Jeff's new Home Cinema build

Hi guys 'n' gals

I know how much I have enjoyed seeing the progress of new cinema builds so I thought I'd post mine... especially as I've had so much help from the threads here Here's a few pics of my current set-up. Pretty standard 32'' widescreen CRT, 5.1 surround sound set-up etc. After a few years of trying to work out how best to fit in a 'proper' system, I've finally decided to convert the lounge. As it's our lounge we'll have to make a few compromises but I'll discuss these as I go. So here we are at the start:




The double doors that lead to the dining room (used as a music room) will be removed and a stud wall built.



The fireplace will have to go... a pretty big decision and one that made the final layout much clearer to us.

I've moved on a bit but I'll post those in the next night or two.

Jeff

 

Sorry for the delay guys but here's the start of the build.



Double doors have now been removed and stud wall built. Studs are positioned to take the plasma mount perfectly. Eagle eyes will just about be able to recognise my new speaker set-up.


Fire removed revealing the open flue. I'll insert some plasterboard ready for skimming.


Stud wall now plasterboarded up. Note the cable hanging down. This is run from the light fitment in the center of the ceiling (now removed) and will power some lights above the plasma which can then be switched on from the normal room switch.


At the other end of the room the projector mount is now in place. This area has a pitched roof above it. To gain access I needed to take tiles off the roof and enter through the trusses (pics coming soon!). That was fine for fitting a wooden brace between joists to take the projector mount but what I reallly wanted to do was feed the cables down the outside cavity wall so they are fully hidden. Sadly after half day with a friends help and a number of implements to feed down the cavity I could not get past all the rubbish in the cavity and had to re-plan.


The light cable mentioned earlier.


The projection screen has to come down in front of the plasma so after meticulous measuring (I need to keep the screen to projector distance at a maximum) I have attached 2"x2" battons to ceiling joists which the screen will mount on. If all goes well the screen will pass by the plasma with about 2cm to spare!


The projection screen will be boxed in. This is the vertical section which runs across the full wall in MDF. It will be painted white to match the ceiling.


I have designed a wooden base plinth which will hide all the cable coming from the back of the room to the plasma and speakers and projection screen. It will also incorporate speakers for the plasma for routine listening and it will be lit. That's real wood this time not MDF as I'll varnish it to match in to the floor.


The projection screen has now been mounted (hidden behind the MDF). You can see the cable for the time being. Wallpaper has now gone from this wall.

 

Looking good, keep up the good work and the Pics

 

I like the comitment, looking good so far

 

Noticed you have blocked the fireplace don't forget to put a breather vent or you will have a damp patch appear in the furture and put a rain cover on the top to stop birds falling down had to get 2 pigeons out of mine so far , the cooing can be distracting when watching a film.

 

Keep up the good work and the pics Jeffers

Jon

 

looking good, keep the pics coming

 

Thanks Paul

The fireplace is only a flue built into a standard cavity with a tiny slit vent where it emerges somewhere on the roof. Will this still cause a problem?

 

Thanks for the encouragement guys. I will be away on business this week but will post more pics at the weekend.

 

Next update, people


The electric screen is now in place attached to battens which are screwed to the floor joists.



The wall is now fully plastered and the screen built in


The screen is remote controlled. I thought hard about where to put the remote sensor. I thought about hiding it inside the boxing with a small hole for the IR to pass through but in the end I decided to flush mount it so that the manual buttons were available if the remote packed up or got lost.


The remote receiver is mounted flush underneath the boxed in section. It'll match the white paintwork.... eventually. Coving is pre-cut ready for the section along the front of the box section.


This is the slot that the screen comes out of. The plan is that the screen only just passes through and then clears my Plasma by 2cm on the way down.... if my measurements have been perfect!


Fireplace is now plastered up. The floor needs new laminate. Luckily I have just enough to fill the gap left by the stone hearth.


Fitted colour change LED's to the bottom plinth. These are quite cool. They flow through all the colours or can be fixed on any single colour. They can also be set to 'sound-to-light' for parties!!


My new plasma peeking through the floorboards - a Pioneer 436 XDE.

Got to get on with it!!

 

brillaint progress, nice job with the flush switch and the lights, great stuff

 

What a great post, good info and pics

 

Keep those pics flowing mate ! looking good so far, and nice to see that you have chosen a Pioneer - the best !!!

