Home Theater Build

[Bleed S & G]

Nice, keep us posted. I'd like to do this down the road...

What is your TV situation? Do you still pay for cable/satellite? If there was a way to pay less for just ESPN and locals, I'd hop on that in an instant (and pay Netflix/Hulu some chump change for the rest).

Hulu came out with a desktop program thats pretty slick, I've been using that while trying to get this TV up and going:
Hulu - Labs: Hulu Desktop

The Media Center has built in support for Netflix as well.. I'm shaving costs there by having Bittorrent turn on at 12:30 am and running until 8 am downloading 1080p and 720p movies. Then that Yammm program downloads a metafile that give the poster automatically, etc.:

The set up is like this:
TimeWarner Box --> Tuner --> Windows 7 MC --> HDMI out --> 1080p Projector

The only place I be able to cut costs on the cable is not having a DVR box.. you can get rid of the box all together, but you'll only get the channels from 0-99 and the only HD channels it will pick up is the local ones.

Then, my Media Center remote communicates to my tower, which goes through the guide, set recordings, etc. and then the IR blaster hits my cable box with the signal and changes the channel on the box so that when the channel changes on the Media Center, the channel changes on the input to the tuner.

It's basically a great way to record a mass amount of HD TV/Movies, and a good looking GUI.

 

[Apache]

Theater

Hey guys,

I'm getting ready to close on my first home and decided the half finished basement is going to become a theater. I'm looking for a 115" screen (56x100) with around 1 gain.

Can anyone point me in a direction for the screen? I don't want to "paint" one on with the screen goo and I am on a budget. Any help would be appreciated.

Ok when you get it done or if its done...Ill bring the keg for the Michigan game. Go Bucks!:osu:

 

[Bleed S & G]

Well, all my stress over the tuner cards was relieved when I discovered something I already knew. Cable signals come in scrambled, and then the box de-scrambles the signals and sends them on to the TV.

Digital tuner cards pick up the local "over the air" HD channels such as 4, 6, and 10 here in Columbus. ESPN, Discovery, HBO will not show up in HD and there is no way to get these to show in HD.

There is a tuner card, the HD PVR by Hauppage that uses componet cables and "streams" the HD feed live to your computer but it is NOT compatabile with Windows Media Center. There is a program you can buy that allows this, but I could not get it to work. I searched and searched and did not find a tuner card that had HDMI in, only out.

Then I found this - the ATI CableCARD Tuner - a tuner card that accepts your CableCARD and makes your desktop computer your box. This was built for Media Center and is currently in the mail. All channels will show up as they should.

Anyone looking to build a HTPC, this has been the most frustrating part for me.. trying to get a tuner and an IR blaster that is compatible.

 

[CentralMOBuck]

For windows media center check out Media Browser. It's a cool plugin that helps you organize your movies.

media browser

 

[Bleed S & G]

It's done! Between work & life, I didn't have the time to get it started even though I had bought everything needed. For about 8 months I've had my projector rigged on a table to hit the wall and speaker wire all over the place.. me & the old man spent a few days and after a bunch of work it looks damn good!

109" screen
1080p projector
7.1 surround sound
Sony amp
HTPC: Intel i5, 4 gigs RAM (being upgraded shortly), 3 TB of storage (I've filled about just under 1 TB so far)

Shortly after we started

Frame up, wires fished

Rest of the frame starting to come together

Speaker wires fished

Insulation up to hopefully help absorb some of the sound and improve the quality of the audio

Screen up (orginally 115")

Border painted on the screen (now 109"), center speaker box built, curtain starting

Curtian is up, speakers mounted on the front, center speaker in the box (flush with the wall)

Another shot, blank screen

Speakers up, my Buckeye room

Other wall, this couch is awesome too

Sony 7 channel amp, sub, PS3 Slim, HTPC (will be putting these in a case)

Theater is done!

 

[Saw31]

Great job!

 

[jwinslow]

Nice work!

 

[Saw31]

For future reference...

http://www.visualapex.com/

http://www.carlofet.com/

I've dealt with both these places and rate them 5 stars. YMMV

 

[CleveBucks]

Awesome! Where did you get the pic of Holy Buckeye?

 

[fanaticbuckeye]

Very nice!

 

[Taosman]

Still lots of hard surfaces but looking good! Might want to hang a rug. Break up those wall sound reflections.
Might want to check out "Real Traps".
http://www.realtraps.com/index.htm

 

[jwinslow]

I was looking around for some ideas for our living room (how to arrange wall mounted items), and came across these epic setups:

http://www.oobject.com/category/lavish-home-theaters/

They win the internets.

 

[powerlifter]

I was looking around for some ideas for our living room (how to arrange wall mounted items), and came across these epic setups:

http://www.oobject.com/category/lavish-home-theaters/

They win the internets.

For some reason I have a feeling they aren't doing their shopping on slickdeals.

 

[scarletmike]

Some of those are absolutely stunning!

 

[MililaniBuckeye]

Sharp now has an 80" LCD HDTV. Ho. Lee. Shit.

http://www.sharpusa.com/ForHome/HomeEntertainment/LCDTVs/LC80LE632U.aspx