Catfisch Cinema (1 Viewer)

[DaveF]

TL;DR

I might remodel my basement and put in a home theater. I need help drafting an notional budget for costing purposes to decide if I can do it in 2016 or if it needs to wait a year.



I bought my first house in 2004. I had a walkout basement, and I had it dug an extra course deep, about 13 feet, to allow for a finished basement theater. I sold it in 2012 and never got to my media center.


This year, 2016, starts the fourth year of my second home, this one with a basement pre-wired for surround sound and an overhead projector. Prudence would advise waiting until 2017 or 2018 for the next major house upgrade. But it's more than a decade since I first thought a home theater could be a reality. So both my wife and I are talking about making this the year of the basement upgrade.


I'm going to start planning: the first step is to come up with a budget. And to gauge during January, maybe February, how the year looks financially against the projected upgrade cost.


Though I've been reading about this stuff for years, I look forward to input on the hardware. I'm also interested in lessons learned, suggestions borne of experience that a newbie might not consider.


I'm open to anything. We haven't settled on an aesthetic style or theme. You can even suggest acoustically transparent screens in false walls hiding front-stage speakers. I probably won't do that, but to start all good ideas are welcome


Since this touches all aspects of HT-ness, if I decide to do the build this year, I expect to open more focused threads in the relevant forums. (I might even finally build my HTPC, something I've been thinking of longer than the big-screen system )

 

[Mike Frezon]

Subscribed. Of course, I have no experience in this stuff, so I'm just here as a lurker.





Good luck, Dave! I love living through other people's adventures!


Do you expect you'll keep your SVS speaker system intact?

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I'm excited to see what you do!

I have no idea what you're thinking in terms of projectors, but with that said, I've got an Epson 5030 that I'm extremely happy with. If you ever have any questions about that particular projector or what led me to picking that one, I'd be more than happy to answer anything you'd like to know.

There are so many great options out there that you really can't go wrong. A lot of people have opinions for liking what they like, but what works great for someone else might not be perfect for you, and I think there's always a potential for second guessing yourself (I certainly did). Trust your eyes, ears and judgment, and above all, have fun!

 

[DaveF]

Here are the dimensions (+/- 0.5") and my notional layout that guided my pre-wiring. Ignore the "Utility" area; that's unfinished space for storage and house mechanicals.

Concept:

Dimensions

[EDIT: images re-attached after loss from recent forum hiccup]

 

[DaveF]

I should be clear: the basement has rough-in for wet-bar and and that would be part of the upgrade. Painting and new carpeting / flooring is also under consideration.

 

[DaveF]

Do you expect you'll keep your SVS speaker system intact?

Starting plan is to move my MTS 5.1 SVS speakers from the living room to the basement and replace the living room with a more modest 5.1 system. I'm also thinking of buying 4 SVS satellites for ceiling mounting in the basement for a 5.1.4 Atmos configuration.

I'm excited to see what you do!

I have no idea what you're thinking in terms of projectors, but with that said, I've got an Epson 5030 that I'm extremely happy with. If you ever have any questions about that particular projector or what led me to picking that one, I'd be more than happy to answer anything you'd like to know.

There are so many great options out there that you really can't go wrong. A lot of people have opinions for liking what they like, but what works great for someone else might not be perfect for you, and I think there's always a potential for second guessing yourself (I certainly did). Trust your eyes, ears and judgment, and above all, have fun!

The projector is locus of my technological anxiety. I'd hoped for 4k projectors to available at $5000 for this upgrade. I don't know if I should spend up for a 4k projector or go with sub $3000 1080p projector and plan on upgrading to 4k in a few years. Or change plans, redo my pre-wiring, and go with a 90" 4k TV?

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I'd vote for projection over a TV, but that's just a personal preference of mine. Even if the screen size was identical, there's something magic about projection to me that TV is lacking.

When I got my Epson, it was closer to $3000, but now it's come down closer to $2000. My gut for these things usually says to wait for the technology to mature a little, but you could very easily make the opposite argument. If the 4K projector of your dreams (and budget) isn't available now, but you can swing a "temporary" 1080p for a few years - that's still a few years of enjoyment you're getting.

I don't wanna hijack your thread but to give a quick overview of my situation - I'm an apartment renter and not a home owner, though I hope that changes in a few years. But I love projection, and I had the room to setup a makeshift theater, and I went for it. It's not perfect, but I get to watch movies on a giant screen at home right now instead of having to wait for my future house to come along. I'm so glad I did that and didn't wait. I think if you got a 1080p projector, you'd probably end up feeling the same way.

Some other things to keep in mind are that the overwhelming majority of films are still finished at 2K resolution, which is basically 1080p. Also, the UHD BD launch seems to keep getting delayed, and though some initial titles have been announced, pricing information hasn't. And I've read other HTF members who have 4K TVs who stream in 4K say that a 4K stream looks as good as a 1080p BD. So while the technology is available, I'm not sure that there's enough content yet to make it as exciting as it should be right now. Hopefully that will change within the next few years. That's just my $0.02 sense on that, but I could be wrong.

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

replace the living room with a more modest 5.1 system.

Always check the refurb cheapie page at the Onkyo site. I got a reasonable 6.1 system for $200 shipped.

 

[DaveF]

Good tip. Will check that out.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Good luck in this endeavor.

