My Theater is FINALLY coming together!!! Tell me what you think

This has been a BIG adventure. I started building Jan 09 and this is what I have gotten accomplished so far. Anyone's opinions are appreciated as well as any ideas on anything you think I might need to add. You can see my partial list of equipment on my home page but here is a quick overview..... Epson HC6100 Projector, Klipsch Speaker System, Yamaha 7.1 Receiver, 106" Screen, Currently a Samsung Blueray player from upstairs that I have borrowed from the Master Bedroom, and will be hooking up the Direct TV HD/DVR next week.

I currently have Some small Items to finish so it is not 100% complete, but I have received so much help from everyone on here I wanted to give a few Pics to see what everyone thought so far. The only things we did not complete ourselves was finishing the Drywall and the carpet installation. Everything else we(My Wife, son, and I, along with some help from some good friends) did. I will be adding some other pics in a little while showing the room from different angles, and explaining some of the things you can't tell in the pics.

The room size itself is approximately 20' wide by 23' deep. The room where the sliding door leads to is what I call the Poker room. It has 2 ceiling speakers that are hooked up to the audio system and a 32" Samsung lcd wall mounted so you don't have to miss any of the movie when getting a drink from the bar or a bag of popcorn. The other room going through the pocket door will be a gameroom when finished. Right now I am going to take a small break and enjoy some movies though. It will have a pool table, jukebox, and dart board along of course with another 32" or maybe even a 37" lcd tv so if you want to get up and play a game with the kids you can still watch the movie. It also has 2 ceiling speakers fed from the A/V Room.

If you look in the second picture you will see some Crown molding being lit up by what appears to be another run of something similar. I used Vinyl guttering and after being primed and painted several times hung it up about 8" below and placed ropelighting around the room. This gives a great ambient light while watching a movie without washing out the picture at all. I also have the recessed lighting set in three different rows, 3 wall sconces operating from a different dimmer, and the rope lighting seperate as well. I used the Lutron Ir dimmers you can buy at Home depot for $40.00. Even though they are all on the same frequency I still have the main IR Switched at different location where I can use the remote and activate them individually. This has worked great especially with their preset function for when you want to start the movie and I press the Silver Button that dims the recessed lights out, and puts the sconces and ropelight at their movie setting.

I will add more as I can and try to answer any questions that someone might have. I am sure I will have more questions as I get into hooking it all up. I have watched a one movie so far, but it's not near time to have opening night just yet. I want to get everything in its place for that.

A few more pics I have right now to show some of the different views.

Here is a few more that will show you my A/V cabinet that I purchased Used off of craigslist and built it into the wall. It only cost $30.00 so I thought that was pretty good.  and the next will show my mess of cables that I will be figuring out something to make it look more neat as soon as I get my other equipment in and in place. I am planning on some just putting in some type of system to hold the excess wire up against the wall neatly. Any Ideas would be appreciated on this.

I am looking for a few other items as well. Each of my seats already have ButtShakers in place. I ran wire for them that is already there but I can't spend alot on an amp. If anyone knows where I can find one at please let me know. I purchased all 8 seats off craigs list too. They cost $1600.00. From what I was looking at spending for new I thought that was a great deal. My Wife just didn't like them sitting in the Living room floor for 8 months while I was building the room. LOL.... She's Happy now though.

The last picture is of the Projector of course. I waited until the Models were about to be changed and purchased it on clearance for $1100.00. I have a 3" conduit running from in the A/V room to the box you see where the wires are coming from the ceiling. I double sheetrocked the Theater room using RZ Channel and will be putting in a drop ceiling in the A/V Room. I am pleased with the sound staying in the room for the most part. The ceiling in the theater room is Insulated with R-19 6" Batting and all the walls were insulated with Prodex which I found through some research on the web. It is only 5mm Thick(Aluminum Backed) but insulates as good as standard batting. It was reasonably priced and easily installed which made it great for diy. It also has a sound deadening value which I really think helps keep the sound from traveling to the other rooms. I would recommend it if anyone is building in a basement as I was. It is a vapor barrier as well.

As you can see the remotes are starting to pile up as well.I am Starting to look at all the available different remotes. If you have any suggestions please PM me or put it in your reply.

Oh well enough for now.... Thanks for looking!!!


Edited by Sparks - 3/5/10 at 1:28pm

Well that is still up for discussion. I am wanting to have an opening night that will include several different clips to see the difference in the sound from the scenes. I was thinking like movies as TopGun, Jurrasic Park, Transformers 2-Revenge of the Fallen, etc., with the Main Feature Presentation of the NEW Star Trek of course in BlueRay.  We will see though.... I am still trying to decide for sure. I still have to get all the little things set up first. If anyone has any great suggestions...... Give them to me.

Thanks,
Sparks

I will be glad to try and help you in any way that I can. Just send me any questions you may have and thanks for looking.

