I want to share with the members of LL what they could have if they continue their diy skills beyond projector construction to actual true theater reproduction.

Here are five theaters from avs, all pretty much diy (read the thread/website to find out how they did it) except for essentials that truly need pro work like lighting or concrete work or similar.

The designs range from subtle to spectacular. There are dozens of other diy theaters on that section of avs but to me these really stand out as what the diy spirit can do when applied to true home theater re-creation.

Enjoy!

Victor

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=663570

Very classy

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread....ight=metropolis

Modern

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=535413

Serious

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=487747

Plush

http://www.reighn.com/theatermain.html

Beam me up!

have you seen this one yet !!

http://theater.stevejenkins.com/gallery/complete/

Here's one that'll truly knock your socks off.

(Yes, this is an actual home theater)

I have to say though, I think the Star Trek HT is the coolest one I have ever seen.

WOW! Blake...where did you find those photos? That theater is AWESOME! Way over the top!

The other ones, the DIY ones, are very do'able. I only wish I had a basement to really do a nice home theater. I have a small 12x16 room over my garage that I can make into my theater....better than nothing.

I found it on the avs forums. And 12x16 isen't bad man, that's the fun of these DIY projects, making a kickass home theater with very little to work with. Think of yourself as MacGyver doing a home theater room.

Can you post a link to avs for that theatre's thread? I'm interested in cost if they show it in there.

He did....click the link...

This one is one of my favorites. A nice, clean example of what can be acheived in an average basement.

I like that, a lot. Very nice simple and clean design.

how come most of these ppl dont use couches for seating but use seats with dividers between them?
is that really more comfortable?

Probably because they have more money to spend on better seating. I think the seats that are divided are more comfortable because of the arm rests.

This is always a question in my mind too. The reason I built my HT was for the comfort of being able to sprawl on the floor or the couch and not have to worry about someones head in front of you or someone kicking your chair.
Now this is just a supposition, but...

I notice that there SEEMS to be a correlation between how social people are and the number of chairs in their home theater. I have done about 100 "theaters" in my time, some small, some really big ( very few) ones. Most were just wiring in a system in someones living room. Most were fairly simple wiring jobs, but I noticed ( and this is very subjective) that the more private a person tended to be the less chairs in their theater. Very private people had a couch and a chair, even though some had room for at least 20 people. The more chatty friendly ones always seemed to have more seat space. I only ran into one person who put in movie theater seating. He was very chatty and was known for having a lot of parties. I couldnt imagine watching a movie alone in a big bunch of seats, but I could easily imagine having a bunch of friends over ( if I had that many...who has that much time? ) and watching a cool movie together.
I guess there is a certain amount of prestige as well. Getting the movie seats seems to say "hey! I went the extra distance..." and shows that you are dedicated to sharing the movie experience. While home theaters dont always seem to...

Like I said, its subjective.
Its just what I have NOTICED....doesnt make it true.

The one thing I do know is that those movie seats tend to make my butt go to sleep after a while...

SamuraiJack

Here's another from a user who lowered part of his garage to make room for a great media center in the attic





Victor

Here's another- using the attic as a theater

One more, where one ht owner wanted a full size raptor as his side-piece addition to the theater. Renditions only as apparently the theater is not yet complete

One more - a converted barn. Yes, the kind you let cows sleep in!





Screen is a massive 158" wide 16x9

Here's another. Completed in 4 weeks time from this:



to this:

Very cool HT! Thanks!

Another DIY theater just came up. Very tasteful and classy. Read more here

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread....mp;#post8604761

I see the exact same thing when I look at each one of these pictures:

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When life gives you lemons! I only have a very small room as well, but that's what makes it a fun challenge.

these are some nice set-ups, but not that far out of reach. I put my set-up together for 1/4 of what it would cost to do commercially. I dont think I have more then 2k in my system and it would rival ones that go for 10k or more. I will post some decent pics soon as I have some.

I've got the EVO and the 90' screen set up in here (my 12X16 room) and it's really not so bad. When I get all the furniture, paint and carpeting in I'll post the pics....coming soon!

Here's another nice theater, looks like its from Germany but here's the clincher, a diy vertical (looks like a beseler-based unit). Very clean including a very cool starfield.

Check it out

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread....p;#post11127733

http://picasaweb.google.de/AirPlus07/KinoHighRES

http://lh3.google.de/AirPlus07/RhaY383t8UI....jpg?imgmax=512

Heres an Indiana Jones Based Home Theator


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Heres the link for the rest of the pictures.


http://www.electronichouse.com/slideshow/category/2112/413

Now THATS creative

Here's a Star Wars Coruscant themed HT!

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more

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Egyptian style






The thread
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1058931

Okay, why not?

I'm no longer employed as a Custom Home Theater Builder, and I will not mention who I was employed with as I'd rather not give him any free advertising (we parted on rough terms and things haven't improved), but here's what I built last winter. Took about 6 months from start to completion. We started out with about 1000²ft of unfinished attic space. (and I mean unfinished, no floor joists, just the ceiling joists from the 1st floor.) We cut an entry way into previously unaccessible attic (the foyer in the pics below used to be a wall), moved beams holding up the roof, laid floor joists, framed all walls and ceiling. Only then were we able to build what you see here.

There were only 4 of us, from start to finish. (actually, 3 for most of it, as we hired the 4th near the end)

3 Rooms with a common entry. 1 room is a recording studio, 1 recording booth, and 1 home theater.

Sorry but they're crappy phone pics. I never got the time to snap good pics before I quit.

Lobby (as viewed from the current gameroom) -
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Equipment rack in the lobby (not finished, will have a motorized cover that will slide down into place)
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(Middle Atlantic rack with laser cut faces)
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Turn left into Theater:
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300 stars, each star is an individual fiber optic strand. (I'm particularly proud of these as they are the only thing in the theater that I can say is 100% me. I did all the labor on these.) 200 are on a constant light source, 100 are on a separate "twinkle" light source.
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Marantz 1080P projector and anamorphic lens setup. the anamorphic lens slides into place when needed.
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Snell speakers all around, 6 rears, fronts and centers not photo graphical as they are hidden behind the fabric on the front wall.
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Fabric covered walls. the fabric hides 1" acoustical material on all walls.
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14 Pullman "Manhattan" Theater seats (the back row looks cramped but the chairs were pushed forward because I was working on the projector the day I took the pics):
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Stewart "Cine-curve" curved, self masking, anamorphic screen.
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RTI T4 touchscreen remote:
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Go straight from the lobby, into the recording studio:


These are also fabric walls. These hide 2" acoustical material plus strategically placed diffusers.
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Step down, go forward:
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turn around:
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Looking into the control booth:
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Now turn to your left:
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Making lemonade out of lemons (the one structural beam we could not move, so we made a guitar center out of it)
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Turn right from the lobby to enter the recording control booth:
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Richard Grey Power center providing "clean" power for all outlets in the recording studio:
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"soundproof" windows:
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Diffusers (These were made with mathematical formulas found in the Master Handbook of Acoustics, which, BTW, Brainchild happens to sell right here on Lumenlab)
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Those pictures were taken when the project was about 80% done, the equipment was all there and for the most part functional, but with lots of tweaking needed and you can see lots of trim work was still required.