Eds budget home cinema >> Narrow Room

edhellaby

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How do guys. Well after months of studying everyone else's threads in envy it is time to have a go at doing this myself. This will be a step by step, so please have some patience, i guess it will take me about 3/4 weeks to get it done.

Here is some background to the project anyway. I bought my fisrt place a couple of years back, a small 2 bed flat in pretty bad condition. We had to do everything to it, but unfortunately didnt know much about running cables, which is a shame as i had the whole place rewired. I had a lodger living in a small double/large single back room, but he has moved out now, so it is all mine (oh and the mrs's).

The room is 2m * 3.75m and I am hoping to get a PJ in there. The room only has to do 2 things; Cinema and home office.

Here are some pics of the room when we first got the place. (apologies if i have uploaded them wrong, please let me know if I have to change it), as you can see, it was near enough derelict

Here is the room:

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Here is the mrs cleaning up the old flooring ready for the oak floor to go down.


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So we did a very quick job in here and rewired, chucked some paint up and stuck some flooring down. Two years on I am in the middle of stripping it again ready for the plasterer to get in. Here are some more pics for a better idea:

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OK so that gives you an idea for what we have got to play with. Now the plan is to build something like this (excuse my 1st attempt of sketchup):


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As you can see I am looking to utilise the alcove/wardrobe to creat a small desk area. This will be covered using a curtain.

The AV kit will sit inside the cupboard on the right, and will be cooled using case cooling along with some hefty vents in the side of the cupboard.

The PJ will be ceiling mounted and the screen will come down infront of the wardrobe/alcove (obviously i will not be using the office are whilt the PJ is on).

The seating will be placed infront of the window and consists of this in a grey leather:

Now although I am not on a "strict" budget, there is a limit, and it is way lesss than a lot of guys on here. I have been trying to source bargain bits of kit as I go just to get me up and running, then upgrade as required depending upon how much use the room gets. So here is what I have going in there:

Denon AVR 1909 (£200 ex demo Billy Vee soundsystems)
Jamo 5.1 system (£70 feebay)
Samsung SPA400 720p PJ (£300 Richer sounds)
Xbox 360
Wii
5.8ghz AV Sender
Van Damme Blue 2.5mm
Mid range 10m Component & HDMI

I still need a PJ mount and electric screen. Im really looking for advise on both of these. As you can see the room is very narrow (200cm) Does anyone know of a good 16*9 screen i can get in there. Finding something with a case thats small enough whilst rtaining the screen size has been difficult!

So whats next? Well I have the plasterer coming in this week to skim the room. I wanted a dropped ceiling in there, but some guy wanted £1300 to do it which I thought was a bit steep? So i thought I'd try to run my cables to the speakers and PJ behind the coving. Has anyone done this before?

I will be getting a cooke and lewis kitchen cabinet and door for the office and installing this myself (id image some modification will be required), has anyone tried using a kitchen cabinet like this before?

So thats pretty much all i can think of right now, but I will be regularly updating this as i go over the next few weeks.

Criticsm happily recieved.... :clap:
 
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Your going to have a very nice setup there edhellaby,
I ran my cables to the rears through the coving and it worked just fine. If you can stretch the budget on the projector then i would highly recommend the optoma HD65, I`m well impressed with mine.

Keep the pic`s coming Ill be watching :thumbsup:
 
Sorry to ask, but have you checked the throw distance on the projector? If the optics are the same as the SPA800 then you could go almost full room width with the screen. And I know this sounds obvious but get the exact dimensions of the case for the screen, I went to my supplier and physically measured mine and have a really snug fit (my room is only 2240mm wide) with a projector case measuring 2200mm.:smashin:
 
Good work, looking forward to what you're going to do with the room.

Similarly, by complete coincidence, I have the exact same colour tester paints patched up on my wall at home. :rotfl: The Dulux feature wall range I think they are (plus I have technix' recommendation of "Perfectly Taupe" up there too, going for that one I think)
 
OK, just a couple of observations. If you are putting the screen on the wall with the desk space then you need to think about where you put your front speakers (LH, RH and CTR) as these need to be either at the bottom of your screen or central if using an acoustic transparent screen. You could consider placing the screen above the window and fit a black-out blind, but that may restrict your desk access space. Another problem with the screen at the 'desk' end is the door into the room may be a problem with your RH speaker. You could mount the speakers on the ceiling above the screen and angle them down similar to my rear mounts shown here:
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You would need to play around with them to get the right positional sound but could overcome some of the points raised. Good luck :smashin:
 
Thanks for the feedback guys. I will definately go for the cable behind the coving then! :thumbsup:

The Mrs chose the colours from he dulux range. I am really pleased with the look of them, hopefully it will keep the room nice and dark. Let me know how you find them? Unfortunately I have got to wait for the skim to dry, then put a couple of white coats on first (one of those being the mist) before I can get cracking with them.

