Home Theater

Movies are meant to be watched on a big screen, so I built one. On this page there are pictures of the whole project and also some insight on why certain things are done the way they are done.

There's a more complete picture gallery with better quality pictures and some videos available here.

Technical Specifications

Projector:
Sanyo PLV-Z4
Screen:
Self-made 200cm * 112,5cm
Picture source:
HTPC (Asus Pundit-R with 2.4GHz P4 and 1GB RAM)
Audio:
NAD C320 amplifier, a pair of Chorus Mondo 77i speakers and B&W ASW600 subwoofer

Building the Screen

The first picture is of the mounting brackets for the screen. Two simple pieces of wood attached to the wall with screws on top. The purpose of the screws is to anchor the screen to the wall. There are matching holes in the backside support frame of the screen, so the whole thing is secured on the wall, but easily removable if needed.

The support frame for the screen is visible in the next picture.

Now the whole thing could be lifted to its place, marvellous.

After admiring my accomplishment for a while, it was time to start painting the screen. The paint used is Tikkurila's Harmony X073, about 80% gray matte paint.

Once the painting was done, oak strips were attached as a frame for the screen. One might wonder why I didn't use black strips. The answer is that oak looks better (in my opinion) and works fine. Of course black strips would be preferable, but I think that this was a compromise worth making.

Here's a picture of the finished screen. As you can see, the screen is quite dark compared to the white wall in the background. It works really nicely anyway, and the dark canvas makes the contrast of the projected image a bit better.

Backlight for the Screen

I decided to build a backlight for the screen. Why? Here comes the science bit, concentrate.

A backlight makes the perceived image contrast better, because when there is some light around the screen, the eye "sees" the dark shades on the screen as darker than they actually are.
Less eyestrain when there's some ambient light in the room.
It looks seriously cool!

The light is a simple christmas light rope, 15 euros from a local store.

And here's the end result. Besides looking cool it really works. For this picture I played around a bit with camera settings to make the lighting look more impressive. In reality the effect is much more subtle.

Shelf for the Projector

Naturarly I also needed a shelf for the projector to sit on. Building it was a simple matter of buying a suitable shelf and brackets for it. And getting the whole thing on the wall horizontally (which actually succeeded, the picture didn't).

Finished! (well, almost)

Once the projector arrived I set it up and started enjoying A GREAT picture. Even though I expected a lot the picture quality was still a very pleasant surprise, considering that my living room isn't exactly optimal place for a projector (with white walls and ceiling etc.).

This picture is taken while watching Magic of Flight HDWMV demo video. Can't wait to spend my money on some HD movies once they become available.

In case you have any questions or comments, feedback is very much appreciated. Contact information can be found from the front page.

Late's place

Home of Lauri Jääskelä