I asked for projector and screen advice for a family friend back in May. He and his wife retired and bought their dream home... After finishing the main house he got the go ahead from the wife to convert their stand alone 2 car garage (they have 3 more car slots built onto the house) into his mancave! Original budget was pretty slim, but he finally go the green light from the misses to do what he wanted lol.. It's not finished yet, but it's ~90% done.
He hired a contractor of course (getting permits was the hardest part of his endevor, but that's another story). The house is on a septic system and the original owner built an extension with an outdoor kitchen at the back of the house and covered up part of the septic tank or something like that. It wasn't up to code for him to have a bathroom in his mancave. This is why the grass is all dug up in a few places. That's right. His wife let him replace the entire septic system just so he could have a bathroom in the garage room.....
He had them build the extension onto the room and pour this riser patio to have a better lake view when sitting outside. He also has these fabric shades that pull down from that front beam to help block the sun out
View from the door. At the back of the shot here is the main bar. There's a microwave and fridge built in under the counter. There's also a bathroom door back there but I didn't take a shot of the bathroom. That toilet is something else though lol. It'll suck you right down if you're not on your toes!
The theater from the side. All the seats have button controlled recline and blue led lighting around the bottoms and in the cup holders.
View looking back. On the left hand side behind the bar is a door which leads to a storage area. He lowered the theater-side ceiling so the garage door could still roll up.
View from the back bar seating looking forward
The pool table area (that's him off to the left standing by the main bar)
Looking out towards the lake
----------------
Original budget for projector and screen was $2k. You might be able to tell that he blew by that budget with the Epson Pro Cinema 6010 and an SI Black Diamond Fixed series screen. It's currently 100", but he may go to a 120" after the holidays...
I did not condone the use of the Bose speakers lol. He already had them and was trying to get things hooked up since he had family coming for Thanksgiving. He did buy a Jamo 5.1 and used the towers from that in this 7.1 setup (The Bose center sounded way off [read: super bassy] to me, but no one else seemed to notice).
The sub isn't pictured, it's a forward firing 12" Velodyne. I don't remember the model as he got it with my employee discount at Fry's a few years back. It's located on the left side of the rear row on seats. I don't agree with the placement, but I'm not sure where else to have him place it. You can definitely feel it in the back row, but if you turn it up enough to get anything for the front row, the back row people aren't going to be enjoying themselves..
The receiver is a Pioneer vsk-1122 7.2 networked reciever. He has zone 2 set up off a second BR player and has speakers for it both over the pool table and out on the patio area.
I'm not sure who set up his Harmony 900 for him, but they had no idea what they were doing. I'll be stopping there for a few days after my finals in December, so I'll get that fixed up for him.
He's got around 40 lights in the place and they're all on dimmable switches. The blackout blind for the big doors and the arch of the back window havent arrived yet, but the place will be sufficiently dark when they do.
The only problem he's having is that when he shuts his ceiling fans off, the sound cuts out. His "theater" guy told him it's because they ran an HDMI cable too close to the power for the fans and it picks up the "turn off" signal. I'm not sure how feasible it would be to replace the HDMI with a shielded one or something. Anyone have suggestions for this?
Everything I've helped him with I've pretty much learned from you guys here. I appreciate everyone's help. Thanks for looking guys!
[Excuse the iPhone quality pics]
