Plan Input (1 Viewer)

[Robert Willis]

-lengthy rambling follows-

I posted a few months back looking for ideas. I've somewhat came up with some ideas and would love some feedback.

I'm planning a dedicated home theater room buildup in my basement and would love to have input from the experts/experienced on here! I've got a few cinemas on here that I've pulled ideas from and admire!

Theater will be going in part of a walkout basement that has been totally dry and crack free after 1 year.

Sony 65" KP-65WV600/700 will be the heart of it all, although I change my mind weekly. Been told to go with a projector and screen by most. Probably will be running a 6.1/7.1 surround setup and the room will be used mostly for DVD, HDTV, and big sporting events.

Here are my current plans:
http://www.30th-ta.org/hometheater/theatersideview.jpg
http://www.30th-ta.org/hometheater/theatertopview.jpg

Here are some pictures:
http://www.30th-ta.org/house/basement6.jpg
http://www.30th-ta.org/house/basement7.jpg

http://www.30th-ta.org/hometheater/100_0089.JPG
-corner of basement for hometheater use-

http://www.30th-ta.org/hometheater/100_0092.JPG
-looking from back of theater to front (TV)-

http://www.30th-ta.org/hometheater/100_0093.JPG
-looking from front (tv out) to back of theater-

http://www.30th-ta.org/hometheater/100_0094.JPG
-looking @ corner (concrete/frame) where the
component rack built into wall would go-

http://www.30th-ta.org/hometheater/100_0095.JPG
-looking from unfinished storage room into theater-

The corner I would like to use (basement#7) is roughly 14'5" wide (15' if you don't count the poured wall) and about 24'5" long (I'd like to go a little less) to where the wall extends out to the the other way. The ceiling in that corner is 7'8" to the bottom of joists, however the lowest point is the is the water pipe that goes from 7'5" to 6'11" in that room. I plan on having a plumber out to see what we can do, maybe reroute it into the unfinished storage room beside the future theater. I have two 35"w X 60"h windows on the one wall in that room and will not be removing them.

5' between the two windows on outside wall
~6' from back concrete wall to the leading edge of window#1

WIDTH
14'5" wide (to the poured concrete outside wall w/ windows)
~15' wide (to the framing on outside wall with windows)

LENGTH (basement#6 pic)
~18' long to green line (right behind second window)
~20'8" long to red line
~23'8" long to yellow line (meets wall on other side)

~5'7" high poured concrete wall on front wall (tv location)

HEIGHT
~7'8" ceiling height to bottom of joists
~7'5" ceiling height to bottom of highest water pipe point
~6'11" ceiling height to bottom of lowest water pipe point

In basement#6 the measurements are from the concrete back wall (where tv will go) out to the three different colored lines. The plan is to go with the green or red one. The yellow line meets where the wall bumps out on the opposite side of the room. In basement #7, the blue dots represent a wall. Was considering two pocket doors for the double
wide opening. Suggestions have been to put one regular door over to one side though...

Is 14' x 20' long a measurement that doesn't clash with the guidelines for room sizes?

Budget is NOT unlimited, in fact I'd like to keep it very much in check. My father and I will be doing most of the work and he is a good handyman and his daily job is an electrician. Other then mudding/taping and moving that water pipe, plans are to do 95% of the work!

Couple questions already:

Terminating speaker wires? Good idea to use Leviton quickport plates and then another cable to the speaker or just cut a hole in the wall and run the cable straight to it? I guess it is all about how clean you want it?

Terminating all the wiring going from equipment rack over to the TV? I'd guess your not going to want to hack up pricey DVI/component/etc cables terminate them into a wall plate (if they even exist) and so on? Just cut a nice hole in the wall and pull 'em through? Wonder if you can feed a DVI cable with that big connector thru a 2" conduit?

Colors. I was considering a black ceiling, dark green (1/2 wall) and with a gray or black indoor/outdoor carpet for the other part of the wall. White trim (base/chair/crown), but I've been told to go with a dark wood trim instead of the white.

Cooling. Is there any type of setup that can be integrated into a built in equipment rack to help with that?

Sorry for being so lengthy. I'm new at this hobby. Thank you so much.

Robert Willis

 

[DavidDon]

Look seriously at projectors for real home theater experience. I recently bought a Samsung DLP RPTV and quickly returned it. It was really bad...lots of jaggies and tons of reflection (my windows are opposite the TV. Up to that point, I had ruled out a projector because the room had to be dark. Well heck, there was so much reflection in that huge TV, the room had to be dark for that too!

I got a Sharp DLP projector (not yet fully set-up), and my quick and dirty temporary evaluation was incredibly stunning.

The other nice thing, it should be easier to keep with technology because you can resell projectors on Ebay or Audiogon. Try to resell a big RPTV...then ship it somewhere.

Just my thoughts. If you consider this, the whole ballgame changes in the way you can package the front of the room.


DD

 

[DavidDon]

Also, for connections - As much as possible, run wire from source to the output component (speaker/display). You can pay thousands for wire, why would you want to break it up all the time? This seems to go for Audio as well as Video.

I just ran the wires into an empty gang box and put a deco cover on it with the wires coming through. I placed them where no-one can see anyway.

I also ran extra conduit with a pull string already in it in case I need to add a wire or two.