Tommy's HT In-Progress

[Tommy]

I forgot to post the pictures that I said I would previously. Ok here are the pictures, this is after we put up the primer and while we were begining to paint the HT room.

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This is just a picture of the sheetrock in the rest of the basement to show how much of a mess I still have outside of the HT room itself...

[Tommy]

Ok the carpet installer came last night to measure and said he'll get back to me in a couple days with the total and it would take about 3 weeks to order the carpet.

We selected the carpet from Lowes, I figured they would either have it in stock or it would take maybe a day or two to get, not 3 weeks. I was hoping they would be able to install it within a week. I'm really disturbed thinking this is going to go on at least another month before the room is done now.

Should this be faster to get? I may just go to another installer if I can get it done faster somewhere else, any thoughts? I would have ordered it so much sooner if I thought it would take so long. I figured it might if we picked a themed carpet but not a plain regular carpet from a major retailer.

I was kind of waiting for the carpet before putting in the theater seats and setting everything up. Should I go ahead and set it all up anyway and worry about removing everything in three weeks for the install?

[Tommy]

Progress Update:

Ok the carpet is ordered as I already mentioned, should be 2-3 weeks till it comes in and gets installed.

Sheet rock guy finally completly finished at least in the HT room...

I got a bit done this weekend, I put up another coat of paint in the entire room and put the sconces and socket covers and all that good stuff in and then did any last touch ups that were needed. So the painting is finally done!

The wife and I moved the 7 HT recliners from the garage down to the basement. They'll sit right outside the HT room till after the carpeting is done but atleast there all downstairs now.

Only thing left is putting the screen, projector and rack components back now and then we can start watching till the carpet comes in. After that we just gotta put the recliners in the room.

I'm gonna be admitted in Walter Reed for the next couple days but hopefully will be back on Wednesday. Hopefully I can have all the equipment up and running for next weekend.

[bpape]

Hope all is well - get out of the hospital soon.

Bryan

[Sonnie]

What? You are going to the looney bin???

Just kidding... hope every goes well.

Looks like you are coming right along with things... won't be long.

[khellandros66]

Wow, I haven't chimed in a few months and alot is done. I love it, make the misses and runt do the work while you stand there taking pictures HAHA

~Bob

[Tommy]

bpape wrote:

Hope all is well - get out of the hospital soon.

Bryan

Messed up my leg in Iraq, there gonna test me and then decide if I'm going to be medically discharged or not from my reserve unit. At this point I only have 5 months left on my contract but a medical retirement will give us some extra benefits...

[Tommy]

Sonnie wrote:

What? You are going to the looney bin???

Just kidding... hope every goes well.

Looks like you are coming right along with things... won't be long.

Naaa I go to the looney bin back home...

[Tommy]

khellandros66 wrote:

Wow, I haven't chimed in a few months and alot is done. I love it, make the misses and runt do the work while you stand there taking pictures HAHA

~Bob

Coming along, a lot slower then I would have liked though but its finally winding down. Shoot they probably only helped while I took the pictures and then dissappeared and I got stuck with the rest...

[Tommy]

Progress Update

Ok I passed a few milestones this week and we are now close enough that I can actually set a date that the project will be completed. Of course the same applies that I have read on every HT project blog I have ever seen that they are never actually completed and will continue to be improved upon so I guess I should say were are scheduling the grand opening instead.

As for the work for the week, sheet rock guy was a no-show for the entire week again. Fortunatly he is done in the HT room so that no longer is holding me up. I am about to fire him though.

Popcorn Machine

On Friday our popcorn machine that I purchased from the group buy here on HTS was delivered to our house. I gotta say wow... the family and I were defintely impressed. Took about a week from purchase till it arrived. It only took minutes to unpack and put together. The directions for use were simple and we were up and runing with it right away.

I'll have to say the machine is a great addition to the HT room, it adds to the whole ambience of a home theater. The kids were thrilled just seeing the machine and just watching there faces while the popcorn was being made and then filling there movie theater style popcorn boxes was just something that couldnt have the same effect with microwave popcorn. As I said, its just all those little extras that makes the room from a tv room into an actual Home Theater. I'd recommend anyone interested to check out the Group By while it lasts here on HTS.

