# The Resale Theater



## aLittletank (Dec 25, 2011)

In September we closed on our new home that included a 16x13 media room. I am in the USAF so I know that we will be selling this house in 4-6 years when we move again. Although we are doing what we think our family would enjoy most decisions are still made with resale in mind. 

Theater goals
1. Good video &Good audio- of course
2. Must look and feel like a theater - first impression for buyers
3. Spend as little as possible - investment vrs return (5k max)


Some work has been done over the last couple months... I will load pics soon


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## Dale Rasco (Apr 11, 2009)

Do you want to go with a projector or a flat panel of some sort?


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## aLittletank (Dec 25, 2011)

Here is the floorplan. The media/theater room is upstairs off of the game room.


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## aLittletank (Dec 25, 2011)

Can't post pics yet I guess...



Dale Rasco said:


> Do you want to go with a projector or a flat panel of some sort?



I went with a Mitts hc 4000 and a 110" Jamestown screen. This seems to work well for our application.
so its shaped like this haha

l--------\
l 
l 
l 
l_oooo_ l


The oooo represents two large windows and the \ is the door located in the corner of the room. The plan was to close the blinds, cover the window opens with blackout material and then hang the screen one the window area.


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## aLittletank (Dec 25, 2011)

oh sure! now the floor plan shows up. haha :sarcastic:


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## Dale Rasco (Apr 11, 2009)

So do you have anything now with regard to A/V gear? Speakers, receiver, etc..


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## aLittletank (Dec 25, 2011)

We thought about a lot of options and soon realized that $3000 in soundproofing was not an investment that we were going to make into this house. So.....The first order of business was to paint the room flat black. 

BEFORE









AFTER









It took 3 coats to get the blotchy areas you can see in the pic smoothed out.


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## Dale Rasco (Apr 11, 2009)

This is my recommendation based on your budget. 

*Projector*
BenQ W6000 $1499
http://www.visualapex.com/BenQ/Projector-Specifications.asp?For-The=W6000

*Screen*
Elite 110" $349
http://www.amazon.com/Elite-Screens...TZ3S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1325286875&sr=8-1

*Receiver*
Denon 2312 $549 http://www.accessories4less.com/mak...tegrated-Network-A/V-Surround-Receiver/1.html

*Speakers*
Mains $498
http://www.axiomaudio.com/m22.html

Center $434
http://www.axiomaudio.com/vp150.html

Rear $368
http://www.axiomaudio.com/m3.html

*Subs* $899
Dual Epik Legends
http://www.epiksubwoofers.com/legend.html

*Bluray* $249
PS3 

Total $4845

Of course this does't include things like mounts, speaker wire, etc. But this would be a very good system. If you could squeeze a bit more out of your budget I would go with towers and maybe some different surrounds.


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## Dale Rasco (Apr 11, 2009)

The paint looks good. Are you going to plug the window?


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## aLittletank (Dec 25, 2011)

Dale Rasco said:


> So do you have anything now with regard to A/V gear? Speakers, receiver, etc..


Yep, I listed it all from in my profile. Here is a copy 

Avr- denon 1910
Subwoofer- DIY lilmike's F-20 with Bash 300 amp
LR fronts. Behringer Truth 2030p
Center- OLD paradigm center ( i know, i know, it should match...)
LR rears-wharfedale wh2

Projector- Mitts Hc4000
Screen- Jamestown 110" white
Htpc With blu ray drive and Hdmi output 
Wii 

Chairs- Rtheaters.com Lagoons 4 in a IOIOOIOI configuration.


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## Dale Rasco (Apr 11, 2009)

Sorry I missed the profile information and maybe I missed the point of your post. Is this a tracking thread? I thought you were looking for suggestions. I apologize if I got that whole thing wrong. I can remove the suggestion post.


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## aLittletank (Dec 25, 2011)

No it's all good, don't remove your suggestions. They may help others or even me In the future. 


I guess the point right now is for me to share my progress thus far and then get help with the stuff left to do. 


I will try to get the thread up to date tonight.


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## aLittletank (Dec 25, 2011)

Dale Rasco said:


> The paint looks good. Are you going to plug the window?


No, I considered plugs but for our situation I decided not plug. We closed the blinds, covered the window openings with blackout material and then hung the screen over the windowed area. We painted the blackouts with the same flat black because a couple inches of material came below the screen.


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## aLittletank (Dec 25, 2011)

waste not, want not...



Our next step was to dye the brand new "builder beige" carpet. I contacted the only place I could find on the whole entire inter webs that sold carpet dye and asked for black. My lovely assistant and I applied 3 coats of the dye...

