My 17' x 8' Home Cinema Room Project

[kbfern]

One more thing are you making any form of mask for when watching 2:35 material.

Even though the JVC has fab blacks you may still see the grey/black bars when set against the devore panels.

With your screen being the same as mine you could end up with one 6-8" deep black bar at either the top or bottom of the screen depending on which way you shift the lens.

 

[Phil.LFC]

this is looking great, love the walls. what is it you used?

Thanks!

The walls are papered with £20 a roll stuff from B&Q, really pleased and everyone that sees the room comments on the wallpaper. It has a leather grain effect to it and it's really matt, so all good.

 

[Phil.LFC]

One more thing are you making any form of mask for when watching 2:35 material.

Even though the JVC has fab blacks you may still see the grey/black bars when set against the devore panels.

With your screen being the same as mine you could end up with one 6-8" deep black bar at either the top or bottom of the screen depending on which way you shift the lens.

Hi Keith,

Yes the masking is one of the last jobs I need to do. I've got some Devore left over so I might have a go at using that stuck to some thin strips of UPVC that I've got. Or I could maybe use the fablon stuff or Dunelm velcro.
Just need to sort out some kind of adjustable masking system using velcro/magnets? I was thinking of having a fixed black bar at the top then making the bottom and sides adjustable after what we discussed, I think that seems the best bet. I'll have a play about over the weekend.

I'll post some more pictures later. The carpet fitter is coming back today to finish off the riser area. He ran out of time the other day. He hadn't realised how time consuming it was going to be to carpet around 10 LED lights fitted into the riser! Think I might have to tip him a bit!

 

[kbfern]

If you have enough material left over you could do me a big favour and make a single strip 8ft long x 6-8" wide covered in whatever you have left over after you have done yours.

I will pay for materials etc.I will let you know exact width of strip if you can do it LMK.

 

[Phil.LFC]

Keith,

If I can do it for you I will, but I only have less than a metre of Devore by 114cm wide. An 8' strip would need joins, which is what I may have to do. I'm going to have a mess around over the weekend to see what works best, devore/fablon etc. I'll see how much I've got left after that. You won't have to pay me for anything, I'm still grateful for the time you spent advising me on my project, so if I can do something for you in return I will.

 

[kbfern]

Cheers Phil I really appreciate that mate,it does not have to be devore, fablon or whatever will do.If there has to be a join that's fine too.

 

[Seventy1]

This is looking even better than I expected and I expected it to look good! Great work so far, I'm looking forward to seeing the final pictures.

 

[Wull]

Fantastic work Phil, I'm really impressed

 

[yukichon]

Well done mate, bet you are really enjoying the whole build, I was gutted when mine finally finished

 

[Phil.LFC]

Thanks all, it means a lot to me to know that there are people out there that think I've done a reasonable job.
No yukichon, I won't be "gutted" once it's all done, I'm looking forward far too much to all the movie evenings, but I know what you mean.

More pics:

The carpeted riser area - the carpet fitter did a brilliant job of cutting around the (already fitted) LED lights. It took him about 3 hours just to do that bit of the job, so I gave him a decent tip. I can't recommend this carpet fitting firm enough. It's really nice to find someone that takes pride in their work. (This was actually the first time anyone other than myself had done any kind of work in this room at all. Until then I'd done everything myself)

I've still got screen masking to do, but couldn't help having a play by fitting some equipment into the room. Only 1 floorstander so far because the other one needs one more coat of spray paint but I've run out! The Monolith is enormous, but it sounds ace (even though I've not even set it up properly yet!)

A quick photo of the screen with a scene from Shrek 4 on BD. The devore is doing it's job brilliantly, wish I had enough for the whole room!

I don't think I'm going to post anymore pictures now until it is completely finished, which should be within the next few days, although I've still got to wait for the seating.
This gives me time to set up the amp and everything else properly, and maybe persevere with the Harmony 1100 remote that I purchased but not too happy with.
Now I'm sorry if this is a stupid question, and I can post in the appropriate forum for an answer, but whilst I'm at it, does HDMI cable carry DD/DTS sound? I have had a play about with the amp a little, but it doesn't seem to be picking up DD/DTS. My old amp didn't have HDMI switching so it's all a bit new to me. Do I still need to use digital optical/co-ax cables as well as HDMI?
I've also got a software update disc for the amp, how to I update the software using this??

 

[Phil.LFC]

I forgot to mention that I moved the Monolith into the room and lifted it into position on my own too. Today I am suffering for it though

Don't lift one of those on your own - trust me!

 

[kbfern]

Yes Phil hdmi cable does carry the sound and all the hd codecs too.

You need to have the player send the audio as bitstream for the amp to show what it's receiving, the amp then decodes and will display DTS or whatever is on the disc.

Loving the carpet and I see you have one of those lit equipment display units

 

[markcannan]

Dude, give yourself a huge pat in the back it is fab. Can I ask what shelf you have? Is it home made I.e. The LED lights? Once again it's awesum

 

[Phil.LFC]

Well done mate, bet you are really enjoying the whole build, I was gutted when mine finally finished

Thanks yukichon for your kind comments.

I'm only at the stage I'm at now thanks to people like you inspiring me with your fantastic project. I remember spending hours reading through your thread when i was at the planning stage. I thought then that if I could achieve half of what you've achieved I'd be well happy.

