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Formica's Audio / HT room... the construction


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Rob

What kind of HVAC do you have? Forced air? If so how are you sound insulating the feeds and return air ducts? In my home gym in the basement I have rockwool insulation in the walls and ceilings, but the weak point are the ducts. From the gym ceiling they go all the way up 2 floors to the master bath and my pumpin iron music at 5 am wakes my wife up.

Are you planning to use something like sonopan between the sheetrock and flex joints? what about doors? My feeling is that all this stuff goes out the window if you have a square inch of air leakage around light pots, doors etc.

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When I'm in 2.35 mode with the constant height screen my seating

position is 1 screen width away...

Anyhow... after getting the Panny hung last night I spent about four

hours watching material and it really just shocked me how good it

looked. Even more so considering the price.

I was wondering about the "constant height" screen, and if the pany has

a remote controlled zoom? I'd like to go that route too... as I'm

limited to 42" in height but have plenty of width for 2.35.

I'll be a couple of feet further back than the 1 screen width...

Good to hear you were so impressed with it's performance, as it is

pretty reasonably priced.

What kind of HVAC do you have? Forced air? ...

In my home gym in the basement I have rockwool insulation in the walls

and ceilings, but the weak point are the ducts.

My home currently doesn't have any HVAC, and I'd probably go with a

high velocity attic fed system when I do go that route. Lower

comfort and efficiency but much simpler to retro fit in an older home

like mine. The only duct work currently in the ceiling are the

exterior vents for my dryer and basement bathroom fan. My HT room

is actually pretty quiet...

Are you planning to use something like sonopan

between the sheetrock and flex joints? what about doors? My feeling is

that all this stuff goes out the window if you have a square inch of

air leakage around light pots, doors etc.

Yeah, I agree, as I've seen this both in practice and in an acoustics

course... those air leaks really are one of the big weak links.

I will be replacing my door with a solid core door, acoustic seal, and

a drop sill. OTOH, I'm not going to use any sonopan product, as

it's been shown to be pretty ineffective in almost all CMHC / NRC

laboratory tests.

I'm guessing that my weakest link will be structural transfer... as

that beam and column you see in the pics, holds up my entire main floor.

ROb

PS: CMHC / NRC recently published a very interesting comparison of

floor compositions given the proposed National Building Code's new STC

/ IIC ratings for residential construction.

http://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/publications/en/rh-pr/tech/2000-109.htm

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Rob,

"I was wondering about the "constant height" screen, and if the pany has a remote controlled zoom? "

No remote controlled zoom. You can do it by hand with the projectors

zoom and the lens shift but of course that means you need to be able to

get to the projector.

I use an ISCO horizontal stretch anamorphic lens with the Panasonic so

it effectively makes the unit a 2.35AR projector and set it up so that

it fills the screen. The various ARs are adjusted in my Lumagen scaler

with its different input AR adjustments and zoom. End result is for

2.35 movies I'm using the full 1280x720 resolution of the Panasonic.

For 1.78 material less of the panels horizontal resolution is used.

The other way that it can be done (and I might go to this at some

point) is to move the anamorphic lens in and out of the optic path for

2.35 movies or not. That means you get full resolution for both 2.35

and 1.78 movies. I want to see about a linear actuator to move the lens

on rails or something.

BTW, the built in scaling in the Panasonic can handle an anamorphic

lens but only for 480i/p sources. There is a stretch function for

higher res. sources that might work.. I'll give it a try at some point.

"I'd like to go that route too... as I'm limited to 42" in height but have plenty of width for 2.35. "

Thats what got me looking into it too... height limited but plenty of

width. After having the CH setup I wouldn't go back. Far more

theatrical when the widescreen movies really are *wide* screen.. not

just less height.

If you have any questions on CH fire away. Took me awhile to figure it all out so I'd be glad to help.

Shawn

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End result is for 2.35 movies I'm using the full

1280x720 resolution of the Panasonic. For 1.78 material less of the

panels horizontal resolution is used.

Just out of curiosity... 2.35 represents which percentage of new movies? Everything looks letterboxed on my old 4:3...

If you have any questions on CH fire away. Took me

awhile to figure it all out so I'd be glad to help.

Will do, as soon as I get a projector and I have a clue on what they

can and can't do. I'm totally new to projectors, so you'll have

to bear with me. [8-|]

ROb

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Rob,

"Just out of curiosity... 2.35 represents which percentage of new movies?"