OK, just a couple of observations. If you are putting the screen on the wall with the desk space then you need to think about where you put your front speakers (LH, RH and CTR) as these need to be either at the bottom of your screen or central if using an acoustic transparent screen. You could consider placing the screen above the window and fit a black-out blind, but that may restrict your desk access space. Another problem with the screen at the 'desk' end is the door into the room may be a problem with your RH speaker. You could mount the speakers on the ceiling above the screen and angle them down similar to my rear mounts shown here:



You would need to play around with them to get the right positional sound but could overcome some of the points raised. Good luck :smashin:

Thanks for the tips. I actually got the PJ out and hooked it up, you're correct it fills the entire wall. This is why I am struggling to get a screen, I want something that is as large as possible yet the case fits the 200cm. There just doesnt seem to be any stores you can go to to look for them. Anyone know of any in the London area? :lease:

I was planning on mounting all of my speakers up high and angling down. I know this is not ideal, but I'm not allowed to chase walls out to run cables in. I was hoping to have the screen boxed in using plasterboard, then mount the speakers to the front of that. What speakers and stands are you using? They look perfect for my requirements actually.

Will get some more pics after the plasterer finishes tomorrow. I guess it will start to feel more "real" once that is done. Out of interest how long do people normally leave a skim to dry? Is it worth me cranking the heating up and putting a dehumidifer in there? I have read so many conflicting pieces of advise on this but im sure you guys know best :)
 
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Hello, the speaker mounts I used are from Amazon B-Tech BT34/B Home Cinema Satellite Speaker Ceiling: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo

They are sold in singles so if you need 5 in total then not a problem, quite reasonably priced at only £14 each. Ref the plastering it depends on who you speak to but I have always let mine dry naturally and a skim only takes about 24 hours to dry out anyway whilst you get on with other things :smashin:
 
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Good luck with your project, looks like you'll have a great room there. :smashin:

Mine isn't much bigger, its around 2.2m x 4m, and a projector fits in fine.
 
good luck with your project ed, looks like you'll have a nice little room at the end of it:smashin:

good choice of amp mate, i can't fault mine:thumbsup:
 
That's going to make a cozy little HT :)

Just out of curiousity, what's that 5.8GHz AV sender for?
 
Hey guys, as promised here is an update. The plasterer has been in and worked his magic today. :clap:

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He has done a brilliant job. So now the waiting game begins. He reckoned about 3 days before we can paint it, so hopefully i can get a mist coat on there on Sunday.

In the mean time I have been planning the desk area as I can start assembling that. Im thinking of getting a 50cm wide wall cupboard (wall as it has a nice depth) from Ikea with a high gloss grey door. This will be on crome 10cm Legs and finished with an engineered oak top.

Im going for some full width floating oak shelves above it for DVD storage (nothing heavy), as well as displaying a couple of bits and pieces. Whilst in Ikea i will have a little look around their ligting section for some shelf mount stuff. I like the look of the dioder's but they seem expensive at £50.

As I mentioned earlier I am going to stick a couple of air vents on the side of the cupboard for cooling. If needed I will run some fans in there too.

The digi-sender is for Virgin Media, as the 2nd box is in the master bedroom not the HT. :(

When I replace the flooring in the master I will run a feed from the Virgin box into the HT. I have been pretty disapointed by the digi sender. I heards the new 5.8hz ones were much better, ut to be honest the maplin one is a bit cr@p and its only going through one wall.

Really appreciate all the positive feedack. Hopefully more pics coming monday which may have pics on some painted walls and the cupboard etc assembled.

Out of interest how many cables have people got away with running behind their coving. I need to get 2 * 2.5mm Van Damme, HDMI, Component & PJ power lead (I will be able to split these between 2 sides of the room. Also what is the best way to hold the cable against the wall? I was planing on using those little plastic cable holders that nail in.
 
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edhellaby

I have a screen from DRH which is 1.9M across with the border. It is a fixed screen but i believe that they sell all types. I saw an advert for them in home cinema choice and then looked on the web and finally spoke to them, they were very helpful. My fixed screen was £159 i think.

