[bardel]

Hi all,

been reading (and contributing where I can) for some time... so it's about time that I made my own DIY thread..

The first round of DIY is already complete, this consisted of decorating the dining room, lounge, hallway, landing and new baby nursery... Too much in one go you think??? Me too!

Anyway, the plan was to take out 32" LCD from the lounge and put it on the wall in the dining room. Also, I had a set of Bose Acoustimass 10 speakers which I'd fitted into the bedroom when I decorated in there, but as yet had never connected them up! So they were earmarked for moving into the dining room also.

Problem is with my decorating is that I don't do "decorating" unless it involves a big hammer and usually some extreme work to some degree (for decorating anyway).

I won't bother you with the rooms, and just stick to the dining room for this thread (as I couldnt justify an AV requirements in the other rooms!).

The next stage is to move into the lounge, you'll see from the pictures that the need to redecorate the lounge is a "necessary" progression from the dining room works!

I'm just about to start some shopping with regards to the lounge and will be asking for some of you good people's advice, so all input will be received with thanks.

Cheers

Barry

Pics to follow...

[enablerbro1]

Pulls up chair.

[bardel]

Ok, unfortunately, I don't appear to have much in the way of a "before" picture of the dining room, so the pics will have to start at the stage where we started tearing down....

The "wooden" thing in the corner, is a boxed in section carrying all the plumbing between the ground and 1st floors.

[bardel]

Then there's the awful arch and artexed surrounding... that has to go...

[bardel]

Here is the edge of the chimney stack which runs through the middle of the house... It's been blocked off ever since we've been here and I took the stack off the roof, loft and first floor last year...

A sneaky little look through the hole and having already taken the landing floor up, revealed that there would be no reason why the chimney stack can't come out.

So... out with the ceiling then (it had quite a few drops in it and I figured since there'd be holes at either corner, I'd just replace the lot...

[bardel]

Next up, out with the bay window, to be replaced by a french door...

Quite pleased with the effect this has on the room, the lounge had french doors at the back, but we never use them, and we envisaged the dining room being used as a day room once the baby arrived and my wife would be at home.

[abs_2006]

Ain't you missing something?

Pics?

[bardel]

So then, out with the chimney stack...

Here you'll see start to see why the lounge "has" to be done...

Acro's in the lounge next and out with the fireplace...

Say hello to the lounge... Oh you can see that I decided to replace all the flooring too The floor joists are at 24" centres and the chipboard was way too bouncy on it, especially as I am laying solid oak wood flooring on it!

[bardel]

New wall going back in... As you can see, the void from the chimney flue has been carefully chosen as the new location for my AV equipment. With our first baby on it's way, I knew I needed to get this stuff locked away!!!

[enablerbro1]

Originally Posted by abs_2006

Ain't you missing something?

Pics?

Not just me then, good, I thought I was going picture blind.

[bardel]

Originally Posted by enablerbro1

Not just me then, good, I thought I was going picture blind.

Originally Posted by abs_2006

Ain't you missing something?

Pics?

Sorry guys, being a bit numpty with the picture posting, first time I've uploaded pics to a forum, you wouldn't believe computer programming is my trade would you?!!

Hopefully you can see them now?

[rupees_al]

i can only see 4... but loving the destruction...

i might have to lift my floor now, as ours is bouncy and i know it has chipboard flooring... wonder if its 24"on centers too.

[bardel]

Back to the dining room, we wanted to put the TV in one of two places, being the indecisive type (well the other half is), I decided to cable both locations...

I dont appear to have taken a picture of the other location, but I can prove it's there, coz that's where we decided to put the TV in the end, as the final pictures will demonstrate!

[bardel]

New sub flooring with freshly suspended insulation. New flooring was laid in 18mm MDF which is amazingly more flex resistant than the chipboard that was down before.

[bardel]

Chimney void all boxed in and finished off. We made a feature alcove in the upper part which I've put a spotlight in.

[bardel]

My regular plasterers doing their business... Gotta love fresh baby smooth plaster...

