Home Theatre resurrection

Content:

1. Introduction, old Home Theatre
2. New big Screen TV arrives
3. Setup receiver and BD player
4. Connect HTPC
5. Setup HTPC, MPC-HC
6. 4K test pattern and Android TV apps
7. Test with a Raspberry Pi4 as a HTPC
8. Chromecast and Raspberry
9. 4K player, PC, Xbox
10. To be continued

Note:
I take no responsibility or liability for what are written here, you use the information at your own risk!

1, Introduction:

Both I and my girlfriend take a lot of photos. The cameras today deliver photos of very high quality, but to see them on a 40" screen with only HD resolution is a shame. We also love to see Science Fiction movies, that too could take big advantages of a bigger TV screen.

Many years ago I had Home Theatre (or Home Cinema) as my big hobby. It was so long time ago that it didn't even called Home Theatre, more like big screen. It's more than fifteen years now when I lost my interest in Home Theatre and it ended totally ten years ago. It became to easy, just to buy already made equipment, no challenge.

Here are some back ground information about Home Theatre at Wikipedia:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Home cinema (Home Cinema, Wikipedia)

In that time I still had the interest the biggest TV was about 36", to get bigger than that a projector was needed.

More to read about Video projectors:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Video projector (Video projector, Wikipedia)

Now the technology has advanced and you can get a really big flat screen TV, up to 80" is no problem, only some money needed.

Goals with the new Home Theatre:

Some of the goal with the new Home Theatre that I want to built in stages:

1. Bigger screen, at least 65", long time goal a projector and 80" to 120"
2. 4K TV / Projector resolution capabilities
3. Blu-Ray with 4K
4. HTPC with 4K output
5. Handle at least 5.1 audio standards
6. Play Netflix and YouTube direct in the TV with 4K and multi channel output to the receiver
7. The living room should still be a living room
8. A more comfortable couch
9. Not too expensive and easy to built and to handle

I have already the speaker system for a 5.1 system. The HTPC I have maybe needs some upgrade. Already have a receiver with HDMI in/outputs. Have a Blu-Ray with 3D capabilities but not 4K.

I start with the upgrade of the TV screen, now we only have a 40" screen.

I also wanted to have 3D capabilities on the HTPC and TV, but not very popular today and hard to get. It's not only because of movies, I take 3D photos that I want to display.

Old Home Theatre (long time ago):

My old Home Theatre wasn't very advanced compared to what you can get today but it had a very big screen, even with todays standard. I had one room dedicated only for the Home Theatre.

The screen was a 135" 16:9 format with gain 1. I got a great image from that screen but needed the room to be really dark. Home built 5.1 speaker system. The small speakers was a two speaker system that consisted of one Wifa 8" bas and one Seas 1" tweeter with a closed box. The receiver was a Sony with 5.1 with 5 x 120 Watts.

As a complement to the front speakers I had a big rumbling bas speaker (woofer), it had two 12" push pulled coupled elements. The sub bas got power from a Denon 4 channel power amplifier.

Three folding armchairs with a footstool. You see the small LCD projector in the upper door opening. It was a NEC LCD projector with 1280x720 resolution. I use the projector to show photos and watch DVDs, to watch TV was not interesting with its bad quality. So much better it had been with todays 4K standard. But already full HD 1920 x 1080 was almost science fiction those years.

Preparing for the new big screen TV (today):

This is what todays TV setup looks. A Samsung 40" TV screen and my recently restored Infinity speakers, it's the Alpha series.

You can read more about my Infinity Alpha speakers here:

• ../infinity-alpha/ infinity-alpha-speakers.html (Restoration of Infinity Alpha speakers, Astrofriend)

The size of the room is 6.5 by 3.5 meters, about 23 square meters. The TV setup is orientated along the short side at one end of the room. The distance from TV screen to head is about 3 meters. I did some calculation and test and found that a 70" to 80" screen will be perfect for a 4K TV screen. The new 4K format is a dream for all Home Theatre enthusiasts.

More to read about 4K format at Wikipedia:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ 4K resolution (4K resolution, Wikipedia)
• https://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Ultra-high-definition television (Ultra-high-definition television, Wikipedia)

The new ultra short throw laser projectors are even more interesting, with that 80" to 150" will be in reach, but too expensive for me today.

More to read about ultra short throw projectors at Wikipedia:

• https://edutechwiki. unige.ch/en/ Ultra short throw projector (Ultra short throw projector, EDU Tech Wiki)
• https://www.cnet.com/ news/ why-lasers-are-the-future-of-projectors/ (Why lasers are the future of projectors, Cnet)

In future they will be cheaper, maybe a 5K or a 8K 21:9 ratio laser projector is in the reach ?

For the moment I need a cheaper screen to start with. Looked for the cheapest 4K 65" LCD TV I could find. It will not give super black background as an OLED TV can deliver and it's not perfect for film because of its 16:9 format vs 21:9 format of movies. The same problems as in earlier time, then it was 4:3 format against 16:9 format and the letterbox problem. Now we have 16:9 format as a standard on TV, but we are never satisfied !

Even if a 65" TV isn't very big I need to do some rearrangement in the room. I moved the left speaker to the other side of the door and move the DVD / Blu-Ray shelf to the left. Later I think it's wise to get a lower bench, it's now 0.9 meter high, better with a 0.6 meter high bench. I also move the couch to the left, our plans is to get a couch with at least three recliner seats. With this rearrangement we now we use the room's space better, my girlfriend and I are investigating the market of recliner couches.