Tommy's HT In-Progress

[JCD]

To answer your questions:

re: Mitsubishi projectors
No experience. I haven't seen them much in the professional reviews or with the online/forum reviews. I don't know if no news is good news or if a lack of information is because others were found other brands to be better for the same price. I will say that in the past (and it may not be the same now) that Mits rear projection tv's were more expensive than other comparable models from other brands. That was a long time ago and I don't know if that price variance still stands.

re: one sub vs 2 subs
well, for me it would all depend on which subs you're talking about. If you're going to go with a free standing sub, I really really really would go with a SVS sub. We have Tom V drop by occasionally, I think his opinion would be a good one to solicit. Without getting too much into it, I'd guess that one big sub would be your best bet for the same $$ outlay.

re: Soffit
I'm not that good with my imagination to see what the finished project will look like -- however, I can tell you that symmetry is high on my list of aesthetic needs. It might bug me if the room was irregular in this kind of way. But, then again, this is one area where I might be a little .

Good luck on the rest of your project. I'm sure the final project will be worth the wait.

JCD

[Tommy]

Ok JCD made me feel like I've been neglecting on my updates, so I'm gonna jump back to my blogging here in a second.

re: Mitsubishi projectors
I havent heard anyone recommend them either except for this installer. No clue which model except the price range though, I'll have to find out. The one Mitsubishi review I just looked at in that price range was 2.5 stars out of 5, scarey - I want 5 out of 5 stars for that much money

re: one sub vs 2 subs
Yea it will not be an in-wall sub. I'll get which sounds best for the room, one or two.

re: Soffit
Ok maybe I'm doing a bad job of explaining it, I'll try again plus I'll put up some pic's. The room has a soffit on the right hand side if you look thru the pics that are already posted. When we decided to do the projector instead of the plasma I realized the bigger screen will now partially be under the soffit on the one side of the screen.

I cant decide if that will distract the viewing area or not with the screen partially under the soffit. I do agree in symetry and think extending the soffit across the front of the room so that the whole screen is now under the lower ceiling may solve the problem.

This however brings up two possibile issues, first will it be distracting with the whole ceiling that low above the screen? The soffit height will be about 81"

Second smaller issue is that it takes away from the side wall where I did want to put a poster.

[Tommy]

Ok here are pics of the rest of the basement, you can see I ran a 45' long soffit run out there and have another one still to do plus frame around the poles

[Tommy]

Here is the framed equipment rack, recessed dvd shelves, riser & steps

[Tommy]

Ok here's a few different pic's of the soffit I was trying to explain in the front of the room.

[JCD]

I think I've got it now.. so, is the question if you should run another soffit along the left hand side of the room?
Something like this?


JCD

[Tommy]

JCD wrote:

I think I've got it now.. so, is the question if you should run another soffit along the left hand side of the room?
Something like this?
Attachment 89

JCD

Actually no! Sorry if i'm communicating this badly.

Here is the original picture with the soffit only on the right side of the room



With deciding to use a projector instead of a plasma, the screen size enlarged so that about 1 to 2 foot of screen is now going to be under that soffit on the right.

My question really was, what is better just leaving it be that the one side is under the soffit or like I did today and extend it across the front so that now the whole screen is under the soffit.

I just hate wasting all that space if that one soffit may or may not be a future distraction to the viewing area.


----

Aside I have also thought of a possibile tray ceiling as you mentioned but dismissed the idea because to be even it would take up to much of the room. The soffit on the one side is 4.5' so to match I would be losing 9' of ceiling on and only have a 5' center.

[JCD]

No, if there is someone a little slow on the uptake, I'm sure it's me.

I'll take another stab at it. Is this what you're talking about?



JCD

[Tommy]

Well the screens in the right spot...

The soffit you have drawn in on the left side of the screen is wrong. I wanted to know if I should put a soffit across the front of the room or not (which I already did but debating on whether or not to take it down. Here is the before and after pic

Before - without soffit across the front



After - with soffit on front wall

[bricor]

Tommy,

I have the Mitsubishi HC3000 myself and have installed at least 10 of them for other customers. Not sure which model you saw (the hc3000 is $2500 list) but it's a great projector for the money. It's quiet, puts up a great pic after some basic calibration and has been very reliable.

