Thanks, I'll post some more as I get farther along. I have run the wires for the projector and that came out fine. I have wraped the visible speaker wire in the media room with some plastic conduit stuff.

I had hoped to build my screen tomorrow or thursday. However, I'm having trouble with set up of my Toshiba SD-H400, and I don't want to build the screen till I have check image size on the player I will be using. If I can't get the issue resolved before thursday it will have to wait as we take our Spring Break vacation starting Friday. If I don't build the screen tomorrow, I might put up the new track lighting.

Lastly I need to paint. I plan to paint the ceiling pretty quickly and then do that walls later on. I know what general color I want, just got to get specific and do it.

I agree and perhaps we need to add what tools are needed. I know my life would have been a lot tougher without the nice cordless drill my wife got me for Christmas. I was surprised that other then wire fish tape thing, everything I used was pretty standard. Drywall hand saw, couple of screwdrivers, flashlight, wire stripper, electrical tape, etc.

A couple of questions:

1) What's the riser for?

2) Why do you have your rear surrounds pointing sideways rather than forward?

1) so the rear row of seats is higher then the front (I plan to have two rows of seating), here is a simple example

http://www.4seating.com/images/access171.jpg

2) that is about the angle they should be (but I can change them once I get seating in there and see how things sound). This is from Dolby.com

http://www.dolby.com/images/consumer...nt/room_d1.gif

I was going to ask the same question. For whatever reason, when I saw the picture I thought you had the riser in the *front* of the room. Now it makes perfect sense!

I wasn't going to post any more photos till I got the screen up (which will have to wait till after spring break now) and I did some more finish work (caulk, paint, etc), however the photo above showing the mount, mud ring, electrical, etc for the projector looked so bad, thought I'd post a photo showing how it looks now. This is standing directly under the projector,

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-...0/P3170007.JPG

Since I only have eight foot ceilings, the projector hides the mounting I used (plumbers parts) and electrical cord pretty well. And I put the box for video close enough that I did not have to use any cables, just plugged directly in. Note that I ran components and a video line. I only need the components with my Toshiba Tivo/DVD player, but I figure I might need video to hook up a video camera, VCR, or whatever. I have the same thing mounted where my receive sits.

The yellow line in the ceiling is from where I removed the old tracking lighting and I believe I left just enough room to put new track lighting in the same place.

I just got the Yellow Mug Boxes like you have in some of your pics (the open backed ones), but I want to know what kind of faceplates/covers I can get. I didnt see any at Home Depot that fit the screw holes in the middle top and bottom of the the thing. All were to wide? Is there something I am missing, I am looking for something like you have in your pic above.. Please help... I just dont want to see the hole Plastic box... Did you have a template of the shape you needed to cut into your wall?

The faceplates look like leviton quickports (Decora 4 port style) with RCA quickport connectors installed, the outer cover is a standard decora style switchplate. Both are available at Home Depot.

And really clean install that looks great!

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-...0/P3090021.JPG

This is what I have now (same thing)... I just need some type of face plate, just not sure what fits since the standard light switch style covers do not fit correctly unless I am missing something


I also need to find out if there is a template anywhere for me to cut that too, i dont really want to guess and check

The face plate in that photo is a actually a face plate I found with the phone accessories at home depot. It had a center section that I just cut out with a drywall saw. The photo you show is actually in my garage ceiling. As mentioned, I could run run the wires in the wall as my furnence sits right on the wall, so I dropped all the wire down in the garage and went thru the wall to the media room.

You are correct, most standard face plates will not work as they are designed to screw into an outlet (plug or switch) that was mounted in a mud box. The face plates I used at the speakers were just standard .49 plates that had a small hole for like coax cable. My 14g speaker wire was a little thick so I just took a drill to the face plate and make the holes a little bigger.

OK, time for some updated photos! I was going to paint, but my wife won't let me till I finish the kitchen :(

Here is my screen framed and mounted.

