My New Build, Home Cinema thread.
#1
Hi All,

I'm a regular member over at avforums and have recently swtiched my home cinema system to XBMC so thought I'd showcase my home cinema here. It's by no means a show stopper compared to some but thought I'd share it with the world.

Me, my partner and 2 children bought our first home 2 years ago, this was a brand new house so didn't want to go destroying too many of the walls.

Below is a kit list of everything running on my home cinema. HTPC is total overkill for XBMC but it's also running a lot of things in the background. Using a HP Media Receiver so can use the Harmony to browse XBMC. Keyboard shortcut set to load and close XBMC which i've mapped to the Power On/ Off on the Harmony.


Kit List:
Samsung UE55F6740 LED TV
Pioneer VSX-527 Amp
Pioneer S-HS100 satellite speakers
Pioneer SW-21 Subwoofer
Sky+ HD
HTPC Running Win7 64bit and XBMC Aeon Nox
Sony Playstation 4
Netgear ReadyNAS NV+ 8TB
Netgear 8 port gigabit switch
TP Link gigabit power line adapters
Logitech Harmony One+

HTPC Specs:
Intel Core i3 4130 3.4Ghz CPU
4GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3
Gigabyte mITX H87N-WIFI Motherboard
60GB Kingston V300 SSD
Antec ISK110 Mini-ITX Case
Windows 7 Pro 64bit


The House:
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First was to get the tv bracket up and cables in the wall. My last property was solid walls which made chasing cables a nightmare. This was dead easy as the wall was dot and dab. We made 2 holes and just fed a feeder string through with a wire coat hanger to pull the cables:
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Center and front surround speakers have also been placed in walls:
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TV finally mounted with the surround sound speakers (excuse the mess this was moving day)
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My Partner has a thing for chosing stupid wallpaper, she decided to go with this for the main wall.
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A change of speakers meant I had to lose the center speaker above the tv. Luckily I changed them before we wallpapered so the hole just had to be filled.
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Mrs decided she wanted the colour scheme to be Silver, Black and Cream which meant the Walnut tv unit had to go. Spent nearly a year trying to find the perfect tv unit and ended up having to get one imported from Germany. Original idea was to leave the 2 centre drawers like in the below picture.
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But after a quick trip to the local DIY store I got some magnetic catches and decided just to stick the 2 drawer fronts onto the unit using these catches. Looks 10x better.
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Originally had a 47" tv but upgraded to a 55 part way through.
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The Laminate flooring was always just temp until we could afford to put down some decent carpets.Put this carpet down a few weeks back with some 11mm tredaire dreamwalk underlay underneath bringing total thickness up to about 25mm. It's so lush and soft.
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We also done the dining room at the same time, remember what i was saying about my partner and her wild wallpaper choices :-\
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Originally the home cinema was running a Dune HD with Zappiti video jukebox. This was swapped out in favour for the HTPC running XBMC. So finally some pictures of xbmc.
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There are currently no further plans to change any of the tech. I really want a Projector and Drop down screen and have the money sitting there but need to get approval from she who must be obeyed.

Thank you for taking your time to read my home cinema install. I'll happily answer any question you may have to ask :-)
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#2
That is very very impressive. Thank you for taking the time to take the pics as you went along.

I'll give you a 1000 kudos for your efforts here but will need to deduct 999 for the H*me sign on top of the unit Wink
Confusion is just a state of mind.
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#3
Thank you very much.

I know everyone says that, but the mrs wanted it. How ever I've just persuaded her to get rid of it.

Your not the first to say it needs to go.

I'm open for suggestions on what to put there or on sides of unit?
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#4
Nice and clean, with (nearly) no wires visible. I like it !

For the home sign, I have an idea : just get a big center speaker en put it in front of the sign !

I do see a way to discreetly set up a drop down screen (but it is complicated and involves losing 10-15cm from the wall the TV is on), but I don't see how you could hide the projector with your current set-up.
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#5
Thank you. Centre speaker sits below the sky box and PS4. Hidden and out the way of little children. After the way that home sign has been abused by the kids I don't want my Centre speaker getting thrashed.

Nearly no cables :-O please tell me where you can see one before my OCD causes me to rip the whole lot out and start again. No cables was the look I was going for so second pair of eyes is helpful.

The only way I could think with a projector was to get an Audio Transferable screen and have this drop in front of the speakers and tv. I'd try the best to hide the screen in the ceiling but until it gets approved and I start ripping up floor boards it's just a dream.
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#6
Nice to see the progress you made using the pictures.
Was fun to read.
I noticed only 1 thing about front speakers, they seem not to be aligned properly?
Still makes your setup nice and clean, well done Wink
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#7
The problem with the speakers is they were mounted before the wallpaper as we has no intention of papering and because the wall is taller at one side the paper had to be levelled to avoid it looking off.

So it was either the paper or the speakers. It would probably take only 5 minutes to fix but it doesn't bother me enough to get the drill out.
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#8
Well, technically they are no visible cables. When I said nearly no cables visibles, I was referring to the CPL (box? socket? dunno) on the left side of your television (visible in this picture.)

Otherwise, you have one very clean setup. The electronics are hidden away (heck, even your center speaker is !)
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#9
Ahh yes thats my powerline ethernet adapter so no real way to hide that I'm afraid. Also got the BT telephone socket on the other side but thats hidden by the lamp and cable goes under carpet ;-)

If I could I'd have mounted the center speaker below the TV but it doesn't have any wall mounts.

Having the speaker so low down does effect the sound a bit. But i've bought some rubber feet to angle it up towards to listening position which does make it slightly better.
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#10
It's funny the way u tell the story talking about ur partner, but honestly, i love the effect on ur TV wall. It's very nice
HTPC
Silverstone Grandia GD05 - Intel i5 3570k -Asus H61M-G Micro-ATX - Unidad Blu-ray
MSI GTX970 4GB GDDR5 - 8 GB RAM DDR3 - AVR Denon X3400H Atmos - LG  OLED 55C7V
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#11
Thank you, it would be so different if I was actually allowed to do what I want.

I suppose one would say I'm "Under the thumb"
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#12
Love the tv stand.
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#13
Sweet wallpaper I have to admit.
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#14
Very clean modern style!

Since I am a AQ first then PQ person, I think that your speakers are too small for your theater room. Just a thought!
>Alienware X51- do it all HTPC
>Simplify XBMC configurations
>HOW-TO Bitstreaming using XBMC
I refused to watch movie without bitstreaming HD audio!
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#15
Thanks Zag it took me ages to find. Was rather nervous something of this size coming from Germany.

Steff it's her doing, as long I've got the tech in place she can do what she likes with the walls
I know what you mean bluray, I have been looking at KEF T205 but it's not priority at the moment. It's not a dedicated cinema and I'm looking at getting the garage converted for that

If you've got any suggestions that would be great. Budget would be about £1500 GBP
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