My Journey of Building a Home Theatre

[alsekar]

Thanks Vinay, Sidvee, nshankar for your suggestions.
I am attaching an excel file showing comparison of prices for different projectors and AVReceivers. Prices as of yesterday. Give your suggestions pl.
@Sidvee- Re Epson 8350- Are there lamp problems, as read from some feedbacks???
@Vinay- Yes my idea is to ship it to my son's place and then carry it with us as hand luggage if the weight is less, or put them in the checked baggage if the weight is more.
I need suggestions on media server, what should i buy, should i buy it in india or in us? Respond quickly pl.
I am thinking of buying the speaker set in india, as i think it will too bulky to carry and too sensitive to put it in checked luggage.
Thanks guys for your support in my journey.
Regards

 

[sidvee]

Thanks Vinay, Sidvee, nshankar for your suggestions.
I am attaching an excel file showing comparison of prices for different projectors and AVReceivers. Prices as of yesterday. Give your suggestions pl.
@Sidvee- Re Epson 8350- Are there lamp problems, as read from some feedbacks???
Regards

@alsekar - not too sure - I will be installing my unit in the last week of dec.
Cheers
Sid

 

[venkatcr]

Thanks Venkat. Are there good looking sound absorbing panels available which can be arranged in interesting manner?
I am just thinking whether these panels can add to the architectural character of the room through its color and texture and arrangement.
Like you and vinay said, i should probably go for heavy acoustic curtains, if they are not too costly. Otherwise, i will go for timber shutter lined with sound absorbing panels.

No fabric can reach the NRC levels of a well planned and executed acoustic wall.

In terms of the wall you are building to cover the staircase, the best would be to build a floor to ceiling hollow frame with ply and fill the frame with glass wool. The inside side of the panel can be covered with acoustical panel while the other side can either be painted or covered with laminates.

Acoustical panels are available usually in white or grey shades that can be painted or covered with cloth. Some companies such as Anutone also have panels with various shades and design and also factory covered with cloth. These may be available against order.

With apologies to Vinay, I would not cover any existing window permanently. In India we have to live with dirt, grime, and smell. A bit of sunshine and ventilation now and then will help us keep the room clean.

Cheers

 

[santhosh]

Alsekar,
What room treatment are you planning in the northern side, especially the north-west corner and the south-west corner. Where do you plan to place the subwoofer? If it is a heavy one, you should place it either near the south-west corner to keep the Vaastu gods happy....so you can have a peaceful and long-life filled with movies. Don't listen to Vinay and seal the windows, light from the eastern side is actually good for health and prosperity (convert again into movie hours). Ok!! I see you and running to look up the pictures to understand which walls and corners I talking about. I know this because I have been doing the same every time you utter North wall, east wall etc. So, can we please refer to the walls as front (where screen is fixed), left, right, rear(behind the viewer) walls. North, East etc is confusing.

4.Mounting & Cabling- I am thinking of suspending the projector from roof, The cables needed to be routed on the underside of roof, which means falseroof (expensive???).
Or alternately, if i mount on the eastern wall, just below the AC, the cables can be routed thru the carpentry and i can avoid false roof.
BTW, for sound clarity, is false roof better or leaving it as plain concrete slab better?
( i read somewhere that the roof should reflect the sound and not absorb sound)

That is not true. In sound treatment, we want to absorb all first reflections and the subsequent reflections as well depending on how dead you want it. When the room is also used as a listening room for 2 channel stereo, it is recommended not to deaden the room completely. This is when people opt for deadening either the ceiling or the floor completely and leaving the other partially dead. For Eg: I have made the reflection points on my ceiling absorptive and added a thin carpet for the entire floor. Only the first reflection point on the floor has an additional thick carpet.

You can route the hdmi cable either through the ceiling, floor or walls. Just ensure you have seperate conduits for electrical and AV cables to avoid RMI\EFI related issues.

 

[vinay]

Windows

Hello Venkat,

Well when i was also covering my existing windows i also had the fear on your lines and the same was said by a few of my contacts but i had my risk management in place, and all has gone very well since 4 years.

I have no issues about dirt and smell, I see to it that food related things are surely not allowed in my theatre.

