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

[citanul]

TWP,

Many people are perfectly happy with plasmas.

The Panasonic TH-42PX60U 42" Plasma HDTV, (amazon, $1.4k)
and larger TH-50PX60U 50" Plasma HDTV, (amazon, $2k)

are both incredible TVs. As far as I can tell, burn in is no longer considered a problem on good plasmas.

You should be able to get away with a system that has:

A good DVD player ~$200
A good "Home Theater in a Box" ~$400-500 tops
A Tivo ~$100
A great remote ~$100
ex) A 50" Panasonic Plasma ~$2k

and still have ~$2k left.

Where you could spend that (if you wanted)?

Wall mounting or getting a really chique piece of tv/equipment furniture.

the "home theater in a box" part of this is about as scalable as you want. you can do "a receiver and seperate speakers" and do pretty well for yourself with $2k. you could add a good dedicated standalone cd changer if you wanted for $150-$200, but that doesn't seem to be a priority for you. for ~$2 you should be able to get a cable to connect your ipod to your stereo. aesthetically not the best, but way better sound-wise than some fm transmitter.

c

[gusmahler]

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Wishlist: TSU7000 remote control

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i have a prejudice against soft-remotes. i know certain models, including that one, have some programmable physical buttons but the bulk of the navigation still appears to be screen-based. if i can't control it in the dark with tactile feedback, i don't like it.

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It lights up, so you'll never be in the dark. But I understand your point. I've never actually used it, but it looks so cool, that I'd love to try one out.

[gusmahler]

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TWP,

Many people are perfectly happy with plasmas.

The Panasonic TH-42PX60U 42" Plasma HDTV, (amazon, $1.4k)
and larger TH-50PX60U 50" Plasma HDTV, (amazon, $2k)

are both incredible TVs. As far as I can tell, burn in is no longer considered a problem on good plasmas.

You should be able to get away with a system that has:

A good DVD player ~$200
A good "Home Theater in a Box" ~$400-500 tops
A Tivo ~$100
A great remote ~$100
ex) A 50" Panasonic Plasma ~$2k

and still have ~$2k left.

Where you could spend that (if you wanted)?

Wall mounting or getting a really chique piece of tv/equipment furniture.

the "home theater in a box" part of this is about as scalable as you want. you can do "a receiver and seperate speakers" and do pretty well for yourself with $2k. you could add a good dedicated standalone cd changer if you wanted for $150-$200, but that doesn't seem to be a priority for you. for ~$2 you should be able to get a cable to connect your ipod to your stereo. aesthetically not the best, but way better sound-wise than some fm transmitter.

c

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Various companies make products that stream (via WiFi) from your iTunes equipped computer to a device with RCA ports. The Roku Soundbridge is one such example.

http://www.amazon.com/Roku-SoundBrid.../dp/B000B5UJ5A

[Entity]

TV: Sony KDFE42A10 42" Rear Projection LCD -
http://www.amazon.com/Sony-KDFE42A10-Rea...p;s=electronics If I could do it over again for my new space, I'd go with 50" Plasma, but this unit works fine. 8/10 overall. Most of the negatives with this unit are just with space constraints; I'd rather have a unit that hangs on the wall, since I live in a 1500sqft townhome.

DVR - HD-DVR by Comcast (Motorola Unit). 6/10. Buggy but when it works well is awesome.

AVR - Denon 3802. 110w x 7 channels. http://www.avrev.com/equip/denonav3802/index.html -- 10/10. Would buy again, many times over.

Speakers:

Front - Dalquist QX10. 10/10. My speakers are the pride and joy of my setup and I'm really sad to not be able to run my surrounds right now (wiring concerns based on the layout of the house). The full setup is 2xQX10 fronts, 1 QX60c, and 2 QX20r's. I'm looking for a way right now to hook the QX20r's up via Bluetooth or other wireless medium, but I can't figure anything out. Anyone know if there are any adapters that do this?

The DVD player is a decent Sony Upconverting that has worked fine and will continue to be fine until HDDVD is cheaper and more prevalent.

Also have an XBOX360, and an Airport Express used for streaming iTunes. I'd give that an 8/10 as it also acts as a range extender for the wireless network in my house.

Rob

[astroglide]

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Viewing angle was more important for me because I'm still moving every damn year (thankfully not this one) and not positive where/how the TV will be set up.

