You guys will probably enjoy (snicker) this show if you can catch it (it's repeated several times) On Discovery Home Channel :

Home Theater Revolution

[Link: home.discovery.com]

Theo Kalomirakis installs a home theater in Joe Sixpack"s ( well maybe Heineken rather than Bud ) home for $15,000 . The sofas alone probably cost more than half that. And it's more like a commercial for Noel Lee (Monster Cable) . You get a tour of his "Monster House" . I really don't understand the gist of the whole show, except as commercial, because there's no way this theater can be done for $15k IMO .

If you get a chance to see it, I'm sure you'll find it interesting, infuriating, puzzling, or a combination of the three .

Yeah i saw that show. What a insult to our industry. Like you said it was only a really long ad for monster. If they keep putting shows like that on tv it is really gonna make all of our jobs much harder. Well at least harder to make any money at it.

I especially liked the power cord for the projector strung 2 feet over into the receptacle, Nice! What about the Laminated beam the electrician drilled through to get power into the room?????

At the begining, they stated that it was 15K plus equipment costs. The BB geek showing how the Munster conditioner worked was the best!

I dvr'd it & watched it late last night. They did say in the opening scene that the build was $15k plus equipment in one sentence. It was a little misleading cause at the end they say "All this for only $15k!". May as well been an infomercial for munster. I'm sure they paid for most of the production + maybe a little from Dewalt, Wall Goo, Best Buy & the couch manufacturer. I loved that spew from the BB guy about wire & the glazed over look from the clients. I can just see diy'ers gooing knock down imperfect walls & expecting stable image & did you guys see the cords & crap strung across from the projector to the wall in one scene. How 'bout the size of that insulation on that speaker wire! That will get some more power to those drivers for sure! Erik

Yeah the wire strung two plus feet the projector was laughable.

How about the hi volt feed being done in 3 wire. All equipment on the same phase? No F&&&ing way. I found many goofs. What stood out in your mind?

Ya, I agree. I always use 5 wire for my Hi-Volt feeds. And, I make sure some of the equipment is on the neighbors phase.

Ed

I'm sensing sarcasm. They fed the switch box from the panel with a piece of 12/3 romex. For those who don't know the ground isn't counted so you have a shared ground, neutral and 2 hot legs. No way to have the same phase without causing a code violation and a fire.

I would love to see how the $15k was spent. Was the design fee, furniture, acoustic treatments, drywall all included in the budget. Hmm. Makes me wonder.

What speakers were those ??

They were M-Design, by you know who. The Infomercial featured Munsters wires, speakers, sub, couch, power conditioners. We can only hope that at least it may open some peoples eyes as to what we as CI's can do. Of course, we will need to explain why not to use the wall goo, (hard to make it retract back into the ceiling).

I didn't know they made speakers too . I bet they sound "Mosterous" :) .
I thought the end result was a nice little on-a-budget theater . BTW, I'm not an installer so I did find the show very interesting as to what you guys do. And your comments about what they DIDN'T do well are just as interesting .

I was impressed with the acoustical treatments, even though they seemed to be used more to isolate the room than to optomize the sound. I've never heard of that sheetrock that they used, with the metal sandwhiched inside .

So, as a non installer, and with your comment on "on a budget", did you go away from the show thinking something like that could be done for 15k, or did you catch the part where they said "plus equipment"?

It would have been nice if they would have told the viewers that the Quiterock drywall they used was $120 per 4x8 sheet. I figure there to be about 20 sheets minimum to do that room plus an average of $22 per sheet to hang an tape it totaling $2900 in drywall alone. I would love to see someone try to do electrical work like that in my area and pass inspection!

I didn't catch the "plus equipment" comment at the beginning, but even taking the cost of equipment out of the equation, I still think that (from an "educated electronics consumer's" point of view) $15k is too low for that installation . And when I say "on a budget", I especially mean in comparison to the other installations that they showed .

From a pro's point of view, do you think it's too low ?