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| Here is the equipment base area. I have a design and most of my materials for a rack or shelving unit, I just haven't built it yet. | The subwoofer is the mini-silo in the corner, the right front speaker is just to the left of it. | The right surround is the small black box a third of the way down from the top. Below it is shelving where I keep some parts, documentation and some of my video collection. | The left surround is the small black box at the upper left corner of the door trim. |
This is the list of equipment that I happen to use, and should not be taken as an endorsement for any particular piece of equipment or the overall setup. Generally, I believe that the results matter more than the particulars, and the available particulars would invariably change with time, what works well for a given person will not work so well for another person. What will work depends on any number of variables, such as what is available at the time of purchase, room dimensions and cost. A reason I do not like doing this is that most people wouldn't know what to do with model numbers and names, I put this in the page because I have had requests from time to time.
Without further delay:
NEC MT-1040 (MT1040) 1300 lumen LCD XGA projector. There are better and probably cheaper units now available on the market, but this can take HDTV signaling, PC analog, progressive, anamorphic and just about any analog TV picture format in use today, and even display a slide show of JPEG images put onto a PCMCIA card. I am writing a control program that allows the PC to control the projector through the serial port. This unit is intended for business presentations, and while the picture looks great, it probably does not have the color quality that would be expected of a home theater projector.
Screen Interior latex enamel, eggshell white, it is either Glidden or Behr. Yes, you read that right, it is just PAINT! The rest of the room walls are something of a tan color, after painting the room, I painted the screen wall a near-flat pure white. I would consider a real screen, but I fear the sticker shock of just the shipping on a 170" 4:3 screen.
HTPC
I have bought used workstation-grade PC (replaced the one shown in the picture), there is something about the chipsets used and the build quality in those that makes them more desirable to me, but I wouldn't expect others to appreciate or notice those differences.
Video Input
ViewCast/MMAC Osprey 100, a PCI card with two composite and one s-video input, using dScaler.
PC Chips TVP3XP, a tuner card with FM, RF, composite and S-Video. I really wouldn't recommend this, I think the LifeView is a similar but better alternative. At least this unit can wake up a PC using the remote's power button.
Holo3DGraph 1, a PCI card with component, S-Video and switchable composite/SDI input
Video Output
Matrox Millennium G450 AGP. At the time, it was the only affordable "dual head"/ TV-out capable video card. That has changed, but I do know that for what I use it for, it works better than an ATI Radeon VE, as there are some issues with color scaling an overlay pane. The Matrox has the same issues, but they were not as pronounced. I hope to buy an upgraded version, maybe the P650, P750 or even Parhelia. As far as I can tell, Matrox is the only company that does dual head clone that ALSO clones the overlay plane, which lets me send the same video to the projector and CRT monitor.
Panasonic RP-56 DVD player, modded without Macrovision so that it is "projector friendly". The projector acts weird when it gets a signal with Macrovision.
VCR The VCR is a standard Panasonic four head, Hi-Fi VHS VCR. The model is about four years old but I found it very easy to use. It might be soon be swapped with a JVC S-VHS deck, or a year down the road, maybe D-VHS/D-Theater if the DVD Forum doesn't get off its arse and there is a decent supply of videos and decks for D-Theater. Right now, I use the VCR as a tuner for over the air broadcasts, and for the occasional video tape.
Pioneer VSX-24TX Reciever While, this reciever is pretty nice, its capabilities have been supersceeded somewhat, it doesn't have Dolby Pro Logic II. Other than that quibble, it has been a very solid unit for me.
SVS 20-39PCi Subwoofer This subwoofer is overkill, but I felt it would be difficult to find something cheaper that would work nearly as well for my room. As far as I can tell, SVS units are among the best bang for the buck (literally and figuratively) in the subwoofer market.
Energy e:XL-15 fronts, I think the woofers are 5" or so in diameter. I had some Paradigm Atoms in their place but the trebles were a bit too high for the given room.
Paradigm Micro rears, I think the woofers are 4" in diameter
Center I have no center channel in use, after moving into this room, my Paradigm CC-170 proved to be a poor match to everything I own, so I am doing without a center for now.
Cabling The cabling I have is somewhat generic, generally not the hyper-cheap stuff, but generally not anything much better than Accousitic Research or Radio Shack Home Theater cabling. The 50ft VGA cable from the computer to the projector costed me about $30 to my door and works pretty darn nice given the price and length, the smearing very mimimal and ghosting is non-existent. I took another of the same cable, I accidentally ordered a similar female to male cable, 50ft long. One end wouldn't work for my case, so I took off the offending end and put on Radio Shack gold plated RCA ends on the individual color coaxes and it serves as both a component to VGA connector adapter and cable. My projector doesn't have the typical RCA type component input jacks, but can accept both RGB and component video through the VGA jacks, it just needs the right adaptor. I know there are some improvements to be had, but right now, for the moderate improvements I can get per dollar, I am not willing to pay hundreds of dollars to get that improvement.
The camera used was a Sony Mavica FD-73. Most pictures were taken without the flash turned on. The camera is an old model, and as with any camera, the images are not a totally accurate capture of the actual environment.
Site: I do all the HTML coding myself. I do welcome suggestions, but I only implement the ones that I deem worth the effort.
Pictures and page ©2002 Jeff DeMaagd, logos, brands and trademarks are property of their respective owners, no infringement is attempted or intended. Duplication is allowed with the sole requirement that none of the copyright information is changed or moved, and no attempt is made to obscure or take credit for any of these copyrights.