1








2








3










We are very happy with the results especially when you consider the dye was $50.00 This is one of many DIY projects that are keeping the Resale Theater on budget.


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## doublejroc (Feb 5, 2011)

Carpet dye. Awesome! I did not know that stuff existed. How was it applied? Looks good!


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## aLittletank (Dec 25, 2011)

doublejroc said:


> Carpet dye. Awesome! I did not know that stuff existed. How was it applied? Looks good!


Thanks, the process took a few hours. The dye is a 2 part system- a carpet conditioner and then the dye. We used a carpet cleaner from HD to apply both parts. My wife agitated the carpet with a tiny rake to ensure the conditioner and the dye got down deep into the carpet. On the last pass I applied at 5x the recommended strength and turned the suction off. We then turn a few fans on and left the room alone for 4 days to dry. 

A little bleach and the carpet cleaner was as good as new when I returned it. 


This is the only place I could find with carpet dye. It seams as if they mostly deal with professionals because the last steps on their instruction sheet said to " collect the money and move on to the next job. 

http://www.americolordyes.com/carpet-dyes.html


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## aLittletank (Dec 25, 2011)

There is still more to upload to show our progress but its is late so I will only address the seating now.

front row- Rtheaters Lagoon in Leather, electric recline










back row- right now it is painted MDF for the top however I am getting quotes for different surfaces to to the bar with.










on the to do list-
frame the OC703 
cover the OC 703 with GM 701
build front columns to hide Sub and L R speakers
build soffit around room 
install 12 can lights in soffits


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## Quijibo (Feb 8, 2011)

Just a little FYI, when I was doing renos to sell our house earlier this year, I was doing some reading on what adds most to the value of a home, home theaters were at the bottom of the list.
so don't expect to get much 'added value' out of what you put into it.

Then again, realtors opinions vary and change so often, who knows, maybe now home theaters add a bunch.


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## aLittletank (Dec 25, 2011)

Quijibo said:


> Just a little FYI, when I was doing renos to sell our house earlier this year, I was doing some reading on what adds most to the value of a home, home theaters were at the bottom of the list.
> so don't expect to get much 'added value' out of what you put into it.
> 
> Then again, realtors opinions vary and change so often, who knows, maybe now home theaters add a bunch.



True. Right now media rooms are the flavor of the month in my area and builders are advertising that their floor plans have media rooms. Currently finished media rooms make a house in my area more marketable but not necessarily more valuable. Of the 5K budget probably 75% is equipment that can be taken with us when we leave if the finished media room isn't part of the negotiations.


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## aLittletank (Dec 25, 2011)

Here is my 110" Jamestown screen it took about 2hrs to assemble start to finish. A nice alternative if you are looking for a good screen on a budget. 









You can see the screen tension tabs sticking out above the black velvet boarder. I choose not to cut the tabs but just folded them back behind the screen in case I needed to tighten the screen in the future.


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## aLittletank (Dec 25, 2011)

Let me first admit that I know next to nothing about acoustic treatments but I picked up a box OC 703. I have added raw OC 703 to what I consider the first reflection points and then just put the rest up evenly. My plan is to learn how to measure my room and hopefully get the most out of the treatments... add that to the list of things to do. 

Here are a few pics of the room in its current state. I am on the road now and will post better pics next week when we get home. 

Shot from the doorway












screen shot


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## Dale Rasco (Apr 11, 2009)

Coming along quick and nicely. Screen looks awesome, great job!


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## aLittletank (Dec 25, 2011)

Thanks, we wanted to get it to a usable state ASAP to take advantage of football season. When we are home we tend to take our dinner plates upstairs to the bar to eat while watching a movie, DVRed show or football.

Unfortunately that means that when we decided to do the lights, soffits, columns and mini-stage we will be covering many areas that have been painted and will have to clear the room. Oh well, at least I got to watch my Bears collapse from 7-3 to 7-8 in 110" of 1080P greatness.


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## aLittletank (Dec 25, 2011)

I am having a real hard time getting a pic of this space. Any recommendations on how to take better wide angle pics in a small space would be appreciated. 

from the front left of the screen










from the doorway. My wife calls this wasted space however we both agree that it is really the bare minimum to get in and out of the high chairs while others are seated. 










This is my DIY subwoofer. lilmikes's F-20 with a 15" MFW driver. I will be turning it toward the corner and lengthwise down the wall. The plan is to hide it in a column.


