Slashdot Mirror
Home Theater Transformed Into Star Trek Bridge
gevmage writes "Gary Reign, a guy with apparently way too much time on his hands, built a home theater in his basement. This is not unusual. However, the room is designed, floor to ceiling, as the bridge of a Star Trek style starship. See his
photo page for details."
"It's the server! She canna handle it!!"
It looks like he did a lot of work, and it looks authentic.
However, there's one photo missing: one of these days, he'll have to sell that house. I want a picture of the real estate agent's face when they see that room!
"Captain, property values have slowed to impulse power."
Insert simplistic political, ideological, or personal proselytization here.
Mirrordot copy of his photos
Less is more.
[kirk]Slaaaaaaaaaaaashdooooooot![/kirk]
Nerd Alert!!
Where no geek has gone before
When I have money to burn, I'm just going to set it on fire...
Help test the
Anyone care to put up a copy of the pic elsewhere?
Preferably with a better connection to the internet than a string phone...
"Sometimes the truth is stupid." - Lawrence, creator of Prime Intellect
She's dead too, Jim.
Seems the Bridge has been taken out by a Romulan Warbird.
Here are some links posted from the digg page:
Original Digg link: http://www.electronichouse.com/article/star_trek_t heater/
Digg story: http://digg.com/mods/Really_Cool_Homemade_Star_Tre k_Theater_(slideshow)
From comments:
The Larger image: http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/5278/bridge20p2 byb1.jpg
The Rest of the Images:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/133/359998062_55e90 27569_o.jpg
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/133/359998119_809ed 5da60_o.jpg
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/123/359998172_f021e fe498_o.jpg
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/153/359998234_d270e 45959_o.jpg
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/142/359998290_a7623 c7d59_o.jpg
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/147/359998333_c5803 bdc6e_o.jpg
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/156/359998390_a74a8 2a810_o.jpg
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/155/359998428_4ac3c 1684f_o.jpg
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/140/359998462_bf5ce 60ad6_o.jpg
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/140/359998485_a6d15 532c6_o.jpg
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/152/359998563_3f6de 24886_o.jpg
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/144/359998627_c99c0 53489_o.jpg
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/148/359998677_000d1 14cc4_o.jpg
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/143/359998726_eb86d d150d_o.jpg
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/123/359998787_ed787 6b750_o.jpg
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/151/359998824_8cf13 5fdd1_o.jpg
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/164/359998898_bf636 4c6bc_o.jpg
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/154/359998947_ebddb 0397c_o.jpg
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/137/359998997_22c85 e7ce7_o.jpg
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/154/359999058_6ae94 207a1_o.jpg
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/145/359999103_f0e56 492b1_o.jpg
http://farm1.static.f
Things you think are in the Constitution, but are not.
I remember reading about this about a year ago. The man in question was so dedicated to his fantasy that he went through bankruptcy and a divorce before he finished it.
It would have almost been worth it if the teleporter worked.
I think the evil mirror /. (that'd be digg) are already busting his server.
"Have you ever kissed a girl?"
$_="Slashdotter";$syn="OTT";s;..;;;sub _{print shift||$_};s!ash!Perl !;s=$syn=ack=i;tr+LLEd+BLAH+;_"Just Another ";_
Yeah, well, all it takes is once...
34486853790
Connection too slow for X forwarding? Try "ssh -CX user@host"
Strangely enough, the girlfriend can no longer be seen entering via the turbolift.
On a completely unrelated note: what happens to the room when he puts in any Star Wars DVD?
blur out the LCARS screens?
Damn and here I was waiting for the digg effect to wear off so I could see the site and then WHAM here comes slashdot.. well I guess another 2 days waiting won't hurt ...
...but not his server today.
"Creativity is allowing ones self to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep" - Scott Adams
" Plenty of real good-looking and smart women"
You might want to look up the word 'Plenty'.
There are not plenty of good looking or smart girls interested in science fiction, much less women that are both.
There are a few, and I married one(yeah me), but plenty is not the word I'd use.
When you go to a star trek convention and half the attendeess are good looking and smart women, then we will have 'Plenty'.
Of course, that means that the other gender needs more good looking and smart people as well. Fortunatly my wife got hers(yeah her).
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
He'll break warp 10 around the sun with a gravity slingshot effect soon enough, which, if Checov and Spock have done their calculations right, will provide him will the time he needs.
