If anyone is interested, the entire theater build thread can be found on AVSForum by doing a search for “The Reserve Cinema Construction Thread “.

Cheers!

Matt

Very nice Matt! Just shows what some good old elbow grease can accomplish.

Man, that setup is AWESOME! I’m seriously thinking of getting the Optoma Projector/Lens. As a matter of fact I priced the projector, lens and the draper cinescope screen for about $6K. One question Matt does the lens stretch all content? IE if I was playing Ninja Gaiden Sigma on the PS3 does the image stretch to 2:35.1?

Thanks for the nice comments PrestonD and Saint Jayes. 

Yes the lens will optically stretch all content to 2.35:1 but the geometry will be distored (i.e. eveyone will be fat).

The lens can be left in place and the 4:3 button can be hit on the projector to squish the image back to 16x9 for those of you that want the lens fixed instead of on the track.

I am wondering exactly what the lens does? I understand it stretches but is it needed? Also why do you have have a dvd player when you have the PS3 which plays regular dvds and blu-ray and a Xbox? thanks for the help. Josh

I purchased the Oppo before I had the PS3.  I also hear that the Oppo does a better job cleaning up the picture and upscaling than the PS3 does.  Not that the PS3 can’t but there isn’t much push to make the PS3 the best upscaling DVD player since it is already one of the best Blu-ray players out there.  In short the Oppo rocks for the price and there are still plenty of titles that I can’t get in HD-DVD or Blu-Ray.

Oh forgot to explain the lens.  In short my screen is the same width/height ratio as your local cinema which is 2.35 x width to its height.  Your HDTV is 1.78 x width to its height which is half way between your parents 4x3 TV set and your local cinema.  1.78 is 16x9 = HDTV.  So the lens stretches out the picture horizontally to fill my wider screen and the projector stretches out the black bars vertically.  The result is my entire screen filled with the movie (filmed in 2.35:1) and looking awesome.  To see more information go to Panamorph.com for the reason for the lens. 

You can however skip the lens but your projector has to be able to zoom in to fill the entire 2.35:1 screen and project the black bars above and below the screen.  This is what some do however it requires focusing and zooming and shifting the lens each time you switch back and forth.  With the HD80 and lens combo I have I simply hit the LBX button to go wide and 16x9 to go HDTV.

Thanks a lot…I appreciate the help…

Your work is marvelous!!

I voted for Matt because the crowds I hang with do not have deep pockets.  Matt achieved a budget home theater that is very functional, 2.35:1 is hard to accomplish on a blue collar budget… I tried and was unable to keep it under 15K.

Job well done.

Thank you!  I do feel I have a high bang for the buck value in my home theater.