Buying and Setting up a Home Theater System

Have you ever wanted surround sound for your video games, movies, music? Have you wanted that big screen TV in high def 1080p, 7.1 digital surround sound? Here is the setup that I used, and I did it for about $2,000 with my tax refund. Thanks uncle Sam!

Ordering the Parts
I ordered the Onkyo surround sound, projector, VisionMount ceiling mount and component/dvi cable from ProjectorPeople.com. I got a package deal which took about $80 off of the price of the Onkyo system. Total cost from them with tax and shipping, $1,809. I decided to go with the ceiling mount projector due to cost, and to save space. I actually build my own screen from some cheap lumber and $8 in fabric. But it could be used on any clean white wall. It gives me an 80" diagonal screen in 16:9.

I ordered the Remote Control and DVD/VCR player from Newegg.com - I've actually had it for a while and they don't sell it anymore but it is one heck of a remote. I had it learn all the codes from my projector remote, DVD remote, and Home Theater remote.

The DVD/VCR player I got because of the upscaling to 1080p and to take my VCR out of the build, not to mention it's cheap for an upscaling DVD player and it will also play my CDs.

7.1 Surround Sound - Onkyo HT-S5200B ($479)
Projector - Panasonic PT-AX200U Projector, ceiling mount ($949)
3yr warranty w/lamp replacement ($125)
Projector ceiling mount - Sanus VisionMount ($79)
Video Cables - Dual Component/HDMI 25' cable ($107)
Shipping - $70
Belkin 3' HDMI cable ($27)
Audio Cables - Dynex 6' Optical Digital Audio Cable ($28)
DVD/VCR - SAMSUNG DVD-V9800 Upscaling 1080p DVD Player & VCR Combo ($100)
Remote Control - Home Theater Master MX-500Learning remote with backlight ($79)

Here are some pictures of my setup.





Setting Up the Projector
The projector was picked due to it's ability to shift my image up to 30 degrees. With the projector ceiling mount though, I was able to aim the projector at the center of my screen and adjust the keystone to square out the image. The mounting brackets easily release the projector as it screws on to tighten. However it is a pain to remount as I had to work above my head without easily seeing what i was doing. I had to have my wife hold the ladder as I tried to put it up and twist it on and tighten the 3 locking screws.

I set it's aspect to 16:9, keystone to -18, installation type to front/ceiling and I decided to let it run in economode (eco-mode under lamp power) which increases the life time of the bulb, and is still plenty bright for my living room.

I ran the dual HDMI/Component video cable along with an extension cord up to the projector along the wall and across the ceiling. They are plugged into the component out and HDMI out from the Onkyo system and component in and HDMI 1 of the projector.

Setting Up the DVD Player
I ran the HDMI and Optical audio cable from the DVD player to the HDMI DVD in and the DVD coaxial in on the Onkyo. For the settings I had to manually set the TV aspect to Wide under display setup. Since I have my Onkyo up at the front of the room, I needed only short cables for all of the devices on top of my game cabinet.

Setting Up the Home Theater System
Ok, this was by far one of the most time-consuming aspects of the setup. I had to run the wire for the speakers along the corner of the ceiling and the wall and then down to the receiver in the front of the room. Some of the supplied wires weren't long enough so I had to purchase longer wire and run it instead. For the length of wire included they must think most people set this up in their bedrooms! For the time being I just used some clear scotch tape to hold them up. Then I attached the wire to the speakers and mounted them. two in the back, two on the sides and 3 up front. The front speakers were easy as they were at floor level, or close enough the center speaker sits right on top of my game cabinet. The more challenging of the speakers were on the right side of the room (stage left) where I had to take the wire past the front doorway. I had a metal piece which covers the side of my carpet where it meets the linoleum and i ran the wire under that and reattached it. Attaching the wires to the back was simple enough. Just unscrew the fasteners, insert the wire - make sure you know which is the positive and negative, and retighten the fastening screw. Then I attached the subwoofer from the corner of the room, it has a special plugin.

The Moment of Truth
Then came time to test the system. After about 4 hours of running wire, mounting the projector and a few breaks, I turned on the system and heard nothing out of the side speakers. So, I reluctantly opened up the manual and found out that extra little microphone that came with it needed to be plugged in to start up the installation for the surround sound. After sending the kid out of the house for a few minutes and making sure all was quiet ( I shut off my computer too), I went about positioning the microphone in the 3 spots so the system could do it's sound checks. Then I turned on the tuner for the radio and it was amazing! I tried out a DVD which also worked very well. My son and I watched Monster House for our home theater debut.

How Many Remotes?!
Ok, I have a pet peave about needing more than one remote control in the living room. I don't want to have to search for which of the 5 remote controls I need in order to do something. So with my MX-500 I put it into learning mode by pressing the MAIN+ENT buttons for 3 seconds, pressing P-PRO and select the device to program then all I had to do was in turn select the button to program on my universal remote and with the other remote facing (IR sensor) press the same button on the it. It was very painless and worked perfectly. The only thing that I changed was for all of my devices, I programmed the volume button for the volume on my home theater system remote so I could control volume no matter what device I currently had selected. The backlight on the remote is very handy and make changing things in the dark easy without ruining everyones eyes during a movie.