reccomended components

[Kartajan]

Budget is dependant upon value..

Items of note:

- Primarily watch SDTV (Just the TV) and DVD (Full surround)

- Want to run the Wife's PC into it for moderate gaming

- Would prefer to have a sinlge input to the TV (Probably HDMI)

- Occasional Karaoke use (Has Component, but no HDMI)

Just the electronics, no "home theater seating/ etc)

I am thinking a (42-50") EDTV (Plasma or LCD), w/ a HDMI 1.3 capable tuner. 5.1 works, 7.1 would be about right- maybe as far as 720p HDTV to get decent appearance w/ the PC.

Thinking lower budget range (5-7 K?) for TV/ tuner/ Speakers

Comments/ Suggestions/ Flames???


edit: left out size.. This is for a relatively small room at the moment, but I rent, so the room size will change...

 

[Shawn]

Why would you get an EDTV? I didn't even know they still made them.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

HD for sure. With a 5-7k budget, you should be wondering about 720p vs. 1080p, not 480p vs. 720p. 1080p would be preferred for Computer Use (as long as your videocard can handle 1920x1080)

You can use your receiver and speakers to watch regular TV, DVD, and any other input.

If you spend $3k-$4k on a nice 50" display, that leaves a nice budget for receiver + speakers.

You'll have LOTs of options for both displays and sound on a budget like that.

Especially in tha case of speakers, going out to demo things in person is something you should definitely consider doing.

To get a single input running to the TV, you'll want not only an HDMI capable receiver, but one that can upconvert all input types to HDMI as well.

 

[FP]

I am building a similar HT system right now with the same budget. I am going with...

TV: Pioneer PDP-5010HD 1080p plasma. (Out in August/MSRP $5000/Likely street $3500)
Receiver: Either a Denon 2808 (Out in Sept/MSRP $????/Likely street $899) or one of the new Onkyos (Model 805)
Front L/R: av123.com x-mtms (Out now/$449 a pair)
Center: av123.com x-cs (Out now/$139)
Rear L/R: HTD Middies (Out now/$150 a pair)
Sub: SVS PB10-NSD (Out now/$429)
HD-DVD Player: Toshiba XA2 (Out now/Wait a month and they will be down to about $450)

Pretty kick ass HT system and adds up to about $6,500 with shipping and taxes. I have been researching this stuff for the last 6 months. Check out avsforum.com for all the info you could ever want.

Go with Pioneer for your screen. It blows everything else out of the water unless you have a dedicated HT room, then I would suggest getting a 1080p projector.

 

[Kartajan]

I have heard that most HDTV's do not scale SD very well, thus my initial EDTV thoughts..

 

[MrChad]

Originally posted by: Kartajan
I have heard that most HDTV's do not scale SD very well, thus my initial EDTV thoughts..

My Panasonic plasma (720p) displays SD quite well. I agree with YoYo; if you're dropping that kind of cash, you should definitely be looking at HD displays.

 

[Diaonic]

I got about $4k into my HT system.

42inch Westing House LCD
KEF 2005.2 5.1 speakers
KEF Matching Sub
Sony STR-DG510 reciever
Logitech Harmony remote
Front Bose speaker stands ( these are perfect height for the front)
Rear KEF speaker stands ( these sit higher than my sofa)
Speaker Wire / Monster Cables ect..

My Setup

Future upgrades will be:
Better Reciever
Better Room ( Buying a house)
Bigger TV

 

[Rio Rebel]

Originally posted by: Kartajan
I have heard that most HDTV's do not scale SD very well, thus my initial EDTV thoughts..

I think you've been misinformed. I have an ED plasma that has the worst de-interlacer I've seen (though it does well with 1080 or 720 scaling down to 480p)

scaler/de-interlacer is different model to model, and I don't think there are any trends of ED or HD as a technology doing the job better or worse.

 

[sdifox]

Go projector... use the PC as your main driver for the projector. You will not regret this. a 720p projector is the sweet spot right now.

 

[FP]

Originally posted by: Kartajan
I have heard that most HDTV's do not scale SD very well, thus my initial EDTV thoughts..

The Toshiba XA2 HD-DVD player I mentioned has one of the best scaler/deinterlacers on the market (the Reon) so all of your SD DVDs will look outstanding.

You could also step up to a better AVR that includes the Reon chip for all inputs. That will make all of your SD viewing better.

There is no reason to go with EDTV at this time.

