Ask your Home Theatre questions here...

iTalk · Apr 30, 2009 8:51 pm

Quote:

Curtains help stop sounds bouncing and improve sound, always something you can easily add later, and only really help in small rooms and with good sound equipment. Personally for us its in a 'down the road' basket.

Okay then, I don't have to worry about it for now. It can always be installed later

Quote:

Bulkheads look good, and if your spending allot of money they can help make the room better and take it from being a box aswell.

Yeah that's what I thinking, but what kind of bulkheads ? Only ceiling bulkheads or even on the side of the screens (the ones that create a cavity for the screen )?

Quote:

For 3, try to keep them towards the seating area, and away from the screen area. That way when the lights are on, the screen is still vieweable. Perhaps even see if you can get the front ones with a shade of some sort to block the light going towards the screen?

Thanks

Quote:

For us, were going to just use the regular lights and then add low to the ground lights so you can walk around but not need a bright room all the time. They will be regular lamps of some sort.

Yeah that's a good idea..

iTalk · Apr 30, 2009 8:53 pm

Quote:

Or you could simply have them split into more than one bank/row with separate switches for each bank - pretty easy to do and that way you can leave the back ones (over your seats) on and turn the others off.

Yeah I love the bank idea.

Any ideas about how the bulkheads/downlights combination might look like ?

Cheers

jasonfrawley · May 26, 2009 7:37 pm

Hi,
This is my first post

Ok, so I have a Living Room that i want to renovate into a home theater. The living room has a fireplace, wooden floor, glass sliding door at the back and glass panels next to the sliding door. The room and the walls have no insulation so my main question is, should i take down the walls and install insulation and also put insulation in the roof and will the governments rebate apply to putting insulation in walls?

Also, with the fireplace, i don't partically want to remove it, i just want to block the tube where all the fumes go out into open air with something that i can remove if i want to use the fireplace.

Next question, should i keep the sliding door at the back? I don't really want to knock it down and put plasterboard there because of the cost. Should it be ok in terms of acoustics and is there a black tint that can completely block out sunlight?

Next question, are you allowed to wire up speakers yourself? I can drill a hole in the timber floor and just run the audio cables under the house. Is that ok?

Next question, what lighting is best for home theaters? Downlights?

Sorry for the heap of questions
Thanks! :z:

Rodda · May 26, 2009 9:37 pm

jasonfrawley

Hi,
This is my first post

Ok, so I have a Living Room that i want to renovate into a home theater. The living room has a fireplace, wooden floor, glass sliding door at the back and glass panels next to the sliding door. The room and the walls have no insulation so my main question is, should i take down the walls and install insulation and also put insulation in the roof and will the governments rebate apply to putting insulation in walls?

Also, with the fireplace, i don't partically want to remove it, i just want to block the tube where all the fumes go out into open air with something that i can remove if i want to use the fireplace.

Next question, should i keep the sliding door at the back? I don't really want to knock it down and put plasterboard there because of the cost. Should it be ok in terms of acoustics and is there a black tint that can completely block out sunlight?

Next question, are you allowed to wire up speakers yourself? I can drill a hole in the timber floor and just run the audio cables under the house. Is that ok?

Next question, what lighting is best for home theaters? Downlights?

Sorry for the heap of questions
Thanks! :z:

Firstly, wooden floors and large sections of glass are high on the list of what to try to avoid in a room where sound matters (although heavy curtains and floor coverings don't require any construction to install...).

You can run any audio and video cabling you like yourself.

Lighting is completely your choice, however if you have a projector then you don't want anything that will be in the projection path...

ant22 · Jun 03, 2009 11:46 am

We are about a month away from moving into our new house and have just purchased a new 52in series 6 lcd samsung. We want to set up a home theatre system to improve the sound(have read that the sound on this model is not that flash)
My question is that we purchased a sony surround sound 5.1 about 5 years ago. We have had it in a box for the last 18 months while we have been renting. It cost about 1k back then, but obviously these type of models are much cheaper now. Would we be better off buying a new one for about $300-$400 or would and older sony like this do the trick? Also is it worth buying new speakers or sticking to the old ones.
We are not after the worlds best sound system and its a big room with wooden floors so we no it will not have the best accoustics(although it is well insulated) but we still want decent sound.
Any advice would be appreciated.

Cheers

Rodda · Jun 03, 2009 12:10 pm

Hey Ant.

I don't think a new $300-$400 system will sound any better than a $1K 5 year old one. The only real important thing here is that it has the features that you want/need. If it does then you have no need to upgrade, really.

You should run with it and see how you feel about it after a while...

ant22 · Jun 03, 2009 12:42 pm

Rodda

Hey Ant.

I don't think a new $300-$400 system will sound any better than a $1K 5 year old one. The only real important thing here is that it has the features that you want/need. If it does then you have no need to upgrade, really.

You should run with it and see how you feel about it after a while...

thanks heaps for the advice

jasonfrawley · Jun 17, 2009 5:50 pm

Do you guys no which door seal is appropriate for home theaters in terms of blocking out sound.
The room will have carpet down and the seal is going to go at the bottom of the door so do you guys no which is the best seal?

