Mini's Home Theater (Not 56k friendsly / Please post yours too!)

[kareface]

A few people seemed to be interested in this topic in the past, asking me to repost images and info about it. If you don't like the thread, you're welcome to stop reading here. As I had mentioned before I was looking to redesign my setup, I'm not done but I'm almost there. Everything is in the same room, but I'm using more of the room now.

Changes:
* Repainted
* New Rug
* New blackout drapes
* New framed movie posters (not up yet)
* New TV
* New Speakers (home made, not sanded/stained/painted yet)
* New Speaker mounts
* New layout

To do:
* Sound proofing
* Finish speakers
* New Couches


Before:
http://uwtechguy.com/mini/setup/tv1.jpg
http://uwtechguy.com/mini/setup/tv3.jpg

After:
http://uwtechguy.com/mini/setup/after/SmallRoom.jpg
( larger version of the image here: http://uwtechguy.com/mini/setup/after/Room.jpg )

New front speakers (hand built):
http://uwtechguy.com/mini/setup/after/Setup.jpg
The blocks of wood on the right and left are supporting the middle shelf. The speaker cabinet is so large that it wouldn't fit. I'm planing to adjust the shelf when I get a chance.


New Lighting setup on a remote dimmer:
http://uwtechguy.com/mini/setup/after/Lighting.jpg
The previous lighting was awful. With the new 8 light chandler on a dimmer, I can go from movie theater lighting to a bright day out from my couch.


New larger screen:
http://uwtechguy.com/mini/setup/after/Screen%201.jpg
http://uwtechguy.com/mini/setup/after/Screen%202.jpg

The size difference:
http://www.trustedreviews.com/images...dfrontcopy.jpg





Building the speakers:

http://uwtechguy.com/mini/setup/afte...%20Cab%201.jpg
http://uwtechguy.com/mini/setup/afte...%20Cab%202.jpg
http://uwtechguy.com/mini/setup/afte...0Parts%201.jpg
http://uwtechguy.com/mini/setup/afte...0Parts%202.jpg
http://uwtechguy.com/mini/setup/afte...0Parts%203.jpg
http://uwtechguy.com/mini/setup/afte...%20Cab%203.jpg
http://uwtechguy.com/mini/setup/afte...0Cross%201.jpg
http://uwtechguy.com/mini/setup/afte...0Cross%202.jpg
http://uwtechguy.com/mini/setup/afte...0Cross%203.jpg
http://uwtechguy.com/mini/setup/afte...%20end%201.jpg
http://uwtechguy.com/mini/setup/afte...%20end%202.jpg
http://uwtechguy.com/mini/setup/afte...%20end%203.jpg
http://uwtechguy.com/mini/setup/afte...%20Testing.jpg

Once I get a chance I'm going to finish the speakers off. The fronts need to be rounded and sanded. The wood in the front will be stained a dark red. The sides, and the back will be a piano black finish. I also need to finish the stands for the right (knida, lol) and left speakers. At least for now I'm really happy they work and sound great. I'll post more images once the speakers are all finished.

If anyone is thinking of setting up a home theater, a HTPC (home theater PC), building their own speakers or anything along those lines feel free to shoot any questions you might have my way. I might not be able to answer them all, but I can direct you to in the right direction.

[Ruiner]

Oh, so once you were done with FFXI, you just had to get the nicest shit IRL, too? Asshole.

Spoiler: show

All joking aside, awesome setup.

[kareface]

Oh, so once you were done with FFXI, you just had to get the nicest shit IRL, too? Asshole.

Spoiler: show

All joking aside, awesome setup.

lol. I decided to take a long break from games, so now in my free time I watch HD movies instead. It prevents me from being in front of the screen for more then a couple hours at a time. I have digital cable (came free with my internet connection) but I don't have it hooked up because I don't want to be stuck in front of the screen too long. It's great now my friends and I don't have to worry about missing a movie in the theaters. I prefer to watch from home now, cheaper (if you ignore the setup costs, lol), better image quality, more comfortable and I can eat steak while watching.

[wop]

Just curious, what's the total costs?

[kareface]

Just curious, what's the total costs?

If you were to tally everything up...