I don't have an exact percentage but that number is quite likely pretty

high. I read elsewhere that 72% of all the movies up for at least one

Oscar this year are 2.35 AR ('Scope). Just about all the big budget

movies are around 2.35 now and so are many of the older big name movies

are in Cinescope. I think for movie watching I'm very likely in 2.35

mode quite a bit more then in 1.78 mode. Many DVDs that are 2.35 are

being labeled as such now too or are just listed as Cinescope.

When you are height constrained a 2.35 screen is really a no-brainer

IMO. The screen is still as big as it could have been for 1.78 movies

(limited height after all). And when you watch 2.35 movies instead of

being the same width and 33% shoter with letterboxing on the 1.78

screen the picture is the full height of the screen and 33% wider...

just like at the theater.

"Everything looks letterboxed on my old 4:3..."

How big the letterboxing is will tell you which is which. Watch one of

the Star Wars or Indiana Jones movies for example. Put pieces of blue

tape on the case of the TV where the letterboxing begins. That will

mark out the letterboxing for 2.35 movies so you will know which are

that AR. Bascially though the movies that use the least amount of your

screen size now... those are the scope films.... seeing them the

complete opposite of what was intended.... instead of the largest

picture they end up the smallest on a 4x3 screen.

Shawn

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Put pieces of blue

tape on the case of the TV where the letterboxing begins. That will

mark out the letterboxing for 2.35 movies so you will know which are

that AR.

My girlfriend already thinks i'm crazy... that would simply confirm it... [;)]

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  • 3 weeks later...

Aren't you supposed to run the electrical before the sheetrock?

d@mn, i knew i forgot something... [8-|]

so i fixed it... [:P] ... Given the low ceiling, i needed 22 pot lights BTW...

I finally gave out my joints, i got lucky as plasters aren't easy to

come by around here right now. It is somewhat a favour from one

of my work subcontractors.

Should be finished on tuesday, and then i can get started with the

finish carpentry and repairing the floor. Next step is to finish

designing the equipment rack that I'll be building and integrating into

the wall.

Still aiming for my Easter delivery date.

ROb

post-11489-13819283663942_thumb.jpg

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Are you still planning on a custom center speaker?

What is it going to be?

Yup, still in my plans, but i will be finishing my room completely

first. I have a couple of Heresys I will continue using for a

while, as I slowly upgrade components. I need a projector,

newer pre/pro, additional amp, measurement equipment, acoustic

treatment as well... so I'm no where near the tweaking stage...

The plan, BTW, is along the lines of the Cornscala (single bass bin)

but tweaked to my liking; slightly lower tuning point and more compact

design to fit in the 30" hole I left. In case your curious, I

haven't made up my mind on the tweeter choice... but I

still have time.

ROb

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Yup, still in my plans, but i will be finishing my room completely

first. I have a couple of Heresys I will continue using for a

while, as I slowly upgrade components. I need a projector,

newer pre/pro, additional amp, measurement equipment, acoustic

treatment as well... so I'm no where near the tweaking stage...

A lot of stuff...

The plan, BTW, is along the lines of the Cornscala (single bass bin)

but tweaked to my liking; slightly lower tuning point and more compact

design to fit in the 30" hole I left. In case your curious, I

haven't made up my mind on the tweeter choice... but I

still have time.

Yes, you have time... I'll let you know how the tweeter sounds, since it's shipping already. I'm very intrigued about a custom speaker and you'll be on a short list of people I'll be begging to visit once it's all set up!!!

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  • 1 month later...

Still aiming for my Easter delivery date.

I have made quite a bit of progress since these last posts... but with

everything which has happened in march (including my dad's passing) my

project has fallen a little behind.

The Easter deadline was originally chosen because I have family

over then and we've used this room to host supper. At first we

were no longer sure about the gathering... but talking it over with my

mom, we decided to go ahead as usual. Unfortunately I was now a

couple of weeks behind in my renovations.

Given it's less than one week away, I can say that the room will be

ready to receive people but will be missing some of the finishing

touches as well as all the equipement. I've got some pictures

that I'll shrink and start posting a couple a night to give you guys an

idea of where I'm up to.

Later...

ROb

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Ok, here you go... and this is more or less what is shown in these compared to the last pics.

- plastering was completed...

- sanded and primed walls and ceiling

- fixed small defects

- built frames and hung recuperated doors

- built the false enlarged windows

- built equipment rack frame

- completed the centre channel nook

- finish carpentry / casement work

- painted ceiling black in the theatre area and white in the seating area

- painted trim work white and IB / centre channel nook black

Picture looking toward the screen wall...

post-11489-13819286755972_thumb.jpg

post-11489-13819291026408_thumb.jpg

post-11489-138192949861_thumb.jpg

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