Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater New Pictures of my HT/Recroom area. Finally!!!!

Well I am about rounding up my year long project of finishing our basement. The HT area is pretty much done. I still need to go pick up my pool table and the bar is almost finished as well. Thought I'd show you some updated pics.

Sorry for the poor quality, maybe some day I can get a new camera like BrotherBob.

Great!!!!

I envy you guys and gals with room for a true HT.

Randy, that is awesome, I would kill to have a dedicated room like that. Great Job.

Randy, that is just beautiful! It's come a lot further than what I last saw on your website. So, when's the party? You only live 3 hours away from me...I'll be inviting myself!

What a great looking theater room Randy, I am quite impressed. Now we have a good place for the midwest Axiom owners to have a cookout. That would be a good thing on a long weekend this summer. There I voted your house to be the gathering point.

Looking good Randy! I really like your chairs, very nice and comfy looking. Looks like you've been busy and it's coming together nicely. Now we just need to get you a stand so you can raise your vp150 up. Typical center stands are 18-24", you could use something taller since your 2.35:1 screen allows for it. I suppose you are already working on that. What are your plans? (for the center and the barbeque gathering )

WOW Randy! It's really looking comfy and inviting. I love those recliners. Bravo!

Spiffnme (literally..."Spiff and Me") will be outside kicking stones and saying "Oh Maaaan! " a lot......

Beautiful!! Those recliners are DA BOMB!!! (geez, did I really say that?!)

Randy, that is one nice theater room! Those chairs look like they would put me to sleep in a couple of minutes. Comfy lookin'.

Nice, that area looks a whole lot nicer now that you have expanded it into a big room.

Gives me something to look forward to when I get a home...in the near future.

Randy - great room! I was going to post pictures of my room soon, but it isn't nearly as nice as yours.

Ray

Thanks so much everyone for your nice comments. Hmmmm Wid, I'll have to think about that, I'm sure my boss would not care.

In regards to the chairs, yes they are very comfortable. They are nicer hi-end Lazy Boys we got a few months back during a big sale locally. The couch is a Lane Eddie Bauer edition, it has built in recliners as well. For 2.35 movies that take up the full screen, I actually enjoy sitting in the back row, so my eyes don't have to dart back/forth as much. The front row is ok, but best for 1.85 movies.

Dave, yes, the center is my next project, besides the HTPC I want to build. I've thought about attaching it to the walls below the screen, however, my exterior walls do not have framing. They are the Ice Block foam form foundation that many are going with these days. I suppose I could use some anchors or something. I might just get a nice little stand or something.

Another option is that my wife would like a regular tv down there in case she wants to watch the news or whatever and doesn't want to use the 120" wide screen. I was thinking there should be enough room to put a TV below the screen, and set the center on top of the TV?

I really need a better camera, maybe I can borrow my dads digital, it is much better. It is so hard to take pictures in the HT area since the walls are so dark. I even had the canned lights on during the picture taking, oh well...

Try putting the camera on a stable surface and turn down the shutter speed on your camera...if you can do that with yours. Turning off the flash when you do that will help make the picture more uniform.

Actually, most cameras cameras will automatically slow down the shutter speed if you turn off the flash. Turning on the flash makes the camera change the shutter speed to a faster speed because it is expecting everything to be brighter. In my experience I try to plant the camera in a nice, solid place, then turn the shutter speed to a slow rate, turn the flash off, and pictures come out a lot better with that.

Some digital cameras are really annoying though. Throwing them against the wall doesnt usually help...tried that once with my old one...

Dan, I forgot all about that, I do have some settings on this digital camera for darker shots. The camera is about 5 yrs old, it is a Casio Digital camara that was top of the line it its day.

Yea, I had a camera my G-parents gave me for 8th grade graduation...like..5 years ago. It has now donned the "Its ok to get fish guts on me during fishing trips" status.

Randy
Nice work! The room looks perfect. I wish I had a dedicated place to build the HT. Of course it would be for everybody else not me, since I'm more into the music thing. Do you think I could sell that the the wife?
oz

Sure as heck puts my postage stamp theater to shame.

I'm still waiting to see them pics Peter.

look harder

Nice room SQ.
Looks very open.