I have the room cleaned on regular basis with a good vacum cleaner backed with usual dusting and moreover i near about never use my mini theatre for other then projector or music based activity.

As and when my AC gets serviced i see to it that they wear clean slippers which i provide as these are reserved for such purpose and lay old bed sheets on the carpet when they or electrician etc are working, followed by more precautions.

In the morning and night i always keep the theatre door open for quite some time, so this manipulated ventilation is way better then the windows. Further importantly before entering or leaving my theatre, i keep the door open for 15 minutes.

As far as sunshine for the room, i do not care while take the case of a cinema hall does it have windows for ventilation or the ability to get sunshine, or do they have smell issue? At end of the day, what matter is how you handle or treat the room.

Further i have seen pictures of many serious dedicated home theatre's, and often they are without windows, so that too says it all.

I will also say that the audio and video gadgets etc are more protected without windows.

I have a in-direct window which is not visible, that is where the AC unit is kept and it has to be opened for servicing, in spite of having this invisible window, i still never open it.

V.

 

[venkatcr]

Grime refers to 'dirt, soot, or other filthy matter, esp. adhering to or embedded in a surface.'

Cinema halls have professional cleaners cleaning the hall literally everyday and between shows. If your remember old cinema halls they did smell after some use, and were never maintained properly. Modern cinema halls would also need complete replacement of seats covers and even seats, carpets, as well as other infrastructure on a regular basis. This is a cost factor (maintenance cost) that is embedded in a commercial venture, but never usually done in homes.

I am glad you are aware of the maintenance costs and are doing it on a regular basis.

But, what is the fun of watching a movie at home unless you can munch a little, have a tall glass of a cool drink, a cup of hot coffee/tea/milk, or a tall glass of ice cold beer? For me a visit to a cinema hall is never complete without a bucket of popcorn. During weekends when I watch a movie at home, I invariably have a bucket of popcorn and specially made soft drink.

Cheers

 

[Karmic]

This Thread is so informative and you guys Rock. This thread is helping me make so many wise decision as I am in the market to set up a home theatre in my Bombay apartment but unfortunately not a dedicated room but my Living room. Thank you guys for being helpful to follow members. Cheers

Sameer

 

[vinay]

Acoustic - Vaastu

Hello Santosh,

It seems i have done a mistake in making the room more dead then required, i was warned about this by acoustic consultant while their compitator said it is fine to quite a extent, so probably one may not know truly what is correct.

I think true consultants for acoustic are quite rare in India, that is a another story that with the kind of good knowledge you and others have is likely to be way better then certain so called acoustic consultants available here.

For acoustics i have used in my theatre, glass wool including the door, foam yellow and white, acoustic celling tiles being wafer thin sloped, soft interior items as mush as possible while importantly most of them are not flat but are with shapes and holes, with bare minimum glass items, carpet and walls both are wall to wall.

Well the power of vaastu is now getting too far, it will now take a shot where to keep the sub woofer even if that means not the correct effect when in motion and that light is a must for good health and prospeity therefore we should not seal the windows, all this could be very true, but i come from a very different school of thought, if i need good sunlight i would go in a open space, like go for a walk and for prosperity i will work more at my desk.

V.

 

[vinay]

Home Theatre

Hello Sameer,

Welcome to the world of home theatre.

Please do consider to open a separate thread, so that we can focus on your plan.

V.

 

[alsekar]

Alsekar,
What room treatment are you planning in the northern side, especially the north-west corner and the south-west corner. Where do you plan to place the subwoofer? If it is a heavy one, you should place it either near the south-west corner to keep the Vaastu gods happy....so you can have a peaceful and long-life filled with movies. Don't listen to Vinay and seal the windows, light from the eastern side is actually good for health and prosperity (convert again into movie hours). Ok!! I see you and running to look up the pictures to understand which walls and corners I talking about. I know this because I have been doing the same every time you utter North wall, east wall etc. So, can we please refer to the walls as front (where screen is fixed), left, right, rear(behind the viewer) walls. North, East etc is confusing.

