GearBits

Painting Over A Masterpiece: Part 2

In my previous post I waxed philosophic on the grand plans I had for my new house. Two and a half months later, the rubber has met the road...to a point.

Being a true masochist, I decided to bite off a huge chunk by building a home theater and adopting HDTV at the same time. I did a lot of reading on the AVS Forums and on Projector Central and decided on a Sanyo PLV-Z2 for my projecting duties. This is an LCD-based 16:9 model with 1280x720 native resolution that has a militant following and is on Projector Central's list of highly recommended projectors. I had originally targeted a 61" Sammy DLP, but the cost difference was just too great (and my wife and I are susceptible to DLP rainbows). With my homemade 98" screen, I get 2.5 times more screen area and the projector cost 2.5 times less than the Sammy. There's also nothing on the floor for my little one to crash into.

For video input, I will be using a home theater PC. I built my last PC with this goal in mind and by switching cases to a Kanam HT-200 it even looks like a real HTPC. I have also added a MYHD MDP-120 HDTV PCI Tuner for over-the-air HD reception, HD recording and upconverting the DVD output from my ATI Radeon to 1080i. All the digital audio will be passed through on an S/PDIF link to my existing mishmash of Sony amps and Definitive Technology speakers.

The room itself was nicely sized for THX-recommended viewing angles. I have the seating position right at a 36 degree horizontal and a maximum of 15 degree vertical. Though it cannot be totally blacked out, I have enough light control to really make things look great.

The theater is not quite finished. I have a component rack to build, speaker wire to run, AC power outlets to install and still need to get my TV antenna mounted and aimed in the attic. Another week and I should be ready to pop the corn.