 

[Sam Posten]

Awesome, happy for ya bud, looking forward to see you come up with something cool.
Only word of caution: I wouldnt spend major money on a PJ unless it was 4k and HDR ready.

 

[DaveF]

Reviewed the budget last weekend, and I've got $14,000 "guaranteed". I might be able to increase the budget, but I won't know if and how much until later later in the year. (Similarly, I could postpone or do this in stages through 2017 and have a larger budget.) But for the purpose of getting my head around this project, I'll think about the basics constrained by a $14k budget.


I did a quick spreadsheet of essential gear of about the right class. This is an HD projector and screen, Atmos AVR and four speakers for the ceiling. I'm taking my high-end 5.1 system from the living room, so I budget a nice but lower cost replacement in that room. I'll need another TiVo Mini to extend TV to the basement. And I'm assuming an HTPC is in the mix. This totals to almost $10,000. I've ignored cables, mounts, sales tax, and other misc expenses. But I'm assuming new, retail pricing.

(Sorry for the image. I don't know how to paste in a spreadsheet table.)

Here's the links if you want to explore my starting-point hardware.


https://www.tivo.com//shop/mini

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_033AVX6200/Denon-AVR-X6200W.html?tp=179

http://www.svsound.com/products/prime-satellite

http://www.svsound.com/pages/prime-systems

http://www.sony.com/electronics/projector/vpl-hw55es

http://www.projectorscreenstore.com/Projector-Screens/Elite-Screens-Lunette-Series-125-Diag-49x115-Curved-Frame-Projector-Screen-Cinema-Format-AcousticPro1080P3-Curve235-125A1080P3-76215.html



That leaves $4000 for seating: plenty for standard couch or recliners but I can't do anything fancy. There's no budget for the "house": not wetbar, new flooring, or painting in 2016.


Obviously, if I'm constrained by this $14k budget, there budget trades to explore: DIY wall-painted screen would save $1000. Moving my current blu-ray and AppleTV to the basement and forgoing an HTPC saves another $1500. That would give $6500 for home upgrades, which might allow for the wet-bar, flooring, and non-fancy seating.

 

[DaveF]

The display is my anxiety. Everything, including the budget, is workable and pretty straightforward, except for the most essential choice: what display?


So much, that I'm now wondering if I'd be better upgrading the living room's 50" Kuro to a 65" 4k LCD. I could do the basement upgrades to put in the wetbar, new flooring and paint, and game table for entertaining. I could move the 50" Kuro and basic surround system to the basement for PS4 gaming (and deconflict the living room).


I need to visit some electronics stores for demos. I may need to reach out to neighbors or HTF'ers for possible road trip / demos. I like the idea, but I'm terrible about finding the time.

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

Obviously, if I'm constrained by this $14k budget, there budget trades to explore: DIY wall-painted screen would save $1000.

I'm really pleased with my DIY wall painted screen. I took a good amount of time removing the texture from the screen area with some sanding then troweling on spackling compound. Paint was matte white with some silver paint added to get a uniform light grey shade - some mix I found on some place like AVS.

 

[DaveF]

I'm really pleased with my DIY wall painted screen. I took a good amount of time removing the texture from the screen area with some sanding then troweling on spackling compound. Paint was matte white with some silver paint added to get a uniform light grey shade - some mix I found on some place like AVS.

That's good to hear. I've read some of the threads over the years, but don't have actual experience. Is your room dark (light controlled) or bright (windows, sunny, daytime viewing)?

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

It's in a bonus room upstairs. I have a light block shade on the south window but some light still enters from the NE. Mostly used after dark in the winter since the AC doesn't do much to that room during the summer. If I opened a window, the light would come in during the summer.

 

[Adam Gregorich]

Put the 65" downstairs if you are happy with the 50" upstairs. You can move it up if you eventually upgrade to a PJ. What are you doing with the space under the stairs? That would seem to be a great place to put your equipment. Its right next to where you have the wiring and it won't take up space in the room. Is the bar already plumbed? Just verifying that you don't need to allocate funds to plumbing/electrical/drywall, etc.

 

[DaveF]

HTF post
Here is the boon and the bane: the basement is finished, pre-wired for 5.1 and an overhead projector. The bar area has plumbing rough-in. This was all basically free as part of the new-home sales incentive. The downside, of course, is I've lost flexibility in design were I started with an unfinished basement. Some panos to help illustrate:

Looking towards the front of the basement where the screen will. Ignore inflatable bed (Christmas hosting) and misc storage. On the left you can see the are under the stairs is finished. I also had though about the notion of using that as storage. Or having that as rear-access for electronics via an integrated rack in the (not shown in photo) front side of that stairs. The builder wouldn't entertain customizing that area. They did for a model home and said never again. There may be support and structural issues with cutting into that. I doubt I'd get to the point of being willing to pay to tear our and rebuild that finished area.
View attachment 25775

Here's a pano of the front sweeping from the left, where the gear will go across the screen wall to the right where the bar goes. We have a litter box due to some cat issues; flooring upgrade may be done with the bar to mitigate that issue.
View attachment 25776



And the pre-wire junction for the basement.

View attachment 25778

 

[DaveF]

I missed an image...
This is the back of the basement, looking to the utility room. You can see scale model for the wet-bar / mini-kitchen

 

[DaveF]

(sorry for any random images. HTF's image insertion tool never likes it when I make edits.)