Greg^P

HT Newcomer needs advice

I'm a newcomer to this forum and to HT construction in general. I built a house about two years ago and left my basement unfinished. My plan is to finish the basement with a common area for recreation and a home theater. I'm quite handy with tools and familar with wiring and most of the building trades, so the actual construction aspect of the home theater doesn't worry me.

I've sat in some professionally installed Home Theaters and been in awe of the experience that they offer. Being able to due the construction work myself, I'm reluctant to pay for someone to install a theater for me.

The technical aspects of the theater are where I lack knowledge. My hope is that by utilizing this forum I can get some advice from those of you who seem to be extremely informed on this subject matter. And hopefully I might be able to contribute some content to those of you who may need assistance with construction methods, wiring, etc.

When planning a theater, I'm not even sure where to start with respect to video/audio components, speakers, projectors, control systems etc. There is such a large variety of these products out there to choose from, it is hard for someone who is not very knowledgable about video and audio specifications to determine what they need to reproduce the experience of the movie theater at home.

I don't expect to get a complete answer from the replys to this thread to all my questions, but I would appreciate if some of you could direct me on how to get started or lay out a game plan I should follow to get me to my desired end result. Then hopefully over time I can learn a little and get to complete my goal of installing a home theater that is constructed by me and gives me a quality movie theater-like performance.

I'm sure that what your willing to spend is a big factor in determining the end result, so as a starting point for discussion, my uneducated guesstimate on the audio video pieces I would need is as follows (please let me know if I am over-estimating or underestimating as you see it.):

DLP Projector and Screen $12,000
Receiver/preamp/amp $1,200
Speakers(F,C,Sub,Sur) $2,000
Controls & wiring $2,000

I'm basing these numbers on some internet surfing and what I know it cost to have a theater professionally installed and subtracting out some construction costs.

Please help get me started

Robert_J

You probably need to research each component in its individual forum.

Display Devices - I've been eyeing the Infocus 4805 for $1,500. DIY screen for $100.

Depending on the size of the room and the listening habits, that might be a good budget. Receivers/Separates/Amps

Again this will vary by brand, listening habits and room size. If it's a large room, you may spend that much on a sub to meet your expectations. Speakers and Subwoofers

Wiring depends on the equipment. Do you need dedicated 20amp circuits to power your 2Kwatt sub amp? I'm not sure what you mean by controls unless you are talking about those touch screen remotes in every home theater magazine. There are alternatives like the Pronto remote which are much cheaper. HT Construction, Interiors and Automation and Tweaking, Connections and Accessories

The Beginner forum is more towards people who can't connect a VCR to a TV. Your have a substantial budget and looks like you are planning a big project.

-Robert