buying new home, need some advice

[kyrogers]

I'm a new member and I have been wanting a home theater for years now. I've been researching how to go about creating one and I'm about to buy a new home. The room dimesions are roughly 15 x 10' 6" with a height of 7' 8". It's a small room but it's in the back of the house and I figure I can add on later when I have $$$.

I was hoping that you guys and gals had some advice on the a/v portion. I've picked the projector and screen size, i just need ideas and help on how to integrate audio and video. I plan on asking the builders to build the in-wall rack for the equipment but I'm having a hard time in deciding how to make the speakers and video inputs work.

I want to be able to bring my laptop, or other video equipment into the room and hook it up to the projector. I figured i would put some wall plates in (vga, hdmi, component, composite vid) and run the wires to a switcher. I'm new at this and I don't want to screw it up.

Budget is roughly 4000-5000. That includes the projector (1000) and screen (100 DIY). Cables are cheap (monoprice).

Of course, if I get the contractors who are building my house to do it, it could probably be added to my mortgage.

Again, any ideas would help. I've been searching the internet for over a month now for ideas.

thanks,
kyle

[John Simpson]

Yep, put your room plan up and I'm sure we'll all tell you how to spend far more than you can afford!

First up: avoid wall plates if you can (they just add another resistor to the speaker feed) and "cheap" cables won't do you any favours either. No need to spend mega-bucks, but a reasonable set of cables will save you having to rip the plaster off again in the future.

[bpape]

ROTFL - aint that the truth.

Seriously though, there are a lot of people here with a lot of experience that are more than happy to help you. You're wise to start planning up front instead of having an AW $*&^ moment later.

Bryan

[Prof.]

Hi Kyle and welcome to THe Shack..

Your room size is exactly the same as mine..
A room that size can very quickly look cluttered with the additions of equipment, speakers and furniture..
Having an in-wall equipment rack is a very good idea..Unfortunately I wasn't able to do that in my theatre, so I made a false screenwall, which hides the AV gear and the speakers and gives a very clean unclutted look..

With an in-wall rack it's just a matter of running your cables from the back of the AV gear, up to and through the ceiling, across the ceiling and either terminating them with connector plates, or just running the wires through a port opening in the ceiling near the projector..

Your speaker wiring front and back can be run in the same manner, connected to terminal plates immediately behind the speaker locations..

As far as running any ancillary equipment in the room, I don't see any problem with adding wall plates for computer, phones or anything else..

Keep us up to date with your progress..

[MatrixDweller]

- Run conduit and lots of it. Even if you're happy with 5.1 run conduit for 7.1 because you might change your mind later. Run a 2" or larger conduit for your projector from your built-in cabinet. Run extra conduit for stuff like bass shakers, subwoofers, etc.

- Have the electrician run one or more dedicated 20amp circuits to your AV cabinet and a dedicated circuit to your projector.

- Plan your lighting well in advance and use a multi-zone remote controlled dimmer (if in your budget). If you let the builder do what they normally do, you'll end up with one or two lights in the room. Wall sconces and step lights add a good effect also.

- Measure and plan your furniture before completing your room design. A 10'6" room is fairly narrow (my room under construction is 10'3" after drywall). I can fit a standard sized couch and have room to pass on one side, but some of the fancier theater chairs will not fit.

- Insulate the ceiling and interior walls for added soundproofing. It's not something that is feasible to do after construction is complete. Not only do you not want to upset the wife upstairs with your loud movies/music, you don't want you wife upsetting you when her and her friends are gabbing in the room above you.

- Run HVAC ducts to the floor level if you can. Also when designing a house placement of the furnace in the basement can be vital in eliminating unwanted bulkheads and can maximize the room available. The builder will want to place the furnace close to the center to reduce the amount of ductwork and size of the furnace. A better spot for maximizing space is a corner or near the stairs. You might be able to give yourself more room by redesigning the basement layout.

- Pre-wire your house for CAT5e (or CAT6). It makes sense this day and age to not just run cable TV and phone line to every room. Even though wireless networking is getting better, it's still not 100% secure and is not nearly as fast as a wired network. Modern home theater electronic are starting to incorporate networking features.

[John Simpson]

Zip is spot on -- almost worth a sticky (good job!).