TV stand: 300$+tax

HTPC with no HDD's: 560$

Internal and external HD's: 526$ (not including my network file server, which does house a ton of the movies I have)

ONKYO HT-S6100 Black 7.1 Channel Home Theater System: 550

The 3 new speakers: 350$ in parts each (which is good because if you wanted to buy something of their caliber from the store you're looking at 3000+ per speaker depending on where you go) So 1050$

Pioneer PDP - 6020FD: 3500$
__________________________________________________ ___________
6500$ Total. With a few little things like HDMI cables, extra speaker wire, speaker mounts or stands, tax on a few things maybe, extended warranties, and a few other things you could be looking at more like 7000.

That'll get you most off the way. Lighting and paint shouldn't be too much, assuming you go that far. I went at this thing with a budget, and tried my best to work around it. I didn't want to sacrifice anything and if there was a chance to save money with out losing quality I took it. I got a really good deal on the TV, I bought it for less then what I posted in the totals here simply because no one else could get it for that little w/o it being used. The speakers are the best deal. As long as you have an ass ton of time to work on them and the right tools (or a friend that does) you can save a ton of money over buying speakers in the store. Auido quality wise you can easily compete with speakers 5-10 times as expensive if you build them yourself. The computer was built to be just a hair more powerful then I needed. I wanted something that would run XBMC smooth and be able to play bluray and bluray .264 encodes w/o stuttering. Everything in on board, including the video. But it works great, I couldn't of asked for more. I currently have a collection of about 440 HD movies that I downloaded as a "digital backup" of the bluray/HDdvd disks I "must already own". That doesn't include 2 external 1tb HD's with nothing but HD TV shows. The computer only has a DVD burner in it strictly because I never play bluray disks "that I must already own". *cough* I would wager for what I spent on my setup you couldn't do better, honestly. (Maybe the TV stand, but that was one thing I just decided I liked the looks of enough to not worry about the cost)

[wop]

Thanks for the detailed breakdown.

[Blabj]

Can't say I'm not slightly jealous of that setup

[Octavious]

Amazing Setup! Where did you snag your Speaker Parts from? I'm currently in the market for new a surround sound setup since my last one got pretty old. I haven't built speakers in ages (since I was helping my friend build some car speakers), but it seems like I could save some big money just building them myself. Oh, and that receiver is awesome, i've been wanting to upgrade mine for a long time. D: I'll post pictures when i'm back in Ohio this fall. Props on all the sheer awesomeness packed into one space.

[Rellikard]

Gotta find someone that works in retail that could buy some of the stuff for you. That's if you wanted to save money. The stand at least that cost you $350 probably would've been $50. Otherwise, nice setup. Also, what are you using in the HTPC? As far as software and hardware goes.

[SephYuyX]

The home theater is so-so, but theres only so much you can do when you arent buidling a room from scratch, it has so nice components though. However I'm very impressed with you building your own speakers.

Check out AVSforum.com if you dont know about them already.

[Epical]

Very impressive.

[Ragnell]

Thats pretty sexy

[zoobernut]

Building your own speakers is very impressive. It looks like you did a great job.

The pictures are a bit blurry and I couldn't quite read it, what brand of drivers are those?

[Darus Grey]

Oh, so once you were done with FFXI, you just had to get the nicest shit IRL, too? Asshole.

Spoiler: show

All joking aside, awesome setup.

Pretty common theme for people on the hardcore level of Mini to be hardcore about other aspects of their life.

[Tythera]

http://i28.tinypic.com/k4csx3.jpg

Need to build a stereo ground up (gimping it with the sound bar) and get a better entertainment center thing. Still been slowly replacing things from college and that's one of the last to go.

[Ruiner]

Speaking of home theaters, I just bought this Panasonic TC-P54G10:

http://ak.buy.com/db_assets/large_im.../210940997.jpg

I'm currently in the process of setting up a home theater of my own in the finished portion of my basement. I'll put up some pics later, but it's very much a work in progress. I'm still in the market for a decent, semi-inexpensive sound solution (preferably 7.1), a good TV stand to hold the plasma, a 360, a Blu-ray player (or maybe a PS3), a Comcast HD cable box, a PS2, and whatever I need for the aforementioned audio equipment, and a good sectional couch (looking for a long L-shape). If anyone has any suggestions (I know I'm being vague, it's hard to understand without visual reference. Pics to come when I'm not in Florida), they would be greatly appreciated!

