Home theater done! pix 56k warning!

[01a4man]

Nice!! Congrats!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[zahntech]

I have a Media Center that I have been using for over a year. It feeds my Bose system and 46' Plasma. It also serves media to the deck and kitchen through wireless audio media extenders, a kids TV through Ethernet, 3 PCs (ethernet/wireless).

The true magic of the system is I have replace 6 separate stereo components with 1 powerful computer running the latest Windows XP Media Center 2005 software.

Some of the things it does:

1) I can surf Prime and do computer things while watching TV

2) I have 60,000 digital pictures and 9,000 songs. It scanned my songs and organized them into artists/albums/genres. I start up a song list then tell it to randomly play all of my pictures (including automatic an and zoom). Awesome - it is like being at your own funeral

3) I have 3 tuner cards in the machine and it acts a a free Tivo! Not only that - full internet convergence! So it downloads 2 weeks of programming and it will use up to all 3 tuners at a time to record my shows. When scanning for shows - if it is a movie - it downloads the movie cover and ratings/information from the net

4) Instead of running co-ax cable to all TV's - the Media Center now serves Tivo, Live TV, and Video content to any room via Wireless or Ethernet cable. Awesome for the Kids!

5) With the remote I can go to the "internet" and download and stream/play movies, live TV, videos. I love to make my own newscast on MSNBC. I literally pick the stories from the last few days and it queues them up as a single video with no commercials (after a quick 30 second one).

6) The kids have their games on the 46" setup with surround sound. We have every board game known to man on the computer and it is fun to play video games on a 46" plasma with surround sound while still serving up media all over the house.

7) I have 2 DVD players/burners built in for backing up Tivo content or serving up to 2 DVD movies to multiple rooms

8) It comes with neat visualizations so you can "veg out" when listening to music

9) It has IM built in - but I am not into that as much

10) I have 40 hours of NSX and other car videos that are all on-demand as well has home movies from the last 20 years

11) It has a free service that allows you to schedule TV programs from the internet! I can see and even resolve conflicts.

People are blown away with how much a "TV" can do when their is full convergence between the Internet, TV, music, movies, and your picture collection.

Whoa..this was like listening to 200 conversations my wife has had in the last year....she works on the MediaCenter Team at MS:smile:

 

[peiserg]

i'll take some pics tonight and try to upload them..

Mine's not quite up to the standards of most of you guys, but *cough* gets the job done (barely).

My major complaint is that the lights (literally) dim in the house when something loud happens during a movie.

 

[CL65 Captain]

i'll take some pics tonight and try to upload them..

Mine's not quite up to the standards of most of you guys, but *cough* gets the job done (barely).

My major complaint is that the lights (literally) dim in the house when something loud happens during a movie.

That shouldn't be happening. I am running a total of 4400 watts with no problems, only a Monster power conditioner. 200x7 stereo, 2000x2 buttkickers, 1000 x 1 for the sub.

 

[djdrock]

*Soon to add: High def DVD & High def DVR

I have been enjoying HD for about 2 1/2 years or so with my DVR and HBO/Showtime/UniversalHD/HDNet Movies programming. With this said, I have been archiving HD programming to my JVC HD VCR. Have a collection of close to 200 movies now, all in 1080i HD. Needless to say, my DVD collection is dwindling. Anyways, glad to see there are other HT and HD enthusiasts on the forum.

I am anxious to see how the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray war ends. Until then, I will keep archiving as I am to my HD-VCR. :biggrin:

 

[NSX2398]

Until then, I will keep archiving as I am to my HD-VCR. :biggrin:

Are you kidding or have you found some way to archive HD content to a VCR?

 

[djdrock]

Are you kidding or have you found some way to archive HD content to a VCR?

Nope, I am not kidding. I have been doing it for quite some time. There are several ways to go about it, but the best is if you have cable and not satellite. http://www.avsforum.com in the HD recorders area has tons of information on it.

Basically, I use Fuji Super-VHS tapes instead of the more expensive D-VHS tapes (the same thing, maybe even better at a greatly reduced cost). Your DVR/Cable Box must have an active firewire connection (all cable providers are supposed to offer this, by law in the US) and connect it to the firewire input of the VCR. I just set my DVR to record the programming I want, then dump it to tape when I have time. I make my own artwork for the VHS boxes. It truly is fun. The quality is excellent. Frankly, I am so spoiled that I hardly watch any DVD's.

It is not an exact science, but for the most part, it works great. There are a number of D-VHS decks available. I use JVC's first generation deck, and it has worked flawlessly for over 2 years (knock on wood). :biggrin: The prices of the decks have come down tremendously. I remember this deck costing $2000 + when it was first introduced years ago. I bought mine for around $400 and managed to get a backup at Sears for $200. I am anxious for the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray format war to be over, but frankly, I don't care much. Even if I never recorded another HD program to tape, I would have 70% of the movies I have ever wanted in HD. (Shawshank Redemption, Boogie Nights, A Time to Kill, Fargo, 8MM, etc...)

