Starbuck's Theatre @ Home - _not_ a case! (Chapter III - Feb 15 '06)

Prologue
I love movies. I love TV. I love my wife. She loves movies. She loves TV. I love my stepdaughter (who has graciously taken on the role of spokes model in this log.) She also loves movies and TV. I'm sure you're getting the idea. We LOVE the movies and the big screen, the popcorn, and the movie going experience... we don't like the rude people, other noisy children, not being able to pause things, and cell phone blocking wallpaper.

I have wanted to do something like this for a long time now, but the money wasn't there for the 60" LCD HDTV that I wanted, nor was my wife convinced that 60" was a good number - she didn't even want a 50" screen... we'll see about that later on, though. It so happened that I was browsing the ArsTechnica Agora and came across a gentlemen who was selling a Sanyo PLV-Z2 Widescreen HDTV Projector for a quite reasonable $840. I mentioned this to my wife who was basically like "oooooh". She asked if it was high enough resolution, since she knows I've wanted a projector for a while and every time she's said "hey, so and so has projectors on sale" it's been some craptastic 800x600 resolution POS. Nope, the PLV-Z2 is the real deal: 1280x720 native resolution for much goodness - and I don't mind the fact that it's not 1080p (1920x1080) because, after all, most HD broadcasts in the US are mastered at 1080 and transmitted at 720p. Having a 1080i or p native screen would mean having to upsample, and also cost oh.... $10,000! My wife said something like "that is a good deal, what do you think?" To which I replied "I'm having a hard time not typing 'DIBSSSS!!!!!1111oneone'" She said "we should do it"... So I did after I did some quick research. Later that night I sent the paypal after making a quick run to the bank to deposit some funds. This was Sunday, December 5th.

The seller boxed up the projector and all of the goodies and shipped everything out Wednesday, December 7th. The projector arrived on Friday, December 9th. My step daughter had no idea what was "in the box" but she too had wanted the big screen @ home... she was quite anxious to see was in the box! We sent her to her room to wait and play while we set things up to the point at which you see them below (well, minus the ghetto projector mount and custom screen.) She came out and saw it was our very own projector, and was awestruck. We watched polar express via my craptasic s-video connected DVD player - that too will change.

What I believe will happen in this log will be a full big screen setup created out of what we own now and some new parts, listed below, for under $1000.

Current Equipment

• RCA 32" TV (to be migrated to my workshop )
• RCA 75x5 Reciever
• RCA non-progressive ancient DVD player (to be replaced)
• ReplayTV 5504 (soon to be modded from 40GB to 40+200GB)
• Panasonic VCR
• Miscellaneous cables to connect all of the abve.
• Original Shuttle SFF w\ 1GHz/512/40GB in need of a new PSU, not currently in use

Acquiring/Aquired

• 25' Component Video Cable (3xRCA) - Ebay'd
• 25' DVI-I Cable - Ebay'd
• 25' S-Video Cable - already have
• 25' VGA cable - have a 50', might get a 25' for signal quality
• 25' Composite Video Cable (1xRCA, for subwoofers but it's all the same) - PartsExpress.com
• Wiremold to hide all of the above + mains power run up the wall to the ceiling mount
• Sanyo PLV-Z2 Ceiling Mount - Ebay'd
• 2 x 1m S-Video cable - PartsExpress.com

I'll go back and put in the prices at some point.

Chapter 1

Some random commcercial on the projector and home-made screen:


The current setup, some of the equipment to stay.. the stand is falling apart at the moment.


The "new" equipment cabinet which is currently part of my workshop will be cleaned out and lined with black contact paper, and its outside painted white (that probably won't happen till spring.) This will gain me back some valuable space in that corner, and be much, much neater than the unit that is there now. It'll also provide storage for my wife's DVDs and some Gamecube games.


The Sanyo PLV-Z2 Widescreen HDTV projector, sitting on a TV tray. That fragle spot made my wife and I VERY VERY nervous with out 2 dogs running around as well as a 5 year old girl. Everytime one of them got near it we cringed, we had to some up with something better. You'll see that shortly, created for under $10 at walmart!


Back of the projector. DVI (which can do HDMI or composite or straight DVI or VGA), Composite video, Component Video, S-Video and the "control port" which is some sort of RS-232 that can be used to control all of the projector's functions... might have a use for that, we'll see.


Appropriately sized screens (73'x55' in our case) were VERY VERY expensive, anywhere from $160 to $400. This was unacceptable, and my wife (god bless her) found fabric that was reflective like commercial screen material. We put it up above our fireplace which is dead center in our living room, and I stapled the edges with a staple gun while my wife pulled the material taught. The edges do look like butt, but will be covered by some wood trim to frame the screen!


Detail of 2 layers of screen fabric.


My stepdaughter saying "It's THIS BIG!!!!" along w\ scale. I saw "You measure the size of your TV in inches? how cute! " in a guy's signature on the AVS Forums - Now I get it!


A run to walmart last night (Saturday, the 10th of December) yielded a vinyl coated wire rack for organizing your closet and a set of 4 5/32" hook eyes. Some careful measuring and lining up w\ my laser-sighted level later, and we've got a ghetto mount so my wife and I can now stop worrying about the dogs or daughter knocking over the projector.


Annndddd from the back.