This next pic shows the inspection hatch we've left in the wall. Im going to put a door on this at some point, once all the gears in. The idea being that I might need to get some access to the back of the AV gear without having to pull it all out. Also, since the AV gear will feed both the lounge and the dining room, I might want to plug say a camcorder or get access to the games console controllers from either room. Not sure how much use it will end up being but we shall see...

[bardel]

Painting in progress, followed by flooring in progress... I put a picture of the flooring part laid as at this point I thought I didn't like it, but once its all down the transformation is amazing.

Nearly there, being observed as usual by Bruno my trusty black lab...

Flooring done.

[bardel]

Unfortunately all the pics up to this point have been severly affected by the amount of dust in the air.... After this point, I moved out in to the hallway and landing, then had to sand the whole open / return staircase back to bare wood and stain it (took ages) and then onto the babies nursery.

I was clearly running out of time because I don't appear to have taken any more photos of the work in progress (save for a couple of the plastering in the hallway).

So Ive just taken some quick snaps of the dining room today so that you can see what it looks like without a cloud of dust in the room!

That said, you can see that the plethora of "stuff" that you get with a baby is clogging up the picture nearly as much!!

You can see the Bose accoustimass speakers mounted high on the walls and the sub on the floor near the access hatch to the AV area. Also, on the left of the centre speaker you can just make out the Keene electronics IR receiver.

This wall in this picture has the 2nd cable outlet in the middle of it. The use of the cavas picture on a timber frame not only looks nice on the wall, but serves to hide the coil of AV cables and power socket behind. Should we decide to turn the room around then we should only need to swap the picture and the TV mount over.

[bardel]

So there we have it, that's the dining room.

Equipment list doesn't really have much to it, but it is only the second room.

Panasonic 32LXD-500 32" LCD TV on the wall.

Bose Acoustimass 10 5.1 system with the centre speaker located above the TV.

Keene Electronics IR receiver attached to the left side of the Bose centre speaker which transfers my IR signal to my kit currently botched on the lounge floor

Ummm, and an Xbox wireless steering wheel sitting on top of the Bose sub for gaming moments.


Just wanted to say sorry about the missing pictures peeps, they're fixed for good now. I think the images were over the limitations of the forum, so they seemed to be there while I was posting but probably get removed by a robot or something for being too large. I've moved them onto an external webserver now.

[bardel]

So then, here's the lounge as it stands today....

Here's the temporary kit in place to keep the dining room up and running...

I have a HTPC which must be coming up to 3 years old in November? It's had a couple of upgrades, and is still serving me well...

Currently fitted with a Pentium D830 processor (Socket 775) dual core 3.0ghz. 3GB of RAM and more recently an Ati HD2600XT and an LG GGW-H20L BlueRay / HDDVD Writer and runs Vista Ultimate x64 Edition all wrapped up in a Silverstone case.

Currently I've put my old Sony STR-DB930 receiver in there to drive the dining room. My main hifi equipment is safely out of the way currently whilst this lot is ongoing.

And as you can see, I have an Xbox 360 Elite for when time allows.

Please ignore the old surround speaker on the floor, the angle of the speaker was just perfect for positioning the IR transmitter in front of the kit temporarily

[bardel]

Here's the pics of the lounge which is ready for decorating to commense soon...

The front of the lounge

The back of the lounge

Where the AV kit will live

[bardel]

As you can see, I've already replaced the front window and the rear french doors with two new bay windows.

The wall on the left you already know about.

The carpet from the back end of the lounge was stolen for the babies nursery.

And the hole in the ceiling...... well let's just say that of all the plumbing work I had done moving the pipes in the dining room into the ceiling void probably the only pipe that wasn't touched was the feed into the bathroom (above that hole) and about 2 months ago, it decided it was going to pin hole and then it started to rain in the lounge!!!!

Still, it serves as a good reference point when looking at the front and back of lounge pictures. The room itself it 8m long (26') x 4.5m at the front end and about 4m at the back end (so about 15' and 13' respectively). So it's a fair size.

