[samplesj]

I've posted a few pictures here and there in the past, but I've never actually made a thread for my HT system and its construction.  Part of it was simply because I didn't have a lot of good pictures of some of the construction.  It has also gone through a LOT of changes.  I've had it on both sides of the room multiple times, had three different displays, switched out speakers three times too, and radically changed the lighting.  I've even scraped off the popcorn ceiling texture (NEVER again will I let someone popcorn a ceiling for me - its just an excuse for them to half-a$$ finish the taping/smoothing).  There are places where I've patched the same hole three times as I moved stuff around.  I've actually learned a lot from other construction threads at AVS just from the "I'd do it this way next time" from the builders so I'll toss a few things I'd do differently out too.

I'm going to break this into multiple posts for easier reading, but if that is against the rules let me know and I can reflow it.

[samplesj]

Recently my Benq 8700 stopped working.  I'd been warning my wife I'd be upgrading when the bulb went out so rather than possibly toss money trying to repair it, I decided it was time to upgrade to 1080p.  And boy did the slope get slippery then.  Of course I needed a blu-ray player to go with my existing hddvd since I had full 1080p instead of just 720p.  And of course more seating would be nice.  And I wanted to get the factory upgrade for my 4806 so it pass 1080p (and upscale cable/vcr to 1080p too) and could accept 7.1 uncompressed PCM (it only did 5.1 before the upgrade).  The upgrade ran pretty much what an external duplexer (to feed both receiver and projector) would have been and offered more bang for the buck (especially since gefen said their switchers couldn't pass the audio part of the HDMI signal).  Since I had to send in the reciever for the upgrade I was going to be down.  So I decided to send it in just before I left for our last summer vacation a few weeks ago.  While I was down because of the receiver being gone I figured it couldn't hurt to pull the trigger on more seats and a riser.  And since I had a few weeks maybe I should finally get around to moving the rack to the adjoining room (right now its a dining room that we use like 5 times a year, but soon part will get merged into the kitchen and the rest will become a dedicated movie storage/rack closet.  I have to give credit to Denon for very quick turn around.  I had it back in 2.5 weeks, I had been figuring that the room would wait on the receiver, but it beat me.  Unfortunately their communication isn't the best since I didn't know it was coming until the UPS guy knocked on my door to get a signature before lugging the beast up the front stairs.

[samplesj]

Not only do you not have to point at the right piece of gear, but a different room isn't an issue.  I was already using a Home Theater Master MX-800 so all I had to do was buy an extra RF reciever for the extra room.  I could have run a wire to the HT room from the rack and saved that cost, but compared to the cost of another MRF-200 it wasn't worth the time.

[samplesj]

Originally I was going to buy more berkline recliners for the rear row.  One of the big AVS seating sponsors had a special going on some in-stock 088.  I like them because they are thinner which = more seats.  I'm not at all small and I don't have a problem sitting in 088s at all.  They weren't an exact match to my existing 088s, but it was close and cheap (at least before he added his shipping charges).  I don't get people complaining that they aren't big enough.  I asked for a quote on 5 chairs and was suprised at his shipping charges.  Since it was going to be so much I asked for a quote on a custom order to best match my existing chairs.  I was told the shipping would be EXACTLY the same amount even though those would come from the factory instead of his warehouse.  Berkline HT seats ship out of Morristown TN which is less than an hour and a half from here so its clear that he was using shipping as a profit center or at best fixed rated me.  His 5 seat quote was within $100 of my original 6 seat purchase price from Leather Direct a few years ago.  Who knows maybe for other people he is cheaper, but charging fixed freight cost him my business.

[samplesj]

The only drawback to 088s is that they need a lot of space because they recline.  In order to not get feet on the head of the person in front I needed to bring my row 6' from the rear wall (min).  So as a test I took my old row of 088s and moved them up.  At first it was great.  I love a big picture and didn't think you could be too close.  I WAS WRONG!  My son and I were playing some game the next night and it had a lot of screen rotation.  By the end of the night I thought I was going to throw up.  Needless to say I moved my seats back to 4.5' from the rear wall.  If I had already ordered more berklines I'd have been stuck with the closer distance and probably would have had to buy a new screen.

[samplesj]

Since I didn't have room for 088s (and didn't want to spend that much for backup seats) I started looking at flip up theater seats.  MAN, they are as much or more than Berkline stuff new.  So I had to start checking used.  I found a used chair style I liked for $99+shipping, but some quick searching found the same thing on ebay for $75 shipped.  It doesn't sound like much, but that is each so the savings for a row adds up quickly.  They came quickly and were in awesome shape for the price.  No stains and they were repainted so no rust.  They still smelt strongly of febreze or something similar when we opened the boxes.  They are plenty wide (22") and seem pretty comfortable (not as much as the 088s of course, but .....)

