TKNice's Home Theater

[TKNice]

Here's my HT thread in case anyone has any questions about design, construction, or any of the gear.

- Room Details -
The space is roughly 12.4' x 21' (8ft ceiling) with no windows
Drywall is 1/2 single ply. I really wanted double drywall w/ green glue but it just wasn't in the budget
All walls are filled with standard R-13 kraft faced insulation
Lighting consists of 4 sconces, 12 4" eyeball lights, 3 vented isle lights & rope lighting above the soffit
Soffit dimensions are 12"x6.25" with a 3" gap to the ceiling
The riser dimension is 7.5' x 6' and leaves a 32" isle by the entryway and 26" isles on the back and far side
The first row of seats is 11.5' and the second is around 17'

- Video -
130" CIH Screen (optimized for 2.35:1)
Panasonic PT-AE8000u 1080p 3D Projector with a HTB Anamorphic Lens

- Audio -
Marantz SR7010 AVR
Emotiva XPA-3 and UPA-7 Amplifiers
Ascend Acoustics Sierra 2s in the front & center
Emotiva UAW-8.2 side surrounds
Emotiva ERD-1 rear bipoles
SVS PC-2000 & eD A3-300 12" Subwoofers
Aura Pro Bass Shakers x 4

- Room Treatments -
8 x 2" Acoustic Panels, evenly spaced around the room and 3 panels on front wall inside stage.

- Components -
NVidia Shield Media Player
Xbox One for Blu-ray and games
Zotac ZBox computer for poster display
42" TV displaying movie posters etc (vertically mounted).
Verizon FIOS box

- Control -
Logitech Harmony Elite Universal Remote
iPad running HSTouch & HomeSeer
Voice commands for lights and poster screen

- HTPC -
PLEX Media Server
3.4Ghz Quad Core i5 w/ 8 Gigs Ram
Event Ghost and Flirc to manage different aspects of control

Thanks for checking it out!

-Tom



Why 2.35:1?

The Simple Explanation.

[bluRazor]

[Suntory_Times]

[TKNice]

Originally Posted by Suntory_Times

Wow, that's a lot of little dudes!

btw, I posted a few more pics if anyone would like to see.

[solarrdadd]

love your setup, just visited your gallery. I also like the fact that you've got some Emo gear in there and will be upgrading to the UMC-1 (like me) whenever it becomes available. I would like to recommend the Oppo blu-ray player, imo, it's better at movies than the PS3, and it does SACD & DVD-A too. All of which would only make your theatre stand out even more. Again, love your setup!

[Rob J in WNY]

Tom, your theater is a thing of beauty. I would love to dedicate a room in a future home to do just what you did. Very nice look to the finished room. The atmosphere is superb!

Would also agree that the Oppo 83 would really be a very appropriate BD player for your room.

[crazyBLUE]

VARY SWEET HT !!! I'll bet its An exceptional experience to watch A Blu at home for you !!

[TKNice]

Thanks!! Yeah, I should really check out the Oppo 83. Only problem is...I'm saving for the UMC-1 and I can't afford anything else! Maybe for Christmas

Actually, my is this Wednesday! Well, I have about the same chance of my wife getting me that as a snowball has in a microwave.

And about the Emotiva gear, I'm so happy I went with them. I love the look and the performance. Most of all, I like the way the company does business and the community that loves em--pretty much the same reason I went with Elemental Designs for my speakers.

[crazyBLUE]

Originally Posted by TKNice

Thanks!! Yeah, I should really check out the Oppo 83. Only problem is...I'm saving for the UMC-1 and I can't afford anything else! Maybe for Christmas

Actually, my is this Wednesday! Well, I have about the same chance of my wife getting me that as a snowball has in a microwave.

And about the Emotiva gear, I'm so happy I went with them. I love the look and the performance. Most of all, I like the way the company does business and the community that loves em--pretty much the same reason I went with Elemental Designs for my speakers.

Emo gear is great ! Another member did something to his amps that was vary interesting (red_5ive) So I did it & like it . He took the side bars Off & the amp look's great without them !!

BTW ~ HAPPY B~DAY

[Suntory_Times]

Originally Posted by TKNice

Wow, that's a lot of little dudes!

btw, I posted a few more pics if anyone would like to see.

Words could not describe my opinion as well as those emoticons do. Very, very nice set-up.

[shazzed]

TKNice, warm up the sub I am coming over to critique your setup

[TKNice]

(from a response in my gallery)

Hey BigADevry, using the HTPC has really been fun so far and I would say everyone should plan for this upgrade at some point. The computer and TV have been converging for a while now and it makes sense to be able to pop open a browser or access internet content on your TV.

You asked what I use it for. Well, I can definitely browse the internet at 1920 x 1080 and it looks great. Sometimes I'll bump up the font if I'm sitting in the back row.

Next, there's lots of content to take advantage of. Hulu is a site that streams all kinds of video content, like full episodes of many of my favorite shows. They are gearing up to offer many of them in 720p! Also, I'll throw on Pandora (my favorite music streaming site) and if you spend the $36 bucks for a yearly membership, you'll get all the songs at a 196k bitrate. It's a great way to see and hear all kinds of new stuff on your system.

Finally, I use a program called XBMC as my primary media player. This is hands down the best program I've found to showcase my library for movies, pictures, and Mp3s. It was originally designed for the old xbox and has over the years been ported to Windows, Mac & Linux. Since I had a modified xbox back before HD took off, I remember waiting FOREVER for it to become available on PC.

