Pictures, pictures, pictures!

Sparky · 13-12-2006 7:28pm #1

It comes to a stage when you want to show off what you have. Many of us may have our HC setup perfect in respect of a TV mounted on the wall, amp, dvd, decoders in a nice glass shelf or a hidden cupboard and then again many of us may just have it setup that its watchable and listenable.

Whatever way, we don't mind. This is all about showing what you have.
G'wan, get the camera out and snap and post up your results.

They say curiosity killed the cat, but not in here

The Ritz · 13-12-2006 9:35pm

Good idea............ I'll be back shortly...:)

Ritz

The Ritz · 13-12-2006 10:04pm

Hope this works.............

I have had a dedicated movie room for the past 4 - 5 years, running a projector (originally a Panasonic AE100, now running a Sanyo PLV Z3) and an 80" wide screen. The screen is fixed on a "screenwall" about 30cm from one of the walls of the movie room - this allowed me to hide my "movie" pc, amp, sub and LCR speakers so that when you sit down to watch a movie, all you see is the image, no distractions. The PC runs using a wireless mouse (and keyboard, only used for software updates). I got a lot of help getting my PC issues sorted at the beginning of the journey, and have learnt a good deal over the last couple of years. The PC now plays dvds, upcscaled to match the projector, and recently has been upgraded as a satellite receiver with PVR, including the BBC HD trial.

When I built the screenwall initially, the screen was 16:9 and visits and discussions with Vexorg led to the use of fixed-width variable masking as illustrated in the pictures below.

This picture shows the screen and equipment without the coverings of the screen wall in place. The top and bottom masks are connected to each other with nylon cords - when the top one moved down, the bottom one moves up, showing a 2.35:1 aspect ratio, as shown in the picture below:

The advantage of this arrangement is that the image on the screen is surrounded by a black border, whatever the aspect ratio of the movie - it's a simple matter of moving the masks into position at the start of the movie.

The "wall" is covered in black velvet panels, one across the top, a narrow one on each side of the screen, and three across the lower part - these are held in place with "ball and socket" type catches and the lot can be dismantled in a couple of seconds if need be. The whole lot has been remarkable robust, no "unplanned" dis-assembly (!) since I put it in place.

The following pictures show it in action - thes are quite old pictures and are not intended as "screenshots" to show off the projector, just to give an idea of the overall effect:

Spiderman (1.85:1)

And Lord of the Rings (2.35:1)

Ritz.

aidan_walsh · 13-12-2006 10:08pm

The Ritz wrote:

...

The Ritz · 13-12-2006 10:14pm

Aidan,

A picture is as good as a thousand words............

Ritz.

Sparky · 14-12-2006 2:59am

You make fellow mod jealous.

That masking works well.

My own however is a work in progress as you will see

[img][/img]

The camera makes it look smallish.

(wait till that garage becomes clear I tell ya

)

The Ritz · 14-12-2006 11:09am

Lookin' good

Get that garage cleared !!!! Everyone knows that garages are God's way of telling us to have home cinemas.

I have plans for a plasma/LCD install in the sitting room, hoping to get around to it in the New Year. There's something very classy about a wall mounted screen with no wires/trunking showing. What model is the tv ? Where from ?

Ritz.

prospect · 14-12-2006 11:37am

Ritz, that set-up is awesome..... I am reeling with jealousy here....

Sparky, that is a real neat set-up. No wires always looks cracking. Also, your socket is crooked... ;o)

Rabies · 14-12-2006 11:41am

Ritz, that is some set up.
All you needed was a couple of reclining armchairs to finish it.

delly · 14-12-2006 12:39pm

Ritz, that looks sweet. Fair play to you.

Sparky your making good progress there alright, I like the wall mountings but you should really get onto your electrician as mounting a socket in such a crooked angle shouldn't be allowed

.

The Ritz · 14-12-2006 3:14pm

All you needed was a couple of reclining armchairs to finish it.