[Telamond]

After:

Spoiler: show

http://stomped.com/mini/setup/after/SmallRoom.jpg
( larger version of the image here: http://stomped.com/mini/setup/after/Room.jpg )

What's with the ugly red paint and ugly drapes?
Otherwise, really impressive.

[Melena]

Well this explains why i haven't seen you on aim much lately.

[virusiidx]

Jealous! That's such an awesome setup you got going there. Sweet that you built your own speakers.

[kareface]

Amazing Setup! Where did you snag your Speaker Parts from? I'm currently in the market for new a surround sound setup since my last one got pretty old. I haven't built speakers in ages (since I was helping my friend build some car speakers), but it seems like I could save some big money just building them myself. Oh, and that receiver is awesome, I've been wanting to upgrade mine for a long time. D: I'll post pictures when I'm back in Ohio this fall. Props on all the sheer awesomeness packed into one space.

I ordered the parts off of parts-express.com, I used the designed for the Nat. P's for the right and left and the ZD3C for the center channel.

HTGuide Forum - Natalie P

Zaph|Audio - ZDT3.5

If you are thinking about building your own from those designs I can give you some tips once your getting ready to start.

Also, what are you using in the HTPC? As far as software and hardware goes.

It's super simple. I wasn't planing on using it for anything other then the HT, so I built it with that in mind.

Newegg.com - CORSAIR CMPSU-450VX 450W ATX12V V2.2 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply - Power Supplies

Newegg.com - G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-2GBNQ - Desktop Memory

Newegg.com - ASUS P5N7A-VM LGA 775 NVIDIA GeForce 9300/nForce 730i HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards

Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Processors - Desktops

Newegg.com - Antec Black Aluminum / Steel Fusion Remote Black Micro ATX Media Center / HTPC Case - HTPC / Media Center Cases

Newegg.com - VANTEC SP-FC70-BL 70mm PCI Slot Case Cooler - Case Fans

+whatever CD roms or HD's you'd want in there. I'm running windows, it would be Ubuntu but Lani has a difficult enough time with windows that I wouldn't want to put her through that.

Check out AVSforum.com if you dont know about them already.

I know about them. I cruise AVS, AV, HTshack and HTguide. All have difference areas of expertise, so it's nice to read up on things.

The pictures are a bit blurry and I couldn't quite read it, what brand of drivers are those?

Parts-Express.com:�Dayton RS180S-8 7" Reference Shielded Woofer 8 Ohm | rs180s-8 7" woofer midbass sheilded woofer dayton dayton audio reference series reference RS180 reference reference-22008 zdt35-60608 DARSW110508

Need to build a stereo ground up (gimping it with the sound bar) and get a better entertainment center thing. Still been slowly replacing things from college and that's one of the last to go.

You have a great start with that TV. That's the one I had originally and you can't beat the picture. Just make sure you have it tuned professionally. Try to avoid going through the big box electronic stores like best buy.

I'm still in the market for a decent, semi-inexpensive sound solution (preferably 7.1), a good TV stand to hold the plasma, a 360, a Blu-ray player (or maybe a PS3), a Comcast HD cable box, a PS2, and whatever I need for the aforementioned audio equipment, and a good sectional couch (looking for a long L-shape). If anyone has any suggestions (I know I'm being vague, it's hard to understand without visual reference. Pics to come when I'm not in Florida), they would be greatly appreciated!

I wouldn't worry if it's 7.1 or not. I have yet to find movies worth having that has 7.1 done well. Everything is 5.1, I don't even remember the last time I've heard my rear 2 speakers. Either way tho, most receivers new are going to be 7.1 anyways. I really liked the Onkyos I got. The receiver has got enough kick to handle my new speakers, so it's upgrade ready and the original speakers sound pretty damn good. The satellites of course lack heavy bass, but the sub will cover that for the most part. It's a good starter speaker setup.

Newegg.com - ONKYO HT-S6100 Black 7.1 Channel Home Theater System W/iPod Dock

What's with the ugly red paint and ugly drapes?

There's a method in my madness. That shade of red gets really bright with just a little extra lighting in the room, so it won't feel like a dungeon when we aren't using the room for movies. However, when the lights go out the room goes almost completely black. As for the curtains, they are blackout cloth with a thin layer of noise dampening material. If Lani is in the next room I don't want the light to provide glare for the TV.


The speakers are awesome fun to build. They are going to look very good once all the stain and painting are done.