To do this last step, it requires you to buy a few terabyte hard drives (I have one coming today for $100) and to take time to convert all of your DVDs and Blurays to ISO or MKV. These become files that your PC will instantly play instead of hassling with finding and playing the hard copy. It's not perfect though, and you must weight the benefit and coolness factor of being able to play your entire library with the trade off of a more compressed picture and sound. I'm sort of living into this last step and converting the things where I'm not as concerned about quality, like many of my kids movies.

To build one, you have a few options. You can buy parts online for a helluva powerful PC if you know how to build one. This is what I did and it probably cost less than $500. You can obviously buy one as well. I have two different computers for this now that I recently picked up a MacMini. My first Mac!

Hope this helps and I'll link to some of the stuff I mentioned.

-Tom

Hulu HD

Pandora One

XBMC

XBMC Aeon Stark Skin

XBMC Aeon Stark Skin (more)

[TKNice]

Originally Posted by crazyBLUE

Emo gear is great ! Another member did something to his amps that was vary interesting (red_5ive) So I did it & like it . He took the side bars Off & the amp look's great without them !!

BTW ~ HAPPY B~DAY

Hmm, those do look nice Crazy!! I can't decide which way I like them better. I'm trying to visualize the UMC-1 on top with both.

[Paranormal]

thats a pretty sweet setup

[Suntory_Times]

Originally Posted by TKNice

To do this last step, it requires you to buy a few terabyte hard drives (I have one coming today for $100) and to take time to convert all of your DVDs and Blurays to ISO or MKV. These become files that your PC will instantly play instead of hassling with finding and playing the hard copy. It's not perfect though, and you must weight the benefit and coolness factor of being able to play your entire library with the trade off of a more compressed picture and sound. I'm sort of living into this last step and converting the things where I'm not as concerned about quality, like many of my kids movies.
[/URL]

Why compress them, why not just get the files as .m2ts (which you could then convert to .ts with lossless audio and no video quality loss as .m2ts files will not currently stream lossless codecs when played as a file)?

[kurtis21]

TKNice...you have a beautiful setup my man! My next move is to get a CIH Screen and an anamorphic lens. In the only picture of your projector, I didn't see your anamorphic lens so i'm guessing you took the picture before you got the lens. I was wondering...how do you like the lens and where did you get your screen? Also...how's the picture look when it's streched? Any pincushioning or is it still clear as day? Well...that's all the questions i have Just wanted to say AGAIN...Awesome theater bro!!!

[TKNice]

Originally Posted by Suntory_Times

Why compress them, why not just get the files as .m2ts (which you could then convert to .ts with lossless audio and no video quality loss as .m2ts files will not currently stream lossless codecs when played as a file)?

I'd love not to compress them but I think I'd end up with 35 and 40gig files instead of 4-6g files, at least that is what I saw when I tested a while back. I would run out of drive space in no time. Maybe I was doing something wrong?

Originally Posted by kurtis21

TKNice...you have a beautiful setup my man! My next move is to get a CIH Screen and an anamorphic lens. In the only picture of your projector, I didn't see your anamorphic lens so i'm guessing you took the picture before you got the lens. I was wondering...how do you like the lens and where did you get your screen? Also...how's the picture look when it's streched? Any pincushioning or is it still clear as day? Well...that's all the questions i have Just wanted to say AGAIN...Awesome theater bro!!!

Thanks Kurtis21! Yep, picture is from a few months ago. I love the lens and I'm glad I'm no longer zooming the picture for 2.35:1 content. It's not perfect though, but for my budget it does a great job. I need to run now but I'll write more about it for you soon.

[TKNice]

Originally Posted by kurtis21

TKNice...you have a beautiful setup my man! My next move is to get a CIH Screen and an anamorphic lens. In the only picture of your projector, I didn't see your anamorphic lens so i'm guessing you took the picture before you got the lens. I was wondering...how do you like the lens and where did you get your screen? Also...how's the picture look when it's streched? Any pincushioning or is it still clear as day? Well...that's all the questions i have Just wanted to say AGAIN...Awesome theater bro!!!

Right back at ya Kurtis, I just checked out yours! I wish I would have gone with dipoles for my surrounds (is that what they're called? I forget), and your chairs are awesome!

I think you'll love a CIH setup if you decide to go that way. Have you figured out what size screen you can fit? My screen was purchased from HTDepot but it had some clear brush marks (I guess you'd call them) in the middle toward the top. I always noticed them in scenes that fade to white or that have skies. It bothered me but friends said they didn't notice. I mention it because I ended up painting the wall with Behr ultra white paint figuring that I'd cover it with the screen if it sucked. It turned out awesome so now I use the frame over the wall with no screen.

As for the lens, the picture looks great but it's not quite as sharp as when I zoomed to fill the screen, though bluray is so sharp that it really doesn't matter. I do have pincusioning of about an inch that I hide in the border. My throw is also relatively short, probably around 13.5', so that doesn't help the cause.

The image looks more like film to me than a digital movie, which I consider a plus. The vertical pixel density with a lens and 1080p is very hard to see any screen door effect, it's awesome!


Here are some pics of the lens:

[Suntory_Times]

Originally Posted by TKNice

I'd love not to compress them but I think I'd end up with 35 and 40gig files instead of 4-6g files, at least that is what I saw when I tested a while back. I would run out of drive space in no time. Maybe I was doing something wrong.

Most blu ray's should be able around 20 gigs, assuming you only need the native language (presumably English option). All the excess languages can be removed.

[doctorD]

TK,

Love your HT. It looks very nice. Also, Happy Birthday!