MAMEWorld Forums - The Loony Bin - Re: Picked THE premiere movie to inaugerate my newly minted Home Theater!

> Any pics of the build?

Not yet. It's still pretty rough. Got the screen up a couple days ago, which I'd like to share some pearls on.

We wanted to go monster in size (the room is over the garage, so is big enough) to approximate the Imax viewing angle, wanting a fixed framed screen about a 180 inch 2.35:1 with a balanced gain (1 to 1.5), and for the longest time I thought the price of such a size would cause us to compromise severely... screens that size and specs can run almost 6 G's... until I found this one:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B2GX...ailpage_o00_s00

At $659, it's still a chunk of change, but compared to its same size competitors at 6k, all of a sudden it's a bargain.

As a bargain, be prepared to loose all of your fingernails putting it together, and to get many blisters on your fingers, because stretching the material out to the frame is an absolute bitch... but for such a giant savings in our theater budget, the final product is well worth the denuded skin on my fingers. It looks and functions fantastic, and has a black-velvet aluminum frame. Now just hope the kids don't mark it or poke a hole. ["This is why we can't have nice things" lecture goes here.]

Anyway, Gatinha is still working on the curtains. So, pics to come. We decided to skip new carpet for now, due to budget issues. No matter how much you THINK you'll spend, you always spend more. The curtain material, for example, is more expensive than we guessed. We didn't expect that. But to make it heavy velvet like a theater, we went for it.

But I scored on the neon. Got a dirt cheap "Theater" neon sign outside the entry door that looks great. It was borken, so was next to free, and just needed a replacement bulb that I did get for actual free from the manufacturer. Also have some kewl neon as sconces inside the theater (I've posted about them already). They are relatively small, so the light output, especially if just the two in the back are on, is just enough light to let you move around the room without stepping on people. We painted the ceiling and walls black, so it is dark as shit in there with the lights off (disclaimer, this does not count the dried out chalky white stools seen in your yard by your poodle, we are talking full-on Smitty dark shit). To make the neon lights work and look decent, I had to order several 12v 500mA converters for $1.36 each that were small enough to smash inside a standard electric box to wire directly in line with the power-cord of the neon light transformers, so all the ugly wiring and converting and transforming can all be contained inside the walls. No visible outlets, and no giant-ass dc converters plugged in and mucking up the aesthetics. Details only the guy who put it in can really appreciate.
"Look at that, Gatinha... huh? Yeah?"
"Yeah, it's an outlet cover."
"Right! Kewl, eh?"
"I guess. It's just a cover"
"Just a cove... no, no, no... there's a 12v 500 milliamp converter tucked in ther... never mind, yeah it's just a cover."
"So why did it take you a whole week to put up four covers?"

NEXT TOPIC.

Off to the side of the theater is a long narrow arched-off area for my arcade cabs, so we can have arguments about arcade noise interfering with the theater. See! Family unity, man. It's got it all.

I'm workin' on it. More to follow.

By the way... I'm digging the 5th Element idea for the inaugural show! A PG-13 movie (for the kids too) filmed in 2.35 aspect ratio to fully fill the screen, with SDDS audio. Much obliged for that little gem of an idea.