Our Home Screening Room

[Movie Man Don]

Here are some pictures of our home screening room. I've got a lot more but it looks like I'm limited to five pictures.

[Movie Man Don]

Additional pictures.

[Movie Man Don]

Pictures of the lobby.

[Flatnate]

Holy Cow!

Wow, I think your the first person on this site to post a home theater with an actual 35mm projector! I'm curious if your a member of the film-tech website? I know they have some galleries of people running 35mm in their homes over there as well.

So my biggest question is where do you actually find the 35mm films to show on it; as most were owned by the studios and never sold to the public? I have seen a few on eBay and various sites... but not many.

You know a good write up of all the equipment would be awesome. Things like the projection head, lenses, lamp house, processor, amps, speakers... What are the dimensions of the screen? I can kinda make out the digital projector above the projection port... what is it? Do you feed it blu-ray?

[DangeRuss]

Good Morning

Awesome theater ......

May I make a suggestion ..... It would be much easier for us to lust after your setup if you loaded the photos in your gallery

[bz1080p]

Welcome to the HT Galleries!

[DangeRuss]

I see you have your account setup so you can't receive PM's (personal messages), So I'll go this route..........

First..... Go to the Blu-ray.Com Homepage.Once there you will see a series of links on your right ......

Click the one marked My Home Theater. Once there you will see a tab marked Upload Images and there you have it

[ZIPPO]

Originally Posted by Flatnate

Holy Cow!

Wow, I think your the first person on this site to post a home theater with an actual 35mm projector! I'm curious if your a member of the film-tech website? I know they have some galleries of people running 35mm in their homes over there as well.

So my biggest question is where do you actually find the 35mm films to show on it; as most were owned by the studios and never sold to the public? I have seen a few on eBay and various sites... but not many.

You know a good write up of all the equipment would be awesome. Things like the projection head, lenses, lamp house, processor, amps, speakers... What are the dimensions of the screen? I can kinda make out the digital projector above the projection port... what is it? Do you feed it blu-ray?

Ditto!

[Flatnate]

Oh man, I have to throw one more question out there! What are you using to process the surround sound from your blu-ray player, and then how do you get that line level output to the power amps? I assume it would otherwise be hooked up to the Dolby processor for the audio coming from the film? I guess the geek in me is curious how you switch back and forth between the two formats.

LOL, just ignore me if you don't want to get too technical explaining your set up.

[Movie Man Don]

Originally Posted by Flatnate

Oh man, I have to throw one more question out there! What are you using to process the surround sound from your blu-ray player, and then how do you get that line level output to the power amps? I assume it would otherwise be hooked up to the Dolby processor for the audio coming from the film? I guess the geek in me is curious how you switch back and forth between the two formats.

LOL, just ignore me if you don't want to get too technical explaining your set up.

Ah...fair questions from both you and ZIPPO.
My Projection booth includes both the Epson 5010 and the 35mm film systems. First the digital projector: When I purchased my 8100 a couple of years ago I also bought a Samsung C6800 3D BD player. That model has the 6 outputs on the rear. I make up a cable using the RCA outputs from Samsung with the other end using a 25 pin molex connector with plugs into my CP500 Dolby Digital Processor. (seen in my equipment rack in my HT gallery photos) That gives me left, center, right, surround and sub channels out of the BD player and it's processed through the CP500 which feeds the power amps.
The 35mm equipment consist of a Century JJ 35/70mm picture and sound head. If you look in my gallery at the projector picture the very most top device is a Kelmar 35mm film cleaner. Under that is the Dolby 701 Digital pick-up head which reads the digital sound track on the film. Under that is a 4-track magnetic pick-up sound head for my magnetic track 35mm prints. The Lamphouse behind the projector is a Strong Super LumeX, 2000 watt model which I really need for projecting 35mm linear polarized 3D prints (extra light). Power amps are QSC, Smart and EV's. All of the behind the screen speakers are JBL Pro Cinema models l/r/c channels are 3678's and the 2 18 inch subs are 4546C's) and the surrounds (4) are Klipsch's. The screen is one made in Canada, 11X5 feet, silver, mini-perf.
In terms your questions concerning 35mm film prints, if you check Ebay right now, you'll find many feature film for sale. Truth is I've been collecting 35mm prints for many years. Many of the 35mm prints in collector hands came from the practice of film companies junking multiple copies of their prints. Film collecting has been going on for 60+ years.

[DangeRuss]

I see you've got the gallery situation taken care of

[Movie Man Don]

Originally Posted by DangeRuss

I see you've got the gallery situation taken care of

Yep....thanks to you!! I really appreciate your help.

[DangeRuss]

Originally Posted by Movie Man Don

Yep....thanks to you!! I really appreciate your help.

