Home theater recomendations
 

Ok so I am building a home theater/bar down stairs and I am looking at a projector and screen. Problem is I am inharently cheep:mrgreen: and kinda on a budjet. I am looking at the Optoma HD200x projector doesn anyone have any expreiance with this one or is there another 1500.00 ish 1080P projector that is good for under 2K? Also what do people recomend for recivers? I need HMDI pass through, preferbaly with dual ouput as I have going to have the theater and the Bar flat screen. I want 5.1 for the theater area, but it would be nice to have a 7 speaker system that can be used in 5.1 or 7 speaker sterio for music.

Steve

Have you purchased speakers yet? If not, take a look at PSB speakers, their entry level speakers are nice but not too crazy expensive. I have their mid-grade ones and they rock!!

As for projectors...www.ncix.com has that projector on for $1199 though I'm not sure if that's a good price or not. I do tend to like DLP projectors over LCD ones. I use a Benq data HD data projector for work and as a DLP it takes a beating and keeps on ticking.

$1199 should be the going price for that projector.
I'm currently running a dell dlp projector that I got free from work projecting to a 92" motorized dlite screen and the pic is pretty good. For the receiver i'm running a denon 2808. Full 7.1 setup and instead of 1 sub running 2 instead. All components on a rack in the furnace room and using ir repeaters to control all components on the rack.
You can go cheap on the screen via diy if you want. You can do the painted wall screen way or diy painted screen. this gives you options for screen size. you should check out avsforums for all your questions.
For the receivers. it depends on your budget.. You can get awsome deals on previous model years on components I've seen the pioneer elite vsx90 for $377, Stick with either Denon, Yamaha, Pioneer, Onkyo for the mid range type recievers.
Here's some models you can look at Pioneer SC05 "$888", Yamaha RVX1900 "$1900" or RVX763"$498", Denon AVR4308"$1488" all in cnd dollars
If you want to go higher end. That's a diff story there.

Home theatre is just as addicting as this hobby.

The VSX90 reciever is $377 right now which is a sweet deal for a reciever that has THX.

There are also some projectors on sale this weekend... but kinda pricy.
Panasonic 60,000:1 1080P, 120HZ LCD Projector (PTAE3000 kit)
UHM lamp: 165watt
Brightness:1,600 lumens
Optical zoom: 2:1
$3333

Ealbay, I assume u saw the add for the sounds around liquidation sale this weekend? (Calgary sun)

Yup Soundsaround

Where?

Same soundsaround sale this weekend in calgary (started at noon today)

check out http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/index.php a Canadian forum, lots of posts, user reviews etc, also if you register there's a Canadian Shopping Forum for members that might help.


btw, from RedFlagDeals.com, Costco had the Optoma HD200x for $1199. Try it for 3 months, don't like it take it back, full refund

I'll check that out, costco hasn't had them for about 4 months now. I was kicking myself for not grabbing one when they did have them.

Steve

There are a few questions I ask when some tells me they want a projector

1. how close is the closest seat
2. do you have complete light control in the room (i.e. keeping sun light out)
3. Is your house dusty (i.e. do you have pets) birds are real bad for dust

I have seen a lot of people spend alot of money on a projector and end up not liking the results because of poor planning.

The other thing is spend the money now or later dont completely cheep out on HT gear you are lucky that there is some real nice gear for good prices now on the market

Tack a look at Onkio receivers real good bang for the buck

as for speakers
Energy
PSB
Klipsch

all make real good prducts to get you started

I recommend this for a TV... :wink: 3D anyone?:mrgreen:

http://www.engadgethd.com/2009/09/17...valing-techno/

Agreed, 100% I'd also like to ask the size of your room.

As for speakers I would take a good look at some internet direct dealers. Axiom and Aperion to name a couple. Look to SVS for subs.. you won't be dissapointed.

all seats will be 12 feet away, the projector will be 12 feet back also. and yes I have complete light control.

Have a cat and a dog. as for dust yes, but it is because of a bad furnace filter design, we are getting a new furnace so that will be fixed.

Steve

well it is a weird design, the theater area is 13 long by 12 wide, but on the side there is another 12 feet to the one wall and then it does a l shape. it is not a dedicated theater, but rather a theater/bar/family room.

Steve

I was looking at the Axiom QS4 v2's what would you opinion be on using these for all the speakers instead of just the rear surounds?

Steve

The QS4's would be great surround speakers. They are bipole/dipole Axiom calls them Quadpolar. They are designed to disperse the sound creating a wide sound field. They wouldn't perform well as mains or a center channel.

From Axiom I'd recommend:
2 ea M60's for mains - ( you won't have trouble driving these speakers with a receiver from all the main players. The M80's are beautiful speakers but can dip below 2ohms which can make them difficult to power.
Depending on your room layout you could also scale down to M22's for mains.
1 ea VP150 for Center
4 ea QS4's for surrounds. - also depending on your room layout you could save a few dollars and go to direct firing rear surrounds such as the M2 or M3 and go with one pair of QS4's for side surrounds.

