# First HT in Northern Colorado



## marlin1881 (Feb 15, 2013)

My first HT is going to be a lot of fun, and the goals of my project look quite do-able.

1) This HT will not be in a dedicated theater room, but more of a large family room and bar setup. Dimensions are roughly 33' x 13', with a U-shaped couch at 15' back from the screen. The rest of the room will be setup for tall tables and a wall-side kitchen/bar.

2) This room will have kids and adults, so I'd like some advice on "protecting" the electronics and speakers from the kiddos. It's amazing how kids have this engrained ability to walk up to a perfectly good speaker, and poke it with their finger. An option for this could be to chain a doberman to each speaker, but that could be looked at as extreme. Otherwise, do any of you have some way of protecting the speakers without taking away from the beautiful sound of my original DCM Time Windows.

3) All connections will be HDMI and I'll use the receiver/amp as the switching device. There will be just one HDMI cable going to the projector.

4) The feature set I'm configuring will include bru-ray, comcast, PC (getting an HDMI video card), and Mac mini (with DVI to HDMI, and component audio).

5) There will be a wired network connection to a 4-port switch, dedicated to accessing Pandora, NetFlix, etc., from BD, amp, PC, and Mac.

This is coming together quite nicely, and is greatly simplified by going all HDMI.

Any ideas on protecting the speakers would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Doug


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## ALMFamily (Oct 19, 2011)

marlin1881 said:


> My first HT is going to be a lot of fun, and the goals of my project look quite do-able.
> 
> 1) This HT will not be in a dedicated theater room, but more of a large family room and bar setup. Dimensions are roughly 33' x 13', with a U-shaped couch at 15' back from the screen. The rest of the room will be setup for tall tables and a wall-side kitchen/bar.
> 
> ...


Doug,

With that kind of length for the room, I would consider do an AT screen wall and hiding the L/C/R as well as the subs behind the screen (assuming you are doing a projector/screen combo). I would then look at mounting the surrounds on-wall.


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## marlin1881 (Feb 15, 2013)

This has been a very fun construction project. One half of the 30' room will be a theater, and the other half will be a bar area, with a corner fireplace. The full length of the room will have direct viewing of the 100" diagonal screen.

The studs are up, plumbing/electrical/HVAC is finished as of today. There is a 12" deep by 24" wide soffit running around the entire room, with a soffit "dividing" the room in the middle. Just in front of that is where the projector goes. The 5.1 rear speakers will be in the middle soffit.

I'm only doing HDMI and will be adding a receiver to do that for me. Don't have it just yet. My DCM Time Windows will be the front L/R, and a Harms Lab (local speaker mfg) will be the Center. Don't have the rear channel speakers yet.

I've got to go run some more cables, and lay in some pull ropes for the "just-in-case" new cables that might be needed.

Hat channel will be on the ceiling of the entire basement, as I don't want to even think about wishing I would have done it, later. It will also be insulated, and double-sheetrocked in places as well.

Yes, we're having fun. You all are invited over to watch Skyfall (for my 5th time) in mid-April.  Bar will be finished then too, so I'll supply the beer! :wave:


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## ALMFamily (Oct 19, 2011)

marlin1881 said:


> This has been a very fun construction project. One half of the 30' room will be a theater, and the other half will be a bar area, with a corner fireplace. The full length of the room will have direct viewing of the 100" diagonal screen.
> 
> The studs are up, plumbing/electrical/HVAC is finished as of today. There is a 12" deep by 24" wide soffit running around the entire room, with a soffit "dividing" the room in the middle. Just in front of that is where the projector goes. The 5.1 rear speakers will be in the middle soffit.
> 
> ...


Sounds great! Pictures though or it never happened!  We love pictures........


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## marlin1881 (Feb 15, 2013)

Basement construction is coming along nicely, as all the sheetrock and texture is finished, and the trim work is finishing up today. Painters arrive tomorrow.

Observations on sound isolation:

- Hat channel is well worth it, as it separates the ceiling sheetrock from the floor joists. Bottom line is that the noise is NOT transferred through the floor, to the upstairs living room area. Big difference. I wished I had some way to quantify the results, but for now, I'm just relaying an observation on floor vibration and sound. Of course, the constant test sample is the first 10 minutes of Skyfall!

- Again, I don't have any hard data to prove the effect, but insulating all walls will probably prove beneficial.

- I've had my entire audio/video system setup and removed, 3 times now, just to make sure everything works properly. Actually, a rather fun exercise, and I get to experience a 100" screen for the weekend!

- With hard floors and no furniture, the sound reflections are BRUTAL. One of the first upgrades I need to consider are the center channel speaker, and I NEED to add a good subwoofer.

More info coming...


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## marlin1881 (Feb 15, 2013)

Painting is now complete with a primary tan color, and a light brown for accent. The ceiling soffits really look nice, and might provide some bit of damper to the sound reflection free-roam down the 30'x15' room.

I am looking at some fabric panels for the soffit edges, and decorative pieces on the walls. The walls are textured, but I'm not sure how much help that will be for damping the sound. I didn't have much of a choice, so that's the way it will be.


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## marlin1881 (Feb 15, 2013)

And, now for some HDMI entertainment... I used a 25' HDMI cable as I felt it would be enough, with some additional length for corners, equipment connections, etc. Rats! Looks like I'm about 8" short, and that's after I was originally about 15" short, and confiscated every nook and cranny to get to 8" short. So, I had an extra 6' HDMI cable, and bought a connector for the two. Now, plenty of length. BUTtttt.... The 20Hz signal works fine, but my 60Hz signal doesn't always work, and I get some bad flicker on my projector. I tried a 3' cable and that helped, but it appears that I'm just on the edge of the length for my HDMI signal, coming out of my Yamaha RX-V673 receiver. I'm looking at signal boosters for my HDMI-out cable, so if any of you have recommendations, I'm open to ideas.