And how it's marketed. His house would be considered what's called in the real estate business a 'unique' property. Unique properties tend to sell very, very slowly, but with the right buyer, they can pull in sometimes more money than the property is worth without the 'unique' attributes. In this case, a Star Trek junkie might really want the house in a big way considering the bridge layout of the basement. Unique properties need the right type of selling agent. But the seller has to has to have patience. Finding Trek junkies isn't difficult, but finding Trek junkies interested in buying your house, now that can be challenge!
My blog
warning patrons of a whore house to be wary of the "loose women"
It's almost, like, surreal...ya know?
A goal is a dream with a deadline
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&lr=&q=+site: www.reighn.com+bridge+%2Btos
fyi...
"Creativity is allowing ones self to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep" - Scott Adams
Quick! Somebody go over to fark.com and get Wil Wheaton (aka Ensign Wesley Crusher)! He'll have the problem licked in no time! ;-)
His new mantra is "Beam me up a scotch!"
If you mod me down, I *will* introduce you to my sister!
"http:/www.vistahelpforum.com/"
This really depends on the perspective. Maybe spending all those hours building these Star-Treky props
wasn't "productive" for him as you'd define productive but I can imagine it was most likely an immensely
interesting and satisfying activity for him. Going from the "Vista" link you're plugging in your signature,
I'd find the time better spent building myself an LCARS-kind-of-like display than wasting my time on that.
Why do people automatically make that assumption? Look, unlike the nutcase in England who ran himself into unbelievable debt to make a transporter room in his flat, this room at least serves a legitimate purpose: home theater. And in that perspective, why not use something like the bridge of the Enterprise? The screen does exactly what it's supposed to do both on the Enterprise and in a regular theater - show video; the dome lights do exactly what they're supposed to do on both the Enterprise and in a regular theater; the speakers are placed in strategic locations where speakers should be placed for a home theatre system. Considering the things that he could have done to his house to show his love for Star Trek, this is probably the most practical and least bizarre.
It's nowhere near as kitsch as you guys are making it out to be. If he had a regular door instead of a Starfleet door and replaced any blatantly Star Trek-related items with something more contemporary, no one would be bashing his setup. "Nice bookshelf, nice ceiling lighting, leather chairs, big screen, hidden speakers -- this is really nice. Oh wait. Look! The door (that can very easily be replaced) is a Starfleet door! Oh, how stupid this whole thing is!!" Oh, please. I honestly think that to anyone who is a Star Trek fan and has an appreciation for home theare this is not nearly as much of a turn-off as you'd think.
Yet look how Slashdotters react when the newest, highly-creative, PC case mod comes out. "Cool!" "Where do I get one!" "And it's water-cooled!" "Look how it glows!" "r0x0rz!" "Awesome case!" I certainly love cool-looking PC cases, too, but most people would scorn us for paying premium prices for a PC case, no matter how cool it looks. So, perceived value goes both ways.
And don't confuse "market value" for "marketability" or "sellability". They're completely different. The "market value" for a PS3 when it first came out was $699. The "marketability" and "sellability" values were obviously much, much higher. Houses are no different. I don't see this particular home theatre design hurting its market value, but I do see it increasing its marketability to even mild Star Trek fans who happen to love home theatre, especially when the blatant Star Trek-related items appear to be easily replaceable.
The Overrated mod is for reversing inappropriate, positive mods, not for voicing disagreement with a post.
I was going to agree whole-heartedly with you here until you clouded the issue with your obvious falsehood of (reads /.) + (goes to trek cons) + (has wife).....
Those Trek season sets cost a fortune. I sure wouldn't have money left over to pick those up at $100+ a pop.
Where does the school board find them and why do they keep sending them to ME?
Of course he is loaded, think of all the money he saves living in his Mom's basement!
RonB
It is human nature to take shortcuts in thinking.
I think maybe that aspiration is a little high. Go to a Star Trek convention. How many people there are smart? Quite a few. How many are good looking? Not quite so many. If they could get the smart, good-looking women ratio to say, 1:4 (or 20%), I'd be duly impressed and consider that plenty.
The future isn't here until I can type "car keys" into Google and have it say "You left them in your pants last night."
When you go to a star trek convention and half the attendeess are good looking and smart women, then we will have 'Plenty'.
There's your logical problem. What you should realize is that "Interested in Science Fiction" != "Attends Conventions".
Of course, that means that the other gender needs more good looking and smart people as well. Fortunatly my wife got hers(yeah her).
That statement makes little sense. The other gender needs more good looking and smart people compared to what?
Even if you're not a Trekkie, immersing yourself into a different environment like this would make for a more interesting experience. After all, isn't the point of such a room to entertain?
What I really want to know, though, is whether he requires his guests to lean dramatically back and forth during chase scenes?
A post a day keeps productivity at bay.
Yet here you are on Slashdot...
http://www.dillonworks.com/portfolio/starwarstheat er/
http://www.modernhometheater.com/virtualtours/star _wars/slideshow/index.html
but he does have the World at War box set and all 3 extended edition boxes of LotR so that makes up for it. What are the silver cases up in the top left?
FGD 135
While my home theatre doesn't look anywhere as nice as this guy's, it is imporant to note that he's using a projector, and not a (hugely expensive) plasma or LCD -- far less glass to move, HUGE image size, and higher quality
Of course, I'm using MythTV, and an NEC 135LC analog 3-tube projector. Captain Kirk's head is sometimes 6 feet tall.
Zhrodague.net - I do projects and stuff too.
http://www.networkmirror.com/8gLhAa08HLchC6VZ/www. reighn.com/theaterphoto.html
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
Realtors deal with this kind of thing all the time. You know - "charming", meaning the roof sags and there are 1-inch cracks in the foundation. Better than a basement that is a "handyman's delight", i.e. "Flooded".
It's the Galaxy-class starship up on blocks in the front yard that's going to get him in trouble with the neighbors.
Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and he'll say "WHERE'S MY FISH, YOU IDIOT?"
It must have been rather shocking when you found out about this. Well, time heals all wounds I guess.
---GEC
I'm but the humble pupil, seeking to snatch the scratchbuilt pebble from the master's fully articulated hand
When reaching for refreshments, be careful not to confuse the beer cooler and the Medusan.
I want to believe that during movies with explosions and crashes, the viewers get thrown around from side to side of the bridge, er, room!
KeS
Well it's better than writing viruses or sending out spam......
"Beam down Yeoman Rand and a 6-pack".
Once I was a four stone apology. Now I am two separate gorillas.
I think maybe that aspiration is a little high. I mean, don't you think a ratio of 1:100 is a better place to start? I mean, the increase for that alone would be pertty big. I think 1:4 is kind of like shooting for the moon with a paper airplane.
RonB
It is human nature to take shortcuts in thinking.
But I asked and my wife said:
"No way in Hell!"
There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
I wonder if he hid the bathroom behind the right side of the view screen too...
Go to a Star Trek convention. How many people there are smart? Quite a few.
Ha! This isn't true, at the last convention I went to most people didn't even know that in Episode #4F04 of TOS, if you freeze frame 16237 you can see some of the sound wiring from the set. How can any true fan not know basic knowledge like this?
>Probably gets more tail than the average Slashdotter...
That's not setting the bar very high. You could do better just riding on the subway - if you ever had the gut's to leave mom's basement.
Brett
The guy probably spent 4+ hours/day on a project that now makes an interesting story. Meanwhile, the rest of us of spend 4+ hours/day screwing around on the web or watching TV. Who's the one with too much free time?
I say good for him. And I yield to his nerd superiority. I'd buy him a beer, but something tells me he only drinks whatever they serve on Deep Space 9.
Hmmm....my calculator puts 1:4 at 25%...
This dude is my GOD! If he's looking for a wife, my ex-gf would KILL to marry him.
SIG: TAKE OFF EVERY 'CAPTAIN'!!
Main Site - http://web.archive.org/web/20060424173133/http://w ww.reighn.com/theaterphoto.html
w ww.reighn.com/bridge%20p2b.jpg
Panaromic view - http://web.archive.org/web/20060424173133/http://
NO! NO! Please don't mod me, I'm too young to die a troll. *click* Oh the pain, the pain...
If you have five women, and one of them is hot and four are not (1:4), that is 20%, kind of like odds at gambling. Come to think of it, if you had five women you probably are not a trekkie or at a trek convention...
887321 = 337*2633
In most of America, people who own a home have easily doubled or tippled their investment just in the last 6-y years. Now, could you list some of the hundreds or thousand of other investments with that kind of performance? Please!
damaged by dogma
"a guy with apparently way too much time on his hands"
Actually it looks like a good thing to do with spare time: he was creative. That took some thought, design work, and craftsmanship.
"a guy with apparently way too much time on his hands" is apparently code for "I think how you spend your free time is silly."
Penny - plain text accounting
No couch? Chairs/loungers only==no snuggling.
It's almost like he never expects to have a woman over...
The Humblest Mollusk on the Net
Um redefine loaded. He is using all crappy gear. No Crestron theatre control and his finish quality is pretty cheezy.
A loaded person's home theatre goes as follows...
$15,000 or more for the projector. Acoustically transparent draper screen ($4500+) Crestron cp2e or mc2e + touchscreen or other interface. Real lighting control (Not X10 or powerline anything, give me vantage or at least a lutron graphic eye) Seating that is comfortable and not from a office supply house. Fiberoptic or LED lighting instead of el-cheapo rope light. I can go on what the guys that are "loaded" have in their basic theaters.
The company I work for does lots of high end home theaters, yes even some that are "eccentric" like this (Star Wars themed theater because the owner had $1,000,000 worth in actual SW movie props and wanted to integrate them) From the photos I can see fit and finish aspects that are not very good. Let's not forget he is missing the Richard Gray Power conditioners that cost a minimum of $2000.00 each, but with low end gear It's not as important to have clean power you dont see the difference like the higher end stuff does.
for a guy with a thousand or two to blow, lots of spare time, and some cheap stereo gear it's a fantastic job, but nowhere near that of a medium or high end home theater.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
The las vegas hilton, which hosts the star trek experience museum and thrill ride, has several rooms in trek-noir. I recall a casino lobby, restaurant, walkway, holding room, elevator, and a couple restrooms.
He made something that looks sweet, sounds great, and is comfortable. He made it look like a set from a popular sci-fi series, while remaining practical about it. And he only spent about 15,000 on everything in that room. That might seem like a lot, but for a complete home theater, with all the trimmings, that's not a bad deal. He had the money, he used his spare time, he's got a wife and kids (and isn't some looney isolated social reject nerd), and he decided to do something pretty incredible.
Good show.
Never give in--never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to conviction
TOS Style is the way to go. And he likes to think of himself as a geek.
So sad, to see the children wasting their time this way..
Technology -- No Place For Wimps! Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia Chatroom -- http://www.wemissjerry.org
Somewhere across time and space, the Captain of a star ship is now excitedly showing his officers around the new briefing room which he has painstakingly made to look like a residential apartment, complete with pretend windows that look out onto fake scenes of suburbia.
"I find your lack of taste disturbing."
I often have trouble remembering which way is out of bed in the morning.
The copy of Moulin Rouge counter-acts the World At War box set, so it doesn't count.
That room is a really ugly kitbash of TOS-era and TNG-era stuff. Personally I think he could have done a much better job with it for no additional cash.
+++ATH0
...with reversed polarity, that is.
... check out this guy's movie collection! nothing but a bunch of geeky crap ... ;)
calling all destroyers
Hmm.... I thought that was actually near frame 10237... are you sure?
Anyone else think this guy looks like Leo Laporte?
What about Jeffries Tubes for maintaining the theater's wiring? Only composite, component, and stereo RCA connections for game console hookups? Where are the S-Video, Firewire, VGA, DVI, HDMI, TOSlink, S/PDIF, and Laser-7 ports?
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
Let me know when someone designs a home theater based on the bridge of Blakes 7's DSV-2 (The Liberator).
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
I think 1:4 is kind of like shooting for the moon with a paper airplane.
That depends, how much megajoules is your mass driver ?
The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
... I want my Computer Room to look like Thrall's Chambers from WoW. ;-)
If your house looks too customized, you lose a lot of buyer interest. Statistics show that even one room with blue carpet will turn off a significant number of buyers. Heaven forbid you show the house with hot-pink shag carpet, or if you have a bathroom that looks like it was made for unusual "parties" instead of the usual daily routine.
Even if 90% of your home's visitors don't bat an eye at your Trekkie mecca, you can be sure that you'll take a massive hit in resale value if any of your Enterprise scene takes more than a few minutes to dismantle.
[
I saw them yesterday, what's your problem?
Technology -- No Place For Wimps! Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia Chatroom -- http://www.wemissjerry.org
hey now, everyone needs one chick flick in the assortment of movies in case a girl does come over and doesn't want to watch star trek... Ironically, Moulin Rouge is the same one in my collection.
The silver cases are the Director Cut/Special Editions of the Star Trek Movies. http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/B000A6T262.0 1._SS500_SCLZZZZZZZ_V1125356415_.jpg
Funny how you claim lower end gear runs fine on unconditioned power, but the $15K stuff needs a power conditioner.
:)
You'd think that at $15K they could put a decent power supply in the device that isolates the electronics from external transients.
"audiophile" and "high-end home theater" types amuse me. They spend tens of thousands of dollars, sometimes hundreds of thousands, for an experience that's maybe only a hair better than what you can build for $10K, and that most people can't tell the difference.
I mean, if you have the money, feel free to spend it on what you want... But I can think of a lot better things to do with $50K than blow it all on home theater gear
-Z
Why? Hes a member here as well, he just hasnt posted for a while. http://slashdot.org/~CleverNickName/
In Soviet Russia the insensitive clod is YOU!
Me lost me cookie at the disco.
As a person who has studied psychoacustics... I am going to have to say your statement of an amp less than $2000 is crap is utterly false. If you are going on that big of a budget you should be buying speakers with built in amplifiers anyways (the downside is the high cost of replacement and weight, but if your spending so much and such an audiophile than replacement cost and weight shouldn't be an issues). And about the center speaker... you can do amazing 3D sound effects with only stereo and properly positioned speakers, so the placement of the left/right speakers are much more important than the placement of the center speaker.
Computers allow humans to make mistakes at the fastest speeds known, with the possible exception of tequila and handguns
Comment removed based on user account deletion
"Get a life, will you people? I...I...I mean... I... I... I... mean, for crying out loud, it's just a TV show!"
(Mmm, parody)
GLaDOS for President 2016! "Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure." -- GLaDOS, 2011
I look at it this way. It's much simpler.
...and it's cool. Real Cool. Everyone who reads slashdot looks at those pictures and says "Wow! That's neat! I wish I had one in *MY* basement."
The Bridge home theater is good. Real good!
However, these same people are afraid. They are afraid that if they express their appreciation of the Bridge HT, that others would judge them to be geeks, so they bash it.
You can tell how good of a job it was just by how many people say what a waste of time it was, and how the guy who built it has no life. All he has to do is sit back, smile, and say "Yes, it is a nice theate. Thank you for your appreciation of it."
Did you even look? Idiot, it *IS* TOS.
This is for the followers of the "Maker". http://www.dillonworks.com/portfolio/starwarstheat er/
-Eric
"Did you even look? Idiot, it *IS* TOS."
What episode of the 79/80 original episodes was THAT monstrosity featured in?
Technology -- No Place For Wimps! Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia Chatroom -- http://www.wemissjerry.org
I love the arrogance as though there are no women out there who like Star Trek or that anyone who enjoys Trek has no sex life! WTF??? My wife and I have been married almost 14 years, and she watches Trek more than I do! In fact, she's the one who keeps pressing to complete our various Star Trek DVD collections! Jeez, I wish Slashdot would knock it off with the bullshit stereotypes!
As for resale value, don't you think it's possible that he doesn't see a need to sell the house any time soon so he just wants to enjoy it as "his house" for a while? Not every home improvement is rooted in resale value, you know. You obviously either don't own a house or you're too concerned about money to enjoy your house.
The Overrated mod is for reversing inappropriate, positive mods, not for voicing disagreement with a post.
There are far too many "he'll never get a woman this way!" comments. Get a clue, folks; firstly, they guy's married and has a kid (RTFA).
Second, just because the guy thought it would be novel to have a home theater that looks vaguely like the Enterprise bridge (note it's not a scale model or anything) doesn't make him an asocial nerd with a Star Trek fetish.
Third, there are lots of women who like geeks. Even those who do stuff as extreme as building scale replicas of sci-fi sets. Look, this guy didn't make his house over into a Death Star, he built a theater in his basement that looks kind of trek-ish. I bet his kid loves it, and I bet his wife either thinks it's fantastic, or thinks he's cute for doing it.
More of my friends are women than men, and I will tell you that of those women, most would find it endearing that a guy built something like that (esp. since it seems to be of decent quality for a home project); some would be actively attracted to him because they're at least that geeky.
All you geeks that made those comments, maybe you don't have a girlfriend because you're a sexist trying to be something you're not. Wise up.
We may not imagine how our lives could be more frustrating and complex—but Congress can. – Cullen Hightower