Wiretap Theater [complete]

w1retap

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Jul 17, 2006
Messages
13,708
Here's just a brief overview of the theater for those who don't feel like looking through the entire worklog. Yes it is done. :cool:

WORKLOG LINK: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1200154


Theater Details:
Epson Powerlite Home Cinema 1080p
Custom 105'' Fixed Screen
Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver
Yambeka 7 Channel Speakers
BIC Acoustech H100 Subwoofer
Belkin PureAV PF60
Custom HTPC
DirecTV HD [Choice Xtra + HD Pack]
6 Leather Recliners w/ Cupholders from Interior Express

HTPC Specs:
Asus M2A-VM 690g Motherboard
AMD Athlon X2 5000+ 65nm Brisbane
Scythe Ninja Mini (fanless)
2GB Corsair DDR2-800 CL4
Asus 8600GT Silent HDCP
SoundBlaster X-fi XtremeMusic
Seagate 250GB SATA2 [OS Drive]
Seagate 750GB SATA2 [Storage Drive]
LG Combo HDDVD/Blu-ray Drive
Antec NSK2400 with VL System L.I.S. MCE VFD Screen
Vista Home Premium 32-bit

Pix:

th_IMG_3817.jpg

Full: http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a1/wiretap25/Basement/IMG_3817.jpg

th_pano16.jpg

Full: http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a1/wiretap25/Basement/pano16.jpg

th_IMG_3784.jpg

Full: http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a1/wiretap25/Basement/IMG_3784.jpg

th_pano17.jpg

Full: http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a1/wiretap25/Basement/pano17.jpg

th_IMG_3788.jpg

Full: http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a1/wiretap25/Basement/IMG_3788.jpg

th_IMG_3789.jpg

Full: http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a1/wiretap25/Basement/IMG_3789.jpg

th_IMG_3790.jpg

Full: http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a1/wiretap25/Basement/IMG_3790.jpg

th_IMG_3544.jpg

Full: http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a1/wiretap25/Basement/IMG_3544.jpg

th_IMG_3798.jpg

Full: http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a1/wiretap25/Basement/IMG_3798.jpg

th_IMG_3800.jpg

Full: http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a1/wiretap25/Basement/IMG_3800.jpg

th_IMG_3526.jpg

Full: http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a1/wiretap25/Basement/IMG_3526.jpg

th_IMG_3528.jpg

Full: http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a1/wiretap25/Basement/IMG_3528.jpg

th_IMG_3823.jpg

Full: http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a1/wiretap25/Basement/IMG_3823.jpg


th_IMG_0277.jpg

Zoom: http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a1/wiretap25/Basement/IMG_0277.jpg

th_IMG_0133.jpg

Full: http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a1/wiretap25/Basement/IMG_0133.jpg

th_IMG_0134.jpg

Zoom: http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a1/wiretap25/Basement/IMG_0134.jpg

th_IMG_0139.jpg

Zoom: http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a1/wiretap25/Basement/IMG_0139.jpg

th_IMG_0138.jpg

Zoom: http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a1/wiretap25/Basement/IMG_0138.jpg

th_pano_full_new.jpg

Full: http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a1/wiretap25/Basement/pano_full_new.jpg

th_BR_Apano.jpg

Zoom: http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a1/wiretap25/Basement/BR_Apano.jpg



Riser Box finished:

th_IMG_0570.jpg

Zoom: http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a1/wiretap25/Basement/IMG_0570.jpg

th_pano5-17.jpg

Zoom: http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a1/wiretap25/Basement/pano5-17.jpg
 
you like your bic acoustech sub ??


I've always thought their speakers have great sound considering how cheap they are... never hear their subs though
 
BIC ROXOR. I've been using them since about 1995 or so. Bang for buck...I can't really argue.
 
Nice. :)

Congrats on a superb room.

What's the link to the worklog?

Please post more pictures of the screen.
 
great job man! looks really good. hows the subwoofer? i was thinking about buying it.
 
Nice. :)

Congrats on a superb room.