I'm currently not planning to install a TV in this room, but will be installing a projector and screen. I have an old Sony VPL-HS1 from when they first came out, but I haven't used that for a while now and I'm certain it's old hat and not HD ready

So at the front of the lounge I'm planning on fitting a screen which covers the whole of the window opening. I've been looking at some online today, and I want an electric screen that I can house in the ceiling void and have the screen drop though a slit. So the screen needs to be about 100" - 105" wide as the window apperture is 95". In the picture below, I've put my trainers at the rough edges of a 105" screen.

[bardel]

Im planning on mounting the projector in the ceiling void on a drop down mechanism of some description. This is all of course hearsay at the minute, because if it turns out crap then I will put something fixed in place

Anyway, the joists run from left to right across the room, which makes it dead handy for fitting the screen within the joists and also for locating the projector dead centre.

Currently, the joist section one section closer to the front of the house from the "reference hole" in the ceiling, which will mean the projector will be located approximately 4m from the window wall. So this is bang in the middle of the room which I think is handy because it means that I can try and make a feature out of it without it looking like it shouldn't be there (remains to be seen). Also *if* the other half ever wants to turn the room around, then I'd only have to destroy the ceiling at the other end to install a screen and not relocate the projector

So then, currently I have my room requirements laid out. I need a screen approx 105" wide (not diagonal), I think that equates to 120" diagonal for 16:9?

And a projector that I can mount at approx 4m distance that can fill that screen. Currently I'm thinking of either a Mitsubishi HC6000 or possibly a JVC HD1?

I do however have a bit of an odd request regarding projector features (albeit probably not crucial). Having experienced using a projector in the lounge before, on occassions the image became overpowering in the fact that it was too large for daily viewing. Now, in this house, we dont intend using the lounge for everyday viewing, just some occassionaly TV use in the evening, but mostly for films. However, if I had a projector that had a zoom function, could I use it to a) fill the screen when watching films and then b) zoom to reduce the image size on the screen when it suits us for background telly stuff? I know it will have a big white area around the picture, but sometimes I think that might be preferable, say when the missis has got the X Factor Final on or something and we've got friends round for the evening? Any feedback on the possibility of this and the projectors that are capable of doing it would be appreciated.

[velveteer]

what a project, looks great! best of luck with the rest of it.

[enablerbro1]

That's a heckuva lot of work going on there. All that and a baby getting in the way, must be a bit of a nightmare.

When I saw your lounge I thought "Hmmm, projection screen down one end in front of a window, nice long room, long throw distance, big screen. Very nice.". Can't wait to see how things unfold.

Can't help with the zooming question but I think it'd have to zoom a heckuva lot.

[Shoka]

Originally Posted by bardel

Not sure how much use it will end up being but we shall see...

Not sure how much use a dog is as AV equipment

Wicked project, can't wait to see how your living room turns out.

Congratulations and good luck with your new addition to the family

[bardel]

Originally Posted by Shoka

Not sure how much use a dog is as AV equipment

Wicked project, can't wait to see how your living room turns out.

Congratulations and good luck with your new addition to the family

Lol. Couldn't resist taking the photo with him there, we kept shutting him in the lounge while the messy work was going on otherwise he ends up getting as much on him as we do on the walls.

Thanks for the congrats.

[lomene]

Looking ace good luck with the rest

[bardel]

A question about viewing distances / screen sizes.

Is there a formula for generally accepted comfortable screen size to viewing distance ratio's?

I'm a little concerned about the screen being so big (only a little you understand ) , but figured at a distance of 4m and a screen width of 105" that should be within the norm?

So far I've found the following screen which is about the right height and electric. Anyone know if these screens are good quality at this size?

http://interactive-av.co.uk/projecti....php?pid=22369

or

http://interactive-av.co.uk/projecti....php?pid=22740

The second of these has a 1.2 gain, whereas the first is 1.0 Is there a way I can work out what gain screen I will need?

Cheers

[enablerbro1]

Originally Posted by bardel

A question about viewing distances / screen sizes.

Is there a formula for generally accepted comfortable screen size to viewing distance ratio's?

This may help. 1.5 - 2 x screen width for HD, 2.5 - 3 x SW for SD.