[Tommy]

bricor wrote:

Tommy,

I have the Mitsubishi HC3000 myself and have installed at least 10 of them for other customers. Not sure which model you saw (the hc3000 is $2500 list) but it's a great projector for the money. It's quiet, puts up a great pic after some basic calibration and has been very reliable.

Hi Bricor:

I didnt get the exact model from him but he said it was around 4k. So either he's quoting a high price for the HC3000 or he's talking about another model. The next model HC4000 I see is selling for 4k but is listed for business and not HT.

For the 2,500 range I think its an excellent pick but for the 4k range I would like to find something better. I just wasnt thrilled with it.

As someone who has compared different projectors, what is your recommendation in the 5k range for DLP projectors?

[JCD]

Tommy wrote:

Well the screens in the right spot...

The soffit you have drawn in on the left side of the screen is wrong. I wanted to know if I should put a soffit across the front of the room or not (which I already did but debating on whether or not to take it down.)

AHHHH!!! Finally I think the light went on!

Now to answer, hmm.. that's a tough one. If I had to guess, I'd say the current soffit across the front will be better than without. I might consider a small run along the left side as well. You wouldn't have to go the entire run of the room, but maybe 8ft or so. Your attention is going to be concentrated at the front of the room so keeping the front symmetrical would be important for me.

But like I said, I'm that way..

JCD

[Tommy]

JCD wrote:

AHHHH!!! Finally I think the light went on!

Now to answer, hmm.. that's a tough one. If I had to guess, I'd say the current soffit across the front will be better than without. I might consider a small run along the left side as well. You wouldn't have to go the entire run of the room, but maybe 8ft or so. Your attention is going to be concentrated at the front of the room so keeping the front symmetrical would be important for me.

But like I said, I'm that way..

JCD

Right thats why we were thinking we needed the soffit across the front so that the whole screen is under the soffit and not just part of it.

As for running in the left of the room, this would be nice but causes 2 more problems. First is the soffit on the right hand side is 4.5' wide, so the left would need to be the same. This of course doesnt leave much room in the middle.

The second is the soffit is real low 6' 8" and a foot lower on the riser.

[Tommy]

Not to much new to write about, Monday night a guy came out to give an estimate on doing the sheet rock (he was supposed to show on the previous friday though). Still waiting for him to come back with a quote.

Hey when I did the floor for the riser, I used that wonderboard or whatever the its called because the HT guy said it would be better for sound. The carpenter suggested scrapping that and using plywood saying that it will warp. Thoughts?

Gonna strangle the wife... Ok we started this project with the intentions of putting a 60" plasma screen in this room and eventually changed our minds (hometheatershack's fault) from that to a front projector. So now not only am I pulling my hair out trying to select from projectors that I cant see before hand but now am told she still wants a large plasma tv for the living room besides the projector for the HT room.

I'm like what the we putting all this money into for this HT room if your gonna get a new plasma tv for the living room. Seems like we should do one or the other but not both.

Anyway we went out to local stores last night to start looking at Plasma tv's. From what I read on reviews Pioneer seems like the best. But of course out of the 3 stores we went to, there was a total of 2 pioneer tv's between them all. Its amazing all the other brands they carried but hardly any pioneer at all.

The wife was ewwwing and awwing everything saying look how pretty... Me, I swear researching this HT stuff has ruined me watching anything at all. Now all I do is pic out the flaws in the screen picture etc...

They did have one front projector at Tweeters, the thing was huge so I'm assuming it was old. It was a yamaha, dont know what model but it had an awful picture to it, the worst I have seen yet.

[Fincave]

For the record, I know nothing about plasma televisions! Here is a link to a single post from another forum regarding plasmas, just something more for you to think about http://www.nextlevelav.com/forum/sho...10&postcount=1

[Tommy]

Fincave wrote:

For the record, I know nothing about plasma televisions! Here is a link to a single post from another forum regarding plasmas, just something more for you to think about http://www.nextlevelav.com/forum/sho...10&postcount=1

Interesting post, thanks. I still wonder why most of the stores were going to are not displaying pioneer.

We went to another audio/video place last night, all Sony's, mostly lcd.

They were really against plasma in the TV sections and against DLP in the projection side. Sony LCD was there TV recommendation and Sony LCOS for there projectors.

My Sony VPL-VW100 review:

MSRP $ 9,999
Projection 0.6" SXRD
Bulb Replacement $800

- Picture was great
- Machine was huge but virtually silent
- No visibile SDE even walking up close

Well the price for this one is higher then I was looking for anyway and I still dont know enough about these projection types to trust them. But this was definetly one of the better demos we have seen.

