Why I got side tracked

[darthpaul]

DaOld Man mentioned in another post that I got side tracked from working on my Automated Cabinet and here is why.
I needed a little break and to allow DaOld Man more time to work on A Little Rage and what better way than build a Home Theater. Unfortunately I have never been one to take progress pictures, so I'll just explain what I did. I converted 2/3rds of my garage into the Theater. I framed out the walls, added electric, ran audio and HDMI cables, added insulation, sheet rock and paint, simple stuff. Before I go any further, let me say the goal was to do this on a very limited budget. Since this was in a basement I didn't want to put down carpet but used inexpensive dark wood laminate flooring instead. I mounted the projector in the remaining 1/3rd of the garage to cut down on the projector fan noise. Another budget and design decision was to custom build the speakers and make a 100" screen using blackout cloth stretched over a 2x3 wood frame outlined in black velvet.









Another budget decision was to buy all refurbished equipment which I hope won't bite in the rear.
Projector - Epson 6500 UB
Receiver - Denon AVR-891
Blu-Ray Player - Sony BDP S185 (I may replace this)


     

[SNAAKE]

looks great. lets see it in action

[Louis Tully]

.

[darthpaul]

looks great. lets see it in action

All will be revealed.

[darthpaul]

Did I happen to mention it is Star Wars themed?

[wp34]

Looks great.  That's quite the center channel.  How does it sound?

[darthpaul]

I tried to match the center channel as best I could to the front mains, everything is the same except for the shape but it still has the same internal volume as the mains. I cheaped out on the crossovers (ebay specials) but it still sounds pretty good.

[DaOld Man]

Looking good!
I sure wish I had room to build me a theater. That would be very cool.

[darthpaul]

Some more pictures.
I was originally going to put the Fathead Death Star in the back of the room but almost half of it would have been blocked by the chairs, so I picked up this Star Destroyer print, which is in six sections. I build a frame around it and add LED strip lights to the top and bottom, I think it came out pretty nice.


with the lights out


The front.



The back with chairs and center console



Side walls



Side walls lit.





More pictures of rear of theater.

[DaOld Man]

Wow, looks great!
You just need an exit sign above the door, maybe an authentic one (ebay??) with very dim leds replacing the incandescent low wattage bulbs.
Edit:
Here is a link to a cool looking one, but shipping is ridiculous.
EBAY Link

[darthpaul]

I really want to replace that door, with a plain flat door and paint it to look like a door that would be found on a Star Destroyer  . Thanks for the link but I don't have that much room above the door, that sign looks to be too high.

[DaOld Man]

That sounds cool. That sign actually goes into the ceiling, the only part below the ceiling is the plexi glass sign. (Maybe you can make one?)
But since you are sticking with star wars theme, an exit sign is probably not needed or desired.
You know what would be really cool?
A door that slides back like the doors on Star Trek. But that would probably be very hard to implement.

[darthpaul]

It is a pocket door but trying to do something like that would mean tearing out the wall but it would be off the scale in the coolness factor.

[Le Chuck]

Dude, first pic in the post I was thinking, "well, at least he's keeping busy" but now...now, you are the man!  That looks great!  Thanks for sharing.   

[drventure]

Damn, that's one hell of a sidetrack.

Awesome job!

 

[DaOld Man]

Maybe there needs to be a new category in next years UCA "Best home theater"

[ChadTower]

That really is cool.   

[kahlid74]

Looks great man!  I love the direction the Star Destroyer is facing and the lighting.

[Ond]

Nice work and good on you for building your own speaker cabinets as well! It's very satisfying firing them up and hearing them for the first time eh?  Funny thing this thread, it's also my reason, well one of several, why I've been side-tracked as well - re-building my home theatre.  I'm tempted to post some pics on the forum, maybe later when I'm a bit further on.

[SNAAKE]

vader pillow for the win

[Nephasth]

Maybe there needs to be a new category in next years UCA "Best home theater"

Hmm...

Nice work and good on you for building your own speaker cabinets as well! It's very satisfying firing them up and hearing them for the first time eh?  Funny thing this thread, it's also my reason, well one of several, why I've been side-tracked as well - re-building my home theatre.  I'm tempted to post some pics on the forum, maybe later when I'm a bit further on.

 

If javeryh finishes his basement addition, we'd have enough to start a new category for next year's UCAs!

[Le Chuck]

Maybe include game rooms, or simplify to home alterations.  Hell, just make an "other" category in which anybody can nominate any project on the boards that doesn't fit in a category or even the hobby. If we get multiples along a single line of effort those can be subdivided into their own categories.  Somebody remind me of this in 10 months. 

[DaOld Man]

Sounds like a good idea.

[darthpaul]

What have I started 
Thanks for all the kind words guys. Don't make me look too bad Ond when you complete yours, if it comes anywhere near the awesomeness of arcade cab, I'm sure it will be unbelievable.

Nice work and good on you for building your own speaker cabinets as well! It's very satisfying firing them up and hearing them for the first time eh

I had two reason for building my own, first, to save a little money and second, I needed a custom size to fit in the locations they needed to be.