In the background we have my laptop, which is hooked up via the VGA cable in the background to a DVI-VGA converter... my wife and I watched Finding Nemo AFTER our daughter went to be via WinDVD on my laptop. It does look a lot better than my ancient RCA DVD player, so I think I'll load up my 'ol shuttle ($50 from a friend) w\ XP media center and use that instead of the standalone DVD player.

Also in the background, are some custom blackout curtains made of shower curtain liners (vinyl). On the window side (outside facing) part, we have white vinyl shower curtain. It looks good from the outside, surprisingly. In the middle is a black vinyl shower curtain, and on the inside facing us, is the regular curtain. it does an amazingly good job of blocking the light.


More when the parts start arriving from ebay and other places.

 

Starbuck's Theatre @ Home - The Comment Thread


Starbuck's Theatre @ Home

Comment thread, discuss!

 

man thats ghetto.. wicked.

 

this just makes my heart feel good.

 

mmm, projectors

We got one for our house a few weeks ago, so I know exactally how much fun you're having
I was wondering, this fabric that your wife found to use as a screen, any more info? We're still using a blank wall, but the contrast isn't great.

Rather than a shuttle, we've got a Mac Mini doing DVD playing duties, as well as playing AVI's and most everything else we throw at it, google earth on a big screen is pretty kewl

 

Soo tempted to sell car for one

Really nice setup!

 

Oh man, I'm just a poor poor poor poor poor.. you get it, student, and I love movies! I wish i had a home cinema..
Ideas like http://lumenlab.com/ crossed my mind, but i'm not hardcore enough yet to make the move .

Wonderfull solution! loving it!

 

Oooh. hadn't thought of google earth. the shuttle is sadly pretty underpowered so i might have to knock together something better eventually.

you might want to have a look at the "projector screen paint" (google it) for ~$200, you can upgrade that wall in an afternoon and it'll look great. This wasn't an option for me since I've got real wood panelling on that wall, and drywalling it then painting would have been too big of a pain in the arse.

My wife says the fabric is just regular old white satin. Cost us ~$25 for the whole lot, yay! We know a real screen would look better, but we're saving for a proper motorized screen to be installed in a year or so. This will do for now.

Btw, I'm putting the trim aronud the screen on with screws so it can be easily removed later.

 

Looks like it'll be sweet. I'm hoping to get a projector next summer-ish lol. but for now my 25" will have to do.

 

oooo pretty nice there... i got 2 projectors at home, one in my office on the meda center comp....(built it my-self) and the other one in my bedroom...their sooo nice, I hadnt thought about using satin, ill have to give it a shot, btw blackout material makes real nice screens. I like the projector mount, imma have to do that soon.

 

The new mount is here, I'll post a few pics in a while. I've also got the equipment in it's new home, but that home hasn't been painted and probably won't be till spring.

 

Ahh, the unghetto arrives. All my toys from e-bay showed up and since my lovely wife is having a "movie night" with her crew of friends whilst I'm out the boozer tonight, she requested that I hurry the hell up and finish off the wiring!. So I did.

A trip to the local industrial lighting store netted me 3 8' pieces of wiremold to hide the wiring in. Before this it had been hanging from the curtain rod and generally looked really bad (see update #1). She made me a nice steak dinner and then she took herself and Kyra to the icecream store so they could get out of my hair... I banished the dogs to the back hall so I didn't trip over them. Then I proceeded to make a huge mess in the living room, had to run to walmart in the middle to get wall anchors, but in the end the mount, wiring, and equipment storage turned out like this:

From the back (and no, the was no black 25' extension cord, sadly. I could dye it, but it's winter and that needs to be done in a heated, well ventilated space that I don't have.) Note the wire mold going out to the edge of the room, along the ceiling, and down the wall behind the equipment rack.


Front the front. Much cleaner. Wife = Happy.


Equipment rack... this may or may not stay. If it does stay, it'll be painted white come spring, if not, I may construct one of these flexi racks.


Since this screen fabric, while cheap and good, does leave a little something to be desired, I'm debating getting the lumenlab screen fabric but I can't tell if it's just the blackout fabric, or the screen stuff too. :wacko:

Meanwhile, I continue wasting my time playing (gasp) GAMES on goliath... with the occaisonal venture into dutch's badactivity...

 

Part II is up!

 

nice lookin setup! now all you need is an htpc! but i miss the getto aspect of it! reminded me of my setup...now its all nice, btw i think cvs may have white extension cords in the length you want... at least the store i work in does...

 

My wife got the yellow one for $4 at ollies... thanks for the offer but no way am I pulling that molding cover off if I don't have to!

I do have an HTPC, it lives in the room above the one you see in the pictures. I may be building a second one if I can find a cheap p4 board and >512MB of ram... the question is the case, of course, and whether or not I can tolerate and unmodifed case in my house.

 

Arnt you supposed to have black border on the sides? Cuase the contrast makes the movie look brighter and better or something.

 

The border is coming along with the final trim for the screen, possibly from lumenlab.com...

 

NIce dude and what a great price.
Can I come to movie night.
Now I want one.
My house have long 10foot walls and there all white with nothing on them.

 

Then you can google up screen paint and be in even better shape than I was. That wall of mine is wood paneling, but it was white.

 

Well, I'll do you one better. No lumenlab homebrew screen, I've gotten an actual proper HT screen... FROM WOOT!!!! (www.woot.com)

!

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