... Mrs. Ritz gave me a present of two black leather Lazeeboys when we got the room finished.......

very comfy. I'll try to put together some more pictures of the other end of the room over the next day or two.

The room now needs to be freshened up and I'd like to install fabric covered panels on the walls, a dark ceiling and some concealed lighting but work and family committments keep getting in the way - I suppose that's what New Year Resolutions are for...................

Ritz.

Rabies · 15-12-2006 1:05am

The Ritz wrote:

... Mrs. Ritz gave me a present of two black leather Lazeeboys when we got the room finished....... very comfy. I'll try to put together some more pictures of the other end of the room over the next day or two.

I hate you.

What is next, a popcorn machine?

Bah, I only have a cheap ass 14" tv I bought for NZ$140 a few weeks ago. I miss my entertainment gear back home

Guy:Incognito · 15-12-2006 1:33am

Unfortunately my set up is still in my bedroom till I sort myslf out with a house.

The view is from my leather recliner thats under my bed (Argos double bed thats 5' off the ground)

Tv is Sony KDFE50A11
On the stand I have my ps2, gamecube and Sony Dvp-NS92

On the left I have My amp, Sony STR-DB795
DVD Recorder, Sony RDR-GX300
Sony DVD Player I use as an SACD Player DVP-NS705
Then my Skybox(no sub)
NTL Digibox and Lidl sat box.

I used to work in a Sony centre, hence all the Sony.

The shelf above the tv is cluttered at the min and has my Sony centre and fronts.

Have my rear r and l as and the 2 rear centresmounted in an arc behind me. and the sub down to the right of my chair.

Hopefully will be getting a house in the next year or so and the 50" will be replaced by the new 70" version as well as a speaker upgrade.

Have to sort a door for the top half of the unit to teh left to stop y clothes showing.

and have to remount the board with my 3 optics on my wall.

pH · 22-12-2006 5:33pm

First of all ... wall mounted (DIY) plasma (look ma - no wires!) in the living room. I hardly ever use this, I prefer to watch even normal TV in the 'cinema'.

Now the Home Cinema, a custom room off the living room. This is the view in, this shot has the curtains open. The room is a dark purple to reduce the light splash from the PJ. Also there is lighting (red and white) all round the ceiling that 'glows'. This is all the lighting the room has while the PJ is on to get you in that cinema mood.

This is all DIY, dome my myself and a mate about 2 years ago now.

Seating is an L shaped leather couch. There is a custom high table behind the seating which holds all the equipment.

Ceiling mounted Panasonic AE900, also 4 Monitor audio bronze rears and the AV gear at rear of room.

Yamaha RX750 amp, Sky HD and an oldish pioneer DVD.

Screen is an 8x4 piece of MDF slightly trimmed to make it 16:9 and painted with ice storm 2 (a grey paint!)

Screen with lights dimmed

Million Dollar Baby

Yes I know the pics are crap, it's a camera phone, and I can't seem to take a picture of the room in all its glowy/dimly lit glory, but you should at least get a general idea from the above.

Slaphead07 · 22-12-2006 6:40pm

all very impressive.... I'm currently renovating an old house and the attic will be a cinema. I must take "before" pictures.. on the plus side I can take those pics from the bedrooms below at the moment!:eek:

The Ritz · 22-12-2006 6:43pm

pH,

Very nice set-up, love the look of the plasma.............. I tried a grey screen a couple of years ago but wasn't happy with the result - lots of folk like them though so it really is a matter of personal preference. Sound system is also impressive....... cool !

Ritz.

karltimber · 01-01-2007 3:39pm

ok - so it's not exactly a cinema like the rest of ye have but not-the-less, its what I have wanted for quite a while.

New samsung 37" lcd with a 5.1 surround system (cheap one).
Connected to a very quiet Media PC which I have networked to my pc upstairs. 5 hard drives in total with all my music (40gb), pics ,films (250 of them) and music videos (300 of them) and shows (csi,lost etc) all on these hard drives.
Media pc sound is thru the 5.1 system in the room.
Sky digital coming over next two weeks as analogue is crap.

