room already with the 480p projector I currently own. With that projector I can definitely see SDE about 50% of the time from the seating in my room. Movies are still watchable but it can be distracting to be sure.


Hopefully by going to 720p and reducing the size of the individual pixels by half will solve the problem but as it is I may just have to buy a projector and set it up before I will know for certain.

 

[victor-eyd]

There's always 1080p- but then add $1.5k to the budget.


Also one more consideration. DVD is 480 resolution, so even if you upgrade to a 720p pj, you'll might still not be as satisfied with the resulting image until you sink in for a blu-ray or hd-dvd player.


Add another $500-1000 to budget there


Victor

 

[luclin999]

A Blu-Ray or HD player has already been planned for...

Quote:
- HD DVD or Blu-Ray Player: $400 Not purchased

However since I have an excellent upconverting DVD player already I will probably save adding the newer HD unit until around the end of the year when I can hopefully take advantage of the Christmas time sales.

 

[luclin999]

Managed to make a bit of progress today.


I placed an order for the projector (Samsung SP-H710) and mounted the screen up onto the wall.

Took me over an hour to make sure the screen was at the proper height, centered correctly and level.


That I was mounting it as a "floating" screen with hardware that I had MacGuyvered together from stuff that I found at Lowes didn't help either though.


Nice thing is that the hardware I used allows me to adjust the screen by up to 2" forward or back by just loosening one bolt at each corner so I have a bit of flexibility once I get the projector set up.

 

[johnathan]

Luclin99

Your screen wall looks fabulous. I love the colors and the fact you have a floating screen.In my old living room set up. I had a Sony HS10 and I could clearly see screen door at 14 feet on a 119" screen.But with a little defocus it was fine.


Some people are more prone to see it than others. Before I received the RS1 the Sony was in my Den/HT and it was nice at 15.5' eyes to screen. Some even enjoyed the front row at 9' eyes to screen.


If you are like me I would drive myself crazy until I got what I wanted in the first place.Good luck to you. Great looking room ! I hope you enjoy your new projector and room.It is one of the best upgrades to our home we have made ! Johnathan

 

[luclin999]

Thanks, it took us literally weeks to settle on those colors. Technically the paint color looked to be a bit more gold/brown from the sample card than what it turned out to be once it was up on the wall but we started liking it once the 2nd coat went up. There was just a little bit of concern that the color might have been too bright for the room.


It's definitely a dark enough color for a theater though as the walls completely disappear once the lights go down even in brightly lit scenes.


As for SDE, I went to a couple of local home theater stores over the weekend and took a close look at some of their 720 demo rooms. I found that I was consistently only noticing SDE once I came to within about 0.8:1 screen widths of the image.


Of course every projector/screen combo is different so the only true test will be what I see when the SP-H710 arrives and I get it set up but based on my observations this weekend I have reason to believe it will turn out alright.


As for today's progress, I unpacked and assembled the last of the chairs, touched up the paint a bit (scuffed it slightly installing the screen yesterday) and am getting ready to work on hooking up the rope light to test how the screen looks lit from behind.


I went with a "Halloween orange" rope light so as to hopefully compliment the wall color. We'll see if that turns out the way I'd planned or not.


Here is a shot of a couple of the assembled chairs, if the rope light turns out well I'll hopefully have some pictures of that to post later as well.

 

[victor-eyd]



Quote:
Originally Posted by luclin999 /forum/post/11436735


Thanks, it took us literally weeks to settle on those colors. Technically the paint color looked to be a bit more gold/brown from the sample card than what it turned out to be once it was up on the wall but we started liking it once the 2nd coat went up. There was just a little bit of concern that the color might have been too bright for the room.


It's definitely a dark enough color for a theater though as the walls completely disappear once the lights go down even in brightly lit scenes.


As for SDE, I went to a couple of local home theater stores over the weekend and took a close look at some of their 720 demo rooms. I found that I was consistently only noticing SDE once I came to within about 0.8:1 screen widths of the image.


Of course every projector/screen combo is different so the only true test will be what I see when the SP-H710 arrives and I get it set up but based on my observations this weekend I have reason to believe it will turn out alright.


