As many of you will know, I'm an Apple fanboy and a film/TV lover. You'll also know that, since buying a house in June, I've been slowly converting the single garage into a home cinema (or 'man cave' as my friend Max describes it!).

I thought I would write a few posts describing my setup, both in terms of hardware and software. I also want to write about my future plans for the room. In this first part, I'm going to go over the room layout and the hardware involved.

The room itself is trapezoid in shape, being wider at the back (where the 2-seater grey sofa is), tapering to about 2.7m at the front of the room where the window is. The room is about 3.5m. It's carpeted in a dark grey carpet with an antique cream-coloured ceiling lit by dimmable, recessed, spotlights. At the back of the room, in the centre, there is a conduit that runs underground to my server room that is in an old larder cupboard in the dining room. The conduit currently has an 8m HDMI cable as well as 5 speaker and 1 subwoofer cable. The speaker cables run underneath the carpet to the speakers. The HDMI cable will eventually link to a projector but currently connects, via a HDMI coupler, to the TV. There are 9 power sockets (4 doubles plus 1 single on the ceiling at the back of the room for the projector). The entrance to the room is from the hallway, just to the right of the window. There is a black blackout roller blind above the window.

Furniture-wise, there is the sofa mentioned above with a matching footstool. There is a KEF 1005.2 surround sound system (wall mounted apart from the centre speaker) The current TV is a Panasonic 1080p 32" LCD that is sat on a dark TV stand.

The server room is about 1x1x2.4m in size. The equipment is as follows:

• Onkyo TX-SR607 AV receiver
• Sony Playstation 3
• Sony Blu-Ray player
• Mac Mini connected to a Drobo for storage and an Elgato EyeTV for digital TV
• Time Capsule
• Apple TV
• Nintendo Wii
• Wireless ADSL modem
• XBOX 360 wireless controller adaptor

All components output to the AV receiver which then pumps video out via HDMI and sound via the KEF speakers. The wiring in the cupboard is a nightmare to decipher!

Having all my components out of the cinema has pros and cons:

Pros

1. Quiet operation. No distracting fans, etc during playback
2. No unsightly cables/components in the cinema - it should be all about the TV
3. Maximal use of limited space in the cinema

Cons:

1. Problematic Bluetooth control of games consoles. Although I can control my consoles from the cinema, button presses frequently 'drop out' during play (more problematic with the Wii). 
2. No direct line of sight to the components. Although I control the Mac and Apple TV wirelessly with my iPhone, I cannot control the AV receiver or the Blu-Ray player unless I physically leave the cinema. This is especially irritating when it comes to controlling volume. 
3. Heating issues. I need to figure out a way to adequately cool the server room.

Problem solving
Two of the three downsides listed above are fixable. I plan on buying a universal remote with RF capabilities to allow me to control everything from the cinema. Easy to fix but does require an outlay of about £250. The heating issue can be solved by fitting some vents to the door of the server room as well as a cooling fan if necessary.

What troubles me the most is the Bluetooth issue. It's basically impossible for me to put the Wii in the cinema and connect it through the conduit to the amp. Whilst I'm using a TV, I can simply connect the Wii to it but once I get a projector and lose the TV, I won't have any way of connecting the Wii to speakers! It may mean that I need to keep a TV in the room. The PS3 controller seems to fair better than the Wii and I may be able to keep it in the server room - I just need to test it a bit more thoroughly. If it has to go into the cinema room, I may be able to pass another HDMI cable through the conduit (if space permits).

As you can see - there is a lot of hardware involved in setting up a home entertainment system. The next part of this post will go over the software running on the Mac to link things together.

Duncan, my favourite electrician, battled the snow last night and came round for an hour and repaired the wire I drilled through! Not sure how much it's going to cost me as he's yet to send me a bill but hopefully it won't be too painful...

Here's a picture of what he's had to do to repair it:

All that's left for me to do is polyfill/plaster over it and then paint it. Hopefully I won't get another shock when the wet plaster hits it...

True to my word - here's a couple of belated pictures of the media cupboard. As you can see, it's a bit of a mess:

Fi and I are going for dinner tonight at Harry & Lucy's which should be nice. Until then, however, I think we are going to try to drive through the snow to B&Q to get some paint so we can (finally) finish the hallway.

