My first attempt at a budget home cinema setup :D

[lite]

Right then, this is my first go, and its not really a dedicated room, theres gonna be other stuff down the other end , but the majority is taken up by a cinema system!!!
First off this is the DVD/AMP system lol,
Its basically one of the all in one home cinema systems, does the job for me and was cheap

Here are the two surround speakers and the center for the home cinema system

This is a cheap candy floss machine going in there, I like candy floss lol

Thats my media center pc, Running 7 , its got a 3870 and pentium dual core (conroe) @ 4ghz!!

these are the carpet tiles im using, not great colour , but wont show dirt so are perfect for me , were cheap too

This is the sofa, was a absoloute bargain, i got it for £41!!!! the guy was very nice, was so cheap and its a brilliant sofa,
less then 12 months old if i remember right, its imaculate and soo comfy :D

right, now onto the room itself, here is the outside of the garage,

backing onto our garden, you can see the door , and i attempted to paint the wood cladding above it!

this is a barbeque i made with the bricks that came from the door hole, its sturdy, i promise!!

straight inside the room now, the un-finished projection wall and ceiling, still needs more filling and sanding till perfectly smooth

theres me (girlfriend was taking pics lol) and the two tallboy speakers, and projector and laptop

heres just a inside picture of the door, still needs work, gonna make it all look good with cladding etc so corners are nice,

heres projector on, you can clearly see colours look faded, camera is just bad at picking them up, you can see properly in next pic...

im partially in the way, but you can see true colours better here

now she has walked really close to the screen to show that it is good quality, lots of detail!

front view of the tallboys

my av stand , was a bargain aswell , just £9.99!! steal, its ace :P
http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/5329/imag0160c.jpg



Here is a set of lights i got for free :D

http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/5015/imag0161.jpg

and finally the desk i got for free , and speakers for computer , that is going in the room , aswell as wireless keyboard and mouse :D

Heres the costs
garage conversion:
Floor (insulation, floating floor, skirting, £100)
ceiling (plasterboard, filler, paint £35)
stud walls (plasterboard timber, filler, paint £100)
entrance door (door alone £45, ebay)
carpet tiles for floor (£25, used but good condition)
electricals etc £20
construction costs £325

other stuff....
hitatchi projector (1024x768 res but accepts 1080p fine) £80 ebay ( 120 hours on clock, is 3000 lumens!! , 500:1 or 1000:1 cant remember)
projector mount £12 ebay
sofa ( ebay basically new, 12 months old , reciept for £799, £41)
av rack (4 tier black glass, very flash, ebay, £9.99, !! steal :P )
popcorn and candyfloss machine (lol, they are fun, £25)
5.1 sound system, ebay, £60, "850w rms" lol, sounds good to me though, its panny...
ps3 ( from my uncle , he is getting a slim i hope £100 will do blu-ray for me too)
total electricals is £328 (weirdly the same as the construction lol)

stuff i already had
200+ dvd's, will go on shelves
media center pc, (htpc) 4870, quad, decent spec
desk
xbox origional

therefore total cost for me is just £753,
wow, that seems awful cheap , i must of missed a few bits
cables etc probably total another £50


there, gotta go quick, laptop almost outta battery :D

[24 P]

The AV rack looks solid and all, made out of brick will last for years, but being outside, wont your equipment get wet??

All good stuff, we all start some where, good job, now you need to listen and watch the damn thing...

[curveball]

You know what I like about this thread?

That someone is demonstrating that you can achieve a great deal on a budget and that we don't all have 1000's of £ to spend on AV equipment!

I am looking forward to this thread developing - good luck

By the way where what model is the surround sound system and does it accept other inputs or are you restricted, if you want surround sound, to playing DVD's through the player?

[FluffyKeith]

I agree with curveball, this demonstrates that a lot can be done without spending loads-a-money on the diminishing returns trying to achieve perfection.
I will start looking at ebay again - that projector looks great.
Great job and I look forward to see the result.

btw - is that ply wood under your BBQ? lol

[24 P]

Its not a BBQ, its an AV rack... Shhhh

[FluffyKeith]

Originally Posted by 24 P

Its not a BBQ, its an AV rack... Shhhh

crumbs - looks like the equipment is running a bit hot

oh and that must be a melted video disk

[lite]

Lol Haha yeah good spott!! :P, Its plywood from a old chest of drawers, but it does the job (the bricks stop it burning) we let the ps3 sizzle in the ashes, it warms it up (to compete with a 360)

and curveball, lol your quick to spot out my main problem, although im not too worried about this... the system only has stereo input, its a sc ht540 so if i want blu-ray im busted for sound, but dvd's im set for!
My understanding is that if i input stereo it will convert it to play on all speakers, if it manages to process the sound somehow and fake 5.1 i dont know!!

And lol, what a retard i am, doing a level maths and further math and i cant add £328 to £325, so i meant total costs was £652 not £752 !! Ill keep the pictures comingg!!

