For a while I used a custom layout for my blog. It is probably something everybody else already figured out ages ago... But, maintaining a custom layout just takes too much time to keep it up to date. Not to mention to keep it compatible with all the features in WordPress!
So, today started as a slow day. I couldn't get myself to doing something really usefull, so I decided to have a look at my blog and spice it up a little. But when I was tinkering around with it I soon realised that I had to invest a lot of time to get it working correctly with everything WordPress supports. And even if I got it working, the design wasn't my best design. So that design had to be done too!
After a while I decided it was not the way to go. And I went clicking through the "featured themes" of the WordPress appearence section and found a new design for my blog which kind of suits what I was looking for. A few minutes later it was up and running, and I was happy again 
Sure it has some quircks, but overall it saves me time.
It is the year 2002, and I was invited to a housewarming party of a colleague. When we came to his appartment the first thing I saw (or actually, everybody saw) was a big movie projector hanging from the ceiling. It was a huge Barco CRT projector. One with 3 tubes for red, green and blue. Ofcourse he had to show off his new big toy and showed us some nice DVD movies on a big screen. I was so impressed that ever since that moment I wanted to have my own projector and enjoy movies on a big screen too. Now, 7 years later, I went a step further and have my own Private Home Theater!
Ofcourse it all started from that moment in 2002. But to cut it short, since 2002 I bought (and sold) a Barco CRT projector, played around a bit with surround sound (Bowers&Wilkins speakers) and we end up at the beginning of 2009. This is the moment I had bought a Full HD projector and decided to really make something nice. With the help of a great company which specializes in HomeTheater ("Beter Beeld & Geluid") and helps designing HT's I started making concept sketches and models of how I wanted things to be.
At first I created some raw models of the room in question. Although, as you can see, there are quite some obstacle's in the room, solutions can always be found. It is possible to work around them. The guys at "Beter Beeld & Geluid" gave some pointers on how the room could be altered to be a great Home Theater. With these remarks I started creating a new model in which I used all the advice that was given.
Because the room is long and small (which affects room accoustics) we had to make sure the listening position is not in the exact center of the room. If you do place your viewing position exactly in the center, you will have problems with the lower frequency's. To make this possible the projection wall is placed 40cm in front of the real wall. This way you can move your viewing position further to the back and thus you won't sit in the center of the room (although it might visually seem like you are).
A second advantage of moving the projection wall 40cm is that you can place speakers and subwoofer behind the screen. But this requires an accoustic transparant screen.
A new wall should be created on the right side of the room. This is done to create symetry in the room and create space for a/v devices like the receiver, dvd/bluray player, xbox, etc. Plus, you can use this space to place side speakers if you want to go for a 7.1 speaker setup. This was actually advised due to the room being rather long and small. It would greatly enhance the soundstage and create a more realistic surround sound experience.
After this it needed the accoustic changes and a visual design. Again with some brainstorming and help from BB&G we came to the folowing definitive design for the room.
Accoustic material (absorber and diffusor) is hidden inside the left and right pillars. This too is needed to create a better sound stage.
From this moment everything was clear and I could begin constructing everything. I won't go into the exact details of the construction (I have done so in a Dutch forum, so if you would like more info, just ask me :)) but the results are great! Just a few pictures to show off!
The speakers behind the screen:
And the projector side:
And, now the rundown of specs of what you see:
Projector: JVC RS-10. Projection Screen: Screen Research 110" diagonal (96" wide). Receiver: Yamaha RX-V3800. Speakers: Martin Logan Fresco i. Subwoofer: DIY - Peerless XLS12 (1 12" active and 1 12" passive woofer).
So thats it! It rocks big time. Expect, from time to time, some reviews of movies I have watched.
I hadn't seen Terminator:Salvation yet because it never showed in Digital Cinema in Metropolis Antwerpen. As I now have a FullHD version of the movie, I could watch Terminator: Salvation at home... Finally! Large projection screen, great sound, killer sub. And most of all: No one running in front of me, no people sniffing, sipping a drink and baby's crying! And with this experience in my mind: My first blog-review of a movie...
As always, I try to watch a movie with as little knowledge as possible. Ofcourse I know the prequels, but I didnt watch any trailers or read about it online. At most, I look at the rating it has on IMDB and the length of the movie. The mind-set in which I watched the movie was "It will probably be somewhat like T3".
Well, I couldn't be more wrong. After the first 30 minutes I was totally convinced that the movie was nothing like Terminator 3, but still holds true to the Terminator story. There are lots of references to the other terminator movies and to its timeline. Not only storywise, but camera wise (and probably tech-wise) as well. Some of these references are more obvious and others are very subtle. In my opinion it was done really well. When I look back at Terminator 3, I would say it was a movie which was more the 'comic' side of the Terminator movies. A lot of things were overdone and it just didnt feel quite like Terminator. I was concerned that T4 would turn out to be, once again, a movie which would focus too much on a mediocre story, pointless action and stupid jokes. But in contrast to T3, Terminator: Salvation was the more serious movie. The storyline was surprisingly good, it was not top-notch, but still overall better than other action movies in this genre. Further the movie had some great surprises I didnt expect (i.e.: the scene at the gas-station) and they sucked me into the movie even more.
The CGI in this movie was awesome! No where in this movie I had the feeling the CGI was off as if it didnt fit into the movie. In a lot of movies (G.I. Joe had this on multiple occasions) you just notice that a CGI item is just not real enough. Though the CGI was really great, I needed some time to get comfortable with the colors of the movie. It had an overall colorless look which did complements the settings of the movie as being dark. But in my opionion it had, at certain points, just a bit too little color.
Right now I am only able to use the DTS Core track. Nevertheless the soundtrack of the movie was super. The seperation between music score and sound effects was certainly noticable. Though it was not done as great as in James Bond: Quantum of Sollace. The sound effects/surround sound of the movie was done really good, better than in most movies! You have the feeling you are placed right in the middle of the action. Sound is coming from everywhere and it is all just spot on! With this combine a great LFE track to support the explosions and gunfire and you are sure you will have some very impressive and intimidating moments!
Overall:
A great story, fun to watch, apropriate humor and ofcourse: Terminators!
Verdict: 7.5
(the scene at the gas-station)
Just a text blog entry to find out if the twitter tool creates a tweet!