 

[skyguy]

Aw thats cool! So if you have those speaker outs on your powered sub, you can wire them from there?.

(my rack is tight) wont fit anything else in there, so another amp is out of the question.

The Dayton 100w amp has speaker output, but for a quality home theater I would reccommend a dedicated AV control/receiver. :biggrin:

Dayton link: http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=300-802

 

[skyguy]

That looks great! How do you like the projector?

Love it!

http://www.projectorcentral.com/optoma_h31.htm

 

[peiserg]

That shouldn't be happening. I am running a total of 4400 watts with no problems, only a Monster power conditioner. 200x7 stereo, 2000x2 buttkickers, 1000 x 1 for the sub.

dunno. But at full blast, there's definitely a mild, transient dimming of the overhead lights.. it's not like a brown out, not even close. but it's noticeable. Denon 3806, BUttkicker 1000A, HPS 1000, Velodyne 1200R.. a "theoretical" peak draw of 4800watts or so..

Guess it could just be the insides of my eyeballs turning to jelly? Oh wait.. they are already jelly...

 

[NsXMas]

i'll take some pics tonight and try to upload them..

Mine's not quite up to the standards of most of you guys, but *cough* gets the job done (barely).

My major complaint is that the lights (literally) dim in the house when something loud happens during a movie.

Oh shut up Gerry. Your home theater is one of the nicest I've personally seen. I'm just lucky to be able to come over, hang out, play some XBOX360 live, and enjoy your movie theater.

 

[sabashioyaki]

Skyguy, very nice setup but it's kind of odd you only have a single JBL 10 and shakers.

 

[ghost]

Not to hi-jack and out-do, but I'm going to have to toot my own horn here for my college setup.

Took us about 25 minutes to complete.

We can turn the volume up and down on the TV, cable box, and stereo....

And just to clarify, there are two other surround speakers that can't be seen, so yeh.

You had cable !!... .you were living large !!!

 

[skyguy]

Skyguy, very nice setup but it's kind of odd you only have a single JBL 10 and shakers.

Uh, I have a 7.1 system. It includes a JBL 10 inch bass with its own amp. The Bass shakers are powered by a seperate Dayton 100w amp. Not shared with the bass speaker. I looked into a 7.2 system, (dual bass) but with testing the acoustics with the Avia audio/video tune DVD it was not needed to add a second bass.

Does this answer your question?

 

[redshift]

Uh, I have a 7.1 system. It includes a JBL 10 inch bass with its own amp. The Bass shakers are powered by a seperate Dayton 100w amp. Not shared with the bass speaker. I looked into a 7.2 system, (dual bass) but with testing the acoustics with the Avia audio/video tune DVD it was not needed to add a second bass.

Does this answer your question?

Check out SVS subwoofers. These bad boys are just an amazing bang for your buck! I'm planning on putting together a home theater setup with projector (et al) soon and I'm going to put my SVS cylinder in there without hiding it :smile:. It's a good conversation piece too. :wink:

BTW, great job skyguy!

 

[peiserg]

Uh, I have a 7.1 system. It includes a JBL 10 inch bass with its own amp. The Bass shakers are powered by a seperate Dayton 100w amp. Not shared with the bass speaker. I looked into a 7.2 system, (dual bass) but with testing the acoustics with the Avia audio/video tune DVD it was not needed to add a second bass.

Does this answer your question?

uh... must have more bass. one cannot enjoy life in general if one's home theater only has a single subwoofer.

my current (and for a long time to come) setup has the infinity HPS 1000 (15" downfiring with 2 15" side passives) and the velodine 1200 R (front firing 12" 1000 RMS/2000 peak amp). I've got 3 bass shakers running off the 1000A buttkicker amp. ahhh... helps the hemorrhoids..

 

[Motegi]

Re: Home theater done! warning! pull up whoopwhoop

anyone tapped their pc's into the home theatre??
that's the angle i'm shootn' for.

I use a Windows MediaCenter PC with a 42" plasma. I enjoy watching WMV-HD DVDs on this.

 

[sabashioyaki]

Uh, I have a 7.1 system. It includes a JBL 10 inch bass with its own amp. The Bass shakers are powered by a seperate Dayton 100w amp. Not shared with the bass speaker. I looked into a 7.2 system, (dual bass) but with testing the acoustics with the Avia audio/video tune DVD it was not needed to add a second bass.

Does this answer your question?

Uh, I didn't ask a question.

I seriously doubt you are getting any output below 30hz from that little JBL sub. Dual subs, don't know what dual bass means, will just get you more output not extension.