CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[MovieDude88]

Hey All I would love to share my brand new bedroom! It took 9 months to complete, but it was well worth the wait. I had some extra money and put it all into this theater!

The construction involved knocking down a wall, building a fish tank stand, fireplace, track lighting, flooring, acoustic walls, etc..

I documented the whole journey, and you can view it here on the article I constructed:

Theater Construction Before and After Pictures

Some of you may be thinking why the bedroom? YEah I know, I explain my reasonings and everything in the article I wrote.

What do you think? Have you ever seen a full blown movie theater in a bedroom?

[Spanky Ham]

You might want to buy a better camera with some of the $62k you spent on this project.

[VideoGrabber]

Spanky,

> You might want to buy a better camera with some of the $62k you spent on this project.

Some are pretty blurry, but not very friendly to criticize him on that. He's new here. He probably just used a cellphone, or whatever he had.

However, I was surprised that it's NOT a "bedroom Movie Theater", as claimed. I thought it a bit odd when he mentioned putting several couches and seats in for guest seating (who has a BR with room for that? Most BRs couldn't accommodate one couch, and still have room to move around in it).

Then you see that Step 1 was $1k to knock down a wall, and combine TWO bedrooms for his HT. That's different than the thesis he started with. So his story is really one of "Why I built my HT upstairs (from a couple spare bedrooms), rather than downstairs". The main reason most won't build an HT into their bedroom is because we don't want to invite guests into our private spaces to watch a movie! Very low WAF.

Still I gotta give him credit for his work. He had a vision, mapped it out, and made it happen. Contrast levels there should be excellent, since he's kept all walls AND ceiling dark and non-reflective. And he selected an excellent projector in the JVC. Smart idea keeping all his gear in a closet, too. Though the fish tank would tend to overshadow that (which I believe he added a motorized curtain to cover).

Paul, you might get some negative vibes here from all the advertising links on your page, just so you know. We're usually pretty friendly here, but your description seems to be bragging about how much money you spent. We're not really impressed by that. Also, while some of your "tips" make perfect sense to you, they're not universally accepted.

"Use Standalone Speakers! This will improve your movie visual clarity. How? Because you will then not need to use a perforated screen."

The two really aren't related. Many using perf'ed screens have very high quality standalone speakers behind them. In your case, there wouldn't have been enough depth (on that wall), but other configurations are possible.

"Perforated screens have thousands of small holes which allow sound to pass through. The bad thing is, because of these holes, these screens reduce your brightness by 28%, and contrast by 14%, plus the audio will be attenuated in the upper octave."

The better-quality AT (acoustically transparent) materials don't take such a hit. And the high-end attenuation is very well mapped, and easy to EQ out, so it shouldn't be a factor. Importantly, AT screens are the only way sounds can originate directly from the image, which is a big incentive for some folks.

"Most home movie specialists will try to install the speakers behind the screen along with a perforated screen (like the company that I hired did). So watch out for this!"

They should have discussed your options with you in advance, and explored the pros and cons. Then left the choice up to you. And non-perf is certainly a viable option. You really shouldn't have to watch out for them 'trying to install the speakers behind the screen', when you're not looking.

Congrats on a fancy setup that you're obviously very happy with. Enjoy!