Two questions for you on those points:

1. What sort of conduit did you use? Is plumbing pipe the best option? Is there a risk of creating an in-wall pipe organ (especially with an IB sub setup)?

2. Why use a dedicated circuit just for the projector? (I'll do it if it's a good idea, but I would've thought one for the HT gear would be enough.)

CAT6 FTW!

[bpape]

Keeping the PJ separate from audio is a grounding issue. Video/cable boxes are notorious for grounding issues. If you can keep the power separate and have the only crossing between the audio and video be a TOSLINK cable, you can't possibly transfer any grounding issues to the audio side of the system.

Now, to make this scheme 100% effective, you'll also need your cable box, satellite, etc. on one 110v leg and the audio on the other 110v leg. So, it's not just 2 different circuits but also on opposite 'sides' of the 220v.

Bryan

[budk]

Depending how extensive you want to make this theater you have a lot of issues to think about. But, for a total price of 5000 you will have to make some major concessions. For instance, to successfully keep the sound in the theater and other house noises out of the theater you will need to spend a considerable amount of time and money on soundproofing (although it never completely soundproof, at least not for any reasonable amount of $). Another big $ item that a lot of folks forget about is the HVAC requirements... especially if you spend $$$ on soundprooofing.

My guess is that with your budget you can get a comfortable group of chairs (Berkline 088's are less than 90" wide for a group of 3), low-middle of the road equipment and enough wall structure to make it usable. But it's very easy to go overboard and blow that budget in a heartbeat. My advise, get the house you want and spend enough time to really think it through and plan your theater. It's difficult to do it right in a short period of time.... there are SO many issues to deal with it's almost like building another house. Best of luck.

[MatrixDweller]

John Simpson wrote:

Zip is spot on -- almost worth a sticky (good job!).
1. What sort of conduit did you use? Is plumbing pipe the best option? Is there a risk of creating an in-wall pipe organ (especially with an IB sub setup)?

I used the Carlon standard grey conduit, but other I know have used central vac tubing or "smurf" tubing. I suppose if the right frequency was hit it could resonate the tube. If you were to stuff something in either end to plug it up it would prevent it. The chances are pretty slim to have a resonance problem if you have faceplates on either end and wire running trhough it I would think.

John Simpson wrote:

2. Why use a dedicated circuit just for the projector? (I'll do it if it's a good idea, but I would've thought one for the HT gear would be enough.)

I doesn't have to be dedicated, but should definitely not be on the same circuit as the HT gear unless the projector is plugged into a power regulator. Having any power hungry components on the same circuit could cause dimming issues. You also don't want it on the same circuit as a dimmer (feedback issues) and you couldn't be sure what might get plugged into other outlets in the room. If you had it on the same circuit as the other outlets in the room you might later on install a bar fridge, popcorn maker, space heater for the wife, etc. If it's a dedicated circuit there would not be any worries present or future.

[kyrogers]

alright guys, i have the electrician run smurf tube for my video cables, 14awg speaker wire for 7.1 speaker system i bought and talked to my house builders and they are putting sound board in the room. $100 for it. Just awesome. I also have cat5 going everywhere. And I mean, everywhere, even the outside of the house. he's also running rg6 and cat5 to the corners of the house for future cameras. i've had to make some concessions due to money. (probably buying a motorcycle in april). So i won't get to do everything I wanted. I've also had to sacrifice on the projector. Was going to buy a 1080UB but now going with pt-ax200u. I do have one question that I can't seem to find a straight answer on. What type of screen would I use? I have a 5' x 4' window that will be blacked out and 5' glass double doors that will somehow be blacked out as well. Should I go with gray or white and what is the best 100" fixed screen for under $300? thanks again guys for the ideas. It really helped.

[John Simpson]

Grey screen = low gain (will make blacks very black, but won't reflect 100% of what you shine on it)
White screen = neutral or high gain (very good for rooms that have some ambient light)

So, simply, if you have a dedicated HT room with a projector sitting at its ideal throw distance, grey screens can be a good choice. Otherwise, white is the way to go.

[kyrogers]

thanks. white sounds like the plan.

[kyrogers]

3 and 1/2 weeks and I'll be starting the theater along with a bunch of other house things.