What's the link to the worklog?

Please post more pictures of the screen.

great job man! looks really good. hows the subwoofer? i was thinking about buying it.

Sorry, I fixed the first post to now include the worklog link. There are more pictures of the screen being constructed in there.

The sub is awesome, I'd recommend it to anyone if it falls under their budget plans. It is pretty inexpensive and performs incredible. It has clean loud bass just as I said a few posts previous to this one.
 
Fantastic job on everything...projector, recliners, cable management....can't see wires anywhere!

The AV components look real good too, i can see you're diggin that nice Bic H-100 sub :)
 
Fantastic job on everything...projector, recliners, cable management....can't see wires anywhere!

The AV components look real good too, i can see you're diggin that nice Bic H-100 sub :)

yea seriously... w1retap... I envy you :)
 
Do you have plans to elevate the back seater row?

It looks like view from the back row would easily be obstructed.
 
Do you have plans to elevate the back seater row?

It looks like view from the back row would easily be obstructed.

No. I just had a party last night, and people in the back row had no complaints. They could see perfectly fine over the front row. When the front row is reclined and watching the movie, the screen is high enough so that the back row can see fine as well, even if they are reclined too.
 
Man, I so want a theater room. :(

Sadly, I cannot take on such project since I am moving out in a year.

How do you like Vista MCE compared to MCE 2005?
I am feeling too lazy to upgrade to Vista and reconfigure everything.
 
How do you like Vista MCE compared to MCE 2005?
I am feeling too lazy to upgrade to Vista and reconfigure everything.
I don't have a tuner in the HTPC, so I'm not really using the MCE program built into Vista. But I flipped around through it, and I definitely like it much better than my MCE 2005 box. I like Vista better overall compared to XP anyway. There is better support for playing back HD videos, it feels more responsive, and you can tweak many more settings. The only drawback is some of the companies really need to get on the ball with their drivers. There is no excuse.
 
Awesome setup, my only advice would be to put curtains on the walls to minimize reverb and nasty echoes.

Also, if you don't mind me asking, did you bankroll this yourself!?
 
Awesome setup, my only advice would be to put curtains on the walls to minimize reverb and nasty echoes.
The carpet and ceiling tiles cut down on everything pretty well. The room is oblong, so the reverb/echo is already cut down to a minimum. Plus I don't want to cover up the expensive paint. :eek: :p
Also, if you don't mind me asking, did you bankroll this yourself!?
I paid for a large chunk of it, and my brother paid for some of it.
 
I am not using it for gaming. Only media viewing. I am keeping the HTPC as least cluttered as I can. I don't own any consoles either, and don't plan on it.
 
Looks great. I only wish I had the time to finish (heh, or seriously start for that matter) my HT project.
 
Wow, that came out well! Good job!

Are you happy with it? Anything you would have changed?
 
I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. I don't think there is much I'd change other than having such a low basement ceiling. :p But the sound is great, the video is great, and the seating is great. My choices for electronics and pc components all turned out to work perfectly with each other. That was my main concern, but it turned out fine.

I'm really only pissed off at my HD cable tv. They haven't fixed our digital breakup problem, and it has been months. They also haven't got me a good HDMI cable box yet. On top of this, the HD channels are way too low of bitrate and look like crap during action scenes. I can't get OTA HD because the broadcasts in Detroit (at least in my area) suck terribly. I'm waiting for my next door neighbors tree to fall so I can go with satellite.
 
I'm waiting for my next door neighbors tree to fall so I can go with satellite.
Hehe, a neighbor's tree can really suck sometimes. There's one FTA satellite i'm trying to clip but there's a whole house in the way :(. A couple of more dastardly friends of mine have dealt with neighbors trees by driving copper nails into the trunk. I'm nearly positive my neighbor killed my geourgeous red maple by pouring gas on the roots :( (it was sorta near our property line). I don't recommend you take either course of action of course...

