{"id":369,"date":"2010-03-22T07:46:32","date_gmt":"2010-03-22T13:46:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cis-nc.com\/wordpress\/?p=369"},"modified":"2010-03-22T07:47:32","modified_gmt":"2010-03-22T13:47:32","slug":"sub-6k-theater-delivers-satisfaction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cis-nc.com\/wordpress\/cisncuser\/home-theater\/sub-6k-theater-delivers-satisfaction\/","title":{"rendered":"Sub-$6K Theater Delivers Satisfaction"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"CIS<\/a>

CIS - Charlotte's Source For Home Theater Installation\/Design<\/p><\/div>\n

This budget-friendly home theater, and its 106-inch screen, provided the finishing touch to a finished basement.
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One of the first things Phillip Thomas did after buying his 3,300-square-foot single-family home was finish the basement. He put in a bar, built a bedroom for his college-age son and threw in a nice-size bathroom. But he always felt that something was missing: a home theater.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the time, I thought that adding one would blow our budget out of the water,\u201d Thomas says. So he and his family waited. After a few months of saving up, they contacted a local custom electronics professional for a quote. \u201cThey had a very firm budget of $10,000,\u201d recalls Jason White of Commtech in Germantown, Md. \u201cIt was small, but it gave me some very clear parameters to work with.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since the basement was already finished and furnished, all of the money could go toward audio\/video equipment and installation. That didn\u2019t mean, however, that White could go crazy with the cash. \u201cI had to be very careful about the products I selected,\u201d he says. Obviously, the price of each component would need to fit the budget. But it was also important that the products chosen could be installed easily and would require minimal programming, White says. Oh, and the equipment would need to perform to the family\u2019s expectations.<\/p>\n

One of those expectations was a huge display. \u201cI would settle for nothing less than 100 inches,\u201d says Thomas. Consequently, the largest portion of the budget, $1,000, was allocated to a 106-inch projection screen from Draper. To avoid going over budget, fancy accessories like a motor that allows the screen to roll down from the ceiling were excluded.<\/p>\n

A 720p Optoma projector finished off the projection system. Although it lacks the Full HD resolution of a 1080p model, it saved the Thomases more than $2,000. White made sure to run HDMI (high-definition multimedia interface) and extra Category 5 cabling to the projector location \u201cjust in case the Thomases ever decide to upgrade,\u201d he says. The entire video setup came in at $2,000, which was about the same price as a much smaller 65-inch plasma or LCD TV.<\/p>\n

White also stuck with the basics when it came to the audio\/video receiver. The Denon AVR-590 is a quality piece, he says, but with one missing feature: HDMI upconverting. White explains, \u201cA receiver with HDMI upconverting requires just one HDMI cable between the receiver and the projector. With it, any signal from any component will be upconverted to the 720p resolution of the projector.\u201d The \u201cHDMI switching feature\u201d of the AVR-590, on the other hand, required White to route several additional cables from each component to the projector. The switching feature simply allows the signal from the connected source components to pass through to the projector without any enhancement in resolution. It was a minor sacrifice, White says, to save nearly $1,000.<\/p>\n

Two fewer speakers would need to be purchased by going with a 5.1 surround-sound setup instead of a 7.1 system, and in-ceiling models would minimize the cost to have them installed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s usually easier to fish wiring through the ceiling to in-ceiling speakers than go through the ceiling and down the wall to install in-wall speakers because there are fewer obstacles,\u201d says White. \u201cIt takes no more than five minutes to install an in-ceiling speaker compared to anywhere between 20 minutes to two hours for an in-wall model.\u201d The 75-watts-per-channel rating of the five Proficient units may be less than the 100-watts per channel of the company\u2019s higher-end units, but the Thomases saved $1,500 by sticking with the mid-grade models.<\/p>\n

A final contributor to the savings was a stripped-down control device. The only two source components in the theater are a DirecTV satellite receiver and an upscaling DVD player, so the family didn\u2019t need anything fancy, and so programming the URC MX-900 remote was basic.<\/p>\n

Equipment
\nDraper 106-inch Onyx Matte White Screen ($999)
\nOptoma HD65 Home Theater Projector ($800)
\nDenon AVR-590 Home Theater Receiver ($350)
\nPanamax M4300 Power Manager ($249)
\nDirecTV HD Receiver (already owned it)
\nSamsung 1080P9 DVD Player ($90)
\nProficient C660 LCR In-Ceiling Speakers ($580)
\nProficient S10 Subwoofer ($249)
\nURC MX-900 Remote ($299)
\nXantech IR Kit ($99)
\nProconnect Cables ($420)
\nConsultation and Design Time ($1,500)<\/p>\n

by Lisa Montgomery<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.electronichouse.com\/article\/sub-6k_theater_delivers_satisfaction\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Custom Installation Services, LLC <\/a>–\u00a0Audio\/Video Sales, Service and Installation\u00a0in North Carolina and South Carolina<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This budget-friendly home theater, and its 106-inch screen, provided the finishing touch to a finished basement. One of the first things Phillip Thomas did after buying his 3,300-square-foot single-family home was finish the basement. He put in a bar, built a bedroom for his college-age son and threw in a nice-size bathroom. But he always […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[526,117,528,355],"tags":[558,557,129,554,120,84,381,463,555,543,1078,517,519,518,63,86,38,556,531,144],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cis-nc.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cis-nc.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cis-nc.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cis-nc.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cis-nc.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.cis-nc.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":372,"href":"https:\/\/www.cis-nc.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369\/revisions\/372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cis-nc.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cis-nc.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cis-nc.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}