Recent content by Nathan Stohler

Especially since you already have your seating, I would strongly suggest building a temporary platform to put your back row of seating on and make sure that the back row is not obstructed at all (by either the projector or the front row of seating/viewers).   In my basement theater, I had a...

It may be too late by now, but you might consider allowing more room for your built-ins. Built-ins look great, but if you build them so that your current equipment fits perfectly, you may have extra work later if/when you change your equipment. I realize you probably don't want to have to redo...

I agree. I spent $1900 on a 1080p Mitsubishi HC5000 and a little over $100 on a screen I bought from a guy on eBay who builds custom sized screens with a nice 4" border covered in black velvet, and it looks fantastic. I have a 110" screen, and it all cost me significantly less than the 60"...

I second Jason's monoprice.com recommendation. I've been using them for a long time for cables, speaker wire, wall plates, connectors and even in-wall speakers. They offer a great value.

I don't know if this post comes too late, but when I built my theater, I used Roxul mineral wool insulation (4" thick in the ceiling and 3" thick in the interior wall), and I think it does a great job. In fact, the only reason I hear anything upstairs is because of sound carried by the HVAC...

My screen is 110", and the front row is about 13-14 feet away and the back row is about 19-20 feet. For HD or even DVDs, I think it's perfect, but a lot depends on your personal taste.

Nevermind. Both the HC5000 and HC4900 have inorganic LCD panels. I don't know where I got the idea that they were different in this regard. Please ingore this post. In fact, moderators, if you can delete this post, please do. Thanks.

Hi everyone, I'm almost done constructing my home theater. Carpet installers are coming Wednesday, and my furniture will be delivered next Wednesday (6/25). Now, all I need to do is order my projector, mount and screen. After researching off and on for a few weeks, I'm trying to decide...

It means they take more power to get the same volume as you would with more efficient speakers. If I recall correctly, a 3 dB difference in SPL requires twice the power. So, to get the same volume from speakers rated at 85 dB/W as you do from 88 dB/W speakers, you would need twice as much power.

16 AWG speaker wire all around should be fine. There's nothing wrong with bare wire, but banana plugs can make connecting/disconnecting easier.

I think we'd agree that having to rely on the remote to remember whether a device is on/off is a last resort for the case where the device unfortunately does not have discrete on/off commands. In the rare case that my remote becomes out of synch with with a piece of equipment, I have a key I can...

I find it easier to press a single button to re-synch my device than navigating a help menu, but to each his own. Maybe you can explain to me the difference between what you call activities and what I call macros. When I hold down the DVD button on my remote, my receiver, TV and DVD player...

Unforunately, I don't think Kenwood receivers typically have discrete on/off commands, although they do usually have discrete input commands. There are a couple of things you could try: 1) Does selecting an input with your original Kenwood remote (if you still have it) automatically turn the...

Yes, I assumed that your cable box and its remote do not have discrete on/off buttons, but many pieces of equipment respond to discrete on/off commands that can be programmed into your remote. If it's a Motorola box, read the following thread, and see if you can simulate discrete on/off...

Doesn't your box have a discrete on command?