Browse Forums Home Theatre & Automation Re: Home theatre.. 21Sep 16, 2007 10:40 am Hi VJ.
If your place is single storey, and more-so if it's a tiled roof, then you can pretty much do anything after it's built. It just takes a little more effort (some things just a little more, some things are a fair bit more difficult). More than half of our work is on completed/existing houses anyway. We just prefer to get in during construction if possible, but understand if it's not. I don't think the builder will have any issue with how much or how little of the HT specific stuff you do through them - it is your choice after all. Once you take ownership of your home you can get in whoever you like to do whatever you like. If you want to do that then you just need to be aware of what you want and where. There will be things HT related that you can get the builder to do during construction to make things a lot easier later - as long as they do what is asked (as long as both you and them are clear on what is required and what they can/will deliver - you can't ask for more than that). We would be happy to advise you on all of these matters. We often do it straight off the plan. In the end, we're just happy to help. Home Theatre is a huge passion of ours and we enjoy spreading that passion. Re: Home theatre.. 22Sep 16, 2007 11:13 am Hi Allan.
OK, projectors. I'll give you a little list of the resolutions available. I'll try to include what ratio this gives - 16:9 (widescreen) or 4:3 (older TV ratio), and mention what devices are likely to come with these resolutions (not including PCs or their monitors). These are native resolutions, ie what the device does naturally without up- or down-scaling to suit it's physical pixel structure: 1920 x 1080 (16:9) - 1080P (Full HD) - Projectors and LCDs. 1366 x 768 (16:9) - a few Projectors (Sony), LCDs and bigger Plasmas. 1280 x 720 (16:9) - 720P - Projectors. 1280 x 768 (16:10) - WXGA - Projectors. 1024 x 1024 (16:9!!) - Some Plasmas (Hitachi) had this res., still used it as native widescreen (16:9). 1024 x 768 (4:3) - XGA - In projectors this is a 4:3 ratio, however, some Plasmas have this res as a native 16:9 ratio, like my Samsung. 1024 x 576 (16:9) - Intermediate res developed for some Projectors a couple of years ago - rare these days. 843 x 480 (16:9) - True Standard Difinition widescreen. SD Projectors and Plasmas. 800 x 600 (4:3) - SVGA - Projectors, very cheap (and small) ones. These days, if you're looking at a projector for Home Theatre use (as opposed to PC data presentations), then you should only be considering one with a native 16:9 ratio. That really leaves 1 question: Do you want Full HD 1080P or the next step down 720P (I have a 720P projector). 1080P Projectors pretty much start at about $5K (with a couple of exceptions - You can get the Epson TW-1000 1080P LCD projector for less than $5K, and Mitsubishi have JUST released a slightly lesser version of it's HC5000 - the HC4900 which is a couple of hundred dollars less again than the Epson). 720P projectors, on the other hand, can be picked up for less than half the price (some good ones less than $2K). One point here - I mentioned above a res of 1280 x 768. Consider very carefully before buying a projector with this res - they have pros and cons. Something to think about - resolution is not everything! (that said, I'd never recommend going any lower than 1280 x 720). For a Home Theatre specs like Contrast are key!, as are colour reproduction, sharpness, and other things relating to how good the on-board video processing electronics are (how many (if any) negative digital video artifacts plague your picture). It is all of this knowledge that makes Home Theatre experts the right people to talk to about this stuff (rather than the pimple-faced salesman at the big department store) when considering the right projector. Good luck, ask anything you like. Re: Home theatre.. 23Sep 16, 2007 5:09 pm Hi Allan,
Thanks for the idea. We'll ask our builder to do the pre-wiring and have a projector stand installed on the ceiling. Unfortunately, we haven't decided the number of speakers, size of screen, etc. We really need to start reading other forums that discuss about these stuff so we would learn more about it. We're not really familiar will all those HT techie stuff! Saw your blog.. very interesting... informative. Another blog to check out daily for any developments. We haven't set-up our blog... very time consuming But we have the time to check the forum every night... ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Built the Nevada 42 Next project - landscaping! Re: Home theatre.. 24Sep 16, 2007 5:10 pm Rodd,
We're building a double-storey house with a tiled roof. What's your advice if this is the case? Let us know which stuff is better done by the builder and which ones can be installed after hand over. I reckon the pre-wiring and projector stand on the ceiling should be done by the builder, as suggested by Allan. Would it be helpful if we give the size of our HT room and the location (ground floor plan or whatever is needed) so you could give an advice as to the no. of speakers necessary and the size of the screen? We have a small HT room compared to the ones that we normally see in most display homes as we just converted the formal lounge to a HT room because we don't need them anyway. Please advise as we are scheduled to meet with the builder for the electrical appointment this coming week. Thanks in advance! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Built the Nevada 42 Next project - landscaping! Re: Home theatre.. 25Sep 16, 2007 6:28 pm VJ Adrian, based on your experience with M, I don't think we should be asking our electrical consultant anymore whether they would allow us do it with another party. Nothing wrong with asking, even if it is to put holes in noggins etc. That worked for me, it may for you?? Adrian B Re: Home theatre.. 26Sep 16, 2007 7:03 pm Hi VJ.
