Finished Setup... For Now

[Soccerkid830]

Been about a month now, but I ordered a screen and it came last week. I've been trying to come up with a way to hang the screen as the dropped ceiling is in the way. I ended up using the same method I did to hang the projector. Our ceiling above the dropped ceiling has those new joists that are 2x3 on top and bottom with particle board in between which makes it a little iffy in my opinion. I ended up putting a 2x10 between two joists on each side, then used some big machine screw eyelets to hold the cables. I asked Seymour AV to put eyelets in the top of the screen I ordered in order to hang it by cable. I put two eyelets in the 2x10 and used two cables on each side of the screen, going to the two eyelets, that way if one were to give for whatever reason, there's still a backup. Which is a very good thing because as soon as I put the cables in and let go of the screen, the swage that they did came loose and it caught on my backup cable , whew! Anyway, it's up, it was a huge PITA to hang honestly. But it's there, it's not perfectly straight, but it looks good to me.

And if I take crooked pictures like the one below, you can't really tell that it's not straight. That's the tip of the day folks .

 

[fuzz092888]

Looks good. Just remember to get the speakers as close to the screen as possible without causing it to shake or shiver during loud volumes. The closer the speakers to the screen the less attenuation IIRC.

 

[Soccerkid830]

Looks good. Just remember to get the speakers as close to the screen as possible without causing it to shake or shiver during loud volumes. The closer the speakers to the screen the less attenuation IIRC.

Yep, I got the speakers pretty much touching the back of the screen. I haven't had a chance to crank it up to see if it vibrates at loud volumes. Probably going to have to watch a movie this weekend though....

 

[Grassy]

Nice set up mate and i like your grid ceiling too.

 

[Soccerkid830]

Nice set up mate and i like your grid ceiling too.

Thanks, we enjoy it quite a bit. I'm not a huge gamer and got a PS3 somewhat recently so I've been playing video games in there probably once every other week. It's pretty fun to play Assassin's Creed or Call of Duty.

It's funny you mention the drop ceiling, that is so far the major downfall I see with the room actually. If anything is bass-y, such as explosions or music or whatnot, the subs pressurize the room enough that it'll start lifting a panel and I can hear it - it's pretty annoying. As Fuzz mentioned, I think the next project will be yanking that out and putting in good old fashioned dry wall/sheet rock.

In addition, I think I'll add a platform for the projector to sit on rather than hanging from the ceiling as is. I do not like the mount I have, it's fairly difficult to adjust and fine tune, perhaps spending a little more money would help with that but I think overall a little hanging platform from the ceiling would look okay as well and be much easier to adjust things with.

I haven't updated with any pictures in a while, I really should. I added a small riser for the couch to sit on. When we have people over to watch movies, we pull in another futon to sit in front of the other couch. That thing weighed a good 3-400 pounds I think. I should have built it in the basement but I did it in the garage then had to get it into the basement... A lot easier said than done.

I'll try to get a couple updated pics in here shortly...

 

[Soccerkid830]

As promised, some new pictures...

Couch on riser lights on:

Couch lights off, LED strips on:

Screen shot ( pun intended):

This is a secondary system I set up in our basement. It was time to get a new TV for the main room upstairs. I bought this one back in 2009 or so, 42" LCD, and decided to downgrade it to the basement/PS2 system. We now have a 51" Samsung Plasma for the living room.

My wife plays Dance Dance Revolution (DDR), and more recently StepMania which is a computer version of DDR, quite a bit so this is her system mainly. I put together a small support stand for the DDR pads to help prevent them from sliding around when she's doing the more intense songs. Plus the newer pad (on the left) is a little more bendable, so the manufacturer warns you to not play on carpet, even if thin. It's a pretty intense workout if you do some of the higher paced songs.

 

[fuzz092888]

Looks great. Is the second system 2.0? What speakers are those?

 

[afterlife2]

Which Samsung 51? the 5300? Looks great as heck enjoy it man.

 

[Grassy]

Nice pics my friend, good to see a piano in the house

 

[Soccerkid830]

Looks great. Is the second system 2.0? What speakers are those?

It is 2.0, we pretty much only use it exclusively for DDR so stereo is all that's needed. They are these Dayton kit speakers. My wife bought them for me for Christmas a couple years ago. I used to have them in the main living room, but have since removed all speakers from there.

Which Samsung 51? the 5300? Looks great as heck enjoy it man.

Yep, it's the 5300. I didn't really need anything too great - we only watch OTA cable with this antenna I bought and mounted up on the roof. We get all the major channels - which allows me to watch Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! almost every night which is all that counts! I was/am pleasantly surprised with how well it works. We get about 25 channels, up to about 45 miles away from their source depending on the weather.

Nice pics my friend, good to see a piano in the house

I don't play, my wife does. She grew up playing piano in Canada where they follow the Royal Conservatory levels. She went up through grade 8 officially and then taught herself 9 and 10. It's pretty awesome to listen to her play - I have very little musical ability so I just listen. She used to write songs too but hasn't in a long time. It's pretty hard not to hear it when she plays though, especially with it opened like it is. We spent a long time debating between an upright or the grand and eventually went the grand route obviously. Albeit, baby grand, but still grand. Cost too much to get much bigger than what we got. She likes it and I guess that's what counts huh...

 

[JohnN.]

Nice setup!