I'm writing this in the plane returning from a fabulous city break in Budapest.

Fi and I arrived in Hungary's capital city at about 17:30 in Friday and caught a taxi to our hotel just off Andrássy út (Budapest's answer to the Champs Élysées). A taxi was supposed to be waiting for us but it never showed (slightly disappointing) but the cab we hailed instead cost us half as much. That's karma I guess.

The hotel was really nice and the staff were fantastic. We had a one bedroom suite with an open plan kitchen (although Nesquik cereal for breakfast was about as much cooking as we mustered).

After unpacking, we got changed and headed out for dinner. We tend to stick to eateries recommended by the travel guide (in this case, Timeout) and so our first meal was at Klassz. It was a little smokey (Hungary has not yet banned smoking in public places) but the atmosphere was good. We had our first (and certainly not last!) bottle of Hungarian red wine which was very good. I spent the meal suffering from food envy of Fi's choices. I had fish soup for starters (a little too fishy for my taste) whilst Fi had cream of red lentil soup that she lovingly shared. For the main course, Fi had a delicious Hungarian pork risotto and I had veal schnitzel. We shared a very tasty chocolate pudding for dessert.

Saturday was sunny (but freezing) in the morning but rained all afternoon and evening - not that we let that deter us from sight-seeing. We spent the morning having a tour of the spectacular Hungarian Parliament building (free to EU citizens) followed by a walk along the river Danube. The tour was really interesting. I didn't realise that the Hungarian government in WWII gave their crown jewels (which we saw and are over 1000 years old) to the Americans to guard at Fort Knox. I also enjoyed the ceremonial salute given to the jewels every hour by the guards.

After lunch at Menza (a funky retro cafe/bar), we visited the museum of terror which was really really interesting. I'm pretty ignorant about Eastern European history and I didn't realise that Hungary was a communist country from after WWII until the early 1990s (forced upon them by the Soviets). The museum told the story of the Hungarian secret police (the AVH) and the atrocities they committed. Spooky stuff.

We had planned to eat at the Bock Bistro on Saturday night and, having battled the rain to get there, found it was full until 22:00 (we hadn't made a reservation). Somewhat downtrodden, we ended up at the restaurant in the Four Seasons hotel, right next to the Chain Bridge. The food, the service and the location were faultless. The bill was pricey (33,000 Hungarian Forints - around £100) but it was worth every penny. I had Goulash to start with, followed by duck breast and fois gras (guess whose not counting the calories!). We had yet another fabulous Hungarian Cabernet Sauvignon. The whole evening was delightful.

The weather on Sunday was better and we headed to Buda for the day. For those of you who don't know, Budapest used to be two cities - Buda and Pest, separated by the Danube. The main attraction in Buda is the magnificent Royal Palace (rebuilt, having been largely destroyed during WWII). We took the funicular up to the palace and walked around the grounds which were nice. We then spent an hour or two in the Hungarian history museum before having lunch in a cafe (more Goulash for us!).

After lunch, we wandered around Buda and visited the Fisherman's Bastion which was very impressive, before heading back down the hill and across the river to Pest. I had been lugging my camera around with me all day and Fi had been carrying my tripod (she really is good to me) so that I could take some nightscapes of the city. We grabbed a coffee and did some window shopping to pass the time until dusk.

I managed to take a few good pictures. I hope you like them. You can check out more of my pictures on my Flickr page.

After our photo session, we walked back to the hotel, got ready and then went out for our last meal in Budapest. We decided to go back to Menza (where we had had lunch earlier on the trip). I enjoyed pork with pasta (really nice) whilst Fi went for venison. We spent ages there and the service was excellent. This time we had a nice bottle of Pinot Noir (again Hungarian). We also decided to be decadent and have not only a cocktail (note to self - I'm not a fan of Mai Tai) but also some dessert wine.

