My home cinema. A slow DIY build.

[easylistening]

My THX home cinema. A slow DIY build. Part 1

In my house is a cellar room of 6.80 metres length x 5 metres width x 2.85 metres height.

After leaving it more or less unused for many years (having discounted it as being too small for an indoor pool), I decided that we should have a games / party/ home cinema room / second lounge for our family with two teenage daughters. It took a little longer than I originally anticipated – but the technology got better and cheaper in that time, so I'm not complaining.

As is – it would seem – often the case, my wife saw no need for the cinema part of the idea. Thus a steady approach to realising this part of it was necessary But from early on I envisaged a large screen.

We agreed to wood panel the outer walls in a light-colour and my wife also insisted on a white ceiling.

We commenced with wood battening in autumn 2005. Unfortunately, I‘d only been doing this for a couple of days when I had an argument with a mountain in the dark which left me with a hand injury that prevented me carrying on for a while.

I replaced my wrecked car with one with a full roll cage

I informed my wife that I intended to do more virtual driving and make myself a 1:1 copy of my Lotus's cockpit.

But first the room's walls were battened and power cables run.

The ceiling was painted and new, high sound insulating double glazing was fitted.

I then used our projected home cinema room as a convenient workshop to build myself a cockpit – which caused some delay

Since completion it has given me hours of cheap amusement.

The gamers amongst you may recognise the Logitec G25 that has been somewhat modded with original Lotus Parts, so the controls are exactly as in the real car‘s cockpit.

Having completed that project, I finally returned my attention to the cinema project.

In addition to the existing stonewool insulation, I persuaded my wife that additional insulation was desirable. 60mm polystyrene was used between the 6x6 cm battens.

To improve the contrast in the very light room a black section around the screen was created.

Part 2 follows!

[easylistening]

Part 2

The screen wall was lined with plasterboard

The screen area (370 x 170 cm to give a 2.35:1 370 cm wide pic or 16:9 300 cm wide pic) was sprayed with matt grey car filler primer

The screen area was then sprayed with matt white car primer and masking panels were constructed using aluminium profile and hardboard.

Detail of lower guide rail for horizontal masking panel.

Detail of upper horizontal guide rail

Lower rail

One panel section in situ

Attention was also given to the PJ end of the room. Here 20mm insulation was applied as the room is adjacent to a wine cellar. The reason for the large wooden panel in the left of the pic will become apparent

A darts board conforming to the official regulations was envisaged. This would normally be concealed behind a panelled door (visbible in the left of the pic).

The vertical masking panel was fitted and laminate flooring laid.

Part three follows!

[easylistening]

Part 3

The screen wall surround was covered with carpet and black velvet and the masking panels also covered with black velvet.

The speakers were installed: Teufel System 5 THX Select 7.1. The other electrical equipment was ordered: Onkyo 876, JVC HD 750, Sony BDP-S550, Panasonic DMR-EX98V, Sony KDL-40Z4500 200Hz LCD (for casual use/gaming on N64, Wii, PS2 and PS3).

While awaiting the gear, attention was given to details.

The entrance door to the home cinema

Three tiers of seating

The rear podium is wheeled to allow reversal of the seating for viewing the 40“ Sony 200Hz behind it or to clear the centre of the room for parties.

Recesses in the base of the podium house the protective sections and regulation footbar for darts when not in use.

The „darts door“ (closed)

The darts door open

Safe darts for younger kids (normally concealed behind carpet panel)

Part 4 follows!

[easylistening]

Part 4

Rear wall with LCD and games consoles

The ceiling-mounted fluorescent tubes are for general purpose use. The wall-mounted halogen lamps are switchable and dimmable via remote control. The blue LED downlights in the back wall are also remotely controlled.

After three years of building, on and off, I was hoping that I had done my research adequately and that I would not be disappointed by the performance. With THX speakers, THX AV unit and THX PJ, I felt I should be OK –but the proof of the pudding is in the eating. I know that theoretically the speakers could be a class more powerful for this size of room – but my wife and daughters already resist my desires to "feel" the sound in our living room set-up where our 52" LCD and Onkyo 705 feed a humble set of Sony 5.0 speakers!

Last to arrive was my PJ – especially imported from Germany. Made the last connections late at night and was ready to give the set-up a trial run prior to a first film the next day!

