Wider Is Better

I use to enjoy going to the local cineplex and watching movies. You got 5.1 digital surround, great seating (stadium seating anyways) and a larger than life image. Now a days, I still get that but I also have to pay a larger than life price. Not sure where your cinema is but mine, currently $9.50 for a movie that is not in 3D and $12.50 if it is. I have dropped $at least $40 dollars for me and my family and haven't even sat down yet. Don't even get me started on the candy and popcorn prices.

I may have chosen to limit the amount I spend on entertainment outside the house but I do not have to limit the experience at all. My last post was describing the projector I will be using and why, now let me tell you about the screen.... cinemascope screen that is.

I have looked at several reviews and many different companies offer a 2.35:1 screen. However, they are all very proud of them. I am looking for a screen that is 125" wide and acoustically transparent or AT. AT means that the speakers will go behind the screen, just like in a theater, and no sound transmission is lost.

I have looked upon the Stewart Film Screen (Hollywood screen of choice) and SMX Screen. Both are very expensive $3-4K...... I don't think so. DaLite and Draper both offer them but they were still a little high in my opinion. I considered doing a DIY but I really wanted something that I didn't have to do a ton of research on. I found that the screen company Elite has Acoustically transparent screens and they are budget conscience.

The AcousticPro 1080 125" 2.35:1 Lunette series screen is the screen I am considering. Not only is it AT, not only is it a 2.35:1 screen.... it is curved to help with light roll off on the edges and corners of the screen bringing the screen closer to the projector. Elite offers this screen in a 1.0 gain which means it won't be any brighter than using a traditional screen and that is fine with me because the screen is going to be well inside the sweet spot range for the projector.

I did consider going with a solid surface screen and getting the grey surface material to enhance the darker colors and shadow details but, I really wanted the true theater experience. And as it stands right now, I am headed in just that direction.

To DLP or LCD, that is the question.....

When the world of home cinema took it's turn to DLP, I must admit that I thought it was spelling the end for LCD. I was a DLP fan but that is not to say I was not a fan of LCD. The technology at the time was just better.



After the response time was adjusted and the introduction of Blu Ray was made, I quickly jumped off the DLP ship in favor of sharper images, no rainbow effects and lower prices.


Now, the prices are similar, the LCD is still a bit sharper, DLP is making huge strides in the commercial cinema and 3D arena and home theater is on the verge of being the only media forum worth attending (especially after my most recent outing to a theater).

I will be looking at a standard 1080P LCD projector. The decision to go with LCD was based primarily on feature set rather than technology but I do notice a bit more detail in the LCD images. There for the Panasonic PT-AE4000 will be the projector of choice.

Before I get to the reasons why I chose this projector, let me give you a quick list of specs....

MSRP: $2,499
Contrast: 100,000:1
Lumens: 1600
Resolution: 1920x1080
Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Technology: 3 LCD
Lens: 2x powered
Lens Shift: H + V
Lamp Life: 2,000 Hrs
Lamp Cost: $400.00
Warranty: 1 year

Not to shabby, I would like a little more lumens but I think I will be fine for the screen I am going with.

Panasonic has been making excellent home theater projectors for many years now. A friend of mine had a PT-AE500 (960x540) which was 1/4 HD and the image looked fantastic on his 92" 16x9 screen. So as I followed the reviews of Panasonics projectors over the years, it seemed the natural choice for me. I also had the privillege of installing another friends home theater on a budget and we went with the AX200 (1280x720) and on his 120" screen, it looked amazing, even with upconverted DVD.

I have chosen to do a CIH (Constant Image Height) theater and in order to do this you need to have one of two available setups. Option 1 is to have an HD projector and an anamorphic lens. This is the way that the traditional movie theater does a cinemascope movie. The only problem witht his method is, the lens is generally more than the projector (around $4000). I DON'T THINK SO!!!!!

Option 2, buy a Panasonic AE4000. It has a wonderful feature which they call Automatic Intelligent Lens Memory. They brought the idea to the table with the introduction of the AE3000 with the Intelligent Lens Memory but not until the AE4000 can you get the Automatic portion of this feature. What this feature does is automatically detects the black bars at the top and bottom of your screen. When the movie has this scope, the projector automatically zooms in from the original 16x9 image, filling in the entire 21:9 screen. Did I mention how much I love technology? Voola, you have your cinema-wide screen..... just like a theater.

Another feature I love about this projector, which is not exclusive to this model but is more prevelant in the LCD rather than DLP, is the fact that it has a long lens throw. My screen will be approximately 20' from the back of the room, this is where I want to mount my projector. most DLP projectors will not go that far back before the image is to big for my room.

Another reason I am going with the Panny, in almost every review I have read, they all repeat the same thing, out of the box adjustments are barely needed. They have the colors so close to awesome that, you only need minor adjustments. Also adding, the Panasonic is the most realistic of all the other projectors in its class. Combine that with the two or three panasonics I have already seen in action and I'm sold.

My next post will review the cinemascope screen. Have a great day!!!!

Soundproofing..... Go Green!!!!!

Our home is not a large home with a seperate basement so, getting away from other rooms in the house is not really an option... unless we sell and build (not happening anytime soon). One of my sons bedrooms is right next to the bonus room where the theater will be built so it will be essential to stopping as much noise as possible from leaving the theater area.


