TVJon's Media Room in Progress

[TVJon]

I've been working and lurking for quite a while. Figured now might be a good time to share my work in progress. I'm going for a media room/family room feel rather than a really theatrical theme. I did throw in a snack bar with a fridge, sink and microwave just for fun.

Still lots of work to do, but you get the idea. Black Out shades and drapes give me near total light control. You might notice the Carada screen - winning the contest a while back helped! You won't see the dual SVS front-firing subs in the built-in cabinet. I'm also still working on the equpment rack built into the wall by the snackbar - there's a rear access closet door for it in the hallway behind the room.

The good news - it's done enough that I can watch movies. Maybe that's why I'm not getting much work done anymore! Comments welcome, of course.

TVJon

http://homepage.mac.com/jokerstrom1/JonTheaterPhotosFeb08/roomfront.jpg

http://homepage.mac.com/jokerstrom1/JonTheaterPhotosFeb08/roomrear.jpg

http://homepage.mac.com/jokerstrom1/JonTheaterPhotosFeb08/snackbar.jpg

 

[chadnliz]

Wow you did a fantastic job on the room! My parents room is similar to yours but a bit deeper for office space, but they included the snack bar idea and it is used daily.....saves a bunch of trips upstairs. Again this is a great looking room that should both be entertaining to hang out in and add value to your home, cant be that combination!

 

[orAgon]

WOW! Nice job. If THAT is not done, I'd like to see it when it is.

 

[Fancypants]

I really like it, it embodies, to me, what an "everyday joe" could afford. Being an everyday joe, I am inspired. And by "Everyday Joe" I mean that in the highest regard, I am just commenting that not all of us have hundreds of thousands of dollars to spend, and it is nice to see a set up that is cleanly finished, although still a work in progress.

 

[westcott]

Looks very good!!! Clean and simple. I love that you have your equipment in the back of the room to avoid distractions and your seating distance is perfect for your room size and shape. Those chairs look really comfortable too!!! The cove ceiling with track lighting is also a very nice touch.

Congratulations!!!!

P.S. Keep up the good work and don't stall out. It is tempting to stop working once the system is up and running but getting all the details sorted out will pay off in the long run.

 

[mike c]

that's nice and neat. very homey!

 

[TVJon]

Wow, Thanks for the kind words (and for posting the pix, Mike C).

This "everyday Joe" is shooting for that sweet spot of comfort, performance and value with the idea that it works well for me and if I move, the room would appeal to lots of kinds of people. Doing things like framing and finish work myself freed up some cash for extras like the wireless Lutron dimmer system for the can lights (2 zones) and rope lights in the cove ceiling.

Here's one thing I could use some help on - I haven't yet dealt with wall treatments - whether it's art or acoustical panels. The sound did get better when I added the couch and the carpet, so I'm thinking panels might be the best choice.

TVJon

 

[mike c]

http://www.gikacoustics.com/room_setup.php
http://www.gikacoustics.com/education.html
http://www.realtraps.com/art_room-setup.htm


these should help

 

[kicknsupra]

nice room i really like the snack bar at the rear of the room keep up the great work

 

[TVJon]

Thanks, kicknsupra.

The plumber shows up this week to install the faucet in the snack bar sink. While he's doing that, I should get to work on my preshow animation. Lucky for me I know something about 3D animation and Adobe After Effects. I've seen some of the work others are doing with open source programs... they've set the bar pretty high.

TVJon

 

[holden_stroker]

dang, that looks great mate!!

real HT cred there, nice!

 

[TVJon]

First animation piece

The plumber's supposed to be here this morning. As promised, I'm working on my animation now. I'm going to build a series of retro look-alike animations. The first is my take of an old HBO intro animation updated and customized for a home theater environment. It's only partly done, but what do you think? (Hang out here a little while while the movie loads. It's about 3 MB.)

TVJon

<embed src="http://homepage.mac.com/jokerstrom1/JonTheaterPhotosFeb08/HTBOsmall1.mov" height="256" width="320"></embed>

 

[darien87]

I click on the video and nothing happens.

Nice room though.

 

[mike c]

I click on the video and nothing happens.

Nice room though.

either double click on the video
or
single click the play button

 

[TVJon]

Sorry it's not working for some people - on my machine, the quicktime movie starts autoplaying when it finishes loading. Maybe I need to change something in the hypertext code.

TVJon

 

[Tom Andry]

It works for me. Looks great. You going to do some cool audio with that?

 

[westcott]

Looks great and worked fine for me too! I did have to download QuickTime but other than that, it started up when I hit the play button right away.

How would you or could you play this from a DVD player?

I would not mind having a custom intro. I have seen others from other companies but they are limited in scope.

 

[TVJon]

Thanks, guys. I' will be adding music and building the rest of it out. For those of us old enough to remember, it might be fun to actually use the old HBO music - I've found some mp3 files online, but none of very good quality.

As for the visuals, I'm envisioning what I've posted so far as being the middle piece. The first part will be a 3D theater marquis with lots of neon lights and the name of my room... the camera tilts up past the bright lights to the night sky, from which I can dissolve to the space part. Then, another transition as HTBO fills the screen to animated words "Feature Presentation" kind of like the old HBO open I'm using as inspiration. I'm happy with parts 2 and 3. The first part will be most challenging from a modeling standpoint - that's why it's last!

I imagine I can play it off a DVD-R or through a hard drive-based video recorder/playback device. One day we'll have flash-memory based playback, but I'm not waitin' that long!

For what it's worth, I'm doing this stuff with Adobe Illustrator, Adobe After Effects and a bunch of cool plug-ins, along with some Artbeats footage.

TVJon

 

[gloontjens]

wow, nice work, it's very impressive. if I had a room I could use in this way i'd definitely follow your example...

 

[DDigitalguy06]

Very clean setup! We need row model's that know how to keep a media room neat and clean. A+ i like it.