Introduction: Make a Super Customizable Home Theatre and Movie/videogame Room

By Yea right

How to setup and plan out a cheap, inexpensive, simple-to-setup home theatre system.

Step 1: Find a Good Location

In my basement, there is a fairly open space with a TV shelf, couches, and a desk. I had to re-arrange everything in the room to make it more comfortable.

Step 2: Use Old Computer Speakers As the Surround Speakers.

I used 3 sets of old/new computer speakers. 2 of which have two speakers and a sub, and 1 is a 5.1 surround set. I positioned them around the room. One set on left (pic 1), one set on right (pic 2), and the 5.1 behind me (pic 3).

The third picture also depicts where I sometimes put my laptop to play games (WoW + FSX)

Step 3: Connections, Wiring, Converters, and More!

Get every single cable, splitter, connector, and converter you own in your house and throw them in a pile. Sort out the 1/4 in. 1/8 in. etc. Get lots of splitters ( I have 2).

this is what i can do:
I can turn a composite connection audio out ( red, white, yellow) and then turn that into 1/8 inch connection. from there, I have two splitters that can then feed to my 8.2 (8 speakers, 2 subs) surroudn sound system.
in order to span the length of the room for the back speakers, I used a 1/4 inch cable and then turned it back into 1/8.

S-video. I can watch movies and work on my non-hd tv... =( . the quality isnt that good, but i can get movies from thepiratebay.org and watch them without much hastle.

Step 4: The Hardware!

I have a dvd player that takes the incoming signal from our tv cable and then goes into the tv.
THE DVD PLAYER CONTROLS EVERYTHING. the reason why: ONE reomte. yes. yes. yes. only one remote. It isn't even universal. the 6-disk cd player, xbox, gcube, laptop, all run through the dvd player. I have a box that controls which line to use because i have so many.

There is a little compartment int he shelf where I use my laptop sometimes. I can hook up the s-video and play WoW, FSX, or watch movies.
250gb HDD for everthing you can imagine...

Step 5: Sit Back, and Enjoy Your Very Own Show!

Doing this, you can have as many speakers as you want. You can control each speaker (or set of speakers) individually with their volume control. You can control your tv and dvd player with 1 remote. You can have your paltop closeby while watching tv. You can turn the sound FX volume up really loud so you feel your actually runnign around in WoW, or flying a plane... unlimited possiblities. Not too expensive, if you have what you need, just a little creativity!

and maybe you have a HD-TV to make it ten thousand times better!