More pics to come and a little surprise, with all the movement on my arcade cabinet I couldn't resist adding something to the Theater (notice the buttons near the Holographic Emperor). 

[Ond]

What have I started 
Thanks for all the kind words guys. Don't make me look too bad Ond when you complete yours, if it comes anywhere near the awesomeness of arcade cab, I'm sure it will be unbelievable.

Nice work and good on you for building your own speaker cabinets as well! It's very satisfying firing them up and hearing them for the first time eh

I had two reason for building my own, first, to save a little money and second, I needed a custom size to fit in the locations they needed to be.

More pics to come and a little surprise, with all the movement on my arcade cabinet I couldn't resist adding something to the Theater (notice the buttons near the Holographic Emperor).

Your reasons for building your own speakers were exactly the same as mine, except I wanted to save a lot of money!  I like the idea of the HT (Home Theatre) category for UCA.  I think Griff has some HT plans as well, there's probably plenty of people on the forum with a home HT either done or in progress.   I would add though that professionally installed i.e. that are not DIY HTs should (IMO) be excluded.

Here's a sample of the speakers I ended up building seven of (plus subby) for my HT.

[DaOld Man]

I would add though that professionally installed i.e. that are not DIY HTs should (IMO) be excluded.

Agreed.

[Nephasth]

I would add though that professionally installed i.e. that are not DIY HTs should (IMO) be excluded.

Agreed.

+1 This is a DIY forum after all.

[Ed_McCarron]

It is a pocket door but trying to do something like that would mean tearing out the wall but it would be off the scale in the coolness factor.

http://uiproductions.blogspot.com/2010/12/star-trek-door.html

[Nuckelsboy]

wow, i`m speachless, great job 

[darthpaul]

Some more pictures
Surround speaker

Projector opening


It looks like I need to do some touch-ups 
I added the Galactic Empire logo to the center console and lit it with some red strip LEDs.

Center console from above


There was one window I had to deal with and this was my solution, I added one to the opposite wall to make it look more natural.



Here is my little surprise, the Emperor rises up and speaks when one of the arcade buttons are pressed.

[DaOld Man]

Good work!
I like the way the projector is hidden in the wall. How are you keeping it cool?

[Turvey]

Looks like a cool place to hang out.

Something missing though.......you SO need one of these chairs in that room 

[darthpaul]

Good work!
I like the way the projector is hidden in the wall. How are you keeping it cool?

The projector is in what is remaining of the garage, which I am using for storage. The room is about 12' x 10', so no worries about overheating.

[wp34]

Words fail me.  Just awesome.   

[darthpaul]

Can't go to the Movies without some popcorn





Picked up this movie poster holder at an auction, painted it black, added a red highlight strip and added some LEDs.



Made a little shadow type box for this piece I got at Pizza Hut, I added LEDs to it as well



Who better than Boba Fett to make sure everyone pays to see the movie




A place to hold the DVDs


Some secret storage



Need tickets.



Entrance to Theater, Thanks to Gameongrafix for printing the Theater Marguee and Tickets sign
The light are red not pink



Threshold


Screen, cut holes in doors, added some plexi, then acrylic Empire logo and then blue LEDs




The last thing I did was make the rising Emperor control the lights, when he rises, the light come on, when we lowers they turn off.

[DaOld Man]

 

Love that popcorn salt(?) bowl.

[Howard_Casto]

That's really cool but....

You design a room with a large screen in the middle a series of lights on the walls, a central control console in the middle with chairs surrounding and then theme it after Star ..... Wars??



Wrong franchise dude. 

[darthpaul]

I see your point but you really can't get away from that large screen in the middle and you need chairs, I needed the center console to hold drinks and popcorn and of course to keep in touch with the Emperor and the lights look cool. Seriously, I realized there was no way I was going to be able to pull off a realistic Star Wars looking room, not with my budget and space I had available, so I just decided to keep it pretty generic and threw in some Star Wars elements.

[darthpaul]

I just wanted to update this post
Like everything I do, I can't do it just once. In the original plans I had not given enough space for the second row of chairs. I only allotted 5' instead of 6'. Being 6'4", it quickly became apparent I was going to be using the front couch as a footrest. After living with it for awhile, I decided to move the wall back another 13" because that was all the space I had left to work with. As anyone who has done some home remodeling knows, moving a wall is a pretty big job, so I had to do something special to that back wall to make it worthwhile.
Here is what I came up with, anyone who is a Star Wars fan should be able to recognize what I was trying to accomplish.

 



I had a model of a Star Destroyer, so I decided to include it as well and highlight it with some blue and white LEDs.





I also added some lights to the cup holders.



With the help of DaOld Man, I was able to raise and lower the Emperor with just a touch of the button instead of having to hold the button down, thanks again Ken.



I also added some more lights to the Condiment stand





There is still some things I still want to do but I'm getting the itch to get back to working on my Automated Cabinet, so those things will just have to wait.
 

[DaOld Man]

wow! simply wow! You have done a great job on the theater, makes me want to add on to the house, knock out a wall, and copy your work!