GINge!

I've been away from AZ for too long, never even knew this forum existed.

Here's the situation:

I bought a new place with an unfished basement. Wifey is on board with making part of the b/ment into a home theatre. (pics below).

B/ment is a walk-out, and is studded & insulated. I will be doing the framing, wiring, plumbing, sheetrocking & flooring myself, and paying someone to tape & mud.

Total budget for the room is $8k-$10k, that includes about $4k for materials. That leaves $4k for the TV, HT, DVD, and couch or two. I don't need a high-end sound system - 18 years in the Artillery did a number on my hearing.

At this stage, I need to know what sort of prep work I should be doing, especially wiring, before I hang the dry wall. For instance, I am thinking of running all my rear speaker wire through the walls and out to jacks/plates. I don't know if these even exist? I have heard there are in-wall speakers, but I plan on moving in 3-5 years, so I want to be able to take the hardware with me.

Wall at the right is where I will hang the TV:


Looking farther along the 'left' wall. In between the window & door is where I think I should mount the rear/left speaker.


The TV wall facing. On the right, that wall will be extended about 6'


Any advice/pointers appreciated!

doopstr

You can get wall plates at a decent price at Home Depot. Get the ones that have either 4 or 6 holes in the plates. You can then buy whatever type of inserts you want. They have inserts for speaker hookups as well as a low level output if you want to put a sub in the back of the room.

cazzy

Well, I don't have too much advice other than pre-wire everything like I said. I would also consider pre-wiring your audio visual component wires to. That way your equipment can be in a more convenient location, like next to the couch or in a near by closet.

I personally would close-in the window and get a solid door. That way your room could be really dark and you could get a front mount DLP projector. I would much rather have a front mount projector instead of a conventional TV. It would give it more of a theatre like atmosphere. Also, do some research on insulation and get sound dampening insulation and use plenty of it. Insulate the ceiling just as much that way you can get away to your theatre and not bother the family too much.

Good luck...and post pics after your done.

http://www.diy-home-theater-design.com/

GINge!

Hey, great tips! I forgot all about sound dampening. We have a baby due in 10 weeks, so I guess I'll be cramming the ceiling full of insulation!

I always just assumed I should mount the DVD etc beside/under/on top of the TV... I never thought of having it on a coffee table beside my couch - excellent idea!!!

Can you run HDTV signals into a DLP projector? Only time I have seen a front mount DLP is at work for powerpoint presentations etc.

edit: awesome diy link, thanks!

mrsteve

iTrader: (1)

I disagree on the front-projector idea. The room isn't THAT large and from a cost standpoint you'll probably do better buying a 61" 1080p DLP for ~$2,500 than spending $3,000+ for a 720p front-projector.

kona

AVSForum has a forum dedicated to home theatre construction. Here's a thread of a guy who turned his garage into a media room.

Before
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...4&page=1&pp=30

After
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...&page=87&pp=30

It's a big thread with a wealth of information.
Good luck!

TSXmeister

Here is a link.....would make you drool!!

http://www.modernhometheater.com/virtualtours/

soopa

wow. that theater is fucking sick.

soopa

i don't know about the theaters, but some of those houses/condos are ridiculous!

i loooove that chicago brownstone.

Scrib

Looks like the builder did a fairly decent job with the framing and most everything is tucked into the ceiling joists, so you should be able sheetrock the ceiling with minimal effort.

I made sure that I had a diagram drawn out. Make sure you think of EVERYTHING. Lights... Where, how many, will they cause shadows on the walls... Sconces. Do you want them?

What is code for electrical? Conduit? ROMEX? For the wiring, just run empty conduit and it'll be easy to fish through later.

You might be pressed for budget with only $4K to work with for materials. Additionally, you might be stretched on the fun stuff too. It'll be very close.

TSXmeister

I like the "The Mid-Century Masterpiece"......the views, house and equipment are just sick!!

2001AudiS4

If you run lines into a closet or another location to the hide the equipment, make sure you run a CAT5 line. You will be able to use it to wire a infrared repeating system later on. Personally, if I were going to prewire everything while in stud form, I would prefer to hide all the equipment and give it a more subtle look. As far as speakers, you aren't looking for outrageously loud and expensive, I would consider just wiring for in ceiling speakers. It will look nice and give you the feeling of a bigger room. The cost of the speakers will not be that much, and you can just sell them with the house in the future with a theater room included. If need be, I could maybe help you get some decent sounding in ceiling speakers for a decent price. You can find some online too. I know that I deal with Jamo and Elan speakers a lot, and they both sound more then adequate. I'd be able to get them for less then $100 a pair. Another suggestion, if you do not have a reciever yet, I recommend looking at the Marantz SR4001 or SR5001. The main difference is the SR5001 has multi zone control, which you may not need. It does also have an extra Component in. Both of them do HDMI switching as well. They are solidly built and they have GREAT sound quality. The SR4001 should be in the $400 range I believe, and IMHO blows away other likely priced receivers.

GINge!

Thanks again guys, there's a lot of things I hadn't considered in those links.

I wondered why some of the MLS listings advertised a house with "CAT 5" wiring, I'd never heard of an IR Repeater before this thread either - what a great idea (the idea of a media cabinet makes a lot more sense to me now).

The builders seemed to do a good job, I think because it was a show home they might have taken a bit more time to get things right. The ceiling is almost 9', which is not too bad for a basement out here. I will have to build 3-4 bulkheads though, but the ceiling in the media room is straight shot.

I helped finish a friend's basement (800 sq ft) for $5400, so I should be OK. I've budgeted 30% lower in case of overruns.

2001AudiS4

Well in the case of the MLS listings stating CAT5 wiring, that is really just being advertised for a home network.

GINge!

I had a brainwave last night while putting in the sub-floor. I am considering constructing a built-in HT unit along the length of the 15' wall. I was planning on going with something from Ikea (around $2000), but I'm sure I can do something with 2x4's and MDF/sheetrock that will yield a decent result.

The problem is I have been googling for an hour and not been able to find any decent plans, I must be having a key-word problem becuase there has to be something out there?

Anyone got any plans for a buit in?

Cheers!