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## aLittletank (Dec 25, 2011)

After a couple months of use I have to address the heat issue in the theater. Although the projector is the only piece of electronics in the room it basically acts as a space heater. After an hour I start to get uncomfortable and have to turn the ac on in the entire house to address the heat issue in the theater.
I posted this at AVS but would love to get input from others here...


I have a couple thoughts that I would love to get some input on.

1)	Hush box with fans vented to the game room. The projector is mounted only 6 inches from the game room wall. I could build a hush box with an intake fan and output fan to the game room. I don’t think that the game room would be affected much as it has vaulted ceilings and is open to the downstairs in two locations. Plus the game room is a much larger space. Cost approximately $150

2)	Mini split ac – Cost approximately $2000 installed this is a budget


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## ALMFamily (Oct 19, 2011)

If you have the clearance to do a hush box, it might be the easiest way to go. As I have found with my mini split research, you will need to make sure you have a place for the indoor unit to drain and there will be some maintenace involved with filters.

However, if you have gone to the effort of soundproofing the space with clips, DD, and GG you might be unwilling to cut a large enough hole in that to allow for the duct to go to the other room. The mini split will also need to have holes, but they are just large enough to put in the 2 copper feeds for the refrigerant from the outdoor unit.

In the end, I guess my opinion is to base the decision on 2 things - your budget and how much sound containment you are looking for. If you do end up going with a mini split, make sure to take a good look at the SER rating as this tells you how efficient the unit will be. I was able to find a place that sells a Mr Slim 9000 BTU unit rated at 26 SER for just under $1500. If you want, I can PM you a link.


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## aLittletank (Dec 25, 2011)

I would appreciate the link. Sound containment isn't really an issue as I decided not to spend the money on dd and gg.


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## forty4420 (Feb 17, 2012)

Looks a lot like mine! I love it. That screen is nice for $219 (from site)..


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## aLittletank (Dec 25, 2011)

We framed and covered the acoustic panels. One sheet of plywood cut into 2.5" strips was enough to make frames for 9 panels. 8 yards of GOM was used to cover the panels as well.


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## aLittletank (Dec 25, 2011)

The next project is a hush box to vent the PJ heat out if the room. Then soffits and recessed lighting will be installed. I am keeping my eyes open for a good deal on a used grafik eye to control 4 zones.


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## aLittletank (Dec 25, 2011)

I need some input and ideas to improve my surround speakers performance. I believe the problem is position and probably less than desired output from the rear speakers.

Currently I am set up with 5.1 using Wharfedale WH2 speakers for my surrounds. I understand that the rears should not be heard most of the time and while sitting at the rear bar the surrounds are noticeable when they should be. The surrounds disappear when we move to the recliners in front of the bar. The main problem is that even though I have the surrounds above ear height while sitting at the bar I believe the bar blocks the sound to the theater seating. If I adjust the speaker level to +12 for the surrounds then they can be heard when needed from the front however then the back row is overwhelmed. 

The goal is to not have to adjust the speaker levels every time we switch seating positions. FYI since the theater has been operational my family has eaten dinner at the bar top almost nightly for a movie or tv show. After we finish eating we move to the front seats to finish watching so we are using both seating positions daily. 

I am contemplating going with in ceiling speakers to replace the on wall Wharfedale WH2 speakers. It seams like this would give a better angle for both seating positions.

Your thoughts on in ceiling speaker choices would be appreciated. My budget would be around 200 for a pair. I did see a pair of VP63R for $210.http://www.garrett-smarthome.com/proddetail.php?prod=92853 I don't know their quality but this is what my local Bjorn recommended... for twice the price. They thought the directional speaker was important for my application.


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## ALMFamily (Oct 19, 2011)

Just a suggestion - I do not know how much JJ, GranteedEV and others looks at build threads and they are a great resource for any questions related to speakers (as well as many other things). You may want to post this question in the speakers forum to get a lot more response.


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## Prof. (Oct 20, 2006)

Have you tried moving the surrounds higher up the walls? They should be at least 6' above the floor and even higher in some situations..


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## aLittletank (Dec 25, 2011)

Thanks, I hate to double post but perhaps it would be best this time.



I am thinking that I will move the current speakers from the back to the side walls, between the two row and see how that works.


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## Prof. (Oct 20, 2006)

Yes..I just spotted your photos on the other forum..I didn't realise your speakers were on the back wall corners!! :scratch: No wonder the surrounds sound louder from the bar!
Moving them to the side walls..inline with the back of the front seats..and at 6' from the floor..should present a much better situation..


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