Hampster's Home Theater Re-Boot

[bhampton]

Hi,

I built my dedicated Home Theater a little over 2 years ago.

So,... what's with the re-boot notion? Well my projector had a failure on a major system board and I had to have it replaced. With the new board I had to re-set the projector back to system defaults and I need to calibrate it now from scratch.

So... for me it feels like starting over even though... It's not really starting over.

Anyway... I want to upload pics for the HT gallery here and I'm just reflecting a bit on my HT so I'm starting my own thread.

My Home Theater is pretty basic and goes with function over fashion. Value is always a consideration.

I'm open to all suggestions and comments about the theater but for the moment I tend to enjoy building the Blu Ray collection over thinking about new components.

Next up... Components detailed...

[bhampton]

Components ...

Source Component

Sony PS3 60 GB

Video

Sony VPH G70
DIY Screen 72x40 (81 Diagonal)
DIY Hush Box to reduce projector fan noise
HdFury DVI to RGB converter

Audio

Denon AVR 788
Paradigm Titan V2 front and rear
Paradigm CC-170
Paradigm PDR 10

Lighting
Sconces on side walls

Controls

Logitech Harmony 659 Universal Remote
X10 IR 543 (To let me control the X10 lights with IR)
Afermarket PS2 IR Reciever (So I can control the PS3 with the Harmony Remote)
Radio Shack IR Repeater (becuase the gear rack with the PS3 and AVR is outside the theater)

Notes

All Cables from Monoprice.

There is no TV tuner... I don't use the Home Theater to watch TV or listen to radio. Sometimes I netflix a TV series. Sometimes I record a HDTV with my computer and then burn the 1080p ts file to DVDs and watch my recordings on the PS3.

I use the PS3 for CD's and SACD's as well as DVDs and Blu Rays.

[bhampton]

I need to take new and better pix but here's some I already have that will do until I go vacuum the Theater.

Screen Wall




Sconces



Screen Shot



Gear Rack tilted away from the wall so I could get a pic.



Library is also outside the theater behind the screen wall.





More and better pictures hopefully to follow....

[HAMP]

Hampster's Home Theater
I guess I wasn't the only one given that nickname a few times over the years

[Deadset]

Brian, where'd you get the wall sconces? I like em

[bhampton]

My mom bought them as a gift for me she said they came from a theater in New Jersey that was torn down.

I only have 2... one on each side wall but my HT is a micro HT anyway... just really enough room for the family. They each hold 6 bulbs which gives a great range when dimming the lights.

Sometimes I host a movie night from my local church though and we can get about 8 people total... I have a couch for the first row and chairs from a local "real" theater for a second row.

Here's the seating... The couch was given to me and the chairs I got from my local multi-plex.



-Brian

[crobert0247]

Very nice. More pics would be great!

[bhampton]

Yeah,

I'll try to take better pix. Those are old and didn't come out well.

The room is actually dark red but I have to figure out how to get the camera to show that instead of bright purple.

I want to take a better screen shot because so much of that one is out of focus intentionally. Something like Cars or Incredible Hulk would make for a better screen shot but I have to finish at least the geometry/convergence as it's way off currently and I'm going slow trying to get it just right.

I hope to have more and better pix up soon.

-Brian

[Beta Man]

I have my eye on some actual theater seats too..... very affordable, and authentic at the same time..... looking good.


Do you know the model of yours? and do you have pictures of them?

thanks!

[bhampton]

Added a few pix in the gallery.

(Added chairs pix beta. I'll check for a model number. I think I have 5 that I'm not using.)

I'll keep experimenting with the camera to try to light pictures better and such.

I'll try to tune the pj up to the point of being able to get a new screenshot.

[bhampton]

One thing you likely can't see from the pictures is the theater has a floating sub-floor. I think it helped a lot with the acoustics.

The screen wall is also a double wall. There are two walls separated by about 5 inches. There were some posts that I didn't want to move there and also I was hoping to insulate more with that idea.

-Brian

[derelicte]

I see you're running basically the same speakers that I am (great minds think alike ). I'm curious whether you had the same setup before you "went blu"? I've had my receiver for ages and it's not HDMI compatible - I'm running the audio optically from my PS3 for the time being.
My question is - if you upgraded from something TO blu, did you notice a difference in audio with your current speakers? I'm never sure whether the limitation in my system is the receiver or the speakers... I'd like to upgrade one day, but not sure where to start.

And a side question - I see your Titans are mounted on the wall. Have you tried having them mounted on speaker stands away from the wall? It's not a criticism - just that everyone keeps saying that speaker will sound better if they have space around them, but I like the cleanliness of wall-mounting bookshelf speakers like ours. I'm wondering if you noticed much of a difference?

Anyhow, I'd appreciate your thoughts!

Cheers!

[bhampton]

Hi derelicte,

I bought those speakers in 2001-2002, a few years before I built my current theater and at the time was thinking DVD which is why I bought for the 5.1 configuration.

I bought into Blu Ray in Nov 06 with a launch day PS3. For a while I ran with the optical cable like you do. I had a Denon AVR2700 which was older and had no HDMI.

When PS3 got the update for DTS-MA,... I got the upgrade bug and bought a Denon AVR 788 refurbished quite cheap ($304.) It has HDMI and handles PCM via HDMI so I can have the PS3 send everything out as multi-channel PCM.

As to if the speakers are good enough to tell the difference... I would say they are. The difference between the Dolby Digital + track and the Uncompressed audio track is like the difference between MP3 and CD Audio. You can hear the difference on even fair quality PC speakers.

I had stands before... The center channel is still on a stand. I think I may re-do the screen at some point with something acoustically better and then put the front speakers back on stands. The room is very small so having the speakers mounted keeps them out of the way.



-Brian

[derelicte]

Thanks for the reply - sounds like your technology progression would be similar to mine (you're just a couple years ahead). So it's nice to hear that it would make a difference. That's been a question of mine since I got into blu-ray. Does running the better sound of a blu-ray through a non-HDMI receiver still improve the sound over DVD? I guess it would - but you'd hear even more with the proper receiver.

I guess the next step is trying to sell my old receiver and buying a new one