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## marlin1881 (Feb 15, 2013)

I'm painting my own projector screen, and the research I've done indicated that the Sherwin Williams Pro Classic Extra-white Satin is the way to go. First indications are that it will work quite well.

Now, keep in mind that I'm super picky about this, so I've got 2 coats on it now (roller), and if I didn't say anything to anyone else looking at the screen, they wouldn't notice. But, I can still barely see some of the tape/plaster marks, and only with the right angle with the right amount of light. Direct-on, with a movie playing, you can't see it at all.

To cut to the chase, I'm going to lightly sand it one more time, and spray on my last coat. I need to buy a sprayer anyway, since I want to paint my garage. Since this satin paint is "self-leveling", I should have a perfect screen here in the next day or so.

I'm going to use some trim wood around the edges, painted flat jet black. Since the screen area is recessed into the wall by 6", this trim should look quite nice. I'll get some pics up soon.


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## BD55 (Oct 18, 2011)

Monoprice has some long HDMI cables  with Redmere tech which supposedly works really well, and they are decently priced. Worth taking a look at.


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## foraye (Jun 16, 2008)

BD55 said:


> Monoprice has some long HDMI cables  with Redmere tech which supposedly works really well, and they are decently priced. Worth taking a look at.


+1

I just installed a 30' ultra high speed w/redmere. its a directional cable source>display. Working so far.


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## marlin1881 (Feb 15, 2013)

I'll look into the directional redmere cable, as I really don't need any 2-way communication to/from the project. At least, I don't think so. You guys could talk me out of this, but I think I'd rather go the redmere cable route, versus adding a signal booster.


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## MrAngles (May 1, 2012)

Redmere cable doesn't improve signal strength, it just allows longer cables with a lower gauge. Also, even though it's directional in terms of video signal, it still does return audio and HDMI link data 2-way communication just like a regular cable as far as I know. I've used regular 24 gauge 50 foot HDMI cables without a single issue for years. Either one should work for you more reliably than multiple cables and a booster. If a thick cable isn't a problem for you, just get a 30 foot cable from monoprice for $25. If you need the flexibility of a thinner cable, pay $20 extra for the redmere.


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## marlin1881 (Feb 15, 2013)

MrAngles said:


> Redmere cable doesn't improve signal strength, it just allows longer cables with a lower gauge. Also, even though it's directional in terms of video signal, it still does return audio and HDMI link data 2-way communication just like a regular cable as far as I know. I've used regular 24 gauge 50 foot HDMI cables without a single issue for years. Either one should work for you more reliably than multiple cables and a booster. If a thick cable isn't a problem for you, just get a 30 foot cable from monoprice for $25. If you need the flexibility of a thinner cable, pay $20 extra for the redmere.


Interesting... Maybe I really do have a cable problem then, as I'm not running near the length you discuss above. I've got to finish my project screen today/tomorrow, and then I'll hit up the HDMI cable this weekend. Looks like the carpet won't be installed until Wed of next week, but I can setup my system over this weekend as everything should be out of the way of the contractors, I believe.


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## MrAngles (May 1, 2012)

marlin1881 said:


> Interesting... Maybe I really do have a cable problem then, as I'm not running near the length you discuss above. I've got to finish my project screen today/tomorrow, and then I'll hit up the HDMI cable this weekend. Looks like the carpet won't be installed until Wed of next week, but I can setup my system over this weekend as everything should be out of the way of the contractors, I believe.


Yeah my guess is that the 6 foot cable is the problem. Even though I terminate my long run HDMI cables with wallplates and have shorter cables from the wall to my components, my shorter cables are 26 gauge with ferrite cores, so that might be a factor. But your best scenario is always to have as few couplings as possible, if nothing else it reduces the possible problem areas which makes troubleshooting a lot easier.


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## marlin1881 (Feb 15, 2013)

So, the projector screen painting project hasn't gone so well. I'm using the Sherwin Williams Satin Latex, and the color/sheen seems to be quite good. But, I've rolled it on a couple of times, but I'm not satisfied with the results. 

Since I'm going to paint the inside of my garage later this spring, I bought a Wagner sprayer. Thought I'd use it for the projector screen. SW had me thin it 5% for use in this sprayer, and this worked very well. Teh screen was looking absolutely perfect. Until... The last sweep of the sprayer made a mess, as I had just run out of paint, it seems. Ended up with some serious splatter on the screen. I tried "walking" the blobs to the bottom by creating "runs" and soaking them up with paper towels. Problem is that in forcing the runs to the bottom, I created a couple of other runs that didn't work down so well. Bottom line is that I've got to sand out some runs and spray on another coat.

I would say that it would be better to be light on the paint, than trying to deal with runs. I'll let you all know how this turns out.


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## marlin1881 (Feb 15, 2013)

Theater is in production, and I've got to say, it is now my favorite room in the house. I am hooked on the 100" screen. And, the 5.1 system works very well. BlueRay to HD TV to HDMI PC all meet, or exceed, my expectations.

Couple of things still needed are a easy-to-close curtains on the sliding doors to the patio, and a theater curtain to block some sound from coming up the stairs. Actually, it would only be needed during "loud" movies. Since the carpet has been installed, it's amazing at how quiet you can run the audio while watching the NCAA tourney, but yet everyone in the entire room can hear the action, and still carry on a conversation without bugging everyone else.

Skyfall has been my BD movie for testing, and I'm probably ready for a new flick, since I've seen the movie 8 times now... :gulp:


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## ALMFamily (Oct 19, 2011)

Sounds great - any pics by chance? :bigsmile:

As far as other movies, I would give DOTM a spin - great reference material IMO.


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