@Santhosh: Ha, Ha, I could imagine your confusion. Me being a civil engineer, live by North south directions.
So it kinda came to me naturally.
But, thanks for your perspective. I will refer to the walls as suggested by you, front back left and right.
Re placement of sub woofer, it will be in the corner of front and left walls, which i had shown it in the sketch.
Regards

 

[alsekar]

Re window or not! I need to know whether, from sound quality point of view, shuttered/acoustically treated window is better or acoustically curtained window is better?
Re sunlight, i can always design the shutters of the window in such manner they can slide open/ swing open when HT is not in use, so that light and ventilation can happen.
@Venkatcr: You had mentioned about the resonance that will happen in the wardrobe. Will it happen even if we acoustically treat the shutter?
Thanks guys! it is an exciting journey indeed.

 

[venkatcr]

@Venkatcr: You had mentioned about the resonance that will happen in the wardrobe. Will it happen even if we acoustically treat the shutter? Thanks guys! it is an exciting journey indeed.

That will certainly reduce the sound passing into the cupboard and creating a kind of hollow structural sound. It is a Catch 22 situation. If you really want the cupboards to be acoustically functional, you have to have sound absorption of nearly 1 NRC. If you do that, you end up with a near dead room. Some compromises have to be made.

You should position your speakers (on paper at least) and then treat the reflection points well. That will alleviate 80% of your issues. You can them see how to handle low frequencies in terms of bass traps.

Since this room is going to serve a dual purpose of being a guest room as well as a HT room, there are other issues such as screen management and equipment handling that also have to be considered. How much ever you say, unless you can restrict entry into the room to just yourself, equipment will be touched, screens will be felt and so on. All that will lead to issues such as smudges on the screen, and your equipment being mishandled.

Cheers

Cheers

 

[santhosh]

Re: Acoustic - Vaastu

Well the power of vaastu is now getting too far, it will now take a shot where to keep the sub woofer even if that means not the correct effect when in motion and that light is a must for good health and prospeity therefore we should not seal the windows, all this could be very true, but i come from a very different school of thought, if i need good sunlight i would go in a open space, like go for a walk and for prosperity i will work more at my desk.

Even i don't believe in Vaastu et all. Everything I said in the first part of my previous post was just to a jokehyeah:. Alsekar got the joke and has now started posting using front wall, left wall etc instead of north wall, west wall as it was confusing.

 

[sidvee]

Re window or not! I need to know whether, from sound quality point of view, shuttered/acoustically treated window is better or acoustically curtained window is better?
Re sunlight, i can always design the shutters of the window in such manner they can slide open/ swing open when HT is not in use, so that light and ventilation can happen.

@alsekar - the acoustics of a window will depend on the surface area of the glass in the window. For instance if it is a sliding glass door which serves as a walkout to a balcony then its effect will be more detrimental than a regular window. If it is a standard size window then treating it with thick curtain (heavy fabric) with a blackout lining on the rear will be adequate IMO. Also it is preferable to have the window (glass surface) at the rear of the theater i.e; where the surround channels are located because reflection or sound scattering (which the glass will do) is more desirable here. In summary one need not go overboard in trying to make a window disappear (best is not to have one) but adding some thick curtains will not only resolve the issue but will help in aesthetics as well. I would be more worried about light spillage from a window rather than its acoustic properties. Just my 2 paisa.
Cheers
Sid

 

[sidvee]

@Venkatcr: You had mentioned about the resonance that will happen in the wardrobe. Will it happen even if we acoustically treat the shutter?
Thanks guys! it is an exciting journey indeed.

I would be very concerned about a wardrobe in a HT. Unless you fill it completely with fibre glass or other thick acoustic deadening material it will resonate. The shutter treatment will subdue high frequency refelections 500 hz and above but low frequuency waves will cause havoc with the drum like closed area. One option if the wardrobe is unavoidable, is to open the wardrobe doors when you are using the room.
Cheers
Sid

 

[santhosh]

I have two windows for which I have made an additional shutter that would have resulted in a resonating enclosure if not for treatment. So, I have treated the inner side of the shutter and also the left and right side of the enclosure. The fourth side being the window cannot be treated. The logic behind this is that any sound waves within the enclosure will decay almost immediately. To better understand this, imagine the sound waves to be a bouncing ping pong ball......reflecting within the four walls of the enclosure...it bounces on the resonating(untreated) surface and gets absorbed by the any of the remaining 3 surfaces......the ability to bounce is now lost totally or weakened and subsequently does bounce back). I know the explanation sounds funny, but this is how I looked at it during my room treatment and has worked for me so far. I say so far because my subwoofer was a puny one. I am starting a DIY subwoofer build with a Shiva X2 driver and a 1300W plate amp. I expect to go pretty low(~20 hz) with this one. Whether my room will still be able to handle it, we'll have to wait and see.