I take it you can't sink a 12ft fencepole on another side of your property? Standard sized fencepoles have just the right diameter for a dish, and there easy enough to bury and level off, or even remove at a later date.
 
ever think of painting the ceiling tiles black like a real movie theather? Still looks fucking awesome. Can I come over
 
ever think of painting the ceiling tiles black like a real movie theather? Still looks fucking awesome. Can I come over
I thought about it, but I didn't want to paint them. I think the white looks pretty good. With black it would make the ceiling look even lower than it already is. :p
Hehe, a neighbor's tree can really suck sometimes. There's one FTA satellite i'm trying to clip but there's a whole house in the way :(. A couple of more dastardly friends of mine have dealt with neighbors trees by driving copper nails into the trunk. I'm nearly positive my neighbor killed my geourgeous red maple by pouring gas on the roots :( (it was sorta near our property line). I don't recommend you take either course of action of course...

I take it you can't sink a 12ft fencepole on another side of your property? Standard sized fencepoles have just the right diameter for a dish, and there easy enough to bury and level off, or even remove at a later date.
I thought about doing the copper spike trick, but I don't want my neighbor to be upset with me, lol. I think if I mount a pole with the dish on top at the rear back corner of my roof, I might be able to make it around the huge ass tree. I need to make an appointment to have the dish people out to survey for the best signal again.
 
I don't have a tuner in the HTPC, so I'm not really using the MCE program built into Vista. But I flipped around through it, and I definitely like it much better than my MCE 2005 box. I like Vista better overall compared to XP anyway. There is better support for playing back HD videos, it feels more responsive, and you can tweak many more settings. The only drawback is some of the companies really need to get on the ball with their drivers. There is no excuse.

do you just use your HTPC for movies? And with a 750gb all of your media stored on that?
 
the Asus Motherboard you used...did you get the one with the HDMI card? I just bought the motherboard and a 6000+ CPU, this is strictly going to be my home theater for movies as well, I have a cable PVR, so no need for a tuner.
 
the Asus Motherboard you used...did you get the one with the HDMI card? I just bought the motherboard and a 6000+ CPU, this is strictly going to be my home theater for movies as well, I have a cable PVR, so no need for a tuner.

No, the one I ordered was not the HDMI version. It is just the plain one.. I think at the time of my order it saved $20. I planned on using the graphics card for near/full hardware decoding since its main purpose was HDDVD movies.
 
How are those Yambeka speakers? I've never heard of them before.

They exceed my expectations. Crystal clear highs, good natural voice quality, and they are plenty loud with no distortion. I've listened to speakers that costed 3x as much in the store, and these Yambeka's actually sound better, no joke. If you need a set of awesome speakers on a budget, its the way to go.
 
my 32 dollar jbl 6.1s do be just fine, lol

where did you get that table the center is sitting on? me likes.:cool:
 
The glass rack the equipment is sitting on came from ABC Warehouse, and the tables in the back and front came from IKEA.
 
Thanks for all of the help again, but another couple of dumb questions:

where did you get your HD-DVD drive? I can't find one anywhere
I am using PowerDVD 5 or 6, is the new version worth the $$ ?
 
Thanks for all of the help again, but another couple of dumb questions:

where did you get your HD-DVD drive? I can't find one anywhere
I am using PowerDVD 5 or 6, is the new version worth the $$ ?

I got the HDDVD drive from Vidabox under the HTPC parts section.

PowerDVD 7.3 is for sure worth it. With the older versions of PowerDVD, I don't believe you can get the new title/volume key updates, so new movies will not play, or they'll have trouble playing.
 
Holy shit man, I'm jealous.

How much would I have to spend for a project similar to yours? Just wondering, because I would use something like that with all the shit I have to deal with currently in my life. :rolleyes:
 
Holy shit man, I'm jealous.

How much would I have to spend for a project similar to yours? Just wondering, because I would use something like that with all the shit I have to deal with currently in my life. :rolleyes:
The cost all depends on if you have to finish off the area, what electronics you decide to go with, etc. If you have to finish an area, get an estimate, then add in however much for your electronics, plus add in some more money for unexpected costs.
 
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