CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[loribates]

Go here

http://photos.lovemyoldhome.com

There's a gallery there for the current condition of the "theater"

And pulleeeze don't get on my back about the mess. This basement also has to store everything we own that isn't in use, it has to house all my servers, I work 40 hours a week, plus everything else I do. I need to get back to work on finishing up house projects. This included. My husband keeps inviting people over to watch movies and/or PPV and I am mortified each time someone goes into this basement. The theater area is all just a patched together deal right now because as much as I want to make it more permanent and actually finish things, I can't make myself until I'm absolutely sure I can't find a better layout. I'd really like to mount the Marquee on the ceiling but the clearance is terribly low down there. The biggest trouble is the center support for the house which has support posts all down the center of the house and effectively cuts the width of my useable area in half.

I generally have the curtains pulled over to hide the seams on the screen but I had a water leak above it and the curtains were ruined. You can probably still see evidence of the water leak (the outside faucet supply line runs directly over the top of the screen)

I've tried to put captions on some of the photos explaining what you are seeing.

There just always seems to be a permanent part of the house in the way of me finding a meaningful layout. The walls are currently just covered with dark blue cloth. The "walls" on the right (if facing forward) are just fabric stretched over makeshift frames tacked against the main beam and it's support posts.

Please be kind.... I'm baring my soul here......

[draganm]

[Mr. Green]

It's the perfect space for a theatre.

The ceiling looks low, but it looks like you have enough room for a drop ceiling (painted black). I'd even leave the silver piping underneath it. It actually looks pretty cool as it is, but I can see that you'd wan it to look better for guests.

If you want the extra "wow" you can do what my dad did (in <cough> 1972 <COUGH>) and put rope lighting above the drop ceiling, then push lite-brites through the acoustic panels. I don't have pictures or I'd post.

I'd also recommend doing a basic framing around the room, drywall, then paint it dark. I think it would be good to frame the room out so the mechanical area and computer area are kept out of view. The room doesn't look bad, there's just a lot going on.

Is carpet an option?

[loribates]

[loribates]

[Mr. Green]

[loribates]

Oh, forgot, there's a cheapo hunk of carpet down there, but it wasn't enough to go all the way to the back or to cover the riser I'd built nor the Marquee's stand. I had a friend working at HD at the time and it was the last of the roll with a black mark on it so they couldn't sell it full price. They sold it to me for dirt cheap but they've never carried a match for it since, so yes, I'll have to put new carpet down there. I was hoping the Golden that leaves hair all over the place down there would go to doggie heaven before I did that though.... (Love the dog, but it's time.... go toward the light............)

[Nashou66]

You definitely should move the marquee up to the ceiling. if its too low for the back seats try to lower the riser you made a bit more and to help this out the front seats should have the lowest hight back rest you can find. but it is a space with nice possibilities. Even leaving the ceiling exposed and painting everything black will work too and the spaces between the floor joist you can fill with insulation and then look for some dark charcoal convoluted foam and cut them to fit over the insulation and in between the pipes and ceiling. The exposed pipes may actually help with sound de fraction and dispersion.

Man it looks like a fun project!! Wish i was their to help with ideas I have a great eye for design.

Athanasios

[drice1234]

I have always liked the idea from this thread from the "A" site. You could probably hang some conduit or pvc piping close to the ceiling to put rings on and use the rings to hang the fabric from. If you wanted to make it more permanant you could install 2"x4"'s along the floor and attach the bottom of the fabric to this.
Dan

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=890240&highlight=hemming&page=3

[wkosmann]

Dear Lori;

You have enough room to hang the Marquee from the ceiling. My basement is 7' 8" high. I have 2 Marquee 9500LCs hung from the ceiling. They are located above the front (of 2 rows) seating, and no one ever bumps their head on the projectors. Use uni-strut to get the projector as close to the ceiling joists as possible.

Your HT brings back memories of my HT version 1.0. 1.0 was set up in a corner of the totally unfinished basement. 2 concrete walls and a concrete floor. Sheets of 4'x8' plywood propped up against the wall studs for the other 2 walls. Open floor joists were the ceiling. Equipment stacked on top of old plastic milk crates. The projector (a Novabeam 1a) sat on a cardboard box in the middle of the floor. "Chairs" were of the folding variety from the card table set. The audio equipment was stereo amps and Bose 901 speakers, left over from my college days. Only sources were a VCR and a Pioneer laser disc player that I won on a Super Bowl bet. First time we watched Stargate on LD, the vibration from the bass moved the LD player enough that it almost fell off the plastic milk crate!!!! The boys (ages 10 and 8) thought that was a riot. Dad's equipment has feet.

I'll try and post pictures of the ceiling mounted Marquees tonight. These would be pictures from the current version of the HT, about version 4.3 or so.

William

[Rdean]

Lori,

I can't really get a feel of the layout of the entire basement from the pics. Do you have any drawing you can post that show dimensions of the entire space, including storage? The reason: I have used rear projection in the past in interesting ways. It gets the projector entirely out of the room. It is quieter and there's nothing to knock your head on.

