eq_shadimar

I had the game playing in the HT (133" diag) and on the 65" RPTV in the family room. Both in HD. Given the weather issues I thought CBS did a great job delivering the game in HD. This was via Verizon FiOS TV service. Laters, Jeff

Get a TV....a really really really big TV []. Glad to see that you are doing ok. I have a Jenn-Air grill too. I love it! Laters, Jeff

Tom - Thanks for the nice comments. Now the rear surrounds, I know it looks weird but it is one of the sacrficies of cramming that theater into the room. Pointing the Heresys into the corners allow them to diffuse the rear effects. Having them pointed into the room really just did not produce the same enveloping sound field for movies. Ideally if the room was wider I would have had them on the sides. If it was longer I would have had them to the rear and sides. My first thought was to hang them, but once again the room is working against me. I mocked up a speaker box and it was just to close to being a head cracker. I may do above and in the back but actually it sounds really good as is so I am going to wait until after a couple of listening sessions with fellow Klipsch heads before I make any radical changes. Laters, Jeff

Michael - Thanks for the comments. Yup those are the Coaster Showtimes in taupe. It is hard to tell from the pictures but the all the front speakers have about a 2" riser under them. I used a laser pointer and aimed the tweeters just a bit below the ear height of the second row. Due to the riser height calculation that also happens to be the correct height for people sitting in the front row as well. It sounds awesome in either row. I am going to hold a listening session soon so I will get some second opinions at that time but for now I am a happy camper. Laters, Jeff

Thanks, it was a lot of work but worth it. Humm well I guess it is a bit of both? Perhaps the best way to put it is that I use the 5.1 Cornwall + 65" HDTV system for everyday TV watching and all crtical listening. This is the system with the tube amp, turntable, SACD/DVD-A player etc.. The new 5.1 Heresy system has the HD-DVD player, Projector, good sounding but el cheapo digital amp is what I use for watching movies and of course football []. I love the sound of both the Heresies and Cornwalls. For an all movie system that has all the bass crossed over at 80Hz or so I would say that they are both excellent. If you want fantastic full range performance for multi-channel music, LP's, CD's, etc that you are using the pure signal with no crossover then the Cornwalls perform much better. The directional sound comment could be applied to any speaker with horn drivers and was not a specific comment on the Cornwall vs the Hersey but as a comment as to why sound treatments may not be necessary. Laters, Jeff

Is it the Prismasonic H-700M. I wanted to have the passthrough option. I am now very well educated in CIH setups so feel free to ask any questions. Laters, Jeff

Ok so this is how it has turned out. I finished it up right before Christmas. I am really enjoying it I have to say! Equipment rack with HD-DVD player and HD Cable Box: I still need to add theater decorations, drapes, and a proper 2.35 screen. All that will have to wait for the bank account to recover. For now I am enjoying some kick *** movies! Laters, Jeff

Oldbuckster - I agree with you on the fronts. My 3 front Heresy's are firmly planted on the ground. They do sound best like this. My point was only for rear effect speakers for movies which my theater room is used for. For SCAD or DVD-A multi-channel music all the speakers should be at the same level. In my main system, which I use for all my music listening, all five Cornwalls, except for the center, are all on the floor at the same height. Laters, Jeff

Rear effect speakers are supposed to be off the floor so this is fine. I have taken an additional step and actually aimed my rear Heresy's into the corner to allow for a more diffused sound for the rear effects. I think it works out well. Laters, Jeff

