Phil Central

So I posted about a year ago about my plans for my theater room in my new apartment. And I’m happy to report it has all come to fruition and my entire apartment is wired.

The electronic equipment used in the theater is an HD projector, LG Home Theater System, XBox 360, Psyclone System Selector, and a Harmony Remote. Downstairs I have a second XBox 360, JVC Stereo Receiver, and a 27inch LCD HDTV. And in the bedroom there is a 19inch HDTV and a modded XBox. Finally there is a server (AMD 64×2 2.3ghz, 2gb ram, 1tb storage, 1 Hauppage 1600 Tuner) running Windows Vista Ultimate that acts a file storage and sharing and also DVR and TV Tuner for the XBox 360’s Media Center Extender functionality.

On the technical side, every piece of hardware is wired. No wireless except for laptops. It takes a lot of bandwidth to stream HD, and upgrading to 802.11n wasn’t reliable enough or as cost effective (100ft of ethernet cable costs $10 on Newegg).

Windows Media Center is the best DVR available today. TiVo can’t touch it and the boxes provided by cable companies are crap. Windows Media Center really nails it, especially since it lets you use your XBox 360’s that you already have as extenders. I was a little nervous about how well it would work but it’s really perfect. You can have as many tuners as you want to install and record as many simultaneous shows as tuners you have. You upgrade your hard drive to add more storage when you need it. You can watch a different things on up to 5 different extenders. I was able to build a brand new server for $280 to serve this function (that’s cheaper than an HD TiVo. The only problem is that the ATI CableCard tuner is only available to OEM’s right now but hopefully it will be available to the rest of us soon.)

One thing of note is that projectors and electronic equipment produce a LOT of heat. I ended up having to get a window AC unit for the theater room to keep it cool. Also, covering the walls with cheap black fabric increases the contrast of the projector immensely, also, it allows you to basically just run speaker wire right along the walls. Also, thin fabric on the walls will dull sound echo just enough to make a properly installed Dolby 5.1 system sound magnificent… just like a real theater! You can view photos:

Theater Room Seating

Theater Room Screen