Size of room and pics of plans would be good. Also, what equipment do you currently own? What did you have in mind to purchase in the near future? What about for the not quite so near future? What sort of budget did you have in mind - for picture, for sound, any other areas of the house you want some of this technology available in (sound in alfresco area)? What do you really want to achieve in what areas of the house, and what do you honestly think you want to pay? Re: Home theatre.. 27Sep 16, 2007 11:05 pm Hi Rod,
Many thanks for the information, honestly I am still not sure I fully understand what you mentioned. So I am going to do a little more research first... I used to think HT is just adding a projector, a screen and some speakers. Looks like there's a lot more things involved then I expected... A few more questions if you don't mind: 1. "Ansi Lumens" for projectors, is it always higher the better? 2. Same for "Contrast Ratio", is that also higher the better? 3. Which on the 2 mentioned above is more important for HT? 4. A lot of projects/TVs claimed to be "HD" or "HD Ready". Which one of the resolution does "HD" means? Or should get the actual resolution to be precise? Re: Home theatre.. 28Sep 16, 2007 11:18 pm ahuang 4. A lot of projects/TVs claimed to be "HD" or "HD Ready". Which one of the resolution does "HD" means? Or should get the actual resolution to be precise? I'll answer this one and leave the rest to Rod. HD or HD Ready basically means it will display the HD signal but not in its best form. Anything from 640*480 can be HD ready...a bit of marketing hype (anyone remember Y2K Compliant stickers??) The best way to go from here on in is "True HD" If the item you are looking at has this sticker it means that the panel / display is 1920*1080. With all the emerging technologies starting at (or upscaling to) 1080P anything less than this would be wasting your money IMO. Matt I have reverted to username - mattwalker Carlisle Homes - Grande 43 My building experience is here: http://www.ourgrandeplan.blogspot.com Re: Home theatre.. 29Sep 16, 2007 11:34 pm Hi Rod,
Same with Allan, we got completely lost when you started talking about those techie stuff. We really need to do some research about it. Problem is, our electrical appointment is this week and we still haven't decided how many speakers to install for the pre-wiring. I'm having difficulty attaching the plans. I'll just give the dimension : 4.4m x 4.67m and it's located at the front of the house. If you really need to see the plans, I might print then scan to convert to jpg. It's in CAD file, as my husband is a draftsman and he normally draw the plans in CAD so in case we need to change anything in the plans, he can easily do it and submit to the builder. With this size of the room, how many speakers do you suggest? Do we need to decide now what size of screen, etc we want in preparation for the pre-wiring? We might go for the 1080P, anyway we'll do it a few months after hand over. But for the size of the screen and no. of speakers, couldn't decide yet. We're just after a HT with clear screen and nice sound haha! Re: sound in alfresco... wow, that would be great! But don't know the cost implication of that. Is $10K a reasonable budget for a 1080P considering the size of our HT room? What sort of equipment were you referring too? At the moment, we only have an old DVD player... an old TV.. nothing more! I guess we're a good client for a HT system! Thanks again! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Built the Nevada 42 Next project - landscaping! Re: Home theatre.. 30Sep 17, 2007 8:01 am Hi Allan.