Mas - I guess I should have just been more concise with my response. Reading through your posts it seemed like you were trying to warn people that are buying equipment today that there are all these protection schemes that they need to be worried about. I was simply stating that anyone buying equipment today has nothing to worry about as all the protection standards that will be used for the near future are already in all products shipping today. You stated many times that the current HD-DVD and blu-ray players are not AACS/HDCP compliant and current TV's are not HDCP compliant. This is simply not true they are fully compliant and are using both systems today. You also said that people will be pissed to learn that their $5000 tv's are not AACS compliant and would make class action lawsuits. Again the point of my post was to try to explain to people that AACS has nothing to do whatsoever with a TV. It is a content protection scheme only. No TV will ever be AACS compliant because they do not have to be. If I mis-understood what you were saying then I do applogize. In regards to HD and film you are still not getting my point. You said that "BTW, for a movie to be worth the use of HD technology, it must be filmed in HD. You cannot accurately increase the amount of data contained in the original file, and synthesized approximation is a pretty poor reason to justify HD." My point here was that the resolution of any TV show or movie that was shot on 35mm or larger film stock is greater than "HD". It is the scanning process of those film stocks that needs to done carefully in order to make a proper HD transfer. Restoring and then properly scanning in a classic Marx's Brother movie will most certainly result in an HD image equal to that of any HD camera direct capture. Have you seen the HD-DVD of Casablanca? This is a movie made in 1942 and is hands down some of the best source material seen on my system. It is proof that there is no reason that a good quailty film stock from any era, properly scanned and authored, should look any worse then a film was filmed using HD electronic cameras. You want a HD disc of a movie that was shot using HD cameras that looks worse than Casablanca even though it looks exactly like it was shown in the theaters? Take a look at Miami Vice. People are complaining about all the film grain on this HD disc without realizing that the movie was filmed using HD cameras and the director inserted electronic film grain to get the look he wanted. The image from Casablanca looks much much better than the image from Miami Vice in terms of noise and grain. The point of HD movies is to get us the transfers that are as close to the source material as possible including film grain from the orginal film stock. A HD disc of a film should look like film and not HD video. Perhaps you were referring to players that upconvert from the SD image on a standard DVD to HD? If that is the case then I agree with you. However to say that film,in general, does not have resolution greater than HD video is incorrect. In the world of computers yes things are a bit more confusing as the entire chain (OS, video drivers, video card, storage medium) has to be protected and verified. I think it will be 6 months or more before we start seeing any good solutions for using HD-DVD or Blu-ray drives in a homegrown HTPC. Anyway I agree that people should be informed about all the different standards and how they may affect equipment that they currently have. I disagree with your worries when purchasing any new equipment that is on the market today. I guess we will just have to agree to disagree and move on. Laters, Jeff

Mas -<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /> So many points here but I would like to talk about a couple if we could. First and foremost you cannot lump AACS and HDCP together. They have different functions. AACS is a copy protection scheme that both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray use. It is based on the HD video disc itself and other subsystems. Every single true HD disc player (not upconverting ones) on the market today is using AACS. They are just not using the final version as that has not yet been approved but it is easily upgradeable via firmware. Any HD player has to have AACS built into it (even if it is a PC based drive). There are many different types of DRM that are allowed under AACS. AACS does not care what display that you are using and how the video is getting there. It's only function is to protect the bits on the disc and to check that the playback is happening on an AACS approved device or subsystem. For example Microsoft's DRM scheme is approved by AACS but would never be used in a standalone player. However using the managed copy system video protected by a standalone AACS system could be moved to the PC using the MS DRM system approved by AACS. HDCP is a total separate copy protection system that deals with the decrypted video stream itself. In other words after the video has already been cleaned and stripped of its AACS protection. Here is a good example of the different functions. While VGA is not HDCP compliant it is AACS compliant. Therefore the Xbox360 can output 1080p HD video from the HD-DVD addon over the VGA output but only 1080i over the Component output. The Component output is neither AACS or HDCP compliant. HDCP has been around for at least 3 years (since DVI inputs). Anyone buying a TV today will be getting a HDCP enabled set and that is all they need to worry about. It is the player/streamer/cable box that you need to worry about with AACS. Now for the ICT or Image Constraint Token. This is a flag that will need to be put on the disc to be active. Currently none of the HD-DVD discs (I don't know about Blu-Ray) have this flag enabled. This means that I can watch any of the HD-DVD's that I buy right now at 1080i to a non protected Component input forever. Once the ICT has started to be used then, per AACS agreements, the discs will have a warning on them that the resolution may be affected by your system setup. Also the resolution will only be taken down to 540p not 480i so still a huge improvement over a standard DVD (not to mention that you will still have all of the interactive features etc.) Lastly your point that a film has to filmed in HD to take advantage of the new HD technologies is a little misleading. All film stock is already HD and has been since film was invented. The resolution of film is much greater then the HD formats. Perhaps what you meant to say was that care and diligence must be taken in the process to electronically scan the negatives/prints and author in an HD format? So on to the original question. I think that the Studios have released several heavy hitters. Superman Returns, Batman Begins, <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Casablanca, Searchers, etc. Yes there is some fluff released to but overall I am impressed with the depth and variety of titles available so soon after launch. The "big guns" are going to be held in reserve until there is some way that the studios can to a tie in to a movie release or some other promotion to make $$$. I think we will see LOTR, the Matrix, and Harry Potter out mid next year. Star Wars? No idea, look at how long it took Lucas to release them to DVD. Hope this helps some folks understand everything that is going on. Laters, Jeff