K

ps - the joystick is my kids :rolleyes:

The Denouncer · 24-01-2007 9:56am

The main issue here was a well known one - create a good all round powerful system, but wife friendly! Did I succeed? Yes, I believe I did.

Front View:

This contains 2 DVDs players (Sony 735 and Pioneer 525 attached to plasma components -> VGA)..all the audio is Yamaha, from the YST-NC1 amp for the fronts, to the E-492 for the center and rears. The speakers are all Yamaha, the speaker cable is 168 strand from Lektropacks.
The Pioneer CD player is actually a Laserdisc player but an excellent separate CD player! Also in there is Yamaha subwoofer (there is a stereo phono switcher sitting on top of it for non-5.1 movies) and center speaker (behind plasma) and a Sharp VCR (I know..). The digi-box beside Pioneer DVD player on floor under unit is Chorus (RGB Scart goes into a component YUV convertor). Other few things in there is a videosender, a 5.1 headphone amp (the 2 DVD players 5.1 phonos go through it on the way to the amp), an Archos AV attachment (all small and barely visible), and of course the great Scrat from Ice Age, lapping up the wine! The screen is a Hitachi 42PMA400E plasma monitor, which has brilliant definition.
I've had most of this equipment quite a while but a cable upgrade is all I did for the moment - it looks and sounds great!

Front Angle:

Again, wife friendly. Most important thing - keep all cables under wraps. The plasma can be swivelled to face guests if need be.

Rear Left Speaker

A corner shelf, a plank = a grand speaker stand. This required approx 10 metres of cable to the amp.

Rear Right Speaker:

Approx 6 metres of speaker cable. They run along the groove in front of the patio door.

Rear Angle:

Again, clean for the missus! Yet effective. There is a Philips universal remote on the table, controls almost everything.

The Ritz · 25-01-2007 2:12am

Denouncer,

I've edited your post to make the pictures display, and very nice they are too....... a family-friendly install, cool.

Ritz.

The Denouncer · 25-01-2007 9:26am

Thanks Ritz, I was going to make them display but didn't want to overload the thread!
I'm very impressed with your own set-up - I had a projector a few years ago, and will probably get one again in the future if I can build a dedicated space.

And pH - great job but..an unused plasma! :eek:

The Denouncer · 31-01-2007 9:36am

Moved center speaker around to the front blocking the slave amp, you can also see the little headphone amp in this brighter photo.

steosavage · 11-02-2007 1:56pm

the sitting room

steosavage · 11-02-2007 2:00pm

3 more

steosavage · 11-02-2007 2:03pm

the bedroom

buzzard · 26-02-2007 8:29pm

Here's my own system

Sony 37" Plasma
Multi Region Sony QS DVD Player
Sony DVD-R
Sony QS 6.1 channel Receiver
2 Sky decoders

All cables are buried in the wall.

JDxtra · 28-02-2007 9:32pm

buzzard wrote:

Here's my own system

Sony 37" Plasma
Multi Region Sony QS DVD Player
Sony DVD-R
Sony QS 6.1 channel Receiver
2 Sky decoders

All cables are buried in the wall.

Nice cabling. Where did you get the wall plates?

buzzard · 01-03-2007 12:45am

JDxtra,

For the video signal, bought the face plates from www.cpc.co.uk. These plates carry RF signal, composite and component video. Soldered Mini-COAX RG59 & SAT100 to carry RF, composite & component video from DVD, decoders etc. to TV. Also have HDMI cable behind the wall for future upgrades.

For the audio, I made this plate myself. I purchased a double gang blank face plate and audio connectors from www.radionics.ie and mounted these connectors in the face plate and soldered the speaker cable coming from the speakers located around the room.

The whole lot cost around €60 but it looks neat and tidy.

JDxtra · 01-03-2007 1:35pm

buzzard wrote:

The whole lot cost around €60 but it looks neat and tidy.

Cool, good job.