 

Thanks guys.......latest pics


A small selection of tools needed for this project. Note the CAT5 cable and Harmony 525 remote


The fireplace has left this gap in the floor. As said earlier I have enough laminate to fill it.... just


The back wall is now painted and ready for the plasma


Inside the base plinth at this early stage


Pio 436 and a Denon 1920 waiting in the wings


A clue to my new projector

Sorry these are a bit boring .....it will get more interesting this week!

 

Starting to come together....


Fireplace floor now filled in


LED's for the projection screen boxing are wired up to the central ceiling rose (original light removed) so that they can be turned on from the light switch.


Left hand switch is a remote dimmer and will operate the wall lights. Right hand switch is for the LED's and will be swapped for a steel version (obviously)


LED's mounted on the underside of the projection screen boxing.


Media box connection cables, power and speaker cables fed into the stud wall hidden inside the bottom plinth and then up and out to be hidden by the plasma


Plasma mount up and solid


Here we go... switch on.

 

Nice blue LED downlighters

looking very nice indeed.

 

agree with above those blue downlighters have turned out very nice

 

whoa those blue lights look amazing Jeff! keep the updates coming dude

jon

 

How do you make a thread with images in it? Thumbnails etc? I'm struggling here - for sure.

 

Looks superb.

 

I do love it when people project over a plasma, looking very nice

 

Hi Jeffers;
Nice, coming on very nicly, two questions, Where did you purchase the LED lights, are they wired into a transformer or straight into 240 electric. ?

Look froward to some more pixs.
Cheers..

 

Thanks Blue.Rocket

I got the lights from ebay. They are available at the following link.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/6-CHROME-LED-...74837QQcategoryZ57231QQtcZphotoQQcmdZViewItem

A real bargain at £36 delivered. I'm very happy with them. They run on a transformer which I wired to a light switch via a ceiling rose.

More pics coming soon

Nburcombe, are you still struggling with adding images to posts? If so I'll tell you how I did it (not exactly intuitive although I probably do it the long/wrong way!!)

 

Hi Jeffers

I am new to this forum but just felt I had to post after reading this thread. I know having undertaken a similar project a year ago just how much work is involved in gutting a room and starting from scratch but when its all done and you can sit back and look at what you have created its worth every minute. Your build looks fantastic and the blue LED's are a very nice touch.

I have a few questions though what are the dimensions of the room? What is your throw distance going to be? And whats your final screen size?

p.s. how long did it take to convince the wife.

 

Thats the easy part

 

Hi AutomanUK and welcome to the forum. My room is about 5m x 3.5m. I have gone for a 2.4m width screen. My H79 min throw for this is about 13ft which is about my viewing distance too. You'll get a better idea from my build updates coming next.

As for the wife, inzama is correct......... in fact, as she is more into music than I am she did have a condition...... that we buy a nice new speaker package!! Obviously I put up a stern fight but eventually had to give in and buy the set-up you'll see below (she left it to me once she had 'defeated' me in that argument!! )

Great set-up you have got by the way, I had never noticed the 'members home cinema gallery' section!

 

Spent half a day trying to feed a line down the cavity for cables from the projector to source kit but it was so full of builders rubbish that I had to give up in the end. The best option after this was to go in through the roof and come down the corner of the room. Not ideal but so be it.



One of the biggest decisions I took early in the design was to keep the front very clean with Plasma/screen and speakers only. I wanted all of the AV kit hidden away in a back corner. This meant spending £200 on a 10m lead for the Pio 436 plasma....that really sucks! I had to run this lead and speaker cable from one end of the room to the other. I increased the depth of the skirting with strips of wood to make room for the cable.


This is a back view of the skirting. Speaker cable is 3 lengths of CAT5/speaker as discussed in detail on the cables forum.


This gives an idea of what it looks like from the front.

I've finished off the boxing that hides my screen by filling all the screw holes, adding coving, painting etc.......





As mentioned in my last post, the missus forced me to replace our aging Missions , so I plumped for a Monitor Audio silver set-up, but with RS8's rather than the more normal 6's (the wife likes bass so that was an easy sell.....in fact she thinks it was her suggestion ) Anyway they look and sound awesome......


Fronts


Centre


Rears


Connecting up the CAT5 cable

Speakers now in place



On to the projector. New Optoma H79



Apparently there is a 25 picture max on a single post and I've reached it!!

 

very impressive well done

 

Rooms looking fantastic. Loving those speakers...... have you drafted a will yet?

 

Jeff, Center Speaker Shelf, More details please of how you built it.....

P.S. Get those Monitor Audio 8's Toed in a bit, and bring them off the wall as far as the wife will allow, then you will hear more of what they can do......