DrP Wrote:What software did you use to do this? When I did a "pre-vis" render of the room I used Google sketchup. I chose this because I didn't have to much experience with 3D CAD programs and it seemed easy to operate with a quick learning curve for basic functions. The other thing I liked about Google sketchup was that they have a very large and easily search-able model database that other users have submitted. Oh, and did I mention it was free.... How were you able to get the textures to match up so closely? Also, were you designing the models yourself or were you importing?

Yeah from what I understand google sketch seems to be quite popular with DIY'ers. Google doesn't seem to be able to do anything wrong With enough time it might supercede more established programs like the one I used.

I used a program called 3Ds max, which is popular with architecture. I picked it up studying for my interior design degree. Some textures like paint and tiles, I use the material editor within 3Ds max to create, and try my best to visually match them. Others like timber are more organic and frequently require textures made from photo references. Those I can make myself, especially if accuracy is crucial, or I can visit a material library and search for the closest approximate material.

I always construct the models I use. Imported models almost never give me the specificity I want

DrP Wrote:Unfortunately, I never made any photo-realistic renders of my room with the program. The pictures of my computer simulations are essentially just screen shots of the rough models while running the program. Basically I was using it to measure things like speaker and screen distances and just getting an overall feel of the room space and placement of the speakers. I didn't plot things down to the final inch (other than actual room dimensions) because I new that during calibration I would be moving things around. I think in your room the render was more closely associated with the final look so it was more important to be exact. I would say "mission accomplished!"

Exactly, we used the programs that most suited our purposes

DrP Wrote:You really did put a lot of effort into this you may want to show it off a bit to the "home theater" community as well. I am a member of blu-ray.com and they have home theater galleries and forums related solely to this kind of thing. You may want to post of this there, I know it would garner a lot of interest, especially the room build and equipment.

Thanks, I might do that. My posts in other places aren't getting much love :P

DrP Wrote:So I got my two new component racks yesterday. Assembled the first one with no problems and then half way through the 2nd piece I notice that they left the threading out of one of the legs. I called the company up and they are sending out a replacement but that will take a little while. I also got my Rega turntable. I plan to put all this together and post some pictures soon (I hope they get that replacement out to me in the next week or so).

Waiting for the pictures!

I have no TV nor, of course, a theatrical setup at my place, but that doesn't mean my friends don't, and they accommodate my monthly plasma-screen watching buy letting me use the following at their pad:

1080P TV with the video coming from a blu-ray player. To take it 3D would be the ultimate, but for now I can live with the 2-D since the home version of this movie just POPS compared to even the theatrical IMAX experience since it's a dark movie, and theatrical 3D isn't known for being too bright. The details got lost in the theatrical version, such as the cliffs as seen when Quorroa takes Sam on his escape ride to Flynn's safehouse.

Alos, I listen to the audio through a set of Audio Technica HD4- headphones, through which I have noted some new aural thing about the movie every time I use them during a watching. This movie I have to HIGHLY recommend the use of headphones with. You're missing half the movie if you don't. Movies like this are studio-mixed on headphones, so listening to them with headphones is the only way to hear it the way the engineer who so expertly mixed it and intended it to be heard, before it leaves a conventional speaker cone and re-mixes by bouncing off the walls before it reaches your ears.

Moses613 Wrote:Movies like this are studio-mixed on headphones, so listening to them with headphones is the only way to hear it the way the engineer who so expertly mixed it and intended it to be heard,

I don't know where you got that information from, but that is almost certainly never the case. It is a poor, poor way to monitor sound that is primarily intended to be played through theatre systems with some degree of room reflection. The LFE channel would most certainly be innaccurate, and surround channels will end up softer and too diffuse if mixed through headphones but ported through a cineplex.

Sounds like you have all your bases covered!

It sounds like the projector will be mounted on the back wall. If it is sitting on a shelf then that could add extra sound proofing as there will be a barrier between the projector and the listener.

I agree that I think you will most likely be very good with the brightness. The fact that the throw distance is only about 8 ft and the screen is under 80 inches should help significantly. I am guessing you got a "white" screen vs one of the darker "grey" ones. I use a screen with a gain rating of 1.4 and it is quite bright.

If you don't mind losing some of the dynamic iris ability then that certainly will eliminate the noise issue with the mechanism. I find that on close inspection it does help my 8700ub but it's a minor difference that most people would not notice unless you point it out.

I wouldn't go crazy with the color calibration. I think the thx discs are very good and as long as you have the tint color filter you get 95% of what a "professional" color calibration gets you. Once again, I used a 3 filter system for all the primary colors but I found making very small corrections from the out of the box thx setting. I have read numerous reviews on the 8700ub commenting on how close the thx setting is to ideal but I myself was not expecting this. Once again, the brightness and contrast you will need to adjust no matter what but that is the easiest setting to calibrate with any calibration disk, including the thx ones.

I can comment on the monoprice premium 22 AWG hdmi cable because that is what I own. I have the 30ft cable and it runs great without any signal loss. I have even put adapters on it which would theoretically degrade the signal even more than straight connection with the components and still no problem. You won't have any issues with signal quality with these cables.

One thing to note with the hdmi cable however is the stiffness. You will not be able to bend this around tight corners. It's as thick as a garden hose and very firm. At best it will take a 6 inch radius to make a 90 degree turn with it. Just keep that in mind as the back of the projection will not be able to be right up against a wall and if you plan to make lots of turns around corners this will be a major issue. Otherwise they are great cables and extremely cheap. Too bad you live in Australia as the shipping is a killer...