More info on projectors: Ansi Lumens = a measuerment of brightness. The higher the number, the brighter the projector can go (more to the point, the brighter it can go/appear vs the amount of ambient light in the room). For a HT projector this figure is not as important - these days HT projectors are usually in the 1000 - 1100 range, and anything over 1200 is probably not that necessary - certainly not in a room that can be darkened. Contrast Ratio = the difference between the lightest/brightest white a device can display and the darkest shade (hopefully black) it can. For this one it pretty much is the higher the number the better. This will mean a greater difference between the brightest white and the darkest black, and usually the more room here the better it can do the different shades of grey leading down to absolute black. This has been and still is the big trick that digital displays are striving to do well - as I said - Contrast is key! Devices with low Contrast ratios don't go deep enough down into the black area, and the dark scenes tend to get crushed into one shade of dark grey. The projectors I referred to as HT projectors are the ones produced with HT as their primary function. These are the ones that have a nice, high native resolution in a 16:9 ratio (either 1920 x 1080 or 1280 x 720), and have the best contrast ratios. As Matt said, these days most of these devices can display a 'HD' image. If they physically don't have the required number of pixels to display the image natively (like a genuine 1920 x 1080 projector) they simply down-convert the number of pixels - in every frame - to suit their own native resolution and display it accordingly. They look fine, but the only way to truly see every pixel in a true HD image is with a true HD 1080P projector (or LCD). P.S. Today's True HD 1080P projectors have excellent Contrast ratios - the best that HT projectors have been able to produce so far. Re: Home theatre.. 31Sep 17, 2007 10:39 am Hi again VJ.
Sorry if I get too detaily, it's something I'm known for doing.... 4.4m x 4.67m - OK, lets start. You will need to get yourself an A/V Receiver (hopefully one from a good brand... remember ... ). These days a decent A/V Receiver will be 7.1 - 7 speakers plus a subwoofer. Of the 7 speakers, 3 are at the front of the room and 4 at the back. You can, however, choose to only use 2 of the 4 rear/surround speakers (5.1) - the Receiver will have no issue with this. As your room is not very large I'd say this is not a bad idea. So, you will need to run 5 lots of speaker cable (make it reasonable, but try to avoid paying for over-priced stuff like Monster Cable) from where your A/V gear (Receiver, DVD Player, etc.) is going to be sitting to where each of the speakers is going to be, plus a cable for the subwoofer as well if you want it somewhere away from the A/V gear (subs can go anywhere in the room, just make sure there's a power point there). Leave a fair bit of extra length at both ends of each run. Video cables:- You should really only consider going one way here - HDMI. Unless you have a good reason not to you really should get an A/V Receiver that has a couple of HDMI inputs and a HDMI output (and therefore it can switch between the different inputs), and if it can up-convert video to HDMI then you will only need to run the 1 HDMI cable up to where the projector will be. The projector will also need power and will need something behind the ceiling plaster (more solid than the plaster itself - wood) to mount the projector bracket to. Again, leave plenty of extra length. Don't forget TV antenna cable. As the room is not that big I'd suggest probably not going any bigger than a 100" screen - any bigger will probably be too much at your seating distance. Also, the bigger the screen, the further back the projector might need to be mounted (depends on the projector - they have differrent zoom capabilities). Re: Home theatre.. 32Sep 17, 2007 10:49 am Wow, you guys can write a book on this, how about a "Home Theatre for Dummies" book? It would be really popular!
So Rod/Matt, if I am planning to have my projector + screen + plasma + receiver + speakers all in the same room, as it's going to be multi-purpose, is it possible to have all video signal (including TV, DVD player, PC, Wii, ...etc) been displayed on both plasma & projector (not at the same time)? What would be the best way to achieve this? Re: Home theatre.. 33Sep 17, 2007 11:32 am ahuang Wow, you guys can write a book on this, how about a "Home Theatre for Dummies" book? It would be really popular! How would we make any money then?? I have reverted to username - mattwalker Carlisle Homes - Grande 43 My building experience is here: http://www.ourgrandeplan.blogspot.com Re: Home theatre.. 34Sep 17, 2007 1:55 pm Hi Allan.
