My Journey of Building a Home Theatre

[alsekar]

Friends!
As i said in the introduction, i am undertaking a journey of Building a Home theatre by converting one of rooms. I thought, it might be a good idea to share that experience with the forum members thru pics and posts.
I am a newbie to HT and am sure you all will help me to make this journey a pleasant one.:licklips:
Thanks guys!

 

[vinay]

Theatre At Home

Welcome to the world of private theatre.

So what is the basic plan on your mind?

V.

 

[CANDUU]

Welcome to HFV............

 

[ukjeyaraj]

Welcome and best wishes in your journey

 

[alsekar]

Re: Theatre At Home

Welcome to the world of private theatre.

So what is the basic plan on your mind?

V.

My budget is approx. 5 lac.
First the room.
Existing dimension height 10', width 13'9", length 14'3",
I read somewhere in the net, that the golden room ratios are important for sound quality.
Out of three ratios suggested i chose 1 ht: 1.14w : 1.39L
Which works out to 9' by 10'3" by 14'3" ideally speaking.
So i thought i will create a 18" floor to ceiling wall to wall storage rack of 18" depth to reduce the width to 10' 3". Height, of course, can be reduced to 9' by going for false roof which will help hiding all the wiring.
Just doing this will eat away 1.5 to 2 lacs from the budget straight away.

 

[vinay]

Foundation Planning Of A Private Theatre

Please advice that this budget of 5 lac will cover what all things. I think you will have to increase your budget.

With this 14 feet length of the room, can it be increased? In my case my room length was 15 feet, i removed the bathroom and it got a new room length of about 23 feet.

About the golden room ratio santosh and others can throw much better light, if the need be ratios can be repaired to a extent via acoustics and related.

If you can not increase the room length then i think it is better to have storage rack and related items as less as possible, among the reasons being that room should look nowhere congested. About going for the false roof, it is going to cost bigger money, so it will all depend upon the budget. While what will be the source for audio and video, is it going to be projector or television based? In reference to wiring's and cables, most of it may not require to go via ceiling.

It is great that you are sharing your thoughts at grass root level, if you continue with such sharing till your room is done, then you will benefit with so many ideas and in the process it will give us also an opportunity to enhance our skills. So far on this forum it has been only santosh, who shared with forum members from start to finish about the making of his theatre, and i am sure that is the way to go about.

In case of Venkatcr, actually it surprises me that he has not been sharing with us the making of his theatre, though he has been talking on phone with several of them which is very good, but i am sure if he creates a thread the results are going to be any day better for his house theatre.

V.

 

[alsekar]

Thanks Vinay, for your immediate reply.
5 lac budget is tentative, it can be increased slightly if required.
My split up of budget is something like given below:
Projector and screen: 1.5 lac
AV receiver and media server: 0.75 lac
Blue ray player:0.2 lac
Speakers :1.0 lac
Cables and wires:0.25 lac
Surge protector, ups, etc:0.20 lac
Installation :0.25 lac
Sound proofing incl false roof: 1.25 lac
Carpentry work: 0.50 lac (may become more)
Totaling to approx 5 lac.

My room, unfortunately cannot be extended so that is a given. i hv a sketch of the room in ppt, but i do not know how to post it.
Also, i need to sound proof the room, as the neighbors can be pricky.
I will try to upload the pics of my room for good understanding of forum members.
I thank yu vinay for understanding the reason for the thread. I am a newbie to all this.
My understanding did not go beyond home theatre in a box, which i bought years ago, put it in my living room
and thought that was great. Only when i visited a friend's friend HT, i could see what i was missing.
I am sure many forum members are like me, with my kind of audio/video aspirations,
not really knowing where to turn to for the technicalities,
afraid of the fly-by agencies who are ever ready to fleece you, and so on...
It will be my privilege if my journey could benefit such members.
I will keep posting
Good day

 

[vinay]

Mount Everest

Well i appreciate your detailed writing, be assured that making a theatre is no less then climbing a mount everest.

The tentative budget which i had and what i actually spent was a very high so i hope others will not fall in this trap of excessive spending.
.
In brackets i am writing the amount which i feel should be fine.

Projector and screen: 1.5 lac (1 Lac)

AV receiver and media server: 0.75 lac (0.50 Lac)

Blue ray player:0.2 lac (Ok)

Speakers :1.0 lac (For 5.1 1.25 lacs)

Cables and wires:0.25 lac (Ok)

Surge protector, ups, etc:0.20 lac (I do not know)

Installation :0.25 lac (This can be done for free with help from members)

Sound proofing incl false roof: 1.25 lac (25 to 50,000/- With No Windows)

Carpentry work: 0.50 lac (may become more) (0.50 to 0.75 lac)

There will be more cost as following and these are the minimum amounts for each items.

