False Fireplace Windows MCE Based PJ & Plasma Install

newstuart

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Hi Guys,

In the process of re-doing the living room and thought I would post some pics.

I previously had a plasma mounted on the chimney wall but wanted something a little more flash, the plasma flush mounted and a projector.

Many thanks for Elletos thread on here as I have pinched a few ideas. :thumbsup:


The basics are a a 50" LG Plasma, Optima HD-65 Projector together with a HTPC, Sky box and amp which live in the attic and have done since we moved in - approx 20 foot of VGA Cables and USB extenders works fine.



I use Vista MCE for all viewing duties and other than an xbox for games this in the only source.

I have been using MCE for 4 years now and the present HTPC has 2.5tb of hardrives and about 300 full quality dvd rips on it at present all accesed by the MCE "My DVDs" library although I am looking at possibly moving to "My Movies" as I need Hi Def support.

1st is a pic before I started
 

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nice one mate, one question for you! when you had the plasma mounted originally, how was the viewin angle as it looks quite high up the wall? what TV is that?

good luck gettin everything finished tho! :D
 
I honestly don't get why people put TV's, and speakers, so high up!
 
Hi Guys
Thanks for the comments


The TV is a 50" LG.

There is reason for the TV being so high, we have a 2 year old and this is his main room for playing in and all his toys live here. The TV being up out of the way works well for us as it means he can not touch it.

It is also on a tilting bracket and tilts downward (doesnt really show in the pic)

We have a very large (almost bed Like) U Shaped sofa and it is perfect for laying back on, chilling out and watching the TV.

Had it like this for around 8 months and do not notice the height now :thumbsup:
 
Think im going to enjoy this thread! Im starting on my Lounge in about a month (When the kitchen is complete). Will need to build a fake wall in front of my fireplace to sink in my screen, lcd and equipment. Will need a similiar frame to yours! It's looking good so far!!:clap: keep updating! :lease:
 
Thanks

Its been a long few weeks but progress is being made. The frame is finished, plasterboarded and holes for in wall speakers cut out.

I have started building the pelmet for the screen and mounted the PJ and rear surround speakers in the ceiling.

Here are a few progress pics along with my faithfull assistant :thumbsup:

I will post some more when the plasterer has been and it looks a little neater :smashin:
 

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Ok, its been a while but nearly finished now !!

Here is the fireplace finished, plastered, rear speakers fitted and PJ fitted

PJ is a HD65 and the screen is a cheap ebay job with a mod to replace the remote control with a relay and 12v trigger from the PJ so when I turn the PJ on the Screen comes down automaticaly.
 

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Plasma fitted back up with Ikea Trettrion blue lights behind together with Pelmet and Fireplace lights all controlled by X10 from a pronto remote - All the wiring is hidden behind the PJ screen in the pelmet and it is designed that I can remove the bottom of the plemet and Screen to make any changes required

Room now decorated and carpet re-laid. I had a little accident cutting the carpet and had to add some extra wide skirting at the front of the fireplace but it is not noticible now (luckilly as the quote for a new carpet was £600!!).
 

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Next,

PJ screen down, Image does not look good in the pic as it is daytime and the curtains do not fully darken the room. I will post some night time pics up asap. I am very impressed with the PJ and only cost £450 in Richer Sounds :thumbsup:

Also huge U Shape sofa put in and all the plug sockets replaced with Chrome fittings. Also X10 ceiling light controller fitted now so all lights can be controlled by remote.
 

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Lastly the sub in the corner of the room and the brains of the system in the attic.

MCE PC with 2.5TB of hardrives - We can not get digital tv in our area so I have a Sky box fed into the MCE pc via a tv card - MCE then controls this with a infared eye and all tv viewing and recording is done via the MCE interface and recorded to the HTPC hardrives.

Amp is a second hand cheap Yamaha bought from these forums which does the job fine.