Chris

Lin,

Believe it or not I got my screen off of Craigs List for $100.00. It is an HD Gray Screen size 106" that come with a projector the person had ordered to replace his old one. Since he already had a screen, he sold this one that retails for about $300.00. I know if you look on this site you in Items for sale you can find some as well, I had already found mine prior to joining. You can also look at building your on if desired (A lot of good recommendations on here).

During my construction process I purchased a lot of my Items Used (Seating($1600.00), A/V Cabinet($30.00), and Screen and stored them until I was ready to put in place.This made the sting a little less on the wife to what I was spending. I also purchased my electronics at a local Store (Speakers, Projector, Receiver, etc) from a friend of mine who works there. He was able to give me his discount which saved a considerable amount. The mark-up on that kinda stauff is enormous. Waiting for New model years to come out and so-on made that cost a lot less as well.

I know it depends a lot on how quick you want it running, but if you take your time you can find great deals that will give you what you want. Good luck and I will be glad to try and give you any further advice if needed.

Chris

I appreciate the comments from everyone. On the screen, I know I could got a motorized 120" Screen, if desired in the future I can get a bigger fixed or motorized.This is just the initial set-up.

I am planning on having an electric curtain system that opens from the center when the A/V system is powered on. I believe this will be better than the screen possibly moving when the air comes on with a drop down screen. I also know at the cost I got it for..... It was Cheaper than going motorized, and with the curtain system since it's a dedicated theater will have a bigger WOW Factor when the curtains open (In my opinion).

Thanks for the input,

Chris

ps Hey Calvin..... I guess I could go with a Full Wall Screen and call it an IMAX. Bigger is not always better, it's the Quality. JK

Thanks Adam for your comments!!! The gutter idea was an idea come up with while trying to figure out how to run the rope lighting. The cost was really minimal to do the whole set up thanks to Home Depot. The 10ft sections of guttering were only $5.00 per (Instead of purchasing Crown Molding @ .75cts per ft for MDF), and the corners and connections for long runs made it an easy install. The corners and connectors were a little pricier though at about $5 per piece all together though (It didn't make sense to me why the gutter was so cheap and the corners which are vinyl as well so expensive). Oh well they have to make a living some how.

The hardest part was or should I say the most time consuming part was the painting of the pieces. Due to the gutters being only in white, I had to first put a primer on made specially for vinyl, and then painted each piece with 3 coats, and due to it being vinyl when I was putting it up it was still very easily scarred up (A lot easier than your standard moldings). But after it's up and I touched it up with a lil paint and brown caulk I think it looks great. A big plus that I have found is since it holds off the wall a little farther than the crown above, when the rope lighting is on it gives an effect of the wall above being set deeper than the main wall even though it's not. I have had several comments from friends who come by saying such. I think thats funny because they say Wow that must have been a real pain, and I just laugh.

I hope that Idea helps someone else in the future.

Chris

The width for per row with the four seats is right at 12ft. Each seat is approximately 34" wide and when extended  6' deep. You could probably do 2 rows of three though, as long as you could push them to one side to leave a large enough walkway on one side and work it around where the steps intrude in the room.When we built our house, I just left the basement open except for the block wall I had to hold the main floor joist. Then I figured out what size I wanted my rooms, and didn't want the theater to be cramped so it's the largest room in the basement.

I appreciate all the comments I have received from everyone though. The basement isn't 100% finished though. I still have to work on the Game-room and the 3/4 Bath at some point. It will be a little while due to the amount of $$$$ that I have already spent on the Theater room and Poker Room/Bar area. I'm just glad that it's coming together like it is.

We have enjoyed several movies(Star Trek, Transformers - Revenge of the Fallen, Amelia, The Travelers Wife, Crank-2 High Voltage, Marine-2, Ice Age - Risa of the Dino's, and a few more plus some DirectTV through the DVR.)  since we finally got everything hooked up even though it isn't completely finished yet. I still have some small things to do like straightening all the wires in the A/V room up. I have purchased some plastic baseboard designed to open up and hide the wiring in. I plan on fastening it to the wall and running all the wires down to where there is only a couple of feet running from the wall to the equipment, but I haven't had the energy to do this yet. It's been hard to work instead of kicking back and enjoying a Movie, but I will get it done here pretty soon. I also have to put the drop ceiling in the A/V room as well, but that will be easy as well.

My son did put his Wii down there..... and I can't believe how much fun it is playing that thing with the family on the Big Screen. It's a BLAST!!! I plan on getting a PS3 at some point I hope, and then we will have some tournament plays with friends. 

Anyway.... Thanks for the input,
 
Chris

Thanks Omar..... The Brand Name of the seating I purchased is Coaster, I'm not for sure if they have loveseats.... but I do know you can purchase them in sets of 2 which would be basically the same. They have enough room to be comfortable that way for sure. Just yell if you need anything else.

and Adam..... That's what I say too!!!