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

[gusmahler]

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Oh, I should have put in a link to Setting Up Your Home Theater 101

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Continuing with the "Basics" posts, here is a good article explaining aspect ratio, and why HD DVD and Blu Ray movies still have black bars:
http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/H...ars_Go_Away/764

[asofel]

Ok so its tv time. I figure going with a panny from amazon is a good idea. One thing that bothers me though is that this tv:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/det...ER&v=glance

has 720p in its title. Yet, reading more into it, it looks like it can handle 1080p?

Its just strange to me as other tv's i've seen from panasonic, like the 600u, are advertised as 1080i.

I'm normally into gadgets and [censored] but i've done so much research i'm starting to not even get excited about it. So EDF, whats the plasma i should get from amazon for $1700 or less?

edit: someone's comment on amazon made some sense...

" This TV is not 1080p. It is 720p/1080i. It can handle 1080p but I think it is still showing in 720p mode."

So even though it shows 1080p as one of the available modes, its not actually true? Damn liars...

[LuckOfTheDraw]

It means it can accept a 1080p signal. A lot of TVs wont. It's resolution is still 1280x720 pixels. So you can give it a 1080p signal, and the built in video processor will scale it and display the image. But, it wont magically add more pixels. Also, I believe all 720p televisions are capable of accepting 1080i signals, which have video processors that scale and deinterlace it to a 720p image.

[gusmahler]

Thought I should point out the recent release of probably the most highly-anticipated HD DVD this year: Transformers. No, it may not be a great movie, but it's supposed to have among the best video quality of all HD DVD.

I picked it up on release day, something I've never done on an HD DVD, just because of the hype. While I haven't seen the whole movie yet, the few bits and pieces I've seen are really incredible.

Here's a full review of the HD DVD:

http://hddvd.highdefdigest.com/1110/transformers.html

[asofel]

Just a quick note to those looking: just got my panasonic 42in plasma setup and its gorgeous...A+

[bobman0330]

Just got a new Sharp 46" D64 ($1524 shipped, no tax) [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img].

Now I need a sound system. I have a pretty small room. I don't enjoy shopping for speakers and am not an audiophile, so very simple is good. Budget is $500 max, preferably less. For ease of setup, I would prefer wireless rear speakers, but for the right system I could put up with speaker wires.

Any recommendations? Thanks in advance.

[johnnycakes]

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Now I need a sound system. I have a pretty small room. I don't enjoy shopping for speakers and am not an audiophile, so very simple is good. Budget is $500 max, preferably less. For ease of setup, I would prefer wireless rear speakers, but for the right system I could put up with speaker wires.

Any recommendations? Thanks in advance.

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Wireless speakers suck.

You should piece together a good "budget" system as you can afford it (which you can do for ~$1000)

Here is the thread you need from the AVS forums.

It is the "HTIB alternatives" thread from their HTIB forum...because HTIB suck most always.

(HTIB = Home theater in a box)

You should probably start at the end of the thread (since it stared back in Feb) and work your way backwards, to see what people are buying these days.

I recently bought some of AV123's x-series speakers. One pair of the x-ls Bookshelf Loudspeakers, one x-cs Center Loudspeaker , and an x-sub.

Total was about $480 w/ another ~$120 for shipping (they weigh a bunch of course).
I'm going to get another pair of the x-ls speakers around Christmas.

You should check out their B-Stock inventory for discounts. I got my x-ls speakers there when they had some. Just a little scratch on each that is unnoticeable unless you inspecting them for scratches.


Of course, you'll still need a good receiver. Make sure you get one with good HDMI switching capability. All new receivers have it, but this new generation of receivers is the first one to really have it as standard. And HDMI is the way to go for any brand new TV.
I got a decent Sony from Amazon for about $330. (Can't recall the model number at the moment.)

Hope this helps.

[Huskiez]

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I recently bought some of AV123's x-series speakers. One pair of the x-ls Bookshelf Loudspeakers, one x-cs Center Loudspeaker , and an x-sub.

Total was about $480 w/ another ~$120 for shipping (they weigh a bunch of course).
I'm going to get another pair of the x-ls speakers around Christmas.

You should check out their B-Stock inventory for discounts. I got my x-ls speakers there when they had some. Just a little scratch on each that is unnoticeable unless you inspecting them for scratches.

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I have these exact speakers (although I have another x-ls instead of x-cs for center) set up in a 5.1 system. B-stock is definitely the way to go. Very nice.

[Rick Nebiolo]

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Now I need a sound system. I have a pretty small room. I don't enjoy shopping for speakers and am not an audiophile, so very simple is good. Budget is $500 max, preferably less. For ease of setup, I would prefer wireless rear speakers, but for the right system I could put up with speaker wires.

Any recommendations? Thanks in advance.

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Wireless speakers suck.

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I have a 7.1 receiver but I've got it hooked up as 5.1 (actually 5.0 since I use an old passive subwoofer hooked into the left/right speakers) using all optical and HDMI interfaces. The speaker wire to the side/rear speakers is of course a bit of a mess but otherwise I'm happy with the hookup which is also used quite often to play CDs.

My friend simply uses his flat screen speakers and the sound is awful. I think his big objection to adding a receiver/speaker setup is the look of the wiring to the side/rears. He has his 58" DLP set up near a large wall on a nice piece of furniture that would easily fit a 3.1 system without a wiring mess.

My question is has anyone simply stopped at a 3.1 system forgoing the full surround sound and been happy with the results?

~ Rick

[Gonso]

Some of you guys should consider putting together an HTPC