# Jim Socks HT Build



## JimSocks (Sep 28, 2010)

This has been a long time coming! It only took me six months from start to finish, but as we all know these projects are never really finished. I am in the process of building the last two poster light boxes, which should be completed tomorrow. Later down the road I will add more curtains, and paint the ceiling a little more. Additionally, if anyone on these forums knows where I can find a motorized curtain that will plug into the trigger port on my Epson PowerLite home Cinema 1080 UB projector, please let me know! I would like to have the curtains open when I turn on the projector and close when I turn it off. If no pictures show up on this post, or a link that I provide doesn't work, please let me know. http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.306279069409350.61570.100000817772124&type=1&l=b16a6ddaac


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## JimSocks (Sep 28, 2010)

I'm sure I made plenty of screw ups along the way, but I am pretty happy with it so far. I went through a pretty detailed planning process, and made sure to get all the viewing distances and angles as close to right as I could. One thing that I did on purpose but I'm sure no one would agree with is I enclosed by bass speaker in the stage when it is not the type of speaker that is meant to be enclosed. Maybe I'm not the most avid audiophile, but I think it sounds incredible nonetheless!


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## Prof. (Oct 20, 2006)

Can you provide another link other than facebook?


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## ALMFamily (Oct 19, 2011)

Nice work Jim - looks great! :T


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## JimSocks (Sep 28, 2010)

Thanks ALM!

Prof., does the FB link not work? I've now made sure it is "public access". There is something like 120 pictures of the theatre build in there that took ages to load, I would hate to have to re-accomplish that on another site.


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## JimSocks (Sep 28, 2010)

Update: girlfriend leaves for training this weekend and won't be back for a few weeks, so she is monopolizing my time. That, coupled with my nasty Australian jet lag, will probably cause the last two poster light boxes to be completed next week.


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## kadijk (Jan 23, 2011)

Nice job! The posters intrigue me. Are the special ones for back lighting purposes, or just normal paper movie posters?


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## Prof. (Oct 20, 2006)

JimSocks said:


> Thanks ALM!
> 
> Prof., does the FB link not work? I've now made sure it is "public access". There is something like 120 pictures of the theatre build in there that took ages to load, I would hate to have to re-accomplish that on another site.


No the link is fine..It would just be more appropriate to load your photos onto your thread...but not 120 of them!
Perhaps a condensed version!
Links can get lost or changed over time and posting them here gives permanent access to all members..


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## JimSocks (Sep 28, 2010)

Kadijk:
That are "double-sided" posters that are printed in reverse in the opposite side. This makes them show up much better when a light is positioned behind them. I built the light boxes from wood, hot glue, screws, drywall mud, and some black paint. I lined the inside with tinfoil, stapled in two types of Christmas lights, and put wax paper over them for diffusion. Walmart sells cheap 27 x 40 poster frames, so I attached wood halfway around one to affix hinges. I buy two poster frames per lightbox. The second frame is solely for an extra sheet of plexiglass so I can sandwich the poster between them. To hang them I simply screw through the back plywood right into the wall studs. As a bonus- my light boxes dim perfectly when on a dimmer switch! I used remote control dimmers, and took one of the remotes apart. I detached the infrared LED and soldered it to a much longer wire. Then I attached the whole apparatus into my reclining couch. The very same remote controller controls the wall sconces in the room. This makes it so that I have push button controls in my armrest for all of my lighting scenes! Everyone seems to think its very "magical" how the lights can be controlled so discreetly. 

Prof:
If I can figure out how to attach photos to posts through this iPhone app, I will put a couple right in the thread. (none of my pics are on a computer, they all live in the phone). So far, I haven't found the button to attach a photo from the camera roll though... Photobucket isn't very iPhone compatible I have found- it won't let me copy/paste the rather long addresses required to link pictures from the iPhone browser. I manually typed one in hoping to link to a personalized avatar, and spent almost 10 minutes on the endeavor before being told my avatar graphic was too large


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## JimSocks (Sep 28, 2010)

Gah! So I found the button that allows me to attach photos from my camera roll, but it says all of the photos in my camera roll are too large! Confound you 4S! Maybe I can find a way to shrink them... Email them to myself in a smaller size perhaps? More to come...


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## JimSocks (Sep 28, 2010)

Fingers crossed!