Acoustics Rs.25,000/-
Interiors Rs.50,000/-

Carpet Rs.5,000/-
AV Racks Rs.5,000/-

Civil Work Rs.15,000/-
Seating Arrangement Rs.15,000/-

Sturdy Door Rs..5,000/-
Halogen Lights With Dimmer Options Rs.10,000/-
Aircondition Rs.30,000/-

There will be a few more expenses for which the total can easily run into Rs.1,00,000/-

With view to your room length limitations you will have to go for a screen in lesser size but there are members who are very happy with bigger screens in smaller room lengths, so i guess you can consider to go with the respective wave.

There are many other things which we will discuss like to go for small or tower speakers.

The sound proofing is going to be quite a tricky part, it depends on so many things, and it is good that you realize this as neighbours are going to create hell for you, at times they are justified. I have working on this aspect considerably.

Indeed the upload of your room details will throw very good light to take a call.

Well the power of a projector and screen only those people can understand better who have seen it.

You will get loads of information from others in this forum as how to go about, it is true that there are just too many who will say that they can make a theatre for you and the amount for such services they will ask is less said the better and it is likely that the end result will not be in order.

V.

 

[alsekar]

Thanks vinay
For seating, carpet and interiors i have separate budget, so that is no worry.
I already have the air conditioner so that is also outside the budget.
Would not acoustics be included in sound proofing???
I have to include lighting, AV racks ofcourse, which i will do.

Re screen size
I had lot to think about this and pored thru net.
Having decided to go for high resolution 1080p,
what is recommended by some site is 3 to 5 times the screen size.
Which means, i can go upto 90~100in. size screen for approx 10'~12' viewing
distance.
That means going for projector and screen, as 100" tv is out of question
And i have seen movies on large tv and movies on screen. I like screen better.

Is my reasoning ok? Could you give feedback pl.

The meagre size of uploading limit is preventing me from uploading the sketch of my room. Is there any other way around this problem?

Thanks again for your interaction.

 

[venkatcr]

The meagre size of uploading limit is preventing me from uploading the sketch of my room. Is there any other way around this problem?

Create an account and upload into Imageshack.com. You can provide links to images here.

Cheers

 

[vinay]

Discussion

I appreciate your detailed writing.

Yes you are right, acoustic can be a part of sound proofing, so the provisional money which you have allotted for this area is correct.

I think 1080p is better if the room length is more longer, if this is correct and 720p works out much cheaper then the saved money you can divert to other things. Since you will be sitting at 12 feet, a 90 inch screen is more then enough, in my case from 23 feet i am having screens in 72 & 82 inches. About the recommendation on various sites is a good way to decide but maybe not always.

It is absolutely true that a TV has no comparison to the power of a screen, the only issue is infrastructure in form of room length, etc.

Among the most important things to achieve a good theatre is that there should be no fan, tube lights, windows.

V.

 

[alsekar]

@venkatcr
I will try imageshack. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[alsekar]

Re: Discussion

Since you will be sitting at 12 feet, a 90 inch screen is more then enough...

It is absolutely true that a TV has no comparison to the power of a screen, the only issue is infrastructure in form of room length, etc.
...

V.

I would still like to keep 1080p, looking at future. However, I explored the site of 'Elitescreens' of USA and was looking for a screen around 90" size which can be wall mount. They start from a size of 84" and have a model called 'eZframe'. I understand they have dealer in Delhi. What do the forum members recommend? Are there any dealers for good screen in Chennai or Mumbai?
I have uploaded the sketch and photos of my room in photo bucket. Kindly study the same.
home theatre pictures by alsekar - Photobucket

 

[alsekar]

I hv recently visited 'Grand cinema' at chennai; went thru a demo of HT and they have given a quote which i am attaching.
I find the composition of diffenrent items acceptable but not the price.
Request your feedback on this pl.
Thanks!

 

[venkatcr]

Please do not post a quotation you get from a vendor in a public site like this. It is unethical. If you want you can post some extracts to highlight what you are saying. I have removed the attachment.

Cheers

 

[vinay]

Screen

I think you should consider a screen which some members are happy with, get in touch with santosh and subash, while other members will also respond to this. I think it is better to buy a screen from the dealer at your end because if there are some service and other issue, you can handle it much better.

V.

 

[alsekar]

Please do not post a quotation you get from a vendor in a public site like this. It is unethical. If you want you can post some extracts to highlight what you are saying. I have removed the attachment.

Cheers

Dear Venkat
Thanks for the warning. I didnt realise. I will ensure that i take care of it in future.
Regards

 

[alsekar]

Re: Screen

I think you should consider a screen which some members are happy with, get in touch with santosh and subash, while other members will also respond to this. I think it is better to buy a screen from the dealer at your end because if there are some service and other issue, you can handle it much better.

V.

@Santosh, @Subash
Kindly help pl with good dealers to buy screen.
Regards

 

[sam9s]

alsekar, can you share some of the snaps of the room you would be converting to your HT, just a request.

 

[alsekar]

alsekar, can you share some of the snaps of the room you would be converting to your HT, just a request.

@Sam
I had given it in an earlier post. However, i am gving the link again.
home theatre pictures by alsekar - Photobucket
Thanks for your interest