CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[Clarence]

[achase]

You guys ought to know that I asked Clarence to be brutally honest with his observations, because only by doing that does a good discussion of the various 'sub-optimal' areas ensue.

Life is almost always a choice of compromises. Just in the theater alone, I've faced a number of decisions:

1) My original design called for a direct entry to the auditorium from the lobby. There were to be two entry doors that would lead to steep 'stadium type' stair aisles on each side of the theater. The concrete shell for the theater was built to accommodate this plan. The last row of seats were to be just forward enough from the back wall to allow 'rocker' back seats to be used. That layout would create a "by the book" theater layout. The layout would be just like your local multiplex, but instead of going up the stairs, you would go down them upon entry.

Theo then entered the design picture and thought the original design was "blah" and uninspired. He felt it was like a sports arena layout. He changed the plan to have the two doors become staircase entries which would bring people down to the mid point of the theater (height wise), and that would make for a much more elegant layout. I revised the layout further to have both staircases lead to a lower central vestibule which would allow for a set of doors at the bottom of each staircase to block the auditorium sound from getting up to the lobby. In addition, the revised layout would the playback equipment and media storage to be in a very convenient location.

Clarence mentioned the theater seemed to be more shallow than expected, and he's absolutely right. The 'compromise question' was, optimize the front row viewing distances, or make the theater MUCH more elegant? I chose to make the theater more elegant figuring that the only time the viewing distances would be less than ideal would only occur if we had more than 75 people (five rows of 15 seats) filled. and we would then need to use the first two rows Since there is a stage riser just forward of the screen wall (for live events), the shortened distance for the front row watching a movie would make for the BEST seats in the house for the live events. BTW, even with the shortened distances, the front row still has a full six feet of leg room before the riser starts.

Which way would you have gone?

2) The (modified) distance from the projector to the screen falls in between two fixed lens throw distances. As a result, the "active" ILA area needed to be shrunk to work with 1.5:1 lenses, reducing the amount of brightness on the screen by 20% or so from what we would get if the full imager area was utilized. Zoom lenses ARE available which would have allowed full image area usage, but they are not as sharp as the fixed lenses.

Brighter image or higher resolution...Which way would you have gone?

3) Irwin Seating drastically cut back on their seating configuration choices. I had my heart set on a specific model and configuration (choices include seat width, back height, foam thickness, degree of pitch, armrest options, fixed vs. rockers, etc.). When I went to order the seats, I was told that the seat back rocking mechanism was now available on only three styles, (but not the one I really wanted).

Nicer fixed seats or lesser rockers...Which way would you have gone?

[Spanky Ham]

1) more elegant
2) I am a little confused. Zoom lenses give higher resolution or are you saying something different? Without the content, I am not a resolution whore. With native 4k though, I would definitely want the resolution.
3) I probably would have killed someone.

[perisoft]

[achase]

[Tom.W]

[ecs1]

Arnold was in a position that had around 10% over scan of his screen and a rather steep angle so he throws away light and res. I was able to use 2:1 lenes and position my screen to have no over scan so all of the crt and ILa was used. leaving no lose in resolution or light, but he did not have that luxury. The lenses arnold are using are from hughes lite and there really nice. Do any of you remember the Barco graphic's 400's with the fixed lenes. I'm dating my self but remember the contract and sharpness. that what we are talking here. The zooms are nice but remember you have 3 huge zooms to adjust and I'll be honest My biggest complaint is arnolds booth is way to small. Once again everything is always a compromise.
The bottom line is you sit in his theater and once the move starts every thing around you disappears and your immersed in the movie itself.
I believe that's the utimate scenario.
regards

[stefuel]

That's the nice thing about a totally light controlled theater. When all the lights are out and only the screen can be seen, it makes no difference how big or small it is. they all look great. If you are sitting at the correct distance to the screen, they should all appear to be the same size in total darkness.

[Tom.W]

I'm kind of surprised Arnold left the lights on for this small demo.........

[achase]

A few days before Clarence's visit I was screwing around with the LiteTouch file to see what the theater looked like with the wall sconces on at 10% when in "film mode". Frankly, I totally forgot to revert the file back to the original setting, and I was oblivious to it during the demo. I just pulled the sconces off the 'film mode' program so the only thing that is now active are the step lights at a very low setting.

I wish Clarence had said something when he was here - his preferred total blackout was one button push away!

[Tom.W]

Now that you've had some time to play with your new HT Arnold could you give us a short review of some of the individual components being used and is there anything you would change at this point ?

[stefuel]

Almost a month with no updates. I was hoping for some decent screen shots or something
Now which one of those 105 seats did I put that shopping bag full of remotes

[Tom.W]

I was hoping for at least a few screen shots and a picture of the finished lobby..... As for that bag of remotes Chip finders keepers.

How did Stewart tension the screen to get it flat ? That's one BIG screen !

[stefuel]

Looks like we have fallen from grace

[cpace]

Any screen shots yet?

[stefuel]

[achase]

I just finished (yet another) dawn to dusk project tonight. I'll have about a month of a much more relaxed schedule, so I'll resume updates and photos hopefully within a day or so.

[Tom.W]

Take a day off and watch a good movie !

[garyfritz]

Welcome back Arnold! Hope you get a chance to relax for a while and enjoy the fruits of your labors!

[Tom.W]

Arnold I think I asked this before but what individual components are you currently using now and how would you rate them ?