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i'm sure you orient your tv so that you are looking straight at it, though. anything less would be uncivilized.

[nolanfan34]

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If I could hide the components in the wall, then I would do wall mount. But we couldn't in our current house, so we went with the DLP.

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i like being able to read displays, easily insert discs, etc. i think i was absent on the day this whole techno-embarassment thing was being taught, but it seems to be quite popular with wives. monolithic furniture that opens up to reveal, gasp, a TELEVISION! hiding components too, i don't get it. are they really considered unsightly? i also hate the upscale home trend where refrigerators and dishwashers are given facades and hidden handles to blend in with the cabinets. i like stainless stuff that's usable and right out in the open.

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Meh, probably not as bad as what you're referring to, but flame away. [img]/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]

I actually have room for a bigger set if I want to though. It's currently a 42".

It's kind of hard to tell in the picture because it's a bit dark, but the shelf above the TV has the center speaker, and the bookshelf speakers are on either side. I've posted this before, but I bought the SVS home theatre package. Onkyo 803-B receiver, Panasonic something DVD/VCR, which is good enough for right now. It does upconvert to 1080i/720p.

The real challenge was wiring the rear speakers and sub. We have a crawlspace, but with insulation and pipes it's sort of impossible to drill down to go under the floor (and I didn't want to pay someone big bucks to do it). So after I put in the hardwood floors, before I put the moulding back on, I cut a channel at the base of the drywall which I used to hide all of the speakerwire and sub cable in. Turned out pretty decently in the end.

[PITTM]

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A $400 audio system.

Something seems off here.

J

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more or less weird: i have the 50" version of that TV (its unbelievably awesome, btw) hooked up to a ~$2k stereo audio system rather than surround sound.

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2k stereo audio system specs? anyone here use McIntosh stuff? My TV setup downstairs is a 32 inch samsung hd, hooked to a 1978 Marantz 1060b, hooked to KEF C40 speakers. I've never been able to turn the Marantz past 40% as when i got to 35 the neighbors came over immediately to complain [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

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your 2-channel audio thread from OOT

I only counted the costs of the integrated + speakers, since the CD player isn't really part of the home theater, and I can't remember what brand or how much the overpriced cables I bought were. Rega integrated was ~$950 iirc, and dynaudio bookshelfs were a little over $1k.

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ah, that WAS you. yeah. nice [censored] setup dude.

[Dids]

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Viewing angle was more important for me because I'm still moving every damn year (thankfully not this one) and not positive where/how the TV will be set up.

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i'm sure you orient your tv so that you are looking straight at it, though. anything less would be uncivilized.

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Sure, but it's more about how it looks when I happen to not be sitting right in front. Say sitting at the computer and keeping half an eye on a game or something. Just based on in-store viewing, those were the areas where the Wega seemed lacking.

[gusmahler]

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If I could hide the components in the wall, then I would do wall mount. But we couldn't in our current house, so we went with the DLP.

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i like being able to read displays, easily insert discs, etc. i think i was absent on the day this whole techno-embarassment thing was being taught, but it seems to be quite popular with wives. monolithic furniture that opens up to reveal, gasp, a TELEVISION! hiding components too, i don't get it. are they really considered unsightly? i also hate the upscale home trend where refrigerators and dishwashers are given facades and hidden handles to blend in with the cabinets. i like stainless stuff that's usable and right out in the open.

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I actually don't mind exposed components, which is why I set my system up that way.

The reason I brought up in-wall mounting of components is my wife. She thought that by mounting a plasma on the wall, we'd have a bunch more room in the living room. I pointed out to her that, unless we wall mounted the components, we'd still have a rack with 9 things on it, taking up as much room as a large DLP. So we went with the DLP.

I do think some in-wall mounting jobs look cool. Check out this one:


The beauty of these types of setups is that you hide all the cables from view. Here's the view of the cables:

[TheWorstPlayer]

Thanks, c, astro and others. This is very helpful. I'm thinking the plasma will be less offensive to those whom don't like the TV 'taking up the whole living room' (I am marrying such a person). And I've been pretty impressed with the panny's i've seen in stores (although I know that's not always indicative - and would consider the Wegas if people had said they really blew the plasmas outta the water).

Thanks, guys. As I said, very helpful. I'll post pics in a few months when I get set up. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]