Any ideas for that telepost by the bar?
A friend of mine had one in the middle of his basement. He had a carpenter build a stool and table set around the pole for his kids to sit and colour. If you added height to the stools and surround-table, it could be a nice leaning place for guests by the bar.
Just a thought.

You could always make it glitter.

WHAT? WHAT? WHAT? After all of my PMs, emails, and postings about wanting to see progress on your HT over the past year, and I wasn't the FIRST to find out!!! Man....

Seriously though, it looks great. I like the over look of the wider screen too. My 104" 16:9 looks big, but the ever wider aspect ratio gives it that real movie theater look.

You know, there are 3 seats up front. SonicFox claimed the first one, I'll take one, and you can have the 3rd.

When do we come over?

Thanks Chesseroo,

I thought of that also, we also almost incorporated the bar in with the pole. We did however find a wrap like material that has unstained oak on the outside and a top/bottom cap to dress it up. Just haven't got around to purchasing that yet.

For those concerned about the center channel, I understand. I actually flipped the VP150 upside down. Because of the angle on the top of the box, it now points upwards, which helps. However, I do need to elevate it a couple of feet.

Hey, Nick....I hadn't seen you around these parts in so long, I thought you went A-Wall. I'm still waiting for an invite to the next movie marathon at the Nicksters pad. Just joking.

This looks fantastic Randy! Now I'm wishing had had a bit more space in my area!

...and a pair of M80's!

I'm suprised nobody made any comments about "Mike" on the right M60.

I was too busy looking for Sully.

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I'm suprised nobody made any comments about "Mike" on the right M60.

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LOL! I was gonna mention Mike but I couldn't spell Wazowski. Silly me! It's spelled just like it sounds W o j c i e h o w i c z. OOPS! Wrong guy! (inside joke for those of us old enough to remember the TV show Barney Miller)

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(inside joke for those of us old enough to remember the TV show Barney Miller)

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Sorry for the hijack, but the...ummm..."Brownie" episode is such a classic!

Indeed

Thought I'd share to you all what my boys did over spring break.

I really hate you guys with your fancy dedicated HT rooms, and giant screens.

Yes. I'm bitter.


(Really nice looking stuff!)

Spiff, you should just trump them all and put an IMAX screen in your house! lol

So you haven't seen me huh? I have something like 30 posts so far this month. Not a ton, but I have been around.

No big deal, my friend. I am currently projector less for a few days getting my Z3 serviced, so no movie marathon right now.

What is wrong with your Z3?

It looks awesome!! I also am jealous of you guys who have the separate room AND the talent to do this type of stuff. What times the next show??? Guy

Kill Bill 1 in 1/2 hour.

Actually I had no talent when it came to the remodeling, I just did it one step at a time with advice from friends and you guys. Looking back, it is cool to say I did it all myself, even though it took 1.5 yrs.

Darn, won't make this one. Enjoy it! "even though it took 1.5 year" All the more to be proud of it. With all we have to do in day to day stuff, it's still a remarkable achievment. Well done. Guy

My Z3 has some green spots that were a factory flaw (I noticed them after the first few viewings), and I am just at a point where I had time to get it sent in and fixed. Basically it ended up being some dust particles stuck in-between the lenses where the "end user" (me) can't clean without voiding the warranty.

Anyway, Sanyo arranged for the overnight shipping to them, they "fixed it" in one day and are overnighting it back to me. Great service! It will be back on Monday, so we will see if I get my same unit back, fixed, or if they kept mine and sent me a refurb. As long as I still have 2 more years of warranty, and I don't have any problems, I don't care (and as long as the bulb has the low hours on it like mine did)....

Wow, Randy, that looks fanstastic. Sorry I had not taken time to comment sooner. I am very impressed and envious. I've said it before, and I'll say it again... Someday, I'm going to Iowa.

Warmest wishes for many happy hours there with your family.

Doesn't everyone build snowmen over spring break? Brrrr!

Sorry for my late arrival also, work has had me out of town for the past several days.

Wow, your HT room is extremely nice Randy! I really like the two tone on the walls and the built in bar area. That's a heck of a lot of room ... being from Florida where basements are non-existent I'm so jealous of you folks with your huge basements! Randy are those full exterior windows?

very cool Randy, I very much like what u have going, when I get back stateside I HOPE I can have my own theatre as well. great work man thx for sharing

Hey Randy,

Just looking back over your pics...do my eyes deceive me or is your projector off center from the screen? Is it just the photo? Also, I can't tell from the photo but do you have a frame around the screen?

