Home Theater Mega Thread

[DownhillGoat]

Originally Posted by bubbsy

I have our patio door window in the same room i use the projector, and shutting the blinds does allow light to creep in from the corners, but it's never bad enough to make it unwatchable. of course, watching at night is best, and just happens to be the times we do our most movie watching.

Take a look at the Mitsubishi 6800. Don't own one, but I'm shopping at the moment and it's definitely a front runner. I saw one in action with the room lights left on at an audio store downtown and it was unbelievable.

The darker the room the better still, but this thing was amazing if you can't control all the light.

[PIMking]

I've been tinkering with getting the set up done at the new house but the house doesn't have normal wall cavities. seems like drywall over the like wood pieces that would resemble plywood. So I'm not sure how to route the speaker wires without making a huge mess.

[DownhillGoat]

^For the rears and fronts you can take the baseboards off, score/indent the drywall, run the speaker wire along the score, and then put the baseboards back on. The other thing I've seen (if you have access to your basement ceiling) is drill through the floor and run the speaker in the basement, then back up through the floor at the speaker locations. For the rears you can use speaker stands and run the wire up through them after that.

It's not ideal, but it works for the fronts and rears if you keep them close to the wall.

[Ryan Coke]

Originally Posted by bubbsy

what kind of projector do you have?

I have our patio door window in the same room i use the projector, and shutting the blinds does allow light to creep in from the corners, but it's never bad enough to make it unwatchable. of course, watching at night is best, and just happens to be the times we do our most movie watching.

I don't have one yet. Finishing the basement at the moment and pre-wiring everything, but I'll get the projector after everything's done. Just wondering generally how light sensitive they are with a decent projector.

Thanks for the info.

[DownhillGoat]

Originally Posted by Mr. Ski

Crayon on a $1000 Stewart FireHawk G3 is not something I want to find after coming home from work!

Where on earth have you found a Firehawk G3 for $1000?

[DownhillGoat]

And so it begins....

[fundmark19]

Take it out of the box take it out of the box!!!!!

[Regular_John]

Alright CP what's your experience been with cable management for a wall mounted plasma screen?

Obviously running the cables through the wall is the cleaner looking solution in the end, but from my reading up on it I'm getting the impression that running the TV's power cord through the wall is a fire hazard and many of the guides recommend having an additional electrical outlet installed behind the mount by an electrician.

So at this point I'm thinking of just using a cable channel mounted on the wall between the TV & the entertainment stand like this: http://www.homedepot.ca/product/cabl...l-white/911667

Anyways what did you guy end up doing? Have an electrician install an extra outlet and route your HDMI cables through the wall? Or did you take the risk and run the power cable through the wall as well?

[DownhillGoat]

Originally Posted by fundmark19

Take it out of the box take it out of the box!!!!!

Haha I don't have a screen to watch it on or a ceiling to mount it to, currently.

Just starting to piece things together and found the projector for a heck of a deal.

Originally Posted by jaydorn

Anyways what did you guy end up doing? Have an electrician install an extra outlet and route your HDMI cables through the wall? Or did you take the risk and run the power cable through the wall as well?

I ran everything through the wall.

[photon]

I don't know how much of a fire risk it is, but it certainly is against code.

[Regular_John]

Originally Posted by photon

I don't know how much of a fire risk it is, but it certainly is against code.

Yup that's what my reading is telling me, just wondering how the other folks in this thread have handled it. This powerbridge is one solution, but at that price I may as well have an additional outlet actually installed: http://www.memoryexpress.com/Product...32974(ME).aspx

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by jaydorn

Alright CP what's your experience been with cable management for a wall mounted plasma screen?

Obviously running the cables through the wall is the cleaner looking solution in the end, but from my reading up on it I'm getting the impression that running the TV's power cord through the wall is a fire hazard and many of the guides recommend having an additional electrical outlet installed behind the mount by an electrician.

So at this point I'm thinking of just using a cable channel mounted on the wall between the TV & the entertainment stand like this: http://www.homedepot.ca/product/cabl...l-white/911667

Anyways what did you guy end up doing? Have an electrician install an extra outlet and route your HDMI cables through the wall? Or did you take the risk and run the power cable through the wall as well?

If you are going to cut a hole in your wall anyway, just put in a new box yourself. You don't need to be an electrician to work on your own home. Just make sure what you do is to code, which should be available online somewhere.

edit: Of course you would still need a permit, which is a hassle. Details here and the full guide to how to do the wiring is here.

[Regular_John]

Originally Posted by Rathji

edit: Of course you would still need a permit, which is a hassle. Details here and the full guide to how to do the wiring is here.

Screw it, cables are going on the outside of the wall. :P

Thanks for the input though.

[photon]

Originally Posted by jaydorn

Yup that's what my reading is telling me, just wondering how the other folks in this thread have handled it. This powerbridge is one solution, but at that price I may as well have an additional outlet actually installed: http://www.memoryexpress.com/Product...32974(ME).aspx

I had no idea something like that existed, neat!

[Regular_John]

Originally Posted by photon

I had no idea something like that existed, neat!

Yeah just found it googling around this morning. This Engadget article goes into a bit more specific detail on it:
http://hd.engadget.com/2007/09/21/ho...ll-mounted-tv/

Seems like a viable solution, but at a $100 it may be cost prohibitive for my needs.

[Burninator]

Get one of these as well...if you need it.

http://www.monoprice.com/products/pr...seq=1&format=2

[DownhillGoat]

Anybody have any experience with Grandview screens? Thoughts? Opinions? Here-says?

Originally Posted by jaydorn

This powerbridge is one solution, but at that price I may as well have an additional outlet actually installed: http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/PID-MX32974(ME).aspx

So how is that code compliant but running the cable down the wall which I don't see a difference in isn't? As far as the price being the same as a second higher outlet, the advantage with this is you could plug the tv into a surge protector with everything else.

[Regular_John]

Originally Posted by kunkstyle

Anybody have any experience with Grandview screens? Thoughts? Opinions? Here-says?



So how is that code compliant but running the cable down the wall which I don't see a difference in isn't? As far as the price being the same as a second higher outlet, the advantage with this is you could plug the tv into a surge protector with everything else.

My understanding of it (take it with a grain of salt, I'm no electrician) is that the romex cable provided to wire the two 'outlets' together is rated for wall installation and that extension cords & basic TV power cords are not.

[DownhillGoat]

Bump because I'm pulling my hair out!

Any suggestions for ceiling mounting surround speakers? (not in-ceiling speakers). I'm basically looking for something like this.

Now here's the rub. Thanks to a lovely bulkhead running in a very inconvenient place, I need to mount one speaker to the ceiling, and one to the bulkead, 12" lower while still keeping the speakers the same height. So I need to find either:
a) an extended ceiling mount that will drop one speaker around 14" lower than the other mount, or
b) a clever DIY method to make an extension post of some sort from my ceiling to mount the speaker mount to.

Googling is bringing me nothing. Any and all help is greatly appreciated.

[8sPOT]

I'm thinking your best bet is to make something to lower the one speaker by 12". Is their a reason you don't want to mount them on the wall at the same height? That would make your life a heck of a lot easier.