Glenn's Movie House

The finished product....

The teen girls enjoy watching their movies, and the boys agree that playing Xbox and Dreamcast games on a 120" screen is the coolest thing ever. Friends and family contemplate building their own theater, and probably doing more. It cost the price of an inground pool, but it won't get green and yucky, and we can use it more than the 3 months of summer we get in the cold north.

Whether action movies are your thing or if you prefer animation, this system is sure to please.   Sound is even better than a community theater due to the high quality speakers and receiver offering both Dolby Digital and DTS sound systems.  Picture is provided by a DLP (Digital Light Processing) projector that offers various aspect ratios and an enhanced widescreen option.  The theme of the room is meant to remove you from the modern age and transport you back to the 1940's era. That is a difficult task considering the amount of technology involved here. There is a lot of work yet to be done to achieve that goal, a more modern theme may have been more appropriate, but less fun and challenging.  

This project isn't finished -- there are things to putter on for the next year: a marquee for movie posters, trim, lighting, and more, but it's still the best thing around.
Terminator 2

 
Big changes here. Looking from behind the last row of seats, the feeling is of being in a movie house in 1947. 

The screen was created from sheets of drywall, mudded, sanded and painted a very light flat gray. There is a shelf under the screen, draped in a very lightweight black fabric, for the center channel speaker. The other 2 speakers rest on the "stage", a 4" high carpeted platform under the screen. This will prevent damage in the event of a flooded basement.
Movies can be shown in a 2:35 aspect ratio as shown in the picture above, or in a taller 1:78  as show on the right.  

Lights are controlled by using a remote control.  This eliminates having to move around in a dimly lit theater.

The seats were originally in the Warehouse Theater in Yakima, Washington, which remodeled and auctioned them off on e-bay. We had them shipped across country, which cost much more than the cost of the seats themselves, but they are well worth it.

The back row of seats is on a platform 12" above floor level. The middle row is raised 6", and has a short platform for a footrest. This enables the short members of the family to rest their feet on the floor.

There is a fridge located beneath the theater equipment for those cold beverages.
The modified bookcase below holds not only a huge collection of paperbacks, but also an ever-growing collection of over 200 DVD's, and numerous Xbox & Dreamcast games, and a portion of the VHS tapes we've collected over the years. A small microwave is being considered to go with our never ending supply of microwave popcorn.   Theater candy is kept behind the door in the shelf.

Movies NOW available

Equipment List

  • Denon 3300 AV Receiver with 135 watts per channel
  • InFocus LP350 DLP projector
  • Klipsch Reference front speakers
    • RF3 left & right main speakers
    • RC3 center channel
  • Paradigm 100 watt powered subwoofer
  • Bose rear speakers
  • Toshiba 1200 DVD player
  • Toshiba VHS
  • DSS Dish w/NFL Sunday Ticket
  • Sega Dreamcast game system
  • Xbox video game system
  • Conext 900 AVR Uninterruptible Power Supply
  • X-10 powered automated lighting system enable
    lights to be controlled by a hand held remote control

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