I actually do this - I have the Component video and S-video signals coming from my A/V Receiver (which acts as the system's main hub as it has multiple inputs) going out to a distribution amplifier that then sends these signals to both my Rear Projection TV and my Projector at the same time. So whether I'm watching a DVD (on my Marantz DVD player), watching digital TV through my HTPC, or playing my Playstation 2, I can see it on either my TV or my Projector at any time without changing/touching any cables. There are many ways to achieve all sorts of combos like this - you just need to know what gadgets are out there (and how best to optimise them). Re: Home theatre.. 35Sep 17, 2007 2:19 pm To make it simple, does Receivers come with more than 1 HDMI outputs? Re: Home theatre.. 36Sep 17, 2007 5:26 pm most more expensive ones do!
Marantz SR8500 has 2 x hdmi out 1 x component out 1 x svideo out 1 x composite out and a bazillion inputs The good thing with this amp is the up conversion. ie every input is upconverted to hdmi. 1 cable to projector, 1 cable to tv very neat and less to go wrong / troubleshoot. Matt I have reverted to username - mattwalker Carlisle Homes - Grande 43 My building experience is here: http://www.ourgrandeplan.blogspot.com Re: Home theatre.. 37Sep 17, 2007 11:32 pm Hi Rod,
Thanks so much for all the info that you gave us! When BPP did a demo of the Yamaha system, they showed us that we can watch TV shows using the projector screen. Is that what Allan was referring to as 'multi-purpose'? We're very interested to do that. We thought before that using a projector would restrict our use of the screen (ie we can only use the HT system when we want to watch a movie). If that is the case, how come Allan still needs a plasma with the projector + screen? Can we just have a projector + screen without the plasma and still be able to watch movies or any TV shows? We might settle for Marantz, 5 speakers and 100" screen. With that, including installation and all other parts, can you give me an approximate cost? Thanks so much for all your help - Rod, Matt and even Allan! We're learning a lot from this! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Built the Nevada 42 Next project - landscaping! Re: Home theatre.. 38Sep 18, 2007 8:23 am Hi VJ.
You certainly can watch the TV on your projector, and it's very effective if you have a Hi-Def set-top-box! There is one thing to remember - most digital projectors have a lamp-life of 2000 - 3000 hours (some a little longer), so do the maths to figure out how long your lamp would last before having to replace it (2 - 8 hours TV a day.....). Replacement lamps can cost anywhere from $400 - $800 (approx.) each. Re: Home theatre.. 39Sep 18, 2007 12:24 pm oh, good thing you told me that.
so now I see the reason why people use projector+screen+plasma/LCD. probably it's best to use the projector just for watching movies thanks for all the info Rod. we're going for the electrical appointment today. just checked the forum for any replies from you. cheers! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Built the Nevada 42 Next project - landscaping! Re: Home theatre.. 40Sep 19, 2007 9:09 pm Hi guys,
We went to our electrical appointment yesterday and here is what we asked for and the costing: - 5.1 HT two core pre-cabling including: 2 x Left and Right Rear Speaker cabling, 1 x Centre Front Speaker Cabling, 2 x Left and Right Front Speaker cabling. All cabling to be left in wall cavity and run from ceiling to floor back to one central point - $589 - ceiling projector pre-wire to HT room including component and composite cable from proejctor to entertainment unit location and single power outlet to ceiling - $308 - antenna - package b - clipsal 2ANCOM4 antenna including installation on 6 foot mast on rafter mount, flashing and 10m of RG6 quad shield cable connected to existing cabling and signal amplifier if required - $399 We also asked for 4 downlights (wonder if this is enough) with dimmer in the HT room. Any comments on whether we covered what are necessary at this point for our HT (pre-wiring) and the costing? Thanks! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Built the Nevada 42 Next project - landscaping! We already paid for somfy motors for the blinds. The quote above was purely for “pre-wiring” so the blinds company can install the motors and blinds. That’s why we… 5 16279 From what I know about water tanks (I've been working with a client on them for a few years now) is this - The concrete can last a lifetime if they don't crack for some… 2 10635 go upvc window frames ensure insulation under colorbond. not just sarking, lighter color roof also not sure if you have seen this viewtopic.php?t=5823 last couple of pages… 4 110572 |