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

[bobman0330]

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Hope this helps.

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I totally appreciate the effort that you obviously put into your post, but I'm pretty firm on the price and simplicity criteria. That's why I assumed that an HTIB would be the way to go. Do you (or anyone else) have any recommendations along that line?

[johnnycakes]

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Do you (or anyone else) have any recommendations along that line?

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You should be able to find everything you need to know in this AVS forum.

Good luck!

[astroglide]

johnnycakes, he asked about wireless rear speakers. considering the quality and amount of sound that comes out of them, i don't see how it's much of a compromise - especially on a cheap system.

rick, i've run into this rocketfish wireless rear speaker setup quite a bit online. never heard or used them myself. i'd still probably go for that or a native rear wireless setup before considering a virtual surround implementation. luckily, my main viewing room is well-suited for wiring.

huskiez, with all these references i'm starting to think that av123 is either a cult or a good product. perhaps both.

bobman, if you want simple, go to cnet. watch out for inputs. johnny's avsforum link is a great source, but you might get lost in the noise. the owner threads are great when you come closer to a decision and want to see how people are getting along with a given product.

i've been out of this thread for a while and the OP is looking pretty rusty. i threw a 32" westinghouse lcd in my bedroom, and i've been using that instead of my main set for gaming. if i were to buy a replacement today, i would have to consider a 60" 1080p pioneer plasma. they seriously jump out at me when i stroll through best buy.

[Rick Nebiolo]

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Some of you guys should consider putting together an HTPC

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I assume HTPC means Home Theater PC.

I've written the rough idea of the following elsewhere but will repeat it here (because I can type faster than I can search [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]).

My interest in a PC/Home Theater combo mostly has to do with music; I doubt I'd ever be playing/storing video off the PC. I love the iTunes interface and want it in my living room but with top notch sound (so I'm not interested in any type of iDock. Another reason for avoiding the iDock is I use the iNano (only 8 gigs) and iShuffle's for portable play and have no interest the clunkier iPod (plus want to avoid unsightly bulges in my pockets and I hate carrying things like a full size iPod).

I hope to use an old PC (I'll have one this winter) and connect to my home theater in such a way that I can do more or less the following:

1. Take the best of my CD collection and convert to files in a lossless format (e.g., FLAC or perhaps Apple AAC). I would perform these conversions from my fast PC in the other room at my leisure. I'd also include the best of my .mp3 and .m4a "lossy" formatted music (e.g., most of my mp3s are ripped using Exact Audio Copy and converted to .mp3s at a high bit-rate using LAME).

3. Transfer copy all this to a huge external HD.

3. Use the huge external HD (they are so cheap these days!) to transfer files to an old computer hooked up to my home theater (which also has great sound for straight music played off CDs).

4. Connect this old PC with tons of hard drive space (or simply use the huge external drive) and interface it in such a way that I can sit back in my living room chair, point at something with a Apple iPod style remote (i.e., the click wheel or device that does the same job almost as well), use the 50" flat screen (problem may be I have a Plasma, an LCD would probably be better but I'm plasma-stuck) as my iPod type display and select artists, playlists and so on just as one would with an iPod/iNano.

5. Sit back and enjoy living room full sound-stage music with iPod style convenience. Never have to get up to change CDs or advance over lousy tracks and so on.

6. Optimize some playlists for romance since gf and I already have the best living room "cuddle chaise lounge" on Earth (IMHO) [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Notes:

- realize I may need to put a quite power supply in the old PC.

- not interested in web surfing off the 50 inch plasma (or should I be?) so the PC doesn't need internet (or so I think).

- might be interested in visualizations playing on the Plasma while listening.

- want to use iTunes on the second PC; not sure if iTunes needs to connect to the web to play (none of my .mp3s are copy protected)

~ Rick

[Rick Nebiolo]

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rick, i've run into this rocketfish wireless rear speaker setup quite a bit online. never heard or used them myself. i'd still probably go for that or a native rear wireless setup before considering a virtual surround implementation. luckily, my main viewing room is well-suited for wiring.

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My friend's room would look fine with a center channel and a left/right speaker placed to the side along with the sub-woofer. He just doesn't want to hang or run wires for rear/side speakers.

~ Rick

[Josem]

some decent HTPC discussion is here: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...umber=12255529

[astroglide]

<font color="blue">My interest in a PC/Home Theater combo mostly has to do with music; I doubt I'd ever be playing/storing video off the PC. I love the iTunes interface and want it in my living room but with top notch sound</font>

have you looked at the apple tv? it sounds like a slam dunk for your interests.

<font color="blue">My friend's room would look fine with a center channel and a left/right speaker placed to the side along with the sub-woofer. He just doesn't want to hang or run wires for rear/side speakers.</font>

the rocketfish product i linked doesn't eliminate all cables, but it does eliminate the front-to-back need. that's the only way i've seen rear wireless setups work: wired speakers and sub, wireless signal to the rear, rear speakers wired to each other. but like i said, i have no personal experience with them. <font color="purple"> </font> <font color="purple"> </font>

[IggyWH]

Need help with a quick question for those of you in the know :

What do I need to hook a laptop up to a HDTV for both audio and video?

[Josem]

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What do I need to hook a laptop up to a HDTV for both audio and video?


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A cable that can transmit HDTV video (we're only talking up to 1920x1080 resolution here, so VGA cable or DVI cable should be fine)

and

A cable that can transmit HDTV audio (more likely to be difficult - you may be able to find some high-end laptops that can do high-def sound, or have multiple channels, but this will be rare. Maybe some expresscard or pcmcia card will be able to do it)


You then need the software on your laptop to play the video; windows media player is likely to suffice if you want something easy. other options include VLC and Media Player Classic.

[Slow Play Ray]

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I totally appreciate the effort that you obviously put into your post, but I'm pretty firm on the price and simplicity criteria. That's why I assumed that an HTIB would be the way to go. Do you (or anyone else) have any recommendations along that line?


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I just ordered this for $214.10 shipped (10% sale on refurbs + $10 off for joining the site + free shipping). You will not find a better deal.