As for today's progress, I unpacked and assembled the last of the chairs, touched up the paint a bit (scuffed it slightly installing the screen yesterday) and am getting ready to work on hooking up the rope light to test how the screen looks lit from behind.


I went with a "Halloween orange" rope light so as to hopefully compliment the wall color. We'll see if that turns out the way I'd planned or not.


Here is a shot of a couple of the assembled chairs, if the rope light turns out well I'll hopefully have some pictures of that to post later as well.

Hey, that's my floor! Are you re-doing my room without me knowing it?

Victor

 

[luclin999]



Quote:
Originally Posted by victor-eyd /forum/post/11437994


Hey, that's my floor! Are you re-doing my room without me knowing it?

Victor

I'll send you a bill when I'm done.

 

[urbanlegend213]



There's always 1080p- but then add $1.5k to the budget.[\\QUOTE]


i dont know the throw distance or w/whatever but crt's on ebay that are 1080p capable were going for 400-500 when i looked(couple weeks ago) and crt has no visible image structure...probly not a real option but just throwing it out there

 

[luclin999]

The projector arrived today and I set it up to see just what we were dealing with.


Just about the best image I think that I have ever seen from a 720p projector.


However the optics in the SP-H710AE are of such high quality it can be focused tightly enough that I can actually see SDE from ten feet away on a 90" screen. (It won't fill my 98" screen completely until after it is installed in it's permanent location.)


Good news is that the SDE can be eliminated simply by taking the image ever so slightly out of focus. Just a tiny turn left or right on the lens and the SDE is blended away while the image itself is still far more sharply focused than my Optoma projector could ever manage.


Overall I am VERY happy with the Samsung.

 

[jandawil]

What a fantastic looking room!! Very nice work and I love the colors you picked out. It's nice to see quality work done at a budget. Anyone who sees this should realize you don't have to be wealthy to enjoy a great quality HT.

 

[luclin999]

Just a small update to note what was actually done this weekend besides watching movies.


Built the lower cabinet to house the center speaker and sub.


This is what it looked like when it was framed out:

And here is the finished cabinet:

Please forgive the image quality, my camera really doesn't like the lighting in the room or the angle I was shooting the pictures from. I may try to update the pictures tomorrow if I can get some better shots.

 

[luclin999]

Managed to take a few more pictures of the progress this afternoon:


The screen wall from the door coming into the room:

And the seating and projector:

Pardon the flash effects in this shot, they tend to make things look far brighter than they truly are.


Frankly I may need to stop spending money on my HT and just go out and buy a better camera

 

[cobolisdead]

Nice! I like your setup!

 

[luclin999]

Managed to get a bit more work done.


Finished the cabinets/columns for housing the speakers:

-From the doorway coming into the room

-From about two steps into the room

- And from the opposite corner


Pictures are a little off colorwise due to trying to take the pictures at night with a flash. I may try opening the window in the morning and see if I can get some clearer photos by daylight.


And while the columns may look to be a couple of inches too short that was actually by design to compensate for the height difference after the carpet is installed.


Speaking of which, I managed to get the carpet tiles ordered and they should be arriving by DHL on either Thursday or Friday.


Just in time for yet another weekend project

 

[luclin999]

Managed to see a little bit of sunlight hit the east side of the house and took a few more pictures by natural light.

Main shot of the screenwall from just behind the seats..

Picture to show the transition from the wall to the ceiling..

And a wider shot of the west wall to help show the paint colors in a better light..


The black panels of the left and right columns are simply wooden frames covered in speaker cloth to allow the sound to escape from all sides and not pick up reflections. The front panels are attached by velcro to allow easy access to the speakers.


Overall I'm fairly pleased with what $200 in materials (and a fair amount of labor) managed to turn into for a screenwall.


Right now, I am considering putting small sconces on the two columns but I'm not 100% sold on the idea. Problem being of course, that one I start cutting into the fronts of the columns to mount/test the hardware there really is no turning back.


Any ideas/opinions on the sconce idea?