For a look at the actual build process and to see how ugly the room was when I started, refer to the Facebook album link at the beginning of this thread. The pictures there are also much higher resolution. 

As I said before, the next few steps are to finish a couple of poster light boxes, install some more curtains, do some ceiling touchups, and hopefully find a motorized curtain for the front near the screen!

*** if anyone knows anything about hooking a motorized curtain up to a projector trigger port, please let me know!***


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## JimSocks (Sep 28, 2010)

Also, here are some photos of the poster light boxes for those interested. If enough interest is expressed, I can be sure to take some detailed photos during the construction process of my last lightbox.


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## aLittletank (Dec 25, 2011)

Nice work! can you share a little about your euipment and seating? AVR, speakers, screen, seating?


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## ALMFamily (Oct 19, 2011)

Jim,

I am by no means an expert as I have not even finished my walls yet, but I think all you need to do for the 12V trigger is to do a 3.5 stereo plug line like this. Hopefully, someone else will chime in that has actually set that up.


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## Prof. (Oct 20, 2006)

Jim,

Is that ropelight, strip light or something else you're using in the light box?
Also, what are those long strips on the ceiling for...just decoration!?

The theatre looks nice! :T


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## JimSocks (Sep 28, 2010)

Alittletank:
Thanks! As far is my seating goes, it is all leather and each seat is a power recliner. All you do is push a button and your seat reclines. It's pretty nifty! In order to accommodate these, I made sure to include outlets when I built my riser. I also included a couple step lights (red) in the riser for safety. I am using an Epson PowerLite home Cinema 1080 UB model projector shining on a da-light fixed screen. The entire wall surrounding the screen is covered in frames wrapped in black fabric. This serves to catch any stray light, hide the unsightly circuit breaker box, and to a lesser extent aid room acoustics a smidgen. I don't remember the exact gain of the screen, but when I originally purchased it I was watching movies in a non-completely light controlled environment. I know the screen is slightly gray, and that's about it. It still looks amazing to me!

As for the sound system, it's made by Sony. I don't know the exact model as I bought it some time ago, and when I got down just now to attempt to see it I could only see the word Sony due to its positioning in the coffee table. My biggest bummer about it is that it originally came with a microphone to calibrate all the speakers, and I can't find that thing anywhere! I use a PlayStation 3 to play most of my media be it DVD, Blu-ray, Netflix, or video games. The PS3 is kept back in the projector/concessions/library room which keeps the noise down and is convenient since that's where all the media is anyway. The Bluetooth controllers have absolutely no trouble working from the front row. 

Being an avid video gamer I can't help but love and be nostalgic about all of the old games that I grew up with. Inside the lift top coffee table at the front of the theater I have a NES, a Nintendo 64, a game cube, and a Sega Genesis. The best part about how all of these are wired up is you don't have to touch a remote to play them. When you turn one on the equipment recognizes the new signal and routes the sound to the speakers and video to the screen automatically! Nothing like a good game of Metal Gear, Toejam and Earl, or Goldeneye to put a smile on my face.

ALMfamily:
I don't know what brand/models of powered curtains work best or even will respond to the 12v triggers that a projector sends out... There should be someone on this forum who hooked something similar up and can vouch that the model they tried worked/didn't work? Ideally when I turn on the projector the curtains will know to open, and when I power down the curtains know to shut. 

Prof:
I am actually really proud of how these posterboxes turned out! At $80 each they are dimmable too which has a really cool effect when you begin to watch a movie and they all simultaneously fade to black. Additionally, they can be turned on juuuust enough to eat dinner by and not pollute the screen. I built wooden boxes and lined them with tinfoil then put two different color temperatures of Christmas lights inside them. The warm light type of Christmas lights is a rope light, and the more cool white type of Christmas lights are two strings of LEDs. There is another thread on these forums that I started a long time ago which I just posted on again to describe how I created these light boxes. I also threw some pictures on there of the build process. As far as the strips on the ceiling, it's funny you should mention those! That was an experiment of mine in creating an optical illusion. I thought if I left the white lines running the length of the theater, it might create the illusion that the theater was longer. I chalk it up as a "maybe?". All in all though I have decided to nix them and I will be painting them black like the rest of the ceiling soon.


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