This is a bit of a mess and my next job is to design a rack to house all the gear in a vented airing cupboard (heat permitting) but I am holding fire as I also have to complete a simillar install in the kitchen/familly room and bedroom/bathroom. These will be run from Xbox 360s but will be "remote" and located with the main pc in the rack so nothing but screen and ceiling speakers will be seen.


Finally many thanks to Elootos for the inspiration and somewhat Blatant copying of elements of his system design. :thumbsup:

I originally had the PC in the attic and Plasma in the living room as per my first post but was inspired by Elootos to take it to the level I have.

In my previous house we had a garage home cinema but this is SO much more familly friendly and we watch films on it almost every night. My son loves watching his cartoons on it and the whole familly get to use it.

Still left to do,

1) I have to source a unit to sit at the side of the sofa to hide PS3 and Xbox
2) Get a small corner unit to sit over the Mondunt Short Sub in the corner fo the room which will hopefully stop little fingers playing with it.
3) Get a nice big coffee table for the middle of the room

Any comments most welcome :thumbsup:
 

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Looking very good....I bet you are loving sitting back now watching all those Christmas DVD's :D

I'm hoping to start my project in 2009 :rolleyes: and will be using a similar frame. To give me some perspective, could you tell me how deep is it from the wall to the front of the frame?? I'm looking at having 2 floorstanders either side of the false wall with the centre built in.

Wifey wants the floorstanders to be flush with the false wall so it's gonna have to be about 35-40 cms deep.

I'll be showing her this thread. :thumbsup:
 
Thanks for that :thumbsup:

I was worried that 35-40cm may look too deep, but your pics have shown that it won't be a problem.


(Mental note to self - the skirting around the base gives it a great finish)

My wall is 4.2ms (13.75'), would you know what yours is??
 
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new stuart,

interested in the sky into the media centre, assuming you dont decode the signal, just take a composite signal in through your video card into media centre. Do you control the sky box via the ir blaster you get with the mce remote..
would like to do simular but vista and wife dont work too well together, i think its a timing thing, the wife doesnt like waiting more than 50ms after pressing the remote for somthing to happen....
 
Hi

Donny, my wall is approx 5.5m wide, The skirting and coving were great fun as I have never worked with Mitres before and ended up with numerous offcuts that I made a mess of! I think it does finish it off though and make the build blend into the room much more

Dominic, the sky box feeds into a Hauppauge PVR 150 card as shown in the link below. This is done via a Scart to S Video lead.

In the MCE TV Set up menu it will ask if you have an external decoder (eg Sky TV/digi-box) connected and ask for the model number. The IR Blaster that comes with the standard MCE receiver will then control the sky box and you use the interface of MCE "My TV" to view and control everything. You never go into the sky menu or EPG at all.

I have used this method previously to feed MCE with Cable TV also in a previous house for 2 years (Going back to MCE 2004!) and have never had a problem with it.

The concern I initially had was pitcure quality as it is only using composite over S-Video but the PC automatically upscales the image. People who see it have asked numerous times if the TV image is High Def as the quality is much better than sky direct to the tv.

Here are a couple of images to show the MCE interface

Hauppauge WinTV PVR 150 MCE PCI Low Profile OEM - 1087 - www.microdirect.co.uk

Cable-Trader.co.uk .: Scart to S-video (SVHS) & Twin Phono GOLD - 1.5m :.
 

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newstuart

thanks for that, i have an olf mce2005 shuttle with a Hauppauge dual tunner ( one analogue one digital) but it has a spare svideo in. Will try it...

might put that in my vista media centre and plug the sky box in...

thanks very much for the links and the images..
 
This is an awesome setup fella!

Credit to elootos too - would be rather chuffed if I was able to create a home cinema good enough that other people would use the same skeleton in their system!!
 
Thanks for the comments

As I said in the previous posts big thanks to Elootos for all the pics on here to inspire me.

Here is one of an old set up I had back in 2004 in our old flat which was a false fireplace of sorts with a Daewoo 42" plasma screen that was purchased for the bargain price of £2400 from Richer Sounds in a Sale!!

It has recently given up the ghost as our bedroom tv
 

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