 

[Phil.LFC]

Yes Phil hdmi cable does carry the sound and all the hd codecs too.

You need to have the player send the audio as bitstream for the amp to show what it's receiving, the amp then decodes and will display DTS or whatever is on the disc.

Loving the carpet and I see you have one of those lit equipment display units

Thanks for that Keith. I'll have another mess around with the amp in the next couple of days. I haven't put it back to factory settings yet so maybe the previous owner had different settings. Any idea how to put it back to factory settings?

 

[Phil.LFC]

Dude, give yourself a huge pat in the back it is fab. Can I ask what shelf you have? Is it home made I.e. The LED lights? Once again it's awesum

Hi Mark,

You are too kind, cheers

The cabinet is a Demagio DML120 High Gloss Finish LCD Plasma TV Stand with Illuminated glass (Phew!).

I had intentions of buying one of these stands early on in my planning stage as it looked nice and had adequately deep,high and strong shelves for all of my equipment, with open shelves for good ventilation and the added bonus of LED lighting (I thought the lighting might be a bit tacky/naff but to my surprise it is really cool, there is a row of LED's at the back of each shelf and then the edges of the glass are frosted, so it gives a really good effect and wow factor. The lights are also dimmable which is useful in my dark room, although I'll probably have them off completely during movie viewing).

I was going to buy one of these stands new for £250, but luckily came across one for sale on the classifieds here. It is in as new condition and I paid £130 for it, so well happy

It does seem reasonably good quality too, with thick 12mm glass shelves.

 

[yukichon]

Thanks yukichon for your kind comments.

I'm only at the stage I'm at now thanks to people like you inspiring me with your fantastic project. I remember spending hours reading through your thread when i was at the planning stage. I thought then that if I could achieve half of what you've achieved I'd be well happy.

Well you have done a brilliant job mate , hope that you and your family enjoy all the effort

 

[slave1]

Just wonderful, and all the better you did it yourself, well done

 

[kbfern]

DML120 - Cheap Plasma Screens, Cheap LCD TV, Cheap MP3 Players, Cheap Electrical Goods

This place seems to be doing the demagio for £189 don't know if this is still current offer though if anyone is interested.

 

[inzaman]

Looks excellent, nice to see it from start to finish as well

 

[Phil.LFC]

Thanks once again for the compliments

Just had a phone call today off Furniture Village. They are delivering my seating this Friday

So by the weekend the project will be complete, 100%.

I've still got some screen masking to do, DTS & DD signs to put up, Cat 5 cables to run (Keep putting that job off as it's going to be a right PITA to run them), floorstanders to fill with sand, an update to do on the Onkyo amp, and some tidying of cables. I've bought another 4 way remote controlled extension lead (£16.99 from Homebase) - I'm going to use this one for the sub (The Monolith doesn't power off automatically), the AV Cabinet LED's and have 2 spare. These sockets are great, but are RF so don't work with an all in one remote. That is one reason I've decided to sell the Logitech Harmony 1100 remote I recently bought. (It's currently in the classifieds ).

I've been having a play around with my old Philips Pronto RU940 and it is actually pretty good tbh. I think I'll stick with that for the time being and keep an eye on the IPad/iPhone controls. (We've just bought an iPad, so quite interested in using it for AV control).

I've done a bit of "playing" as well over the last few days. I am blown away by the quality of the PJ picture, it's b***** awesome

The sound system is also making me smile, although I need to do a fair bit of tweaking first. (Can't for the life of me figure out how to get 7.1 DTS from the Toy Story 3 BD & PS3 - tried all the settings but I'm only getting 5.1, which leaves the rear two speakers silent??? I thought the mids would fall silent in 5.1)
Think I need to pop over to another sub forum for some advice/answers.

I've also worked out the total cost for the whole job, and the credit card has taken a beating! Saying that, I've actually come out about 2 grand under what I had budgeted, which is great (The family might get a holiday now ). I think the main reasons I came in under budget is because I did all the work myself (Except the carpet fitting). I did all the plumbing (radiator removal/pipework alterations), electrics, lighting, Air Conditioning installation, riser construction, insulation, decoration, pelmets, skirting, window boarding up, and even moved the Monolith on my own.....phew, no wonder I'm wacked
So I saved a hell of a lot on labour costs that I'd originally budgeted. I also saved by sourcing a lot of my equipment secondhand, and I kept my current speakers and sprayed them black.

I now can't wait to get the seating in place, watch this space for piccies Friday

 

[Seventy1]

Well done on doing majority of the work yourself! Very impressive!

Can't wait to see the pics

 

[maclover]

Phil cracking setup.
Love it.

Can't wait to hopefully be able to move into my own house in the Summer..

And potentially have something like this.

Get these pics up!

 

[rf69]

Fantasic room looks better than my local cinema

can't wait to see it 100% finished

 

[Phil.LFC]

Thanks again, your kind comments mean a lot to me

Just finished fitting the sound absorbing wall panels and the DTS/Dolby Digital signs. Fitted spikes to the Monolith and mounted it on the Auralex Gramma stand, fits nicely. Filled one of my floorstanders with sand, it now weighs a ton!

A couple more little jobs to do tomorrow. I might post one or two more photos tomorrow even though I said I'd wait until the seats were in place.