Axiom has a free in home trial period also, so if you don't like them you can return them with no questions asked.

Also if you look on the Axiom forums under the Hearing Things section you can look for people in your area who have offered to let people hear their set-ups. This way you can demo without the hassle of shipping.

Ok here is an aprox layout of the room, the projector screen is red and will be a 92" screen. the brown retangle is the couch. purple is the speakers, and the brown outline in the L" area are the bar cabnets. I was thinking using a 5.1 setup for the actualy movie watching, but having two other speakers on the fireplace wall so I can do 7 channel sterio when I am listining to music and socilizing at the bar.

Attachment 4921




Steve

The layout looks good you should be OK with a 92 inch screen at 12 feet. One thing I suggest is that you put in heat registers that you can close when you run the projector it will help to keep the dust down if you dont have air blowing around in the room.

I used a DIY screen kit from these guys, it turned out pretty good.
http://www.diytheatre.com/

Our room is basically the same shape and multi-function too but the screen wall is angled more facing the corner so 7.1 worked out pretty well.

I will have to put my 2 cents in for denon 4308 reciever even though it is a bit pricey you get what you pay for. It's an awesome amp. It does anything you need it to plus it comes with a mic that you use to set up the audessy eq. You basically move the mic around to 8 or positions in your sitting area and it figures out the optimal levels for all your speakers and each ones optimal eq settings. With a good set of speaker the sound puts a smile on your face. I also went with axiom speakers and it was a pleasure dealing with them. I got the epic 80 theater setup with upgrades. I have A pair of m80's v2 up front, my center is vp150 v2, my sides and rears are the qs8 v2 so 4 of them and my sub is the huge ep600 v2. The speakers really are something and axioms service was a pleasure to deal with. I considered the 1080p projector but to always having to control the light even just so you can seevwhat song to choose when you want background noise was to much of a pain. I went with a 1080p 52" LCD and have been happy ever since.

controling light to see menues isn't realy that big of deal, but I only have two small windows and am in the basement. I thought about going with a 55 or 60 inch plasma or lcd but I have a 52 inch upstairs so I want to make the one down stairs more of an experiance.

One thing I do need in a reciver is the ability to putput two different HDMI feeds. (or 1 HDMI and one componant) I am going to have the projector and a 42" plasma behind the bar and want to make it stupid easy to pick which one I am going to have on. so if the reciver can't do that it is out by default.

Steve

Your thoughts on 7.1 audio are a little off, what I would suggest is to do a 5.1 theater and have an amp that handles a second zone for the bar speakers.

If you take a 7.1 system and move two of the speakers out of the field your going to run into sound issues. You will get surround sounds out of the speakers your placing by the bar, not full range. Unless I'm misunderstanding your post.

The way you have your theater set-up now isn't a great set-up for a 7.1 theater unless your willing to hang speakers from the ceiling. The left surround would be too far from the listening area.
http://www.argos.co.uk/wcsstore/argo....1_diagram.jpg

Could you flip the area?

Sort of like this?

http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/a.../StirCrazy.jpg

Something like this but with a fireplace instead of a tv:

Most likely the screen wouldn't come down far enough to cover the actual fire place.

http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n...1/IMG_1793.jpg

http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n...1/IMG_1773.jpg

I looked at that stuff befor, have you used a cloth screen befor to give you a comparason between the two?

Had another thought, are you planing to output to the two displays at the same time? Most of the midpoint receivers don't offer dual out at the same time... I know some of the high end ones do.. a few from Marantz, Denon I believe has a model that does it... There may be a bunch more now.. it's been awhile since I've looked around.

Nope won't work, the couch is 12' wide so if I flip it sideways I will have about 1 foot of space for trafic to pass through, not acceptable to me.

as for the 7.1 I was thinking it right, I was going to turn off the surounds and basicly reasign them to only be on in sterio mode. this set up gives you more even power than when you use a second zone setup. so yes I was only going to use 5.1 for watching movies. I have 6.1 upstairs and it is pretty much useless as I have only found 2 movies that are in 6.1, asside from starwars.

Steve

well I would like the option to be able to do that, but probably not, just one at a time. Yamaha makes one that has dual HMDI and will output both at the same time.. I was originaly looking at this one as then all I would have to do is turn on the tv I wanted to watch

Steve

Cool, the whole time I was typing I was sure I was misunderstanding.

No I never have, the budget ran out. I was just going to go with the misty grey paint route but I figured I'd give these guys a try.

As for light concerns, I've had a Sony and now a Panasonic projector and I can still see the screen with the lights on.

Is your basement already framed? Fireplace is in?

A couple of the best ideas I stole, a PVC conduit in the ceiling from the projector to audio equipment for running wires. A closet behind the screen to access everything from the back. Remote dimmers for the lights can be learned by your remote.

Here's a pic from construction, cutouts for center speaker and equipment rack.

I went widescreen because we watch more movies than TV or computer. It ended up just about 100 inches.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12.../Inwall011.jpg
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/htt.../Inwall011.jpg