[Tommy]

Update for the week

------------------------

HT Installers

One of the HT installers called back so far, havent heard from the rest. The one that did send out an estimate rated everything from 15-20k and of course wants me to send everything I bought back and buy thru him.

The projectors he's offering are two vidikrons, the one is 3,500 the other 5k. I havent seen either displayed so I dont know what there picture looks like. As for the rest though, I just cant picture it being 10-15k to install the projection and speakers specially when the walls are open at the moment. I would like to call and ask to see the projectors but I dont think I should if his prices are that high and Im not gonna choose him anway.

Most of his pricing looks based on light dimming options blah blah blah. But really I could care less if the light is on a remote or not, it will be like 5' from me.


So as I said from the begining, I'll get the HT guys estimates and if any were fair, say 1-2k to hook everything up right plus me paying for the equipment of course then I would get them to do it.

If there gonna charge 10-15k for wiring I think it would be worth me struggling thru it myself (with everyones help here) and putting the extra money actually into the room. And then paying for someone to calibrate it.


---------------

Duct Work

Besides that I had some friends come over on Sunday to take a look at doing the duct work. Sheesh, union guys... I figured they would just cut a few grills into the sides of the ducts and it would be done. They spent hours plotting out how there gonna re-run all the duct work in the basement and sceduled to do the work in a couple weeks.


-------------

Sheet Rock

I'm still waiting for the sheet rock guy to call back with a price. First guy gave me a price of 3k and told me that didnt include the material

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Electrician

An old friend of mine is coming out this weekend and gonna do the wiring for me. Or atleast what he can get done in a day I guess. This I could use advice on, is there any special wiring I need him to do for the HT room? Any special lines for the equipment rack or anything like that?

Sonnie, I know you mentioned a bunch of ideas for wiring the riser in the past and I said I'll hit ya up for more details when it gets closer, it's time.

I'm thinking 3 switches on the wall, one for the wall sconces, one for the recessed lights in the ceiling and one for the rope lights on the riser like Sonnies suggested to me already. Besides that one electric socket for the equipment rack, one for the projector itself and a socket to each of the areas where the sub's will be. Am I missing anything else?

-------------

HT Equipment:

I've seen a few different displays in the last week or two. A couple places each only had that Sony to display. So far the mitsibisui one I've seen actually had the best picture for the money but I just wasnt thrilled with it. Not that I'm gonna sit that close but the SDE stuck out way to much when I did walk by it and also the picture was perfectly clear but very dull. That may be able to be fixed with a different calibration but im assuming they had it up as bright as it would go.

Anyway that BenQ projector Ive been researching and mentioned already, I'm gonna get to see it tonight. Since no one yet on this board has this projector I was forced to ask around other sites to see who has it and what they thought of it. Someone that lives in my state (about an hour - hour and a half from me) says they have it, love it and invited me over to see it.

The drive is gonna suck but I guess its worth a few hours before I spend that much money on something to see if I like it or not.

[Steve Williamson]

Tommy, I think you are better off doing the wiring yourself, at least you will know where it all is and it is done properly.

The attached image shows an in floor (riser) box housing sockets and av inputs, this way you can wire up any electric recliners, butt kickers, playstations/xbox's etc with having the sockets on show all the time.

Make sure that you have a detailed plan of the room showing every item, if you want to put lightboxes up for movie posters etc, it helps to know where any cables are.

Have you ruled out the Z4 or Panasonic projector, personally, I will not have a DLP projector. Even if I cannot see the rainbow effect, I know that one of my visitors will (not pleasant if you are vunerable to it)

Don;t rush the sheetrock, mock out where every item will be going before you put the stuff up.

Can't think of anything more! good work so far.

Oh, this is where I stole the photo from to give the guy recognition: http://theater.stevejenkins.com/gallery/complete/

[Tommy]

Tommy wrote:

Anyway that BenQ projector Ive been researching and mentioned already, I'm gonna get to see it tonight. Since no one yet on this board has this projector I was forced to ask around other sites to see who has it and what they thought of it. Someone that lives in my state (about an hour - hour and a half from me) says they have it, love it and invited me over to see it.

The drive is gonna suck but I guess its worth a few hours before I spend that much money on something to see if I like it or not.

