Great, now I can come to canreef for my home theatre addictions too??? I have a modest setup in my basement.. Will snap some pics tonight maybe. It is only an old school 6.1 system tho.

I know what you mean. If you are looking for a center with some bulk, you might want to look at the PSB Platinum series.
http://www.psbspeakers.com/products/Platinum-Series

In that picture, the center looks like it could power the room itself.:biggrin:

For $2,000 it better. :lol: A wee bit above my price point but a very nice speaker none the less.

In October I replaced my home theater for the first time in 15 years!

Went with:
TV: Panasonic TC-P54V10 plasma
Receiver: Denon AVR-4310
Front and Centre: Canton Ergo
Surround and Rear Surround (in ceiling): Monitor RS6
Subwoofer: Venodyne Optimum 12
Blueray: Denon DBP-2010CI
Ferman Power Protection

And a nice little IR repeater system so all the components are stored out of sight in the back room.

just to pass on was at Double Diamond (Edmonton) yesterday and the Harmony One was $210 (a great addition for any HT).

I looked at all thoes and decided they were a waist of money as I was only going with a 92" screen. to get a diecent picture you need to spend about 3400 cdn plus about 700 for the screen and thats just a plain jane fixed. I ended up going with a plasma which gives me a better picture than a 4000 buck projector.. only down fall is I had to down size to 60" from the 92" I wanted.

Oh and the Optima HD20 is 1800.00 in canada and it is just a color wheel projector. and the funny thing is its native resolution is 720p so it must upconvert to 1080.. that confused me when I was looking into it which is another reason I decided not to get it

Steve

nothing wrong with 6.1, except not much is out that takes advantage of it. my up stairs system is a yammy 6.1 but it stays in 6channel sterio most of the time.

Steve

which one did you go with and how hard was the install? and would you buy it again?

Steve

watch costco.. they had it for 140.00 going to go on friday and see if there are any left.

Steve

If anyone is looking to get into a budget 1080p projector should take a serious look at the Panasonic PT-AE4000

http://www.projectorcentral.com/Pana...PT-AE4000U.htm

is it availble in canada yet? the one I was going to get was the 3000, but it was 3400 bucks on sale. why would the 4000 be cheeper?

Steve

Then you don't want 7.1 HAHA I LOL, I love the "who's behind me" feeling

Sure the Harmony One? At Costco seen the 880 and 600 series (think 680) but never the One.

U.S. MSRP is $2,499. There are plenty of vendors shipping for as little at $1,999.00 U.S. I haven't checked to see if they are for sale in Canada yet. At the time of purchase I would have some U.S. friends ship it to me or have some relatives pick it up at the boarder for me if it wasn't available in Canada

ya I pointed it out to the wife befor christmas list but I got a PVR extender instead :neutral: :mrgreen:

looking back.. it may have been the 880. what is the differance between the two function wise?

Steve

I thought of that, but the warenty issues come to mind when it is bought in the US. some places will make you return it to the US for service. and last I checked there wasn't a canadian release of it yet.. so we might get a different model thats not quite as good as usual...

Steve

overall function wise similar but the touch screen then the buttons may me go with the One

Is it comfortable to use everyday compared to your everyday standard remote? I like the fact I don't even have to look a the remote.

Will check the brand when I get home, it was $150 and worth every penny, I would not own a system without one now.

Installed in about 10 minutes. Simply plug in the connectors and then place the transmitters over the IR input sensor on the front of your device. Dave

I just pulled the trigger on buying a projector on Friday ( Why do I always order things online on Friday's and make myself suffer over the weekend waiting for it!)

I went with the Epson 8500, the Panasonic was a close second but the Epson won out in picture quality. I'm going to try and shoot for a 138" diaganol image, yup, that's 10' across :mrgreen: I have some huge problems to over come though. I borrowed a projector for some testing and it HATES my fish tank, there's a too much light coming from it. What I might do is put another set of lights on it, run the MH during the day when I'm not home and run some much dimmer lighting in the evening when it's time to watch TV, then I can have the best of both worlds. I would hate to have to shut the tank down everytime I watched TV. The tank will go dark for movies though.

It arrived yesterday and I couldn't help but play with it half the night.

This image is a standard def DVD being played on a painted wall, my screen isn't here yet. So there is a huge amount of room for picture quality improvement. The image blurred slightly when I paused the movie. Even my wife likes it! :mrgreen:

http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/a...r/IMG_2944.jpg

theres the important thing, got to keep them happy :mrgreen:

Steve

"Multipass!"

PS. Dumb question maybe but what about a curtain maybe for the fish tank?

looks good to mei wish i could convince the wife to let me go big screen im jealous...as for my fav quote from the movie is "big badda boom"

I've done some testing lighting the tank with a couple 24" NOT5 fixtures and that seems to work out. A couple of guys over in the Neptune forum gave me instructions on how to wire the 12v trigger on the projector to the Apex, as soon as the projector gets turned on the MH shut down and the 2 small T5 fixtures turn on.