I looked at the mounting shelves that you had a links too, I think you will be find but it's going to be a very tight turn with the hdmi cable. I hope that it will be ok, but you may have to put the projector all the way to the front edge of the mount (which is not a problem). Both look good, I kind of like the look of the amazon one better in terms of the glass and the single wall mount, but I can see the other one looking good too, especially because it's white and will match the epson. The amazon one's have free shipping but I don't know if that applies to Australia?

Last is the screen,... The viewing angle of 36 degrees is essentially perfect and it is what the THX standard actually recommends (I think officially it is 35 degrees) so you nailed that right on. You can always adjust the exact size a little bit with the lens on the epson. I think the viewing angle is the number one mistake that people make in their hometheaters. I completely understand this with LCD and plasma TV's and they simply do not come in large enough sizes but once you get into projectors this luckily is easily overcome!

Can't wait to see some pictures. Try to show some of how you ran that hdmi cable around the corners, that was a difficulty with my long run!

Sounds nice. I think having the high contrast projector screen will come in very handy if you plan on doing any daytime watching. Luckily all my viewing is in a completely dark room so it doesn't matter to much for me (although there is a very minimal amount of light leak from a stained glass window that my mother designed especially for the room. I sometimes will use a half circle shade I made for the time when I want complete darkness during the day).

I use a higher gain screen but I also am using a throw distance of about 16-17 feet and on a much larger screen (150 inches diagonal). In other words, in the same circumstances my picture would be about 8 times as bright if I were at your distance and screen size (approx 4 times as bright for distance as well as 4 times as bright for screen size). Even though my projector may be brighter, it does not overcome the physical limitations of this setup. Hence forth I chose to go with a slightly higher reflective surface of 1.4 gain.

How was "The Thing." I am a fan of the first one with Kurt Russel. I actually got this on laserdisc recently (including Tron!) and I plan to watch it in the near future. As a laserdisc side note.... I just saw my laserdisc player on ebay for a selling price of $3400. I feel lucky for getting for a mere $400 which included shipping!

The truth of the matter is that I really don't go to movies as invariably the experience is below what I get in my home theater. IMAX competes but unless it's a really big screen and I get the best seat in the house even that really doesn't give a performance like my calibrated system. A lot of people I talk to don't believe me but it's true. At the 35 degree viewing angle that thx recommends your eye essentially can't pick up anything more than 1080p resolution and often times the theaters will run their picture dark to conserve their lamps (they simply cheap and because people don't know any better, nobody complains). I remember an article of how James Cameron sent out a letter to theaters to have them turn up the lamps! And don't get me started on the fact that the prices are outragous and I always seem to get some tall guy sitting in front of me blocking my view or some kids kicking the back of my seat! Last movie I saw at the theater was Tron: Legacy!

As for your THX calibration glasses question. You should be able to purchase them from the thx website. They cost under 10 buck with shipping to the US, but I don't know if they ship overseas. Another place you can try looking is someplace like ebay. Unfortunately without the glasses the only thing you can calibrate is the brightness and contrast. The other option is to get a copy of the AVIA DVD and you can buy the 3 colored tinted glasses online. This is the option I went with as I wanted to calibrate all 3 primary colors. Frankly, I think having the blue tints only is just fine and that is why the thx calibrations only have that.

I have a similar length HDMI extension from monoprice as well but I haven't used it yet. When I was reading doing the component racks I thought I would need one to stretch the cord but did not end up using it. I have ordered so much stuff from monoprice that it's ridiculous (probably well over 50 items!). The only thing you risk is that the signal might degrade again on the lower gage HDMI cable. If that happens you may have to buy a hdmi signal booster. Monoprice sells these as well and that would most definitly solve your problem. That would also mean you could run 2 lower gauge hdmi cables of half length and have the signal booster in the middle. That will need an extra power outlet as well along the way.

All this sounds cool. Can't wait to see it!

I wonder why the shipping on a same size/weight screen was 50 bucks more? Weird.

Look forward to seeing "The Thing." I have the original on Laserdisc which i'm looking forward to playing. I like the nostalgia of laserdisc and have collection of some 400 movies. Since they are mostly 80's and 90's this is one of them!

I wonder why the prices are so ridiculous where you are. I mean Australia should be just like America when it comes to electronics,... I don't see why they are charging exorbarent prices for this stuff. I was amazed to see the shipping price for the thx glasses! I'm not sure I understand why shipping costs are so high. I often buy items off ebay that are shipped from hong kong and it's ridiculously cheap. I just bought a multimeter (volts, resistance, amps, etc..) shipped from hong kong or china and it costs $3 total. Same thing with a cheap pair of coaxial wire strippers. Seems like they just want to rip people off.

If you do a search online for the thx tint requirement you may be able to find a supplier witch sells the plastic itself. They have specific color numbers. This is what I had to do for my Avai calibration disk as I did not have the original 3 color tints. I just had to do a little google search and was able to hunt down the specific color codes and then I ordered it from an online wholesale company that sells all kinds of sizes and colors of the transparent plastic.

If you have the splitter amp for the hdmi cable you can try to use that as a cable extender if the 30 ft cable gives you problems. It may be that once you get the projector you won't have any problems regardless of cords. Some electronics are just more sensitive to signal quality than others.