[samplesj]

Here are a few showing the tighter taping I did of windows with blackout cloth.  Originally I just tacked around the outside and velcro'd the curtains against the wall at the sides, but it just wasn't working that well.  You can see where the velcro tape pulled the paper off the sheetrock.  If you look at the ceiling you can also see what a spotty job we did getting the wall/ceiling paint border good.  I fixed that by buying cheap rounded trim for the ceiling this time.
Side window
Rear windows

[samplesj]

There was a LOT of wiring rework.  To be honest the first time I wired this room I was REALLY lazy and didn't properly secure anything.  So I started almost completely from scratch so I could route stuff in holes where possible and tack it good where not.  I also had to move 2 scones to the rear side wall because they were behind the screen now (I flipped the room again when I got the RS1).  And of course since the whole rack was in another room I had to re-run my dedicated circuit.  I also redid my Panamax distribution inlet.  If I was buying today I'd get a PowerBridge, but at the time it was the overpriced Panamax unit or nothing.  It has a locking inlet on the wall behind the rack that feeds both a sub outlet and my projector.  That way the whole system is powered from the same device.  Right now I'm just using an ISOBar, but the BPT3.5 I used to use and just sold should arrive to its new owner today.  Once its checked out as shipped safely, I'm going to buy a true sine wave full online double conversion UPS.  I don't have to worry about the fan noise since its in another room so I'll get stable voltage (important around here because I DO have swings), lower THD vs the wall, AND battery power to shut down the projector so the bulb can cool. 

I hate fish tape and couldn't find a nice flexible drill bits so I did a lot of floor level holes to drill the subfloor for access.  I also had to patch my old sconce holes, surround speaker jacks, and old outlet holes.  There was even a decent amount of ceiling patching (old ceiling mount holes, power inlets, and cuts so I could route cable in the ceiling (bulkhead in the middle of the room).

Check out how many white sheet rock patches you see.
Front patches
Front ceiling patches
Side patches
Rear patches
Rear ceiling patches

[samplesj]

Finally I was done with all the patching and it was time to touch up the paint.  I used a flat paint for the walls and ceiling so it makes chalk marks fairly easily, even without all the patches to paint it was about time for a new coat in places.  Once the paint was dry we cleared out a space for the riser and I borrowed my father-in-law's work truck.  I had hoped to build the riser the same day (Saturday) I bought the stuff, but after working all morning and then loading and unloading the 12' 2x12s and 4'x8' OSB I was wiped out.  The next day we knocked the riser together, stuffed it with insulation, screwed down the top and then I taped the indoor-outdoor carpet down.  Its not high quality carpet, but it actually blends nicely with the green walls and black ceiling and should be wear resistant.  Here is a hint.  Put theather style seats together upright.  A row of them is VERY heavy and its flexy.  We'd assembled them flat and had a bit of trouble getting them fully upright and stable.  After what seemed an eternity of socket driver work they were finally together and held down with lag screws.  So it was time for a test sit.
Clean spot for riser
Unloading truck
Stack of insulation
Testing out chairs

[samplesj]

I've stil got a few things to do, but its close enough to use now.  I'm going to buy a cabinet door and mount it over the hole on the left front side wall because I'm going to use the big understep area for storage.  I guess I'll also have to weatherstrip the side door because even though it looks right in the frame, it must gap a tiny bit at the top so I get light bleed at the top on the hinge side.  I've also got to drop the door sweeper on the front door a touch on one side because its bleeding a tiny tiny bit of light.  They are both minor, and don't light the screen at all, but if I can fix it easily why not. 

I know the one berkline up in front looks weird, but since those were all I originally had I didn't need access for a rear row and went wall to wall.  Now that I've got a rear row, it had to slide forward so you can get to the back row.  Their brown color doesn't really match the black seats either, but they were first and are much more comfortable so they aren't leaving.  The rear isle looks tight, but its actually plenty wide.  The projector mount looks like it interferes with the center rear seat, but it really isn't even close.

Here are the finished shots
Entry
Seating
Riser entry
Riser isle
View from seats
Left speaker
Right speaker
Ceiling speaker on old projector mount
Sub
Left surround speaker
Right surround speaker
Rear speakers and projector wall mount
Rack in adjoining room

[Bob in St. Louis]

Looking good man,
I've got the same seats, very nice.
Good idea on the equipment rack in another room as you won't be able to hear the 360 whirring. The only down side, is you won't get to see the pretty ring of red lights. 
Very nice so far Jeremy, very nice indeed. I love the woodwork.

Bob