Setting up a Home Theatre Projector System like a Pro Cheaply DIY

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wall plate for home theatre
home theatre projector screen

Building a Home Theater Projector System set-up in your house can be a very daunting experience. But with some simple tips, anyone can do it with minimal cost of only a few thousand dollars nowadays. Do some research on the correct set-up for your room before purchasing equipment.

The main components of my Home Theatre Projector System are as follows

First, make sure that you can mount the projector at the correct distance from your screen. Your User manual will tell you the correct recommended distance from the screen. If you want to get into the optimum viewing distance and screen size check out this excellent online calculator

Mount the Projector screen in an area where it is best seen. It is often recommended that you place the screen at least a few meters away from the viewer for a better richer experience. Make sure the screen is screwed into some wood battens in the ceiling as there is a lot of weight in the screen and we don’t want it pulling out of the ceiling if just screwed into the Gyp-rock ceiling.

Run the power cables either down the wall to an outlet power point or push them through the ceiling to terminate inside the roof for more hidden installation. The screen I used is a 92-inch screen. The 110-inch screen was too big for the area. as I had to fit it into an alcove. But wow bigger the better.

Elite 100” HD Motorized 16:9 Projector Screen W/ Remote Control

  • SIZE 100-inch Diagonal 16 9 Aspect Ratio View Size 49 2″ H x 87 2″ W Overall Size 66″ H x 101 2″ W Black Case
  • High contrast 1.3 gain screen that is washable with gentle soap and water. Perfect for kids with messy fingers.
  • Black masking borders to enhance dark picture contrast.
  • 180° viewing angle which is perfect for residential or commercial use.
  • 3 layers of black-backed screen. (a black PVC back, a terylene fabric middle layer and a matte white PVC top layer.) This eliminates light penetration and improves light reflection. With the 1.3 gain screen means it produces top-quality color reproduction.
  • It has a durable steel cast casing with plastic end caps.
  • Wall or ceiling mountable.  Simple plug and play system with adjustable limits.
  • The motor is energy efficient, with a very quiet motor that enhances the cinema experience.
  • Control System – The included RF remote control has a max distance of 25m. There is also a wall mountable control panel for use without the remote. Up / down.
  • This screen is compatible with all projectors (DLP, CRT, LCD, HD, 3D, 720, 180, 4k, 8K),
  • Styrofoam packaging for added protection for postage with full CE Certification.

Elite Projector Screen Review

Elite projector screens are well known for value and performance in the home cinema world. From fully extended to fully retracted will take about 38 seconds in each direction.

For the money, they are the best you can buy. Expect to pay more than 3 times the price in your local store and they may just be a pull-down screen. Mine came with a slight wave at the bottom of the screen but that came out just by extending the projector screen and using a hairdryer on low setting front and back while I pulled down. The screen wave came right out.

I mounted my projector screen on the roof using drywall plugs. It is very sturdy. If you can screw into wood battens that will be better.

I mounted the wired controller to the wall and placed the Infrared wireless controller on the coffee table both work well. The IR remote works from both the living room and the dining room. We even replicated the IR codes to a Logitech learning remote for full home cinema control. 

It’s been working great now for many years. We did just have to do a quick projector screen motor repair recently due to a failed circlip. But apart from that I really recommend this screen.

Mount Home Theatre Projectorprojector mount

A low-profile projector mount is perfect to keep your projector up high and out-of-the-way for children. This Vogel EPC 6545 is a little expensive but so worth it. It has a quick release so you can remove the projector to clean filters. The Vogel low profile so hugs the ceiling nicely.

Mount Home Theatre Speakers

Next, you need to mount the speakers on the walls or floor and run the speaker wires to them. Make sure when installing speaker wires you get the correct polarity Plus and Negative. You won’t blow up anything if you get it wrong but the sound will be slightly out of phase on that speaker, depending on your setup you may not even notice.

wall plate for home theatre
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The speaker wires also come through the wall back to the amp through an audio wall plate

Next is to wire up the Home Theatre Amplifier to the TV and all other peripherals like DVD, game consoles, and Media Players. This may require the owner’s manual but if you try to stick with HDMI it will be really simple.

The amp will give you the opportunity to switch between different devices and output the sound to the speakers. So much better sounding than TV sound.

It’s best to give your system a test run, set up the projector zoom, focus, and make any sound adjustments. Also to set up the universal remote if you have one Logitech make some nice cheaper versions.

western digital tv
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In the past, we used the WD live to watch all of our owned ripped DVDs which have been transferred to a Hard Drive so it can be watched on demand. The WDTV Live Media Player (WDBYMN0000NBK-HESN) can play just about everything you can throw at it.

Now we have moved over to the more powerful Android TV boxes with an optical out connection. This was because the Beelink GT1 unit supports the newer 4k video formats. We were running out of the coax SPDIF connections on our receiver which is why we needed an optical out media streamer.

Plex is another software player that will work with a chrome cast and your mobile phone as the remote. The chrome cast can also view Streaming services like Netflix. Another option is a media player computer. You can make your own computer with our tutorial for less than $500

Buy an amp that has plenty of connections to what you need.

Small Portable Projectors

Apart from our main home cinema projector, we decided to purchase a smaller more portable outdoor movie projector for when we want to have a movie night outside, or when we want to go camping. Check out the link above for our full review.

The kids love our little GooDee 3200 projector so much that they are often having movie clips running on their bedroom walls. They don’t seem to mind that their walls are painted light blue.

Nowadays modern projectors are very portable and user-friendly to set up. If you have any issues or questions drop me a message and I will get back to you with an answer.

Now go grab some popcorn and enjoy a hard days installation work for your new Home Theatre Projector System enjoy. 

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1 COMMENT

  1. I have never owned a projector before, so this is all new to me. Luckily, it seems very similar to setting up a TV. Though, it could be one of those things that sounds easier than it is to do.

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