Macron's First (Modest) Home Cinema

[Macron]

I'm in the process of completely decorating a new flat. Basically we've ripped everything out including the old heating system, walls, floors bathroom and kitchen. In the lounge I'm going to have my new Samsung 40" wall mounted and then have 5.1 ceiling speakers connected to an onkyo amp. I'm going to have pipes in the walls for the TV cables and also a media centre PC in the attic to view movies from the PC.

I've made a couple of other threads about the kit I will be using here:

Urgent Advice Needed About Ceiling Speakers
Some Questions About The Onkyo TXSR606

So far everything is on hold until I can get advice about which speakers to go for and I also need to know what the optimum height is for the TV. In the picture of my lounge the TV will be on the left hand wall with the PC above it in the attic and the rest of my kit below in a new unit. Any advice about this would be most welcome.

Here are some pictures which I will update as time goes on...

Attic where the PC will be, electrician has now put power points up there for me:

My new TV currently sitting in my old place showing BBC HD:

The lounge as it is now, the TV will be on the left hand wall with the sofa directly opposite:

Holes already made for the in ceiling lighting to go in:

The bedroom which currently contains the new kitchen units and will have my old 32" LG TV wall mounted and freeview piped through:

[Macron]

Looks like normal TV reception is going to be awful at this flat so it looks like I will also be getting Freesat to pipe around to all 3 TV's: Which setup to get?

Had the builders in today to discuss how the cabling is going to be done and to move / add some electrical sockets. The labour costs are starting to add up now.

Going in tonight to mark out where the TV's will go and the pipes for the cables to go to the other two rooms.

Have decided to get the tannoy speakers that someone here reccomended to me am just awaiting quotes for 5 of them. (can anyone advise about whether its really best to have the centre in the ceiling as well?)

[ronaldhardie]

Hi Macron

is it not possible for you to run the cables yourself and get the sparky to attach the extra mains where needed it will save a fair bit on labour costs and not the most difficuilt thing to do

[Macron]

Things are slowly moving ahead. The ceiling is now plastered, the kitchen is being painted and the whole place has been cleared of the old kitchen etc...

I've found someone who will hopefully be supplying most of the AV kit and fitting the speakers for me as well as helping to run all the cables.

Right now I need to choose the furniture for all the kit so have started another thread here: Please Help Me Choose Some AV Furniture

Aiming to buy all the kit by the end of this month and then things will hopefully start moving quickly.

[Macron]

Time for an update. Things are moving quickly now. These pics were taken on my old phone as I've managed to break the screen on my N95...

Here's the channel in place for the main cabling in the lounge:

Closeup:

With the cover on and showing the centre speaker hole:

At the bottom, that power socket is being lowered and moved closer to the rest of the cabling:

Holes for all speakers and lights are done now:

This hole goes straight into the attic where the PC will be:

Tomorrow the guys will be running the coax cables from the main and spare rooms to the rest of the kit and putting in panels with brushes on where the wires will come and go in the lounge.

Today I also ordered my AV unit. It's going to be custom made by Ian Edwards it's going to be a solid oak unit with spaces made to measure for my kit and drawers underneath. Will post a sketch when its ready.

[Macron]

Right, had a whole load of kit delivered today thanks to the amazing people at WireFreeHomes who have given me loads of help in sorting it all out:

In the pictures are My Samsung LE40A559, My 360 Elite, HDDVD drive, Onkyo 606 Amp, Kef Kube 1 Sub, Tannoy 401E Eyeball Ceiling Speakers, about 40m of QED speaker cable, one profigold sub cable and whole bunch of banana plugs

It's kinda like my dream christmas present only it's June and I had to pay...

Tomorrow I'm expecting the 2 TV mounting brackets and brush faceplates for the cabling.

On Saturday I'm going to take it all to the new flat along with my old TV and install the speakers into the now painted ceiling and give it all a test, should be fun

[inzaman]

Originally Posted by Macron

Right, had a whole load of kit delivered today

It's kinda like my dream christmas present

Wow thats some delivery - awesome

[Macron]

Right time for some pics from last Saturday. It took us about 4 hours to get the speakers up and wired in. A lot of that was spent by me crawling around a dark, hot and dusty attic and it wasn't much fun. Looking forward to getting the PC up there

We installed the speakers, ran the wiring down the channel and put banana plugs on the ends (after having to rip out the centre of the speaker connectors on the Onkyo which was un-nerving to say the least).

Then we set up my old TV, the amp and sub and my xbox to give it all a test.

Setup of the amp was a breeze, we used the enclosed mic to auto calibrate the speakers which was easy and I could not have been more happy with the sound and the quality, in fact we were amazed by it! The opening to Saving Private Ryan was amazing (until the guy who lives downstairs complained) and music DVD's and Halo 3 sounded fantastic too.

Now comes all the decorating.

Sorry about the poor camera phone pics...

One of the speakers in place

These pics really don't do the speakers justice, they look fantastic!

The centre speaker showing where the wires come out

My little test setup

And showing the sub

The back of the amp with banana plugs in place

[jolly]

Going to be a really nice install when you've finished, not to sure about your tv stand

[Macron]

Just a quick update from tonight (I'm getting excited now)

The channel is now covered and ready to be plastered tomorrow and I've run loads of bits of numbered string up and down to make pulling cables through easier.

All bagged up ready

Kitchen's getting there too

Getting the lights sorted this week too

[wolfboy79]

It really is looking great. How do those speakers compare to your previous set up, particularly surround effects steering and that centre channel re dialogue?

After reading the posts in this forum its seems the popularity of htpc's is on the rise, due you know any other good sources of info on speccing, building and setting up a home theatre pc. I've ripped a few dvds but struggle with different file types and codecs required for surround sound and a reasonable quality picture?

I'm looking forward to see how this turns out for you, it's gonna be good

[Macron]

Originally Posted by wolfboy79

It really is looking great. How do those speakers compare to your previous set up, particularly surround effects steering and that centre channel re dialogue?

After reading the posts in this forum its seems the popularity of htpc's is on the rise, due you know any other good sources of info on speccing, building and setting up a home theatre pc. I've ripped a few dvds but struggle with different file types and codecs required for surround sound and a reasonable quality picture?

I'm looking forward to see how this turns out for you, it's gonna be good

Cheers. Actually I build and repair computers for a living so that's going to be the easy bit. If there's anything you want to know just ask. I'm just using my 3 year old pc now with Media Centre loaded on it. Configuring codecs and getting the best out of it can be time consuming and sometimes very annoying but there's plenty of help on the internet.

I highly reccomend using this page as your source for codecs: http://www.m5studio.internetdsl.pl/codec.html

It's an all in one pack with very easy to configure options. I find HD video looks and sounds great on my TV using this.

[inzaman]

Originally Posted by Macron

Just a quick update from tonight (I'm getting excited now)

I was excited when i saw the pictures of your kit delivery

Its definitely looking good

[jolly]

Kitchen looks nice as well, are you tiling the splash backs?

[Andy104]

doesnt the elite have a hd drive built in anyways?