My room is a garage conversion and is around 2.3m wide. There are some pictures on here somewhere but i am not sure how to post a link

DrH:smashin:

I am nothing to do with the company but had to go there with my initials:D
 
edhellaby

I have a screen from DRH which is 1.9M across with the border. It is a fixed screen but i believe that they sell all types. I saw an advert for them in home cinema choice and then looked on the web and finally spoke to them, they were very helpful. My fixed screen was £159 i think.

My room is a garage conversion and is around 2.3m wide. There are some pictures on here somewhere but i am not sure how to post a link

DrH:smashin:

I am nothing to do with the company but had to go there with my initials:D
I may be wrong but I think a fixed screen is not an option for this planned set-up as the desk space needs to be accessible :rolleyes:
 
Thanks DrH. I called them up and they do have a range of pull down screens too, inlcuding one with a case width of 192cm which would fit in nicely as I dont really want it touching the walls either side. I just need to see if I can get over to them one lunchtime as they are not open at the weekends.

Alternatively I see Kent Home cinema have a Beamax screen.

I'm now contemplating a manual as the electrics seems to be a bit too expensive fopr my liking.
 
I have got the paint on the walls. I used a Wickes new plaster paint for the 1st coat which I was really pleased with. I then used a white emulsion for the second coat on the ceiling and desk area. Hopefully we will get the coloured walls done this week (Night Jewels 2 and Mulberry Burst).

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I finally managed to track down a screen. I went for a Beamax R series in Black as it was going for the right price. I was hoping to use DRH but they were not open at the weekend.

I also made the dreaded trip to IKEA to pick up the cabinet I will be using to make the AV storage (as seen in the sketchup). I went for a 50cm Faktum Wall cabinet in high gloss grey that will have an oak top.

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I also picked up some 100cm * 70cm frames for some movie posters. Any suggestions on Movies? Definately having the " The Hangover" in one of them.

Next bis to do:

-Paint the coloured walls
-Drill walls for cable runs
-Install cables
-Assemble cabinet and desk area
-Fit coving over cable
-Install the AV kit
 
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Urrrrmmm....dont mean to state the obvious but didn't you run your cables before you had the plasterer in?:rolleyes:

Yea,. In an ideal world I would have chased the Walls out to run them in. But strict orders from the boss means that couldn't happen due to a bad experience last time the grinder came out. Solid concrete ceiling floors and block Walls are a real pain, no nice plasterboards in this place.

As I am having coving put up I will just run the component, hdmi and pj power behind that. I will take the power one way round the Room and the video the other. There will be a very short run that is then put inside trunking between the coving and Pj.

The L C R speakers will have their cabeling run in the desk area so won't be seen. The rear speakers I have decided to have on stands so will run their cables in the existing boxed skirting boards (boxed to cover some pipe work).

Hoping that should do the trick with minimal disruption.
 
V true, never mind. I know for next the next one. I'm sure this will be the start of an expensive road for this kind of thing :facepalm:
 
Any update on this, im very interested :)

Thanks for checking it out.

The beamax screen arrived on Friday and I Actually had a productive day decorating today. I will get some pics up tomorrow as I will hopefully have the screen up and desk area completed!!
 
looking forward to seeing the updated pics ed :thumbsup:
 
As promised guys, I have been busy over the weekend with the old paintbrush and jigsaw.

This gives you an idea of the colour scheme, which actually is a nice balance between beening dark enough for daytime movie viewing without being too dark. BTW - Those lines are not actually on the wall. I think its my poor old canon that has done that.

There is coving going up which will cover up the cutting in ;)


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Then there is the desk area:

This is an Ikea Faktum high gloss wall cabinet on legs, with the surrounding alcove batton'd out with an old desktop dropped in. I still need to paint the front piece of the desktop, as at the minute you can see the chipboard. I will also be adding a keyboard tray.

The floating shelves are high gloss black and should be OK for DVD storage etc.



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I have left the back off the cabinet to allow for cooling (the white you can see is the wall which is 10cm behind the cabinet). Still need to do some tidying up in there as I have not hooked the amp up yet.

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Then the Beamax screen has been mounted, and looks great!! I will be (well the Mrs) ordering a curtain to cover the desk area as Im not a fan of being able to see in there when the screen is down. I have left space above the screen for the coving to go up and the speakers to be mounted.


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That's about all the updates I have, hopefully during the week I will get the PJ mounted on the ceiling and the rears hooked up.
 
really good stuff edhellaby, certainly enjoying seeing this one come along :smashin:
 

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