Ok tonight I finished painting the walls. I still need to do some touch up and trim work but you can get an idea of the paint scheme. Laters, Jeff

Well yes and no. It could be automated. Currently this is the process I have to do. Press the aspect button on the projector remote to get to V-fit mode and twist two knobs on the lens. Takes all of 10 seconds. The company does sell a remote controlled motorized version. If you got that and were handy with remote macros I am sure you could automate the entire process. Laters, Jeff

Yup as already posted the insane Cornwall HT system is still intact in the family room. Its offical name is the Javabean Media Room. This is just yet another unused part of the house that I decided to make some modifications to. This will be what I call a semi dedicated room. The neighborhood that I live in would not support a totally dedicated room. I built the wall to section off the space a bit and I will add curtains to close off the doorways when watching a movie even though that is much more expensive then building a wall and putting in doors. I will see about room treatments after everything is put back together. The nice thing about the Herseys is that the sound is very directional. Once all the theather chairs are in there I think it will be ok. I do not have to worry about sound leaking from the theater into other parts of the house since it is just my dog and I living there. I have had on occasion gaming parties and the people using the Hersey system got a little happy with the volume level so I have had to turn up the Cornwall system just to show them who is boss [] The neighbors never said a thing either hehe. Laters, Jeff

Good call on the air vent. It is not actually directly behind the projector but I am still looking for one of those hood diffuser things that will fit that vent. Laters, Jeff

Ok good question. That lens is an anamorphic lens. The purpose of having the lens is to have a cimeascope constant height system. There are many films shot in an aspect ratio wider then the 1.78 (16x9) HDTV standard. When one of these 2.35 movies is displayed on any widescreen HD device you get black bars on the top and the bottom. You can see this in the first picture. The 2.35 image is actually in the center of the 1.78 LCD panel with black bars on the top and the bottom. Here is an example: The next step is to have a scaler or the display device vertically stretch the image to fill the entire LCD panel like this: Well as you can see now the image is tall and skinny but it is using the entire LCD panel. Since the entire panel is being used you get increased brightness and resolution. This is also the size any normal 1.78 movies or HDTV material would be (without the distortion of course). So now the lens comes in to play. It will take the tall skinny image and horizontally stretch the image so everything looks proper. One side stretched; and now the full image stretched to the proper wide 2.35 cinemascope ratio: Note all these pictures are gamma adjusted so you can see what is happening. The picture is not that washed out. Also the screen that I am using is a 10'x10 square screen (hey it was free). My plan is to get a proper 2.35 ratio screen soon. Laters, Jeff

Thanks man! I am really excited about getting all this done. It is a bunch of work for sure! Here is today's update. PAINT! Woot! Laters, Jeff

Oh yea you bet! Count on it. I started painting last night, ugg I hate cutting in. Hopefully only a couple more days of painting and it will all be done. Laters, Jeff

Here is my AX-100 projector with the Prismasonic H700 anamorphic lens. At this point I had already run the signal cabling through the attic and installed the outlet: Why an anamorpic lens? Because why live with this: When you can have this: Laters, Jeff

Ok well the time has finally come to make a semi dedicated space for my Front Projection Home Theater. Here are some pictures so far: Before: Lighting: Building Wall: Riser (16"): Hide that screen!: Almost ready for paint: Laters, Jeff

Yea I got my shirt! I like how it looks very old school. I would get a poster if one were available. I agree with Michael what the heck does it say under the circle that the speaker is in? Someone care to take some LSD and figure it out? [] Laters, Jeff

Well mine was supposed to be delivered yesterday but for some reason they require a signature from someone over 21 for it to be delivered so they will not just leave it. ARGGH. That is a bit overboard for a t-shirt no? Anyway since it is stupid FedEX Ground (which I hate with a passion) I will have to wait for them to deliver it three times before I can go pick it up at the FedEx house. Laters, Jeff

Great to see this thread come back from the dead! Nice new theaters posted, love them! I almost reposted mine because some things have changed but I went to my orginal post in the thread (#5) and changed the links instead. Lets keep them rolling in! Laters, Jeff

I 2nd, 3rd, 4th whatever the suggestion for more Cornwalls and then Heresy's. Laters, Jeff

WOW is right, very impressive! While it is not my taste I certainly applaud the vision and effort it must have taken to accomplish this theater. Laters, Jeff