Does the attached picture show your Sat cables coming in?

Did you buy a single-gang plate and just cut it? It looks like the cables are running direct from your dish/aerial (which I presume will give the best signal as there are no breaks).

buzzard · 01-03-2007 2:06pm

The black cable that you see is the SAT cable coming from the disc and then distributes to the plasma screen, kitchen and upstairs.

The face plate was just cut to accomondate the cable or else you can buy bulkhead F connectors and mount them on the face plate ( similar looking to the speaker connector )

digitaldr · 01-06-2007 12:52pm

Hi Buzzard - nice job - very neat. I'm looking to hide away my AV equipment too. Are you using some sort of remote extender or is the IR signal able to get through the frosted glass??

buzzard · 01-06-2007 1:57pm

digitaldr,

All remotes work fine through the frosted glass, however when I am using the AMP I leave the door open as it generates alot of heat.

mossym · 20-09-2007 5:32pm

okay, i'm in the middle of putting together my home cinema in my new house. here's a few pics of progress so far. if anyone is interested i can start a thread with updates.

waiting on carpet, hopefully next week...a lot of stuff to do but i'm getting there...

Sparky · 21-09-2007 12:41am

Looking good mossym

A Dub in Glasgo · 25-09-2007 10:16pm

I finally got my integral garage converted into a room a couple of weeks ago. Somehow, I managed to persude my wife to use it as a Home Cinema room as well as a normal sitting room. I am still waiting on my sofa and display cabinet but here goes

I bought the following equipment;

Benq W100 Projector (720p & 1080i): £270 (2nd hand)
Kef 2005.2 5.1 speakers: £400
Oppo 971H upscaling DVD player: £83 (2nd hand)
Yamaha DSP-AX759E Receiver: £221
6ft projector screen (blackout blind): £35

Click on a thumbnail

Garroldy · 26-09-2007 11:53pm

We extended the kitchen into an open plan kitchen/dining/living area. Heres my 50" Samsung 1080i, looking around for a components for surround at the mo, with sky + in at the weekend. Hopefully up and running soon. I'll keep u posted.

Conor108 · 20-10-2007 1:12pm

That looks very nice Garroldy!

Running Bing · 02-11-2007 9:26pm

A Dub in Glasgo wrote: »

I finally got my integral garage converted into a room a couple of weeks ago. Somehow, I managed to persude my wife to use it as a Home Cinema room as well as a normal sitting room. I am still waiting on my sofa and display cabinet but here goes

I bought the following equipment;

Benq W100 Projector (720p & 1080i): £270 (2nd hand)
Kef 2005.2 5.1 speakers: £400
Oppo 971H upscaling DVD player: £83 (2nd hand)
Yamaha DSP-AX759E Receiver: £221
6ft projector screen (blackout blind): £35

Click on a thumbnail

Nice set up ADING:)

Are those speakers the KEF 3005's?

am i bovvered · 14-11-2007 8:16pm

Thanks for all the advice...this is the den... panasonic ptax100e bought on adverts, Yamaha rx-v361 surround sound, computer, ps3 & wii.:D

camera 14-11-07 014.JPG

camera 14-11-07 015.JPG

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camera 14-11-07 018.JPG

am i bovvered · 14-11-2007 8:23pm

This is the sitting room, started to run out of funds.. 40" Beko I bought new for €799 last week

camera 14-11-07 021.JPG

camera 14-11-07 022.JPG

camera 14-11-07 024.JPG

Thanks

big_moe · 15-11-2007 12:24am

Garroldy wrote: »

We extended the kitchen into an open plan kitchen/dining/living area. Heres my 50" Samsung 1080i, looking around for a components for surround at the mo, with sky + in at the weekend. Hopefully up and running soon. I'll keep u posted.

