astroglide's home theater: what i own, what i would buy today

[gusmahler]

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I assume I'll want the four speakers for the walls, a receiver (I don't even know what a receiver does), and a subwoofer?

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You may also want a center channel speaker. (or not, some people don't like them.)

What a receiver does is switch between sources (e.g., between your cable box and your DVD player) and sends the signals to the speakers. E.g., your DVD player has a digital output that the receiver will separate into signals for each of your speakers.

Search this thread for recommendations on home theater in a box (which has the receiver and all the speakers).

[gusmahler]

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Guys,

I have a very nice 50" TV, but it's in a small room without surround sound. I am happy with the performance of my standard DVDs, although I have never watched a Blu-Ray DVD. Is it worth it to buy a Blu-Ray player without surround sound? Would the surround sound even play a big enough role in determining this?

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Surround sound isn't absolutely necessary. I watch plenty of HD (on HD DVD and on DirecTV) and I've never had any surround speakers. I have heard systems with surround. They do add something. But I'm fine with not having them.

To answer another poster's question, I would say that a subwoofer is necessary, though. Especially if you like action movies, which use the subwoofer a lot.

[UMTerp]

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Second question, has either Blu-Ray or HD-DVD emerged as superior? I'd like one or the other, and I don't want to buy something and have it be obsolete in two years.


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They're identical (Blu-Ray has more capacity, but that hasn't made any difference in actual quality of the movies). The only question is which format has the movies you want.

Here are two good threads where you can see what movies are available and which have the best quality.

Blu-Ray

HD DVD

Also see the release schedule, color coded by format.

If you have kids, it's a no brainer: Blu Ray has exclusives for Disney and several kids movies (e.g., Ice Age, Open Season). (OTOH, Shrek is HD DVD exclusive, so I guess it's closer than I thought).

Also see the 4th quarter exclusives thread. In the 4th quarter, BR will have 79 exclusives compared to 44 HD DVD exclusives.

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So this isn't going to be another VHS-Betamax thing? They'll both still be around in 3 years?

[mikeczyz]

hey gang,
Have used a NAD 2-channel integrated amp for the past 5+ years.
I've been doing some research into a pre-amp/amp combo b/c I'm looking to upgrade to a home theater sometime in the next year. Anyone have any experience with products from Outlaw Audio? They seem to be very well reviewed and the price seems about right.

Thanks,
Mike

[gusmahler]

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So this isn't going to be another VHS-Betamax thing? They'll both still be around in 3 years?

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Keep in mind the VHS-Betamax war lasted a long time. Betamax started in 1975. VHS didn't take over until the mid 80s and Sony started making VHS machines in 1988. Also keep in mind that technological superiority is meaningless--Betamax was better than VHS. But VHS won.

No one really knows who'll win the HD DVD/Blu-Ray "war." It's just too early to tell. Blu Ray has more players (because of the PS3) and also sells more discs by a rate of about 60% to 40%. But the HD market is so small that it could switch the other way with the right title. (E.g., when Transformers was released exclusively to HD DVD, the weekly sales ratio was only 51 to 49. But when Spiderman 3 was released exclusively to Blu-Ray, the ratio was 71 to 29.)

Each has its pros and cons:

HD DVD:
* Cheaper players (Wal Mart had one model for $99 a few weeks ago. You can still get that model for $185 on-line: search for Toshiba A2.

* Availability of combo discs (this gives you a Standard DVD on one side and HD DVD on the other, allowing you to play a movie on other players.

Blu-Ray
* More movies
* Cheapest player is also a gaming machine (PS3)
* Higher capacity (not used now, but possibly will be in the future. Also could lead to Blu-Ray winning the market of recordable media, which may lead to overall victory)
* Combo discs are more expensive than Blu-Ray discs. (Though non-combo HD DVDs are the same price as Blu Ray.)

It should also be noted that the earliest Blu-Ray discs were compressed using what many consider an inferior compression scheme. Thus leading to the same movie looking better on HD DVD than Blu Ray. This situation is rare now and I believe the consensus is that movies released today in both formats look pretty much identical.

[gusmahler]

If anyone here is still interested in HD DVD, Amazon is having a cool sale: Buy a Toshiba HD-A3 HD DVD player, and get 10 movies for free.

http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-HD-A3-...dp/B000U62N1S/

Caveat: two of the movies are 300 and Bourne Identity, then you pick 3 out of a list of 23 movies. Then you get a coupon for 5 free discs. So it's not 10 movies of your choosing.

[silentbob]

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but I have an older (i.e., 2002) Onkyo receiver and would like to connect my iPod to it. Will the widely available docks work with my receiver, or do I need to buy an Onkyo-specific one, or will an iPod not connect to older receivers at all?

[cwsiggy]

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Sorry if this is a stupid question, but I have an older (i.e., 2002) Onkyo receiver and would like to connect my iPod to it. Will the widely available docks work with my receiver, or do I need to buy an Onkyo-specific one, or will an iPod not connect to older receivers at all?

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Most Ipod docks will connect to any stereo cause thye have RCA plugs.

[silentbob]

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Most Ipod docks will connect to any stereo cause thye have RCA plugs.

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That makes sense. Thanks. Are there any compelling reasons for getting the Onkyo-specific dock (beyond the possibility of using my current Onkyo receiver remote), or will the DLO, Kensington, etc. brands work equally well?

[daxtrader]

For those considering expensive plasmas or LCD's, I highly recommend getting a HD Projector. The best one out on the market right now for the money is the Panasonic PTAX200U
For $1300 you simply cannot find anything better to buy for home entertainment. Watching football on this thing in HD is awesome. The only thing better than this projector would be a native 1080. You'd probably have to pay close to $3k for a good one. Sometimes I 12 table on this thing. Here are some pics, although they do no justice:




I project this on a regular wall. If you don't have a big empty wall or live in an apartment, then get a good screen for around $250-$500 depending on the size.