A curtain is a good idea but with all we invest in tanks it would be nice to view it while I was watching TV or playing on the Xbox, for movies the tank gets shut down and the room goes completely black.

My wife was sceptical too but once she saw it, game over. She's now onbored 100%.

I second the idea of a black out curtian, if your watching TV, playing games and such the only real time your going to look at the tank is during a comercial.. plus any ambiant light spill over affects the quality although it may not stand out as much. I used to turn off my MH and actinics when I watched tv in the evenings..

Steve

Not true, I can spend up to two hours watching the tank while watching TV, when my wife insists that sit with her and watch some chick flick or some bad reality TV - IE: Bachlor, Dancing Crap, Idol. :mrgreen:

The curtain was something I was thinking of actually myself were I ever to turn my basement into a theatre room (the plan isn't initially but you never know for down the road). I was thinking I'd be tempted on a curtain not only for the sake of darkening the room but also on account that I regularly watch movies and TV and stuff well into the wee hours and I find that room activity can startle the fish. Basically they need their sleep too. So pulling the curtain allows them to remain on whatever daytime/nighttime cycle they're on and not be influenced at all by the flashing screen and so on. I dunno, maybe it's not a big deal but that's sort of why I was asking. Lets you do whatever, lets them do whatever. I was even consider installing some curtains into my tank room so if I'm working on something at 2am (seems to be the only time I get some days), I can do so with the lights on full bore and I'm not freaking the fish out..

I dunno.. just a thought.

PS. I think unless you're watching HD television I think the odds are pretty good you won't be watching much regular television on a 10' screen. I find anything above 46" or thereabouts to be pretty pixelated and fuzzy for regular TV. I can't imagine the brutal waste of technology that watching Bachelor or Dancing or whatever on a screen like that would entail. Brutal! :p

We only have one TV in the house, the rear projection unit that's being replaced by the front projector. We are planning on adding a second TV to the upstairs living room at some point in the next year. All of my TV viewing will be on the projector.

Cable was upgraded from standard cable to one of the HD packages last week, my new cable box will be installed on Friday :mrgreen: I watched cable TV on it last night for the better part of a couple of hours, it was fine. These new projectors do a lot to minimize the ablility to see the pixel structure. I can't see it on mine until I get around 4/5 feet from the screen. My seating is at 16' right now.

Kewl. :cool:

So are you still thinking screen or maybe that screen projector paint you can put on walls?

I'll be using an acoustically transparent screen from SeymourAV. The front three speakers will be behind the screen so you can't see them.

Nice job it's looking great.
I used this DIY Theater paint kit it worked great but you have to really, really prep your wall first. I thought I would give it a try before spending big bucks on a screen and I'm still happy with it.
You have to pick the formula based on contrast ratio and how bright the room will be.
With the Panny projector we could watch with all the room lights on no problem but we usually have them dimmed.
We debated curtains for the tank as well but ended up timing sunset to when we usually watch movies. The screen doesn't face directly towards the tank so it's not that bright and there's a moonlight cycle in the tank as well.
The fish are all tucked away in there beds anyway except the puffer and I have never seen him sleeping.:question:
This Telus Optik TV made a huge difference in watching standard def on the projector its much better. But I find after watching HD I don't really look at what's on the other channels after awhile.

My new toy, I built the frame out of 1x4, covered it in velvet and attached the screen material to the back.

I threw some speakers on the floor so I could play some Call of Duty on the xbox! That was fun.

http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/a...ter/Screen.jpg

Are you still going to put the speakers behind the screen? also what did you do about soundproofing from the rest of the house.. the wife is complaining when I am downstairs watching a movie or playing with the x-box :mrgreen:

Steve

Yep, still planning on speakers beind the screen, there's a six inch stand off for the screen that isn't on the wall in the picture above.

There isn't a thing I can do about sound proofing, there is an open staircase in the room to the main floor. My wife just has to put up with the noise. :mrgreen:

I've had a projector for the last 6 years and finally got one this year with hdmi outputs and 3D capabilities. Had to upgrade my 6 year old receiver and finally went from 4.0 to 5.1. My house was wired for 5.1 when I built it 5.5 years ago, but finally on boxing day bought a centre channel and a woofer. Super happy with it now.

updated pics comming.

well did more work on the basement, still have a bit of trim work to do and some wires to re rout/hide but getting there.

here is the fireplace shot. when we uncovered all the wood it was to dark so we had to lighten it up a bit.

http://members.shaw.ca/s.l.s/Familyroom/dec/fp.jpg


got the bar pretty much done now. still have to find a wine cooler the right size, and some more decorations and get them hung though. (ignore the wires, haven't run them properly as we changed where the equipment is going)

http://members.shaw.ca/s.l.s/Familyroom/dec/bar1.jpg

http://members.shaw.ca/s.l.s/Familyroom/dec/bar2.jpg


In this one you can see the 4 rear speakers of my 7.1 setup on the back wall.

http://members.shaw.ca/s.l.s/Familyroom/dec/bar3.jpg

Steve