Room Progress for the Week

Ok besides popcorn we got all the equipment back in, installed and up and running. Projector, screen, receiver, HD DVD player etc... I hung 4 27 x 40" posters on the walls and we temporially put folding chairs in the room and watched our first movie, Serinity on HD DVD. I've seen it previously but it was the first the wife got to see it, she wanted to wait and see most of the HD's on the projector rather then the TV.

Our carpet that was ordered has arrived at the store and there scheduled to install the carpet next Tuesday October 3rd. So after that its just a matter of putting the seating in the room and were good to go besides some last minute hook ups and having someone come in and calibrate everything.

So that weekend after the carpet is installed will be our Grand Opening (even if it is just us but your all invited ) Friday October 6th. Which will be great because I have about a half dozen new HD DVDs I'm expecting to receive later this week.

Questions

As for the last few things I still need to hook up let me ask here, besides the HD DVD player that I already have installed, I want to connect a second dvd player into the set up.

01) My HDMI connection to the pj is already used by the HD player, should I just use component to the pj for video?

02) Also how do I hook up the audio to the receiver? I dont want to be unpluging and re-plugging different wires each time I used a different source.

03) Additional component, I also still need to call and get a new cable box for the HT room. Same questions as the above players, what additional wiring will I need to do to have everything running? Can I have everything connected at the same time for video and audio or will I constantly be needing to change wire connections for audio & video

04) Calibration, I already found an ISF calibrator that I plan on using but have some questions about what I should do before calling him. While researching my specific projector on different forums I've seen some commong settings that owners make such as some changes in the service menu. I'm worried the calibrator not having specific knoweledge of this projector may and may not know of these settings. Should I go an apply these settings before he comes for the calibration?

05) Is there anything else I need to ask of him such as gettings all the new settings in writing?

Answers for the questions will be appriecated and just think pretty soon all these long winded posts that no-body is reading anyway will soon cease

To end this post I'll add a pic of the new popcorn machine and you can take a little peek at the back wall of the room and how it looks now. I'll wait till after the carpet is in before adding pictures of the finished room.

[Steve Williamson]

You will need to run the HD DVD HDMI to the PJ with the audio to an unused input on the AVR, then run the other players into the AVR as normal, i.e. DVD component into back of receiver with audio to that specific input, carry on for the rest of the inputs.

Component out from AVR to PJ for other sources.

The only problem is that you will have to switch the input to the PJ when you change from HD DVD to inputs on AVR, however, as long as you choose the unused input you put the HD DVD audio into, then the audio will play back through your speakers when playing HDMI on PJ as well as component in.

Hope this makes sense without a diagram, its late.

[JCD]

Hopefully the following makes sense and that I got everything right. I'm sure if I missed something or got something wrong, someone will chime in. Anyway, here are my thoughts:


1) If I understand everything, yes. If I remember right, your receiver is capable of video switching component signals. Assuming that, you can connect your sources (i.e., DVD player, HD cable box, etc) directly to your receiver and run just one component cable to your projector. All audio connections should be made to your receiver. As you choose the source on your receiver, it will switch both the audio and video automatically. You will need to change the "source" on your projector only when you switch between your HD DVD's and everything else.

2) All audio for all sources should be hooked up directly to your receiver. The best connection would be either a digital coax connection or optical. That will be the only way to get DD or a DTS signal. Again, as you change the "source" on your receiver, it automatically changes the signal that it will use.

3) See 1 and 2 above.

4) I'd be inclined to make any adjustments before the calibrator comes out if for no other reason than to make the picture as good possible until he does make it out. As for the calibrator not having specific knowledge of the projector, I don't know if that would be required. He's going to be adjusting the picture to a standard -- color saturation should be "X", Brightness should be "Y", Contrast should be "Z", etc. Also, I'd make the adjustments so you have a better idea of what the picture should look like. I've heard that a properly calibrated picture is not what think it should be at first -- for example, it's MUCH darker than most people are used to. Once you get "used" to it, then you understand.

5) I would go ahead and get the settings in writing, assuming he doesn't give that to you automatically. The "problem" is that many of the adjustments that he will make are only available in the service menu -- i.e., those that can not be accessed by the normal controls. Other than that, I can't think of anything I'd ask other than if there are any periodic "tuneups" he would recommend.