 

[Kartajan]

so where to I look for the Reon chip in the reveiver?

 

[dwell]

Originally posted by: Kartajan
I have heard that most HDTV's do not scale SD very well, thus my initial EDTV thoughts..

Check out these SD shots from a Pioneer 5080:

http://www.avforums.com/forums...=5060273&postcount=669

Keep in mind that in the UK SD is broadcast at 720x480

 

[FP]

Originally posted by: Kartajan
so where to I look for the Reon chip in the reveiver?

The high-end Onkyos (875 on up) and high-end Denons (aren't out yet) will have it.

If you are just concerned about DVDs then just get the Toshiba XA2 which also has the Reon.

 

[A5]

If you're dropping $10K for a HT, you should probably get some HDTV service too

 

[fisheerman]

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: Kartajan
Budget is dependant upon value..

Items of note:

- Primarily watch SDTV (Just the TV) and DVD (Full surround)

- Want to run the Wife's PC into it for moderate gaming

- Would prefer to have a sinlge input to the TV (Probably HDMI)

- Occasional Karaoke use (Has Component, but no HDMI)

Just the electronics, no "home theater seating/ etc)

I am thinking a (42-50") EDTV (Plasma or LCD), w/ a HDMI 1.3 capable tuner. 5.1 works, 7.1 would be about right- maybe as far as 720p HDTV to get decent appearance w/ the PC.

Thinking lower budget range (5-7 K?) for TV/ tuner/ Speakers

Comments/ Suggestions/ Flames???


edit: left out size.. This is for a relatively small room at the moment, but I rent, so the room size will change...
</end quote></div>


The best setup that I have done on a budget is something like this.

Reciever: go out to ebay and get one of the pioneer refurbs offered from Pioneer. they carry a warranty and you can pick them up pretty cheap. look at something like the tsx-816 or 1016. they have plenty of power and also offer the auto surround setup feature.
note:tuning for new HT enth. is a bit of a pain as well as requiring some other equipment.

speakers: go out to frys web page (outpost.com) and see if they have any of the polk speakers on sale. I have seen the R or M series towers go for 39-49 a piece at various times. pick up 4 of them they are good speakers for the money.
look for the center channel polk (csi3 or cs2) as well but don't buy the polk subs they are way overpriced!.
go to partexpress.com and get a entry level dayton sub 12" it rocks for the money. if you are spending less than 500 bucks these subs will perform like comparables in the 250 price range.

plasma: pick up a panny 42" HDTV display. it will perform well. i wouldn't get hung up on HDMI unless you are going to 1080i. it isn't worth the extra dollars. I would say a nice 720p picture will look great for entry level

This setup should allow you to enjoy entry level HT without breaking the bank. This is the setup I have in my family room except i have upgraded to the 50" panny plasma.

When you want to do something more serious you will want a dedicated HT room that you can seal up, install theater seating, as well as mount a front projector for 100"+ displays. but then you get into the big dollars.

good luck and let us know how it goes.

-fish

 

[dandragonrage]

PC use rules out plasma. They get burn-in. People will say they don't get it anymore, but that's ridiculous, as if they could possibly completely get rid of it. Bet those people don't believe in LCD image persistence either.

Do yourself a favor and get a Samsung DLP set.

 

[MrChad]

Originally posted by: dandragonrage
PC use rules out plasma. They get burn-in. People will say they don't get it anymore, but that's ridiculous, as if they could possibly completely get rid of it. Bet those people don't believe in LCD image persistence either.

Do yourself a favor and get a Samsung DLP set.

:roll:

If you properly break-in your plasma set for the first several 100 hours and then use correct calibrated settings, you will not see burn-in. You may see image retention, but it is temporary and will go away after a short while.

 

[FP]

Originally posted by: MrChad
<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: dandragonrage
PC use rules out plasma. They get burn-in. People will say they don't get it anymore, but that's ridiculous, as if they could possibly completely get rid of it. Bet those people don't believe in LCD image persistence either.

Do yourself a favor and get a Samsung DLP set.</end quote></div>

:roll:

If you properly break-in your plasma set for the first several 100 hours and then use correct calibrated settings, you will not see burn-in. You may see image retention, but it is temporary and will go away after a short while.

Agreed. Plus many newer plasmas have IR-reduction technology that virtually eliminates the problem.

If you plan to leave your computer desktop on all day without any power saving modes then there might be a problem but for normal use it isn't.