That's what we're here for

[Flatnate]

I'd be very interested to hear your impressions of image quality between your 35mm Century when running a descent print versus Blu-Ray on your Epson 5010? I would imagine that the xenon lamphouse would throw a significantly brighter picture to start. Are the black levels and shadow detail way different as well? At your screen size does a typical print exhibit any more detail than a Blu-Ray at 1080p? Have you ran 70mm through it in your home? I'm also curious how the digital audio track on a 35mm print compares to DTS Master Audio on Blu-Ray? I thought I had read somewhere that the way they are mixed and mastered can be different between both formats

Wow that was a lot of questions, sorry about that. I think I'm almost done nerding out over here. Thanks for your posts by the way.

[Movie Man Don]

Flatnate...those are very valid questions that I get asked by a lot of people.
I come from the movie theatre business. Retired now, but owned and operated a chain of 11 movie theatres in the southeast until 2000. I'm one of those 35mm diehards who resisted the switch to digital in movie theatres.
Since I've been introduced to the digital cinema world I have changed some of my ideas about 35mm vs digital. While I'll always project 35mm prints the advent of BD and digital projectors makes it possible for me, my friends and neighbors to enjoy many classic titles that finding 35mm prints would prove very difficult if not impossible. Digital from my 5010 looks really, really good. I still maintain that digital lacks the "depth-of-field" that I see in 35mm film. But that's just me. People who come over for movies parties don't have a clue whether I'm running digital or 35mm and honestly don't care. They just want a nice bright picture with kick-butt sound. I think my 5010 is a great addition to my booth and I'm having a great time now with the beautiful, bright 3D that the 5010 allows you to enjoy.

In terms of light on the screen, there's not much difference in the brightness between to two. The xenon bulb in the Super LumeX might be a tab brighter but not by much. I can't focus the 2000 watt bulb down too tight because of a "hot" spot on my silver screen.

I quit collecting 70mm prints years ago simply because of storage issues. That hobby takes up a lot of room. All of my 70mm prints were 6 track magnetic sound. I got out of the 70mm business before the advent of DTS Dolby 70mm and digital 70mm prints. Many of the magnetic track prints had audio track damage and that proved to be a real nuisance. Running mag prints, one has to keep the projector paths de-magnitized or the track can become damaged. That's a whole other can of worms.

Hope I've answered your questions.

[Flatnate]

Originally Posted by Movie Man Don

Hope I've answered your questions.

Sure did thanks.

I've always had a fascination with celluloid. My wifes grandma only threw fuel on the fire when she showed us her countless small reels of super8 home movie footage. We sent them out to have them put through the telecine and on to DVD recently. I couldn't believe how much better it looked than the stuff she shot after "upgrading" to the VHS camcorder in the 80's. The VHS was well gross. Just something special about film.

I figure your Epson is on par with my JVC and its great news to hear that your typical guest doesn't distinguish between the two! I always felt a litle jealous of those guys over at the FilmTech forums that have 35mm set up at home, but that is real statement in terms of what you can achieve at the consumer level today. Wow. At least I feel a little less jealous now..

[Movie Man Don]

I added some construction pictures to my HT gallery.

[Movie Man Don]

I'm excited about installing my new screen. It's being shipped tomorrow and I should have it swapped out by Friday night.
The silver perf screen I've been using for several years has had a problem with one seam visible from a couple of seats. No one but me seems to mind but it just drives me nuts!!
My new screen is another 11'X5' mini-perf Harkness silver screen. This one has even more gain than my Canadian screen.
Here's a link to the company and screen:
http://www.harkness-screens.com/digi...ectral240.html
I'll get some pictures of the screen "hanging" and post 'em on my HT gallery over the weekend.

[Flatnate]

Sweet upgrade! You know Harkness screens never gets a lot of press or attention on the consumer/residential side of things. I'm curious price wise how they compare with consumer oriented companies like Stewart, or Screen Innovations (which are the only two that come mind for me with silver screen offerings to maintain polarization for passive 3D.. and again both at a hefty price tag). I'm looking to go acoustically transparent myself someday, and I'm not sure I want or need that kind of material for passive 3D. However, I find myself torn between the micro perforated offerings and some of the new woven materials from companies like SeymourAV and SMX. Something like a 1.3 gain perforated Harkness is definitely a contender. The micro perforated stuff should give me an increased gain but I figured with greater sound attenuation than a woven material. I'm also curious how far you have to sit before you notice the perforations or any moire'. Elite Screens is coming out with a material called AcousticPro 4k, which is supposedly a incredibly fine weave fabric but again I fear what kind of gain loss I will get with that. Oh well...a screen upgrade is a few years out for me. Post your thoughts on the Harkness when it arrives, I'm sure folks on the forum will be eager to hear your thoughts on a company that doesn't get a lot of attention around here. Oh yeah and a seam visible to me would drive me bonkers too.

[Movie Man Don]

I've added 7 additional pictures of the old screen removal (see HT gallery) and getting prepared to hang the new silver Harkness screen tomorrow. I'll add some more pictures as I hang the new screen. Pictures include my JBL speaker array. Those two speakers on the bottom under the center channel are 18" subs. I can move the furniture around in the screening room with those...LOL.