And that popcorn machine looks great -- congratulations on the new purchase. Finally, I've read your story from beginning to end. It's been a fun journey for someone who hasn't had to deal with sheet rock guys that no show.

Good luck.

JCD

[Tommy]

Last weekend my 3 nephews/nieces stayed over along with my 2 kids. This is the first time they spent the weekend at my house with out constant running around. I think they stayed watching movies from Friday night till Sunday night...

They really broke-in the new pop-corn machine. I think I made something like 8 - 6oz portion packs over the weekend.

Progress Update:

Last weekend was a good test for the equipment. Yesterday however was our last major milestone, the carpet finally got installed and I finally got to put the HT recliners in the room and see how they look. Big thanks to Roman for the seating & popcorn machine.

This weekend will be our offical opening of the room (of course we still plan to do more improvements) but the room is finally done. Just a couple small things left like tacking up the rope lights to the carpeted risers and thats it.

I still plan on getting everything calibrated & adjusted (BTW thanks all for the above info on it all) but I have read a couple things that may make me want to wait a bit before doing it.

First was someone told me that I should wait till the bulb life reaches 200 hrs because begining bulb life is brighter then average bulb life span. Also Amazon is now taking pre-orders for the new DVE HD DVD disk.

So I was thinking about getting this disk first and doing some tinkering on my own before the calibrator comes out. Just to have a better understanding of all the options and settings and also to see how much of a difference the calibrator makes.

I'll wait till after the weekend to make a final summary of my construction thread and post up the pictures of the completed room.

[JCD]

I don't how I can be so excited/happy for you and so amzingly bitter/jealous of you at the same time.

In any case, I'm glad your long tortuous journey is about to come to an end. I'm looking forward to your completed pictures. Also, I'd like to hear

1. how you like the video and audio of your system
2. what you might do differently if you were going to start over
3. what you think went well and what went poorly

Someday, I'd like to be able to do exactly what you did and would love any advice you might have.

JCD

[Tommy]

I still owe pictures of the finished room... I'll get'em soon

Anyway just wanted to update and say the cable guy came out yesterday and I now have the HD cable box hooked up in the HT room and on my plasma in the living room. The HD looks great.

Also my HD DVD collection is growing rapidly, I now own 40 HD DVD's and have like a dozen on pre-order.

To answer JCD's questions:

01) how you like the video and audio of your system

Everything looks and sounds great! I played with some of the video settings but dont want to do to much and hope to get everything calibrated sometime soon. As for the audio, I know nothing about audio so everything is still set to what it came with out of the box. It sounds great & I'm not messing with any of the settings, the calibrator should adjust it when he comes though

02) what you might do differently if you were going to start over

Not a of a lot, I researched everything pretty good and everyone here has been a great help.

A couple things I might have changed are I should have just did the sheetrock myself, this guy took 3 months and came out a bit rough, I could have done that much and saved myself several grand.

Other then that I think the only thing I would have changed was with purchasing the equipment. I was unsure at the time as to if I had to run different types of cables and stuff depending on what I purchased so I purchased everything at the begining of the project.

They were excellent choices, I researched everything thourghly before hand so I dont think I would have chosen differently but the project did take a lot longer then I expected. So besides a quick test everything stayed boxed up for about 4 months before I got to use it. If I had to do it over, I would look up what I want but wait till the end before purchasing. Things change in 4-6 months with technology, I may have chosen something else or just plainly got the same items for cheaper by this point. I did have a week or two while framing when I tested it but besides that if something didnt work at this point, its pretty far past the 30 day return window.

One add-on I would have done is this, even though I didnt get any motorized chairs I should have atleast ran an electric outlet over to where each of the rows of chairs sit. I'll have a work-around if I need them but it would have been easier to do it from the start.

03) what you think went well and what went poorly

As far as poorly, I would only say I had problems with the sheet rock guy and should have either done all myself of let a contractor do all from the start. Other then that the only thing I wish was different in the room is removing the soffits but thats not really anything I could do about that one, environment dictates.

As far as what want well, I got to learn alot and meet some great people here on HTS & AVS. The projector looks great, I'm glad I spent the time to not only research reviews but find demos of each of the projectors and travel to go see them.