My BT vision box has arrived, :D,
I paid £20 for a 160gb box, homehub and a older router (all brand new!!!) ebay again , and postage was included, what a result eh. Although i tried to set it up on our indoor tv to test, and the line needs activating for bt vision , its free, but takes two weeks, doh, ah well, i can wait to play with it!!
Dont worry, Ill be sure not to use the powerline adaptors included for all you shortwave radio enthusiasts (if they exist that is)

Right now work is on hold for a week, Ive got to finish off filling in , sanding and painting the ceiling, and then walls need to be painted, then electrics and speaker cable hidden!! and finally the carpet tiless, skirting , and coving stuff for the ceiling, loadsa work to be done.
The colour scheme is going to be a browny mushroom cream on the two walls , projector wall is white white, and then the oppsite wall to projector will be a chocolate colour, paints are all coming from a friend who gets them for free of course!! (hes in the trade)

sorry for the kinda un-organised posts, i guess it takes paticence to read them, exscuse my bad english lol, I always did suck with my grammer,
Thanks for all the replys btw, and im abit of a 'noob' with alot of stuff that goes on around here!

[lite]

Lol Haha yeah good spott!! :P, Its plywood from a old chest of drawers, but it does the job (the bricks stop it burning) we let the ps3 sizzle in the ashes, it warms it up (to compete with a 360)

and curveball, lol your quick to spot out my main problem, although im not too worried about this... the system only has stereo input, its a sc ht540 so if i want blu-ray im busted for sound, but dvd's im set for!
My understanding is that if i input stereo it will convert it to play on all speakers, if it manages to process the sound somehow and fake 5.1 i dont know!!

And lol, what a retard i am, doing a level maths and further math and i cant add £328 to £325, so i meant total costs was £652 not £752 !! Ill keep the pictures comingg!!

My BT vision box has arrived, :D,
I paid £20 for a 160gb box, homehub and a older router (all brand new!!!) ebay again , and postage was included, what a result eh. Although i tried to set it up on our indoor tv to test, and the line needs activating for bt vision , its free, but takes two weeks, doh, ah well, i can wait to play with it!!
Dont worry, Ill be sure not to use the powerline adaptors included for all you shortwave radio enthusiasts (if they exist that is)

Right now work is on hold for a week, Ive got to finish off filling in , sanding and painting the ceiling, and then walls need to be painted, then electrics and speaker cable hidden!! and finally the carpet tiless, skirting , and coving stuff for the ceiling, loadsa work to be done.
The colour scheme is going to be a browny mushroom cream on the two walls , projector wall is white white, and then the oppsite wall to projector will be a chocolate colour, paints are all coming from a friend who gets them for free of course!! (hes in the trade)

sorry for the kinda un-organised posts, i guess it takes paticence to read them, exscuse my bad english lol, I always did suck with my grammer,
Thanks for all the replys btw, and im abit of a 'noob' with alot of stuff that goes on around here!

[thenorth]

Great to see a small budget going a long way keep it up

[lite]

So, A little update, work should start again tomorrow, (painting),
My girlfriend is giving me her xbox 360 premium(she dosnt use it), and i have bought a hd-dvd addon for £18 shipped with two dvd's!! (and remote and all extras) , from ebay again.

This is perfect for me since a 360 will happily output over vga (for the projector) as it will upscale dvd's over vga
I also have bought a hd-dvd pack of base.com for £12 shipped (10 hd-dvd's) , putting my total cost for 12 hd-dvds and a hd-dvd player at £30, :D

I have also bought a component switcher (If i plan for multiple inputs it will be needed), I spent a fair amount on this since i didnt want to skimp out and buy some cheap crap, (this will be something ill probably use for a long time)
so i got one of these:

I got mine for £19.99 shipped , i thought it was a bargain, its a nice quality device and im glad i bought something a little more premium,

I am still persistant about wanting to get a ps3 (for blu-ray and they are just brilliant for games) and since my dad has alot of game i can borrow it will be good, but i cant afford much more then £100-£130 (depending on what i can get with one) so that may be out of the question or a while!

Ive also done a little cable mockup (i did it in my head during further maths the other day lol, but i wrote it down while i could remember everything)

Sorry that its rather large, I forgot to resize,
The purple dots indicate cables i already own, But they are not correct, since i bought a load of cables of ebay the other day, I bought (all shipped):
a xbox vga cable for £3.45
3x phono cables (with gold connectors, ooooo) 99p each
1.5m component cable £1.75 (gold connectors again , oooo)

Now youll probably all go, nooo, cheap cables , arrghh!!!
I got a budget, and by the '10% rule' i think ive got it spot on lol If i get crappy cables now, I have room to upgrade and see if there is a actual differance haha.,
Ah well
thats it for now basically, sorry if thread is going abit rubbish, i will have more intresting updates in the near future :D