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-...0/P5160028.JPG

This shows the projector, some posters and new track lighting

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-...0/P5180044.JPG

Rope lighting above built in bookcase and some wall art

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-...0/P5170055.JPG

Here Mickey enjoys a drink while showing off the newly installed theater seats

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-...0/P5170053.JPG

And an overview with what you see as you walk in the room

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-.../P5180043a.JPG


And the required Nemo pic. Note the photo looks like the screen is off, but it is not, it is my camera (couldn't find my tripod). Also note, I really posted this to show that I took this at 12:00 noon on a bright sunny day in North Texas. I of course had they drapes closed, but while heavy they are not black out drapes or anything special. Just picked them up at Bed Bath and Beyond (well my wife did)

edit: lets try a less compressed Darla

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-...0/P5160037.JPG

(looks like I compressed the Nemo pic a little to much. I looks much better "live", but you get the idea)

I have a basement drop ceiling. How would you suggest I handle power to a projector? I was thinking about puting a electrical outlet on the ceiling joist lumber but do not know if that would be code or not.

I don't know for certain if it's to code or not, but that's how the outlets were in the unfinished portion of our basement when we bought our house.

I just ran an extension cord to my rack so it could be plugged in to the same power strip and outlet.

nice seats. Where did you get them and what did they cost?

He discussed the chairs more in this thread...

http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...8&page=1&pp=25

I think as long as there is a cover on the box and it is wired properly it will meet with code.

Well I'm sure what I did was not technically code and I do planning on changing in the future but don't think there is a big problem. After running the power cord in the ceiling in the attic I simply plugged a 12' or 15" heavy duty extension cord and run it threw the ceiling in my garage and plugged it into a surge protector there.

My furnace is right there in the attic and lot of power everywhere, but no plug. When I get energetic I'll go in the attic and put in a power plug and plug in up there. But it has been nice having the power cord reachable. Here in N. Tx we have a lot of storms so I have a couple of time gone out and physically unplugged the unit.

As for your basement, I don't see why it wouldn't be code. I mean it really is no different then putting them on a wall. Just use an approved box/wiring and plug (all available at HD) and I would think it would be fine. You could just ask the dudes at HD they usually are pretty knowledgable.

eBay. $85 per seat and $30 per seat for shipping.

Got them from andypando on eBay and cannot recommend him enough. Excellent customer service. I must of e-mail 4 or 5 times before ordering and he answered promply every time. These do lean back quite a bit so I mounted the "feet" about 19" from the rear wall.

I just did a search and it doesn't look like he has any chairs up right now, but that is not unusual. Let me know if you are really interested and I'll send you his e-mail address and you can check with him on when he will have some more ready.

Over the weekend painted the wall with my screen on it. Looks a lot better with the darker color (tho took 3 coats of paint).

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-...0/P7130101.JPG

here is the "before"

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-...0/P5160028.JPG

:up:

I like that look much better... and, it help a bit with the perception of contrast for projected images. :)

Yea, my wife picked the color. I about $hit when it was $40 for a gallon (I'm a cheapy)! But it did turn out well. Sherman Williams has these little "sample" bottles of paint for about $2.50 each. So we bought 2 or 3 of them and tried them all on the wall and went with this "Ruby" color, which is sort of a Ruby/wine color.

And you don't have to be nice. I know the yellow doors, trim/base suck. But all the trim work is rough ceder, like what you would see in a cabin or something. It is stained yellow (I can tell it was originally a light brown/tan). I don't want to try to paint that crap unless I have to, so I'm trying to work it in the color sceme. Since the drapes have some gold in it, I'm hoping the yellow trim will work. So far I still don't like it, but not enough to try to paint the crap.

BTW my wife did give me the ok to order the front row of seating. I took her to sit in the Berkline 088's. These are slightly narrower in the seat and a lot thinner in the arm rest, so I could get four of them in front row (probably do a love seat in the middle with seats on either side). I could only get 3 of the typical berks (099 or 090's). But, I'm just not sure if that is what I want. I like the idea of getting 4 nice seats there, but a reclining couch would be nice too (but only seat 3).

You're nicer than me. The kids get the floor (front row). Which they appear to be much happier about now that the TV is 90" instead of 27.

Actually the front row will likely be our main seating. My wife thinks the theater seats which will be our rear row we have now are only "OK" comfortable. She is glad we got them, but wants something more comfortable.

I'm actually a little concerned I made the screen to big. It is great on our rear row, but not sure how it will look aprox 2.5 feet closer. Will see how it looks. This was a DIY screen, I can always build another if needed.

What's the width and distance? Right around 1.8x distance is just about right for me. I start moving my head/eyes to see the whole screen if I'm closer, which I don't really like. I thought I wanted mine bigger because I have a bit of room, but I'm not sure that's a good idea. If it's bigger I may not like it as much, there's a reason I always sit in the middle of movie theaters. It's the "right" spot.