Hi Garroldy,

where did you get that unit above the tv?? any links to the manufacturer website??

im looking for something exactly like that to store DVDs.

cheers
moe

am i bovvered · 20-11-2007 7:10pm

Hi Mossym,
I really like the look of the screen you have, where did you get it ?, at the moment I am just using the wall, the picture is alot better than I expected
But it has to improve with the screen.
Thanks

mossym · 21-11-2007 4:00pm

lucky i had a subscription to this thread or i'd never have seen your question. don't come in here anymore..

carada screen, shipped from the states, excellent quality for not a lot of money(compared to some makes). think mine cost around 700 dollars for 110" before taxes and shipping...

Homer · 21-11-2007 4:10pm

Depends whether you eant a manual or motorised screen and also whether you want 4:3 or 16:9?

Pull down screen 100" diagonal 2030 x 1520 cm = é199

Motorised screen 120" diagonal 2338 x 1755 = é500
Remote control add another é100 (i.e. not use manual switch)

Sky is the limit when it comes to screens in terms of quality and price!

By the way mossy.. your screen looks superb!

mossym · 22-11-2007 9:54am

cheers, part of the reason for buying this house was to have a room to put a fixed large screen in. blows me away every time. if you have to hide the screen there are some excellent options out there, but nothing beats a fixed screen

am i bovvered · 22-11-2007 5:24pm

Mossym
I was happy with my set up until I had a good look at your screen, is it the 16:9 size that you have ? and is the measurement diagonal ?
If so I got a measure of 111"
Do you know the Carada model you went for ?
Any tips welcome,
Thanks

mossym · 22-11-2007 5:44pm

here are the details from my order

1 PROJECTION-SCREEN-H110C 110 Inch Diagonal Criterion Series Projection Screen - 1.78 to 1
Unshipped

Projection Screen Material Classic Cinema White
$764.88

as you can see i went with the criterion, which is the slightly more expensive one, but i figured you can change your projector whenever you want, but get a decent enough screen and it should be good for quite a few projectors. i'm happy out with the setup, the screen is top notch. i've got a panasonic ax100 on the ceiling at the moment, and the image quality is excellent. transofrmers shown above is from hddvd

am i bovvered · 23-11-2007 2:31pm

Thanks for all that info, the screen looks class, more expensive than I expected but I'm telling myself the euro is strong against the dollor

mossym · 23-11-2007 2:34pm

same as everything, there are cheaper, depends on quality you want i guess.oh btw that price is unshipped...think it was200 extra for shipping to ireland. i had a friend who was moving home from america bring it in his container for me so only cost me to get it delivered in america..

johnnyflav · 23-12-2007 3:54am

Been looking at this forum with interest for a while now, just got my new Xbox installed and figured it's now good enough to be shown. (It's 'Hot Fuzz' HD DVD on the telly and the photos don't do any justice to the actual picture quality)

My install is fairly basic, can't afford much of a budget while still in college(a lot of it is second hand). The kit is as follows:
TV: Sony 40' LCD 40S2010
Surround: Sony 5.1 HT-DDW790
Consoles: Xbox 360 Elite with HD DVD add on, 60GB Sony PS3, Nintendo Wii
Switcher: Joytech 245C
Sky HD
DVD-K9 Multi region player
and a Logitech Harmony 525 to control them all

My set-up

Also in the slide show is my signed poster for Donnie Darko, bought at auction a couple of years ago.

Dunno what people think about this place, whether they have any suggestions or comments...or if you'd like to see more photos.

BTW, mossym, love that home cinema you got going, one day I'll have something to rival that.

silvine · 10-01-2008 5:36pm

Where did you get that TV stand Johnny and how much was it? I've the same amp as you and when I setup I realised there is now no space for my XBox and the DVD player. So they're on the floor!

Also, mind if I ask how you are connecting all that up to the mains? Did you get a special extension leed for those appliances? I'm using two extension leads plugged into two sockets for eight appliances. And it's a mess of wires and cables.

JDxtra · 11-01-2008 10:35am

Looks like a stand from Sony Centre.

That's a fairly decent setup... and on a student budget! :eek: I'd like to see what you could do when you are earning a decent wage....

Pictures, pictures, pictures!

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