Maybe there is a cavity of space in that basement where the projector and possibly a mirror could be placed to great effect.

-Randy

[loribates]

Thank you everyone for all of the ideas and suggestions. Guess this finally gives me the courage to hang the Marquee. Aside from the headroom, it’s always been a scary thought. Don’t know why since that old lumber is hard as a rock and sturdier than any of today’s lumber. It took me hours to drive in the lags that are holding up the Sony. Nashou66 it really would be cool to have someone on site that had an eye because I’m not creative at all. I’m “do”er, not a designer.
You’d all get a real big laugh out of my Version 1.1 of HT. I started out with the DIY projector – you know, the LCD screen on top of an overhead projector that I had modded to fit a huge halogen bulb, added a new fan and power supply. Displayed that on a bedsheet, then a huge pull down window shade. It was my research during that time that led me to learn about CRTs. Wasn’t long until I had that Sony bought. Shortly after we had rain damage in the sunroom on the first floor so I ended up gutting it and had big ideas. I added about 3 new circuits in that room, a total of about 18 outlets around the room, with 8 outlets where I planned to have the AV equipment, ran AV jacks from one end of the room to the other, speaker cabling, everything I could think of that I’d need to have a clean HT setup before I sheetrocked. Soon realized the room was far too small and light control was never going to be accomplished so it’s once again just a sunroom and I took my PJ to the basement and started in down there.
I’ve taken a page out of the last appraisal. I’ve drawn in some updates because I converted the water heater to electric and moved it to the back wall. I’ve drawn a blue line down the center where the main support beam runs. That’s the division between the two areas. The chimney on the exterior wall is a real pain in the butt when it comes to trying to arrange things.

Here’s a link to the image http://www.lovemyoldhome.com/marquee/footprint.jpg

[Nashou66]

Looking at the drawing cant you put the screen on the wall that is 12' go with a 9-10 foot screen and the PJ should be able to mount before the center support beam.
the 22 foot depth of the theater is perfect and the room would almost fall into the Golden rectangle rule making it a nice dimension for sound.
you build the wall from that 2' corner to the chimney. That be the perfect spot for the theater, and it is now under the living room so the spare beedromm wont have the sound directly under it.
the screen can go on either end depending on where you put the entrance to the theater.

Athanasios

[loribates]

I’ve often thought of that option but never figured out how I would avoid vertical support columns being in the way of someone’s view. That would be my ideal arrangement I will have to go down there with a tape this evening and do some measuring because what the picture doesn’t show is there is an exterior door that used to lead to the basement along that 12’ section. It entered under the main staircase At some point in the last 98 years someone removed the staircase to the basement. There is also a support post at the corner of the opening that sits under the main staircase landing. There are also vertical supports (4 x 4) spaced out under that central support beam the length of the house. Maybe I can find a way because I LOVE that idea. I just feel like we need extra width and walking space.

[Nashou66]

Oh how far apart are the post in that Area?

Athanasios

[draganm]

definitely get that sucker hung. I think a floor mounted CRT is really awful, like an unwelcome guest that never leaves.
Once it's up, it can look like this although this ceiling is 8 feet tall. OH and for thos elag bolts, I assume your pre-drilling but after that make sure you wax or even bar-soap the bolt. IT's good for the bolt and your hands too

[wkosmann]

Dear Lori;

Here is an image showing the pair of ceiling-mounted Marquees. I designed the room to be dark, and apparently I succeeded. It is hard to take good pictures in the HT.

William

[loribates]

Just got home from my son's track meet. I'll go down and take measurements.

[loribates]

Ok, I'm sorry this is ugly..... http://www.lovemyoldhome.com/marquee/footprint2.jpg

I cannot put the screen on the 12 ft wall...... there are two 4 x 4's there supporting the staircase above. They are 33" off the wall with 68 inches between them. If I mirror that and put the screen on the 34 ft wall, I've got 116 inches from the front back to that chimney. That's plenty wide to fit a screen in there, but seating and pj placement then become issues. The support posts under that beam are the ugly blobs I put there. The first two are 2 x 10's. one on the front wall and another about 102" inches out with some framework and cap between like someone intended to make a half wall. I can rip out the half wall but I wouldn't want to take out the vertical when I'm not sure how much load it's holding. There is a gap of 54" to the next support which is a 4 x 4 (the AC sits behind that one so anything on the other side of the beam would have be within about a 120 inch width.

If I went this way with intentions of hanging the pj, that puts it needing to be smack where the support beam is. The front of the pj is 10 ft, 4" away from the screen right now. That beam is 10 ft 6" inches off the wall where the screen would go. I think mounting the pj in front of the beam would be too close, but according to my measurements, it could possibly be mounted directly behind the beam. The beam is 6" deep and it's about 7 inches from the bottom of the pj to the enclosure around the lenses. Not sure if it would clear it or not.

Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Forgot to mention. Basement ceiling clearance is 7 ft

[loribates]