Rodda · Jun 19, 2009 3:14 pm

jasonfrawley

Do you guys no which door seal is appropriate for home theaters in terms of blocking out sound?

Nope - no experience with the stuff personally.

jasonfrawley · Jun 25, 2009 9:41 pm

http://hometheater.consumerelectronicsnet.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=518299

Do you need a power conditioner and where do you purchase them like the APC one?
I noticed that everyone on http://www.avsforum.com has one

Casa2 · Jun 25, 2009 9:50 pm

jasonfrawley

http://hometheater.consumerelectronicsnet.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=518299

Do you need a power conditioner and where do you purchase them like the APC one?
I noticed that everyone on http://www.avsforum.com has one

There are 5,232,965 things I could possible buy for whatever reason. This item is number 5,232,964 on the list.

Rodda · Jun 28, 2009 11:11 am

jasonfrawley

http://hometheater.consumerelectronicsnet.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=518299

Do you need a power conditioner and where do you purchase them like the APC one?
I noticed that everyone on http://www.avsforum.com has one

The 'influences and interferences' these guys talk about are incredibly tiny and pretty much undetectable on anything except the most sensitive and highly detailed and capable auido systems. Even on the more recent higher end systems I've had the pleasure to install or even experience, doing some critical listening of some pretty subtle, delicate and detailed music, we never heard anything like what these guys are trying to convince you are there...

If you are truly concerned about negative outside influences on your audio/video experience the first thing you need to look at is the room your system is in (I keep saying it, and most people still ignore it...). Things like hard floors, high ceilings, hard window coverings (ie. not curtains), etc. all have a real negative impact on your sound. Uncontrolled light, especially anywhere opposite your display will have more impact than any artifact from the electricity.

Only when you are REALLY serious about your audio/video gear (basically meaning you have spent tens of thousands of dollars), and have done all you can to give your pride system the best environment to operate in, should you then be looking at a power filter/conditioner to make any further difference.

rhath127 · Jul 19, 2009 9:55 pm

hi guys,

I have a home theater in my new home (will start building soon). I will be wall mounting my tv (by then maybe LED) - I wanted to keep the AV / Foxtel wires hidden.

Whats the best way of doing this? What materials do I need to achieve this (ie, AV wall mounts etc)? and how would i explain this to the builder?

Thank you for your assistance

richie

iTalk · Jul 19, 2009 10:18 pm

rhath127

hi guys,

I have a home theater in my new home (will start building soon). I will be wall mounting my tv (by then maybe LED) - I wanted to keep the AV / Foxtel wires hidden.

Whats the best way of doing this? What materials do I need to achieve this (ie, AV wall mounts etc)? and how would i explain this to the builder?

Thank you for your assistance

richie

Get a third party AV/Data installer to do them for you. They have good ideas and will help you do whatever you want. PM Rodda and ask him for a quote

automation_nut · Jul 30, 2009 11:46 am

jasonfrawley

Do you guys no which door seal is appropriate for home theaters in terms of blocking out sound.
The room will have carpet down and the seal is going to go at the bottom of the door so do you guys no which is the best seal?

I use a Raven RP99Si face-mounted bottom seal along with an RP10 side and bottom seal. It gives a good result. The rating with these seals is about the same as gluing the door shut with acoustic caulk. I got the seals from Access Hardware.

There is another company to look at as well, which I've been told make good seals:
http://www.doorseals.com.au/acoustic.html

Thudd · Jul 30, 2009 12:53 pm

Rodda

Only when you are REALLY serious about your audio/video gear (basically meaning you have spent tens of thousands of dollars), and have done all you can to give your pride system the best environment to operate in, should you then be looking at a power filter/conditioner to make any further difference.

Actually there is one things that makes some of these power conditioners useful - many have an all on/all off feature which lets you do a remote hard power on/off on all the connected components at once. So your automation setup can include in whatever "I've finished playing" macros/scenes you have set up a command to fully power off everything and not just have it sitting in standby (or walking around the room switching off at the wall amps and TVs and processors and projectors and...)

kimberley · Aug 18, 2009 4:30 pm

Rod would you kindly take a look at my post?

viewtopic.php?f=34&t=22233

reaver · Aug 27, 2009 10:42 am

Hi all,

We have a 5m x 3.8m rumpus and are thinking of putting in a projector. My questions are:

1. Will a 100" screen do for this room size?
2. With a 100" screen, what distance should I hang my projector? Will 4.5m from the screen to the projector be good?

Rodda · Aug 28, 2009 10:28 am

Hi Reaver.

A 100" or even 110" screen for that room will be cool, depending on how far back from it you ill be sitting.

As far as projection distance goes, that's completely up to the individual projector you end up purchasing. You need to research that info on the manufacturers' web sites...

reaver · Aug 28, 2009 11:06 am

Do I just need a powerpoint and an HDMI cable for the projector that will be mounted on the ceiling? Is there anything else?