PHASE I

The first thing I am going to do is add a wall. The room is quite large and will allow me to install staggered stud wall that will be heavily insulated and have multiple layers of sheetrock. A staggered stud wall is built with a 2" X 6" at the top, bottom and ends of the wall and staggered 2" X 4" studs creating a 6" deep wall in which the two sides of the wall are not connected to each other except on the outer perimeter (see image below). This will be the back wall of my theater which will also be the dividing wall between the theater and the wall that is oppsite my sons bedroom.


















PHASE II






In between those layers of sheetrock will be Green Glue (http://www.greengluecompany.com/)

Green Glue is a product that is becoming the item of choice for new construction and existing room renovations in the DIY home theater realm. Sandwiched between two or more layers of sheetrock or plywood, green glue creates a dampening layer that absorbs sound vibration, reduces resonance and prevents sound from traveling to the next room. The more layers you use, the better off you are

Simply order from there website (given above) select if you would rather have the tubes (for caulk gun) or 5 gallon bucket with applicator. Squirt it on one sheet of drywall in a random pattern, then attach the sheetrock to the previous piece of sheetrock. There website has a great tutorial on this.

I will be applying this option to all areas of my theater.... Walls, floors and ceiling. I want to be able to watch movies at reference level at 2 o'clock in the morning and nobody complain about it... I'm a night owl and I love movies.



Phase III

Next, we will need to change the doors out to solid core doors. The existing doors are just builder grade interior doors that are, of course, hollow. This means that sound will travel right through them with little resistance. And that is exactly what happens now. When my two boys are upstairs playing Modern Warfare on the Xbox 360, it literally sounds like a war is going on just on the other side of the door.

There are currently 3 doors in this room, one leading into the room itself, one leading to a storage area (changing this one will help with the heating and cooling as well) and there is one going into a closet, which also is right next to one of my boys bedrooms. We will be adding another door to the entrance of the theater so this will help stop even more sound from leaving the theater room.

A hollow core door is made up of a solid wood frame and wood veneer on the front and back but it is cardboard or something very similar and light weight in the middle. (see image below)






















A solid core door is just as it sounds, solid all the way through. This may be solid metal, solid fiberglass or solid wood (what I will be using) but this adds weight and density to the door which assists in stopping sound from traveling past it.

PHASE IV

The room will be divided into two areas, the first area being primarily a walk way to the theater that will house all the audio/video equipment, a microwave and refrigerator, and access to the homes structured wiring closet. The second area, obviously, the theater itself. Since there will be no more sound proofing done in the entrance area other than ean extra layer of sheetrock, green glue, and the swap out of the doors, we will move into the theater itself.

I will be adding another layer of sound control/soundproofing. This layer will assist with the overall sound of the room itself. I will be adding 2" furring strips to the primeter of the room in a stylish format (undetermined right now) and adding 1.5" solid foam insulation panels on the lower 4' sections of the wall and cotton batting on the upper portions of the walls. this will help to deaden the room and control the sound by elimating echos and reflection points from the walls.

Behind the screen there will be dampenning matting on the wall and 4" thick triangle shaped insulation panels stacked in the corners as bass traps.

That just about sums up this addition to my blog. In the next post, I will be discussing the equipment I am considering on using.

The Room Itself

The room is a weird shape as it were. It is 14'7" x 28' at it's longest point. It also has barn style roof line in it due to the slope of the roof. It has 10' ceilings throughout and i will be lowering the ceiling a bit so I can add a sofit to help remove the "BARN" look as well as add a starfield ceiling if possible. I will have to reroute some the A/C duct work as well. The Picture shown here is from the entrance of the room. The walls on the side come up exactly 6' 0" before it breaks into its angle. I will be adding another layer of sheetrock with a layer of green glue in between them. I will then add insulation panels and batting then cover it with GOM fabric which will add about 1.5" on each side of the room. This will push the breaking point of the side wall angle up to about 6'5". I may try to increase that to a full 2" just to try and get the height there because I want to make the far left side the entrance to the theater at the height of the back row (see drawing below).

I will also add a wall to make the back of the room flat, easier to work with and give it more of a theater feel to it.I am planning on a 144" cinemascope AT screen. Two rows of seating with the back row being 12" - 15" higher than the front row. When the room is finished, it will be approx. 14'4" wide x 21' long (19' from the screen to the back wall) and will being sound proofed from the rest of the house. I am looking at adding a small kitchen area with a sink, microwave and refridgerator so I can keep all the goodies right outside the theater. Here is a drawing I have done trying to keep it to scale. I am not an architect by any means but it gets the job done.

I am also trying to use quality parts without destroying the bank account. The room is not massively large so it will not need a ton of volume but, I do want it to sound and look good. The photo below is a one of many theaters I am getting ideas from mostly because this theater seems to focus more on the movie than all the fancy crown molding and stuff that I am not a big fan of anyway. I will make a few changes to this design but not many. My stage will not have the depth that this has (this is by choice) and I will probably go with a darker carpet and darker chairs. I want to gain as much contrast as possible and the darker the room, the better the contrast. The only other difference I can say that is slated right now is the screen. It is very hard to tell if this screen is acoustically transparent or not but I hope to do this in my theater. If I can not do a DIY AT Screen, I will use a solid screen like this screen appears to be while placing my center channel above the screen itself.

I will start going over some of the equipment I am considering in future posts

In The Beginning.....

This blog is being started for two reasons.

Reason 1: I love to talk about home theater.

Reason 2: I will hopefully get to build my own theater in our bonus room within the next year or so and I hope to document my progress and post pics of the different stages and techiques used to construct it.

Follow along if you would like. I will be posting some items that I plan to use in the construction and design of the theater. I will also show some comparisons of things I am considering using.

Thanks for checking in and I hope you enjoy it.