Installing Screen for Home Theater

When I was planning out the home theater, I was really torn on what size screen to get.  I had several sales people tell me that for my room, I should not go any larger than 90 to 100 inches.

So when I ordered my projector I was all set to order a 90 inch screen.  I was talking with the salesman from Projector People and placing my order.  I started asking him some questions about the screens and he asked me how I decided on the size.  I told him about the input I had received and he gave me his recommendation – wait.

His advice was to put the projector up and see what size image looked good in the room.  He said he had never had anyone call him back and say they thought they got too big a screen, but he had a number of customers regret not going larger.  The Panasonic projector I bought lets you adjust the image size from about 40 to 200 inches.  And it’s bright enough that the image didn’t look half bad just projected on the wall.

After about a  month I bought an AccuScreen 119inch fixed frame screen for $399 from Projector People.  The price was fantastic -  I had expected to spend around $1,000.  The size is good and was pretty close to the size we had projected on the bare wall.

Installation wasn’t too bad.  The frame easily connects and is held in place with screws.  The screen tension mounts over frame.  This was the piece I was most nervous about, but it was really pretty easy to get tight and flat.

The screen hangs on brackets.  I spent a bit of time getting it level.  Finally I ended up using a laser level to get a straight line across wall.  This  shouldn’t be required, but my wall was bowed some and the ceiling line varied a bit from side to side.

Hanging a flat screen TV

I bought a Panasonic Plasma TV to go over the fireplace in the basement.  I put it up this weekend with a a Sanus VMPL50 Universal Flat Panel Mount (about$75 at Amazon).  Here’s the steps I followed.

I set the TV on its stand on the floor and then mounted the brackets to the back of the TV.  The mount came with plenty of hardware choices and it had the screws I needed.    I then attached the wall mount to the brackets.   I placed a level on the top of the TV and measured from the top of the TV to the top of the wall mount.

I transferred this measurement to the wall and found that the wall bracket would hit the bottom of the electric outlet.   The mount is a universal one, so there is some room for adjustment.  I was able to move the mounts on the back of the TV down by about 1 inch, which gave me the clearance I needed.  I rechecked the measurements with the level and drew a level line on the wall to indicate the top of the wall mount.

I found the center of the studs over the fireplace.    I temporarily attached the wall mount with some wood screws.  I then drilled pilot holes for the lag bolts into the center of the studs.  When I was finishing the basement, I added some additional blocking in the wall, so I was able to secure the mount with six lag bolts (four are required).  This mount isn’t going anywhere – I could hang it.

Next it was time to put the TV on the wall.  This is definitely at least a two person job.  The top of the brackets mounted to the TV have a lip that catches the wall bracket.   Once both brackets were firmly on the wall bracket, I was able to move the TV laterally to center it.   Once in place, there is a safety screw in the bottom of the bracket to keep it in place.

This mount has a nice feature that lets you tilt the TV.  Each bracket has a tension knob that controls how much pressure is required to tilt the TV.   This is a nice feature -  some of the wall mount reviews I read said you had to take the TV down to adjust the tilt.  This would be a hassle.

All we need now is some popcorn

The projector is mounted to the ceiling and all the components are connected.  We watched Pirates of the Caribbean – Curse of the Black Pearl.  It looked fantastic, especially considering it is being projected on the wall and not a screen.

I was anxious to give it a trial run last night, so everything is running as it was set from the manufacturer.  The picture looked great, but the surround sound needs some tuning.  This weekend I’ll tweak the settings a bit.

I was a bit peeved that the Panasonic BluRay player didn’t come with an hdmi cable.  I mean really, 330 bucks for the player and you include composite cables?  It would have cost them less than a few dollars to include the cable.  I would have been happy to pay 333 bucks for the unit with the cable, because I wouldn’t have had to run to the store and spend $30 for one.  Anyway…

I was pretty nervous about mounting the projector, but it all went smoothly.   I bought a Sanus ceiling mount for $89 from ProjectorPeople.  It was relatively straightforward to connect.  It took about 30 minutes to figure out the best way to align the adjustable brackets to the projector, mostly because the mounts on the projector are not symmetrically spaced, which didn’t make any sense to me.  Bolting the mount to the ceiling took less than 5 minutes and about another 30 minutes of adjustment to ensure projector was level and perpendicular to the screen.

So far I’ve spent 5 to 6 hours installing everything.  Seems like not paying the home theater guys $1200 to do the install was a good decision.

Home Theater Speaker Install

More equipment arrived over the last few days.  A Panasonic BluRay player and a Monster Power Conditioner are waiting for installation.

Last night I installed the speakers.  I’m setting this up in a 7.1 surround sound configuration.  All the wire was run before the drywall went up, so the biggest part of this job was to install the four Polk Audio RC80i surround speakers in the ceiling.

The install was really straight forward.  The speakers included a template for cutting the drywall.  Each speaker has four cams to secure the speaker.  I just had to cut the hole, attach the speaker wire, press the speaker into the ceiling and tighten four screws.  Tightening the screws rotated the cams into place and secured the speaker.  The speakers and grills can be painted to match the ceiling, so they will blend right in.

Next comes the installation of the projector.

Home Theater Equipment is on the Way!

The media room in the new basement is the one feature that everyone is most excited about.  This weekend we went out and tried out theater seating.  After shopping at a few stores and reclining in a lot of chairs, we picked four chairs in a straight formation from Berkline.

We opted for a higher end chair that doesn’t have any power.  It is really comfortable and looks and feels well built.  Plus I wasn’t that excited about running four power cords across the floor as the seats are not adjacent to the wall.

Equipment selection has been stressing me out for a while.  When we were roughing in the room we had a sales guy from one of the local home theater stores come out and give us some advice and a quote.   Nice equipment, but it was a little pricey for my budget, almost $12000.  Since it included about $1200 in labor I decided to tackle it myself.

So, with budget in mind, here’s the equipment selection: