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Star Trek Home Theater

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the money-to-burn dept.

Critical Facilities writes "Someone thought it would be a good idea to model their home theater after the Enterprise NCC-1701D from Star Trek: The Next Generation. The result is super geeky, but actually rather cool. Named the best theme theater installation at CEDIA 2007, this Palm Beach County, FL home features motion-activated air-lock doors with series sound effects, and a "Red Alert" button on the Crestron TPMC-10 controller to turn all of the LEDs bright red and flashing."

32 of 123 comments (clear)

  1. Not realistic by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Thank god this is only a simulation.
    When they finally put this stuff into real space ships, just make sure they don't copy the motion-activated air-lock doors.
    I kinda like breathing, keep the motion activation swooshing to internal doors only please.

    Other than that it looks really really cool and well worth the money they spent on it.

    --
    liqbase :: faster than paper
  2. Just shoot me... by djupedal · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The guy has been trying to sell this house for the last year. I mean, come on - I don't slight the guy for building such a 'tribute' - it had to be fun. But then putting the house on the market and expecting someone to welcome such an addition? That just doesn't make sense.

    1. Re:Just shoot me... by One+Childish+N00b · · Score: 2, Insightful

      But then putting the house on the market and expecting someone to welcome such an addition? That just doesn't make sense.

      The market might be small but the price they'd be willing to pay to get this setup is not. How many Star Trek nerds here would be willing to pay top dollar to buy this guy's house?

      --
      Dealing with lawyers would be a lot less tedious if they all looked like Casey Novak.
    2. Re:Just shoot me... by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 5, Informative

      This is a different build - the one you are thinking of was a guy from England who went bankrupt trying to sell his 24th century flat.

      http://www.24thcid.com/
      http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/leicestershire/4695188.stm

      --
      liqbase :: faster than paper
    3. Re:Just shoot me... by morari · · Score: 4, Insightful
      Most people with a sense of humor would welcome it, I suspect. Selling a house is difficult work to begin with, and the real estate market in general has been horrid this year. The real problem usually lies within the buyer. You have a bunch of ignorant people house shopping, though they have no idea what they want or how much they're willing to pay for it. When they see something they like they try to hold up the entire process while they dick around with a bank to get a loan which usually falls through anyway unless it's a generic ranch house or a stuffy condo.

      Yay for our debt-based society!

      --
      "He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
    4. Re:Just shoot me... by morari · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It would depend on the rest of the house really. I like watching movies in bed or on a comfortable couch much more than I do sitting in a theater seat... even if it is the Captain's seat. Besides, "top dollar" is really an overblown and inflated idea in the real estate world. Anyway, the place resides in Florida and there's now way in heck I'd ever want to live there. Ohio is humid enough in the summer!

      --
      "He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
    5. Re:Just shoot me... by Jeff+DeMaagd · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Yay for our debt-based society!

      It is unfortunate, but I think houses are the one legitimate form of personal debt that I think is acceptable, though only within reason. I mean a regular house that you can pay for right away would be IMO better than getting a loan for a McMansion.

    6. Re:Just shoot me... by karnal · · Score: 4, Informative
      Actually, it doesn't look like he went bankrupt trying to sell it - he actually likes the 24th century interiors; it's just that he set up a business doing the same interior remodelling. With credit cards. And it didn't take off.

      Tony Alleyne, 52, spent nine years and £30,000 transforming his flat and used another £100,000 to launch a company which offered similar makeovers. But the schemes were funded by loans and credit cards and he has filed for bankruptcy with debts of £166,000. To speak to the actual article here though, building a home theater is a fun experience - especially enjoying it afterwards. I would have to wonder what the pricetag is on the star-trek based theater; however against true Slashdot fashion I did read the article and there was not even a ballpark estimate given.
      --
      Karnal
    7. Re:Just shoot me... by djupedal · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Wait - there are two cases of someone building and selling a home with a STHT?

      I'm trying to figure the odds of demand meeting supply on just one. How many people go looking for homes that specifically have a Star Trek themed home theater? How big does the pool of buyers need to be before you get at least one, in your area, that falls into that category? The odds seem pretty slim that even one is going to come thru the door. That's what gets me...all that work with the expectation that someone is going to fit the profile as buyer? We're not talking about an extra bathroom, after all.

    8. Re:Just shoot me... by FooAtWFU · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Yay for our debt-based society!

      Because it makes so much sense to save up for a house for 30 years before moving into it!

      (Maybe more than 30 years. If you're not living in your own house you're paying rent somewhere.)

      Some of us live in places where a small home can be had from $4,000 or so. Like in rural West Virginia. The rest of us should be glad for at least this aspect of a debt-based society.

      --
      The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
    9. Re:Just shoot me... by nomadic · · Score: 2, Funny

      That just doesn't make sense.

      Indeed. It is highly illogical.

    10. Re:Just shoot me... by Belial6 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I'm guessing not much, since the pictures shows are renderings. Just look at them.

    11. Re:Just shoot me... by billcopc · · Score: 3, Interesting

      If it weren't for debt, you wouldn't need 30 years worth of money to buy a home.

      The debt environment artificially inflates real estate pricing because people can "afford" more. They don't end up with a bigger home, they just pay more for the same old pile of dirt. How many people would own homes if it weren't for mortages ? More than you think, because everyone needs a home. What ? You think the land owners and banks would sit idly, waiting for that one wealthy buyer per thousand ? No, they would adapt, or else we would mob them!

      Seriously, it's a low-tech box made of concrete and wood, supposed to protect people from the elements and from other people. How such a basic device could come to be worth half a million or more is beyond logic.

      --
      -Billco, Fnarg.com
    12. Re:Just shoot me... by mfnickster · · Score: 2, Funny

      > How such a basic device could come to be worth half a million or more is beyond logic.

      Here, I worked out the logic:

      for (i=0; i < 3; i++)
         printf("Location!\n");

      :)

      --
      "Slow down, Cowboy! It has been 3 years, 7 months and 26 days since you last successfully posted a comment."
    13. Re:Just shoot me... by FooAtWFU · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If it weren't for debt, you wouldn't need 30 years worth of money to buy a home.
      Right. A rich developer would have bought up the land, built a house or some apartments, and started charging rent for it. Since he's the one with the capital.
      --
      The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
    14. Re:Just shoot me... by Mistshadow2k4 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      "The real problem lies within the buyer"? On what planet at this time would that be? Have you watched any of these home-selling shows on HGTV lately? (I'm a care-giver and it's very popular where I do volunteer work.) A great deal of the problem -- and thus, the "hold up" you mention -- is all too often the sellers trying to get two or three times the amount of money they've invested in the house. That's no exaggeration; I saw a show once in which the seller had bought the house for $95,000, invested about $40,000 in remodeling and was trying to sell it for $375,000. He only got $300,000 and bitched about for the last 5 minutes of the show. Jesus, $165,000 wasn't enough of a profit? That was a rather extreme case, but I've seen a lot of others on that show. On pretty much every episode, the sellers inflate the price to at least double what they've spent on the property. It's pure greed that has inflated the cost of a home to absolutely ridiculous levels, and folks like you wonder why it takes so long to sell a house? Duh, not only do your potential buyers have to get a loan for a humongous amount of money, and most likely these "ignorant" people are looking at other houses too -- why the hell shouldn't they? More than anything, artificially inflating prices like this -- not just on homes but on many, many things like cars -- is why we have a debt-based society. So what the hell are you griping about? They have to go through a hell of a lot more trouble to than you do. You sound just like the greedy jerks on that show, bitching that people just don't fall head over heels in love with your house the moment they see it and immediately puke a few hundred grand all over you, no matter how much the house is actually worth.

      --
      I dream of a better world... one in which chickens can cross roads without their motives being questioned.
  3. Haha. by Gigiya · · Score: 5, Funny

    I like the comment left on TFA: "now, the only thing left is to actually convince a human woman to go in there with you..."

    1. Re:Haha. by ScrewMaster · · Score: 4, Informative

      The girl I was living with at the time Star Trek: The Next Generation first came out was one of those people (an English major, as it happens) for whom Star Trek, indeed science-fiction in general, held no appeal. Science either, for that matter. Just didn't see the point ("What good is that Space Shuttle? Bring it down to Earth and spend that money on social programs.")

      But the show was on at 5:00 PM every Saturday, and it didn't matter what social plans she might have made for the evening, I wasn't leaving until I'd received my Star Trek fix. I could have taped it, but that wasn't the point: this is my show and you will work around it. Now at first, this irritated her to no end, but as I watched each episode she would hang around in the background, feigning disinterest but with her curiosity obviously piqued. After a couple months of this, she sat down next to me and asked, "so ... who's the guy with the greenish skin that talks so oddly?" I explained to her that Lt. Commander Data was actually an android, who was trying hard to understand us better so as to be more human. A couple of months more, and she would answer the phone with, "Sorry, Debby, we can't come over now ... Star Trek's on. I'll call you later. Bye!" Turned her into a Trekkie just from secondhand exposure, and as a consequence she began to think about the relevance of science and technology to any modern culture, that in fact they make our lifestyle possible. She'd never really thought about that before. Most Americans don't, when you get right down to it: everything might as well be powered by magic.

      So it is possible. Trekkiedom is not solely the province of male geeks and nerds, much as some of us might like to believe that. I remember reading in the book "The Making of Star Trek" (original series) that the female test audiences were just completely in love with Mr. Spock, and oddly enough resented Uhura ("Who does she think she is, anyway, doing man's work on the bridge and wearing an outfit like that!") Things were a bit different back in the sixties.

      --
      The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
  4. Very nice, but by AC-x · · Score: 2, Informative

    wake me up when they've actually _built_ the thing

  5. I like the original Star-trek home theator more by module0000 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I like the first Star-trek themed theator I read about on /. in Jaunary.

    The original

    Looks more like the bridge itself.

    --
    Trackball users will be first against the wall.
  6. pretty, but the screen is too small by jollyreaper · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The view from the back would be about as poor as watching a normal-sized screen. But I do like the table element they have going with the worf arc (whatever you called that thing he stood behind.) If you're doing dinnner and a movie, it's nice to have that stuff right in front of you. Of course, with comfy chairs that lay back, you'll end up dropping food all over yourself. The last thing you want to do in a Star Trek-themed room is look like Jabba -- mixing shows is considered very gauche these days.

    --
    Kwisatz Haderach
    Sell the spice to CHOAM
    This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
  7. Re:Telepathic doors by module0000 · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...."There goes another one of those self-satisfied doors", said Marvin.

    --
    Trackball users will be first against the wall.
  8. Link to original article by Mononoke · · Score: 5, Informative
    http://www.electronichouse.com/article/next_generation_star_trek_home_theater/C154

    I hate getting sent to articles that are simple summaries of the original.

    --
    NetInfo connection failed for server 127.0.0.1/local
    1. Re:Link to original article by Barkmullz · · Score: 2, Informative

      Thanks for the link, Mononoke!

      The link provided also revealed some other really cool home-theaters and houses:
      1. Death Star Theater
      2. Extreme Log Cabin Wild on Tech
      3. Model Condo Designed to Impress
      Sweet stuff!

      --
      Ronald said nothing. He flung himself from the room, flung himself upon his horse, and rode madly off in all directions.
  9. does the MPAA know... by advocate_one · · Score: 4, Interesting

    about those 3,816 DVDs he's admitted to copying???

    --
    Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
  10. It's not that hard with the right tools. by Animats · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The ceiling wouldn't be that hard to do. Use a CNC router to mill a clay mould, then vacuum-form plastic sheet over it. TechShop in Silicon Valley has all the gear for that, and there are shops that do large-area vacuum forming. Up to 6' x 11' vacuum forming of single pieces is commercially available.

    Much of the "future" that comes from Hollywood is made by vacuum forming. It's cheap.

  11. the sellers are the problem by m2943 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    You have a bunch of ignorant people house shopping, though they have no idea what they want or how much they're willing to pay for it

    The usual reason why home buying takes so long is that the sellers hide defects and advertise too high a price. That means that both the buyer and the bank need to spend a lot of time on trying to figure out where the problem areas may be and whether the property is really worth it.

    If you want a quick sell, price your property aggressively and don't try to cover up defects with a new coat of paint or other tricks.

    Yay for our debt-based society!

    A home purchase doesn't put you in debt unless you overpay.

  12. No need to shoot you ... by trolltalk.com · · Score: 2, Insightful

    No need to shoot you - DesiLu / Paramount / somebody will be happy to sue you out of existence for infringing on their Start Trek Intellectual Property.

    --
    Kevin Smith on Prince
  13. Re:Trying applying some engineering to the idea by billcopc · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If you've ever owned a car in the last two decades, you should know that sensors always fail. Always.

    --
    -Billco, Fnarg.com
  14. Re:Is it 2003 again? by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 2, Interesting

    And this is news? There was someone in the UK who converted his entire apartment to the bridge of the Enterprise. a.) His entire apartment wasn't converted into the bridge of the Enterprise. Take another look at the photos.

    b.) It was not a theater.

    Slashdot...news from half a decade ago, today. c.) That was years ago. This story has a 2007 date on it. It goes in a very different direction from our friend in the UK.

    The devil's in the details, my friend. You should take a stab at reading both stories. At the moment, you sound like somebody bitching about Slashdot covering Leopard when it had already done OSX years ago.

    --

    "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)

  15. "Simulation" or 3D rendering? by Joce640k · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Those pictures look suspiciously like 3D-Studio renderings to me.

    --
    No sig today...
  16. Re:Trying applying some engineering to the idea by zippthorne · · Score: 2, Insightful

    No need for a sensor. 14.7 psi on a plane the size of a door is a tremendous amount of force. You just set it up so that when the door is bowed due to the pressure difference, the motor is incapable of overcoming friction from the deformation causing the door to be firmly lodged against one side or the other. You want the motor to be weak for other reasons as well. Heroes don't die of "Crushed in the lavatory doorway."

    --
    Can you be Even More Awesome?!