November 4, 2014
Unfortunately, it appears like I have jinxed my project. After mounting the visual apex 120″ screen on the front wall (leaving space for the TV to be mounted behind it), I noticed a small black mark on the bottom middle portion of the screen. On holding a flashlight behind the screen, it was plain to see that it was indeed a small tear in the screen material. I immediately called up Vapex, and spoke to one of their support personnel. They were very professional, and said they would send me a replacement right away (it’s expected to arrive later this week).

We also mounted the projector using the visual apex mount (that came free with the screen). Maybe I didn’t do it right, but my projector turns rather freely horizontally. This made the initial alignment, and calibration quite a nightmare. Every time I tried to change the zoom or focus settings, I ended up moving the projector itself.

Later, after I got the projector setup the way I liked it, I noticed that on playing a movie there was a vertical black line on the screen. This line seems to pass through the tear on the screen, which makes me think they are related. Since I’m getting a replacement anyways, I did not bring it up with Vapex.

On the positive side, though, the screen casing looks awesome and the wireless IR trigger works like a charm – dropping and raising as I switch on and off my projector. I’m hopeful that the replacement will have no issues.

The two single power recliners from Overstock arrived, and they seem pretty good. I should be receiving the loveseats sometime this week. The problem with the loveseats is they don’t have cup holders, but since the single seats have one on each arm I guess we should be alright.

We also mounted my surround speakers, I based the height off the Klipsch recommendation: a couple of feet above the listening position. So my surrounds are around five and a half feet off the ground. I cant run it any lower as it would then obstruct anyone walking the narrow aisle between the recliner and the wall. I ran the XT32 calibration, and boy the speakers sound really amazing. I do have concerns about the speaker height though. Dolby suggests that for an atmos setup the sides should be as close to ear height as possible. I, unfortunately, will not be able to achieve that so it will be interesting to see how the setup sounds after I add my ceiling speakers.

Speaking of ceiling speakers, I have been debating on whether to have a 5.2.4 or a 7.2.2 atmos setup. I’m leaning towards the former, but I would love to hear your opinions.

In the evening, we saw our two year old’s favorite movie, the Jungle Book. It was fantastic. Later that night, I saw the Avengers on Netflix. Having the wifi router in the media cabinet means that I get to hardwire my receiver and PS3, and boy I didn’t have any buffering issues. I wasnt expecting such good sound from a streamed movie. Since the wife wasn’t interested she called one of her friends. She has a habit of pacing around the room when on a call, and every step she took in our living area shook the projector quite a bit. I expected there to be some amount of vibrations from someone walking directly overhead, but this was more than I imagined. I am switching my mount with the peerless mount, which has fantastic reviews on Amazon. If nothing else, it should at least keep the projector fixed in one position.

Also, the stairs are completed too. I think they look pretty cool in black and the yellow railing complements it rather well.

I also hooked up my harmony remote the way I had planned (details in earlier post), and it works fine. I had to have the IR blaster up front on top of the screen so that it can interact with both the projector as well as the dimmer (which is on the left wall). So now on one button click, the receiver, PS3 and projector start up, the screen drops down and the lights go off. On clicking the same button again, all devices switch off, the projector screen returns to its casing and the lights… stay off! I haven’t found a way of adding a “turn on lights” step in my activity. Need to do some digging there.

That’s about it for now, more later.