Switched on the JVC HD 750 and was rewarded with a lens door that failed to open and an array of red lights!

Closer investigation revealed that there is a manual lens door button on the underside of the PJ. This is a metal construction which has a plastic cap. The plastic cap had somehow become detached and was wedged between the door and other parts, preventing the cover from opening. It could not be correctly positioned without opening the unit – which is expressly forbidden and would void the warranty. Dilemma! Returning it would mean several weeks futher delay. Judicious pushing on the jammed plastic part resulted in it disappearing from view! Question was would the cover now function, or had the part landed where it would still cause problems. Switched the unit on. Cover opened, lamp operated. I'm fairly sure that the plastic part will not cause any problems, so have accepted this.

Finally, get the family together and watch Wall-E blu-ray.

My impressions:

Even on my home-made car primer screen (no idea what the gain factor is), the contrast, vivacity and depth of the images is simply fantastic. On panning shots, the very slight irregularities in the finish of the screen are noticable to my critical eye – but apparently not to casual viewers.

The sound is in quite another class to my (already impressive to most who've experienced it) living room system. Sitting on the rear row sofa, on the podium, when the spaceship lands, the whole room seems to be shaking – this is cinema as I always wanted it! And, happily, no undesired resonances were detectable from my wood-panelling (which I had additionally sound-damped with window rubber sealing profile in critical places).

I‘ve not made any adjustments to the PJ. In THX mode it seems pretty good to me. I'm sure that the real gearheads will consider this almost criminal. I tend to follow a similar approach with other things too: I have the adjustable suspension on my Lotus set up for the Hockenheim F1 track, dry. Driving it with this setting on public roads is good enough for me. I haven't got the patience to delve that deeply into the theory, so, if I started adjusting things, I could easily end up worse than before!

Apart from the electrical (power) installation, I did all of the work myself – with the help of my wife and a friend when putting some of the heavier items in place (e.g. windows). My wife also did most of the tidying up which certainly helped my morale.

It took a long time, but we agree that it was worth it

[KelvinS1965]

What a brilliant room. I like your Lotus parts modified gaming seat too. I'd so love to have a spare room to do this sort of thing myself. At least you've satisfied the 'gearheads' with your dark screen suround and curtaining near the screen, without making the room too dark and gloomy.

[karltimber]

very nice setup indeed and a concise thread

good luck with it all.
k

[Pecker]

What a smashing cellar conversion.



Kit list?

Steve W

[easylistening]

The kit list is in my posting – just above the Charlie Chaplin door pic

[Stoatman]

Great room , that first picture looks scary

[easylistening]

Luckily the Lotus-built Opel Speedster (Vauxhall VX220 in the UK) has a tough roll bar!

[IanW]

Very nice room!

OMG the car crash looks pretty scary!

[turnamere]

Love the room.

Likin the Exige even more, is that Krypton green or Isotope?

These little cars are remarkably tough, seen a few owners walk away from big offs that woulkd have hurt in a normal car.

[easylistening]

Getting off-topic here!

It's Krypton Green

It's a Cup car built by Lotus Sport, the factory's own high performance division, for racing. It has a full rollcage, harness bar and 4-point belts, safety equipment (electric kill switch and plumbed-in fire extinguisher system), Öhlins fully adjustable suspension, sintered clutch, limited slip diff, big brakes and a Bemani supercharger putting out around 270bhp (with a really good water-cooled intercooler system that keeps it cool and efficient). To keep the weight down it has no air con, no electric windows, and no ICE (the speaker covers just cover the holes)!

Apart from home cinema, I'm into a few other things including cars (real and virtual) and photography.

Going back on topic a little, I've only been using my home cinema for just over a week, but so far I'm really happy with it. Nothing I would want to change yet ... which is a relief and a sign too that the time I invested in researching what I needed was not altogether wasted. Also a relief because of the not insignificant fact that my wife thinks I've spent more than enough already - which I believe is not uncommon

[homethx]

Nice room, after reading about your teufel speakers and how you like them,may have to see about getting a set of system 6 speakers. Did you change the colour of your sub thought they were black and silver can't really tell from your pictures.

do you have better pictures of the fronts and sub.

[Kenny Glasgow]

Great room, you must be delighted