About having a storage area within the room, pls try and avoid it. If it cannot be avoided, keep it filled...treat the door and the inner top surface of the wardrobe. Or open one of the doors like Sid has mentioned.

 

[santhosh]

I have no issues about dirt and smell, I see to it that food related things are surely not allowed in my theatre.

I have the room cleaned on regular basis with a good vacum cleaner backed with usual dusting and moreover i near about never use my mini theatre for other then projector or music based activity.

Grime refers to 'dirt, soot, or other filthy matter, esp. adhering to or embedded in a surface.'
.......I am glad you are aware of the maintenance costs and are doing it on a regular basis.

But, what is the fun of watching a movie at home unless you can munch a little, have a tall glass of a cool drink, a cup of hot coffee/tea/milk, or a tall glass of ice cold beer? For me a visit to a cinema hall is never complete without a bucket of popcorn. During weekends when I watch a movie at home, I invariably have a bucket of popcorn and specially made soft drink.

Frankly, both of you are right in your own ways. I can share some ground realities so others can decide.

Although my HT has windows, I keep it closed all the time and open the HT door every night and also the window in the adjoining room so that there is some air circulation. I leave the door opened in the night, because the air is lesser polluted during this time. Like Vinay, I too open the door well before I watch the movie and also switch the A/C a few minutes before we get in to the room. If done meticulously (like Vinay), once can keep their HT(without windows) free of any stale air or odour.

BUT if I forget to do this even for one day ...it will result in bad odour. In two days or more, fungus kind of thing forms on the fabric. This has happened twice so far in ~ one year and cleaning it can be a pain. This inspite of me having atleast 20 silica packets(to absorb moisture) in various parts of the room. After cleaning, I open the shutter to let the sun in. This is a constant fear that I have on top of my head......... especially because the fabric cannot be changed easily in my case. When I was out of town, I have even made ISD call to my dad to remind him to leave the door open in the night. Call me old fashioned if you like but I believe the sunlight has the power to kill germs\fungus etc in any space. So I do open the windows atleast once a month to let the sunlight in. It gives me the confidence that all is well.

Having put all the facts on the table, I'd also like to share that maintenance is a must and time-consuming activity. BTW, all cleaning and maintenance of my home theater is done by me alone. Not trying to blow my own trumpet, but I do not trust anyone else with my toys. I disconnect and take out all the AV equipment from the room every six months. I clean the room thoroughly and then bring back and reconnect all the equipment (also cleaned). This happens over two weekends.

 

[Hiten]

I keep it closed all the time and open the HT door every night and also the window in the adjoining room so that there is some air circulation. I leave the door opened in the night, because the air is lesser polluted during this time. once can keep their HT(without windows) free of any stale air or odour.

I guess air ionizer can also help.

it generates negative ions and purifies air. Air feels fresher. One natural example is atmosphere you feel after lightening storm/rain.

 

[alsekar]

Re Windows-I think the discussion is tilting towards retaining the window and provide heavy curtains which will definitely add to the interiors.
Re Wardrobe/ timber cabinet- The discussion is tilting towards avoiding them. i will have a very hardlook at that keeping in mind your suggestions and decide.
Thanks a lot guys! You all have been fantastic
Regards

 

[sam9s]

Thanks Vinay for your immediate response.
I intend to discuss every decision of mine on this forum as i said earlier, this is to benefit amateurs like me and this forum is excellent for that purpose.
Now, while awaiting for some help for the screen from forum members...
friends, could you guide me on the projector.
Projector
The requirements are 1080 p,
less than 1 lac landed price,
durable,
service centres in chennai,
lamp life 3000~4000 hrs.
Projected distance= 12'
aspect ratio = 16:9
image size = upto 100in diagonal

If you are going to US, for projector look no further than Panasonic AE4000. Class of an projector AFAIK, and for its price as well..... search projectorcentral for this one and read the review and comparison, with patience .....