I went to the guys house last night, the projector was great! Wow I was definetly impressed, basing it against the other projectors Ive been going to see in the last few weeks. Someone would definetly have to show me something else and prove me wrong in order to say that this isnt the best one in the under 10k range. Shoot I actually liked it better then the 10k Sony I viewed.

Not sure if I should rush to buy it right away though or should I wait till after the room is finished. Is there any benifit as far as roughing in the room to having it now?

It'll probably be another month or two till the room is actually sheet rocked and painted etc should I wait till after that before ordering?

I'm thinking if I get it now, I know exactly what I'm wiring for but do I really need that or is it generic? If I wait, the prices may come down or I may actually be proven wrong in that time and find something else.

By the way, I invited Jason the guy that let me come to his house and view this projector over to hear, so hopefully he'll be here soon

[JCD]

That's awesome that you were able to find someone to give you an in-home demonstration. Even better that you liked it.

As for getting it now or later.. that's a tough one. You may find something you like better before you're ready to install, but the projector may become discontinued between now and when you're ready to buy. If you wait, prices may come down. If you buy now...

All that being said, if you've done your due diligence, and this is best you've found, I'd probably buy it. If nothing else, you can hang a sheet on one of the walls and watch a few movies until the room is completed.

JCD

[Tommy]

Finally a new milestone,

I ordered my projector today. I got the BenQ PE8720 the stats on it are amazing.

I made sure the model will come with the latest firmware which they said was good that I asked specfically for it. It was at a fair low price for an authorized dealer. Plus I got the ceiling mount and a dvd player thrown in for the same price.

Also I ordered my screen from another dealer. It's an Stewart FireHawk 110" screen.

Both should take about 2 weeks to get here.

Ok now Im gonna need some help with what to order as far as wiring etc...

[Sonnie]

Congrats! You are gonna love that big picture...

The biggest thing is a good quality HDMI cable on the wiring for the pj. Measure how far and order up. I'll try to find where I got mine from (can't remember)... it's a heavy duty cable.... very nice and wasn't all that expensive.

[Tommy]

Electric Wiring:

Ok my buddy is coming to help me tomorrow with wiring the basement. This wont be the pj or the speakers, it wil be more the lights, switches and electric boxes. Let me throw out what I was thinking of telling him for the HT room and hopefully you all can advice and throw out some suggestions/corrections before tomorrow.

HT Room

Lights
4 lines for the wall sconces going in each of the 4 columns
6 small recessed ceiling lights, one between each of the columns (will shine on a poster between each column)
2-3 in the front soffit in front of the screen. (maybe this should be on a seperate line so I can shut the front lights off but still keep the poster lights on and dimmed.
2-3 Back wall. Not sure if any should go on the back wall or not but if they do they should probably be on the same line as the ones on the front wall.
1 Possibly put an additional light or two on the back wall but in the soffit pointed on the equipment rack. This would be on the same line and the others on the back and front wall.
1 seperate electric line to the riser and riser steps to control rope lights

Electric Sockets/Lines
1st line
- socket for the equipment rack
- socket for the projector
- 2 sockets for the subs

2nd Line
- whatever additional sockets the electrician thinks it will need. Possibley putting more in each of the columns.

Wall Switch/Control

Do they even sell a 4 switch dimmer type control? I know Sonnie pointed out 3 dimmer controls which we may have to use.

1 - dimmer switch will control the wall sconces
2 - will control the side ceiling lights for the posters
3 - will control the front and rear wall ceiling lights which I'd like to control seperate so I can shut them off during a movie
4 - dimmer switch will control the rope lights on the riser & steps

Did I miss or forget anything?

[Sonnie]

I would want to be able to turn off all the lights during a movie... so why not just go ahead and put 2 and 3 on one dimmer switch. I don't think you'll poster lights on either, not during a movie. Or 1 and 2 together.

Looks like you got it all.

[Tommy]

Sonnie wrote:

I would want to be able to turn off all the lights during a movie... so why not just go ahead and put 2 and 3 on one dimmer switch. I don't think you'll poster lights on either, not during a movie. Or 1 and 2 together.

Looks like you got it all.

It would depend on whether the poster lights were a nuisance during a movie even while dimmed. I figured if there not reflecting then they could stay on but to a dimmed level in which case I would need the front lights not to shine on the screen but you may be right.