Very nice room finish! Is your whole basement ceiling lined with acoustic insulation?

Yes Bruce, because of the way the rafters were positioned, I could not get it perfectly centered. It is not an issue though since the Sanyo's and a few other projectors have "Lens Shift" where you can adjust up/down or left/right to line up the image. This makes things so much easier. I'm still pretty close to the center of the optics so it works great. The only problem would be if the projector was clear to the side of the room and I had to really adjust the Lens Shift.

Since my back wall was painted Flat Black, I don't use a border. If there is any light spilling off the sides it gets soaked up by the black paint.

I did place insulation in the ceiling above the HT area, but not the entire basement. Not sure anything can stop the EP500 thumping.

Classic is right! My favorite part was Yemana having fun saying "Mushy mushy mushy".


Oh, and great photos!

Rich

You're HT is sofa king awesome. Very jealous. One day ...

Randy,

I see that the couch is on a sort of platform. That's what I'm planning on doing in the room I'm remodeling right now. Did you build it yourself? I'd like to know more about it!

Yep, I used 2 x 8's for the main pieces and corner angle braces, and some 2 x 4's for some additional cross member strength. I then put a piece of plywood across the top. There was enough padding and carpet to cover it after the basement was done. It is very heavy. It is exactly 4' x 8' in size, so the plywood fit perfect on top...

I did find out that I had to raise my screen up about 6" so the people's heads in the front row didn't interfere with the back row viewers.

Here is a great calculator to figure out your riser height...

http://www.cinegi.com/cgi-bin/riser.cgi

Thanks! That tool will help a lot.
Also I remember you saying that you got your screen fabric from Dazian (right?) did you get the fabric for projector screen?

My material was Dazian Matte White PVC non-perf Cinema material. It can be found on ebay if you do a search for "matte white cinema projection" or at Dazian's website.

http://dazian.com/html/projection_screens.html

Actually there are lots of DIY methods if you want to save a buck, I think my screen cost me a total of about a $100 with all the materials for the frame and Dazian material.

Yes I was planning on building my own. Right now I have some blackout cloth pinned to the wall and it works ok but if the material you're using would give me a better picture then I will consider buying some.

Do you have a Menards around you? They have Parkland Durotherm Lite panels standing up in the paneling aisle. The smooth white side works awesome for a DIY screen, just hang and enjoy. They come in 4 x 8 x 5/16 thick honeycomb panels of PVC material. They are very easy to keep clean and are very lightweight. Matte White is Matte White and has a gain of about 1.0. Matte White screens have been the norm for many many years. However, now there are high contrast and high power screens available as well, each with their own pros/cons. Matte White is neutral, just like Axiom's.

I only have HD and Lowe's around here and I don't remember seeing any Parkland panels, but I know of a place that I thinks sells them. I wonder how much better they are compared to a fabric screen? I've checked the threads over at AVS but I wasn't convinced one way or another. I'll definitely go with one of those two.

Do you know if the parkland is rigid enough to be hung on its own? I think I'll build a frame with a black border anyway regardless of which material I go with.

The Parkland comes in two differant versions. The Durotherm Panels do not need to be glued to another substrate. They are used for Garage walls and carwashs. They are a Lightweight but heavy duty PVC material that is 5/16" thick, just hang and enjoy. Of course you might have to trim the material or mask using borders to achieve a 16:9 screen ratio.

The other material is a flimsy Parkland material that is .060 thick and has to be glued to some other material to keep it flat, otherwise you'll get waves.

Both materials have the same exact material on the smooth side. In my opinion a matte white painted wall, fabric, or other material will give the same results. The key is that you don't have texture. Also, you don't want a lot of light to pass through the material, otherwise the picture will suffer. That is why a lot of people use the BlackOut cloth from fabric stores, light will not pass through.

If you really want to get crazy, get some Plexi Mirror and spray the front with MississippiMud paint (an AVS DIY paint).

Yeah I've read about the mirror and paint, but I would be too afraid to mess it up! I'm not too good with paint. I'm more likely to go with the Dazian fabric.

Thanks for the advice!