Today was a pleasant surprise. It was still cold but there wasn't a cloud in the sky. We had planned on going ice-skating but we stumbled upon a mixed-sex thermal bath and boy am I glad we went there! It was outside in the courtyard of a beautiful old building. The water was 38 degrees Celsius and very relaxing. We spent nearly two hours there for just over a tenner apiece. My favourite thing about it was watching some old men play chess on the side of the bath with a plastic chess set!

Hopefully our car won't be snowed in when we touch down in Bristol as I hear the weather has been foul whilst we've been on holiday. The best thing is though, that I still have annual leave until being on-call this Saturday...

I finally have my surround sound system installed!

Despite a plethora of great presents from my family, what I really wanted was a surround sound system but there was no way I could justify the £500 price tag for a gift (even from my wife!).

Whilst in Guernsey, I spent my free time re-investigating my options for speakers to see what a £250 budget would offer. I had to be realistic: £500 is a lot of money to justfy. My research led me to a highly respected set of speakers from Jamo which were available for under £250, although they seemed to be out of stock everywhere. I noticed that the Richer Sounds January sale was on and that they were advertising the Jamos so I thought I'd pop in there on Saturday when we got back to the UK.

Saturday came and, unsurprisingly, they didn't have the Jamos so I asked them if they had the Harman Kardons in stock (I had researched these too and, although pricier, still had good reviews). No joy. I was just about to leave empty-handed when the salesman asked me to wait a minute and went and spoke to the manager. He came back and offered the KEF 1005.2 system for £399 (£100 off it's usual retail price). Given that my ultimate system would have been the 1005's bigger brother (the 2005 series) I jumped at the chance!

I couldn't go straight home and play with my new toy as we had loads of shopping to do. We drove down to Branches by Temple Meads (the same place we bought our dining table from) and ended up finding the perfect coffee table in solid oak. We managed to shoehorn that into Fi's car along with the speakers!

We drove home, had some soup and then headed back out to the shops - this time to Cribbs to pick up some bits and bobs followed by a trip to Waitrose for the weekly shop.

We finally got back home just after 16:00 and I started unpacking the speakers with haste. We were heading out for dinner at Sophie & Alexander's place at 19:30 so i couldn't play all night. I resigned myself that night to just wire the AV receiver in the media cupboard to the speakers and then configure things on Sunday. This I managed.

Dinner was great fun. Drank way too much wine and didn't get home until 02:30! I have fond memories of playing Rapidough for a while!

Woke up Sunday at 09:00 with excitement and a hangover. Fi was out for the count so I couldn't play with the speakers (I didn't want to wake her) so I went for a walk down to Whiteladies, across the Downs, to get a Sunday paper. There was a lot of black ice around so it took me longer than unanticipated and I didn't get back until 10:00. Inwoke Fi up cooked her breakfast and then got to work setting stuff up at around 11:00.

The whole process took a lot longer than I had anticipated. The first time you set up a receiver, you have to use a setup mike to calibrate the speakers. Trouble is, the lead on the mike wouldn't reach the receiver (which is in a separate room). This meant that I had to unwire everything in my cupboard, cut new speaker wire (as the other ones are under the carpet) and move the receiver. Once I had done this, I then wall mounted the speakers (and hung a couple of additional shelves whilst I had the drill out) before hooking them up to the receiver.

After the calibration was done, I had to put the receiver back in the cupboard and rewire it again. As soon as I get a chance, I'll post a picture of the mess!

I finally finished at about 19:00 (don't worry, Fi and I had gone outside for a walk in the middle of the afternoon). Fi and I sat down, after dinner, to watch our first movie at home with true surround sound - The Bourne Identity. It was a awesome experience and I'm thrilled with the result.

Much work still needs to be done. I desperately need a universal remote to control the AV receiver (largely for volume control). I need a remote that doesn't require a direct line of site to the component you wish to contol. Fortunately, I've found one that should do the job but it's £200! I also need to test the PS3 and Wii in their current locations. As their controllers operate via Bluetooth, they can connect to the console in the cupboard but I'm worried about dropping button-presses which may make gaming impossible. I'll test things out (hopefully) later in the week although I'm on-call until Thursday and am off to Budapest on Friday for a long weekend. If they don't work, things get tricky as once the projector is purchased (way down the line!), I'll be unable to hook the consoles up to any form of speaker!