What are your Home Theater goals for 2011? [Archive] - Audio & Video Forums

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BadAssJazz
01-19-2011, 11:31 AM
Discuss.

And please let's try to keep this thread civil. :14:

Feanor
01-19-2011, 11:46 AM
Discuss.

And please let's try to keep this thread civil. :14:
All I want is more software, whether on silver disc, via cable/satelite, or streaming.

GMichael
01-19-2011, 12:18 PM
My goal is to not spend anymore money on it.

But if I were, my first upgrade would be a new projector. Mine is only 720p and is at it's light level limit at 106". One of the new Epson models would be nice. Even the $1k model is 1080p with better light and contrast output.

pixelthis
01-19-2011, 01:15 PM
I HAVE BEEN "upgrading" for the past two years, and everything is pretty well "done".
But my next "project" will most likely be speakers, as I messed up my last scheduled
speaker upgrade. My current speakers are going on eight years, and my sub, while
quite nice(a B&W clone of BOB CARVERS mini cube)is on its second plate amp.
In order to get a justifiable upgrade would take five to ten grand.
If I hit a superfecta at the track, maybe . ALSO I bought an interim TV not too long ago,
and love it, but plan on going LED in a few years.And Emotiva has a new digital preamp
that would be nice for integration into the front two channels.:1:

Tarheel_
01-19-2011, 01:53 PM
If the real estate market turns and I unload some baggage, i plan to finish my basement HT. It's currently made up of painted cement walls, berber carpet, handmade ceiling and black curtains.
I would love to see this room finished with a new projector and an Anthem processor!

Swish
01-21-2011, 12:25 PM
As some of you will remember, I had a relatively small HT room at my previous home (13 wide by 18 long), but it was pretty cool looking with a panned ceiling. We sold that home in the summer of '09 after just one day on the market, and rented for 6 months before finding our next home last January.

Like the previous home, this one has a day-light basement and it's already finished. We did a ton of things on the main level and I vowed not to mess with the HT room until that was done. I just had a new gas fireplace installed in the room on Wednesday. Next I need to get the fireplace surround sheet-rocked and finished, then I'm building a wall in the back of the HT space with pocket doors to separate it from the rest of the basement.

Then I need to run all my speaker wires, along with cables and HDMI as I'm going the projector route. I'm going to build the screen and am set on a 110" using laminate as suggested by another RR member. I'm probably going to buy an Epson 8700 UB, but that's not set in stone.

I have all the other equipment since my wife bought me a PS3 for Christmas. Just for everyone's knowledge, I have a Rotel RSP1098 and had the HDMI upgrade done last year. I have 5 channel and 2 channel Adcom amps, and all Paradigm speakers and MIT interconnects. I'll probably use my old Panasonic RP82 DVD player for audio discs only, but I'm not sure about that. I'm going to see how well the PS3 fills that need.

I will also need to paint and figure out how to ceiling mount my projector, so there's a lot of smaller projects to deal with before I can really enjoy this room, but it's going to be worth it in the end.

recoveryone
01-21-2011, 01:54 PM
Just try to learn more about the equipment I have and how to use it to its max potential.

Woochifer
01-21-2011, 06:41 PM
I think that aside from maybe a universal remote, I won't do too much this year. Having a three year old running around the living room really changes a lot of priorities for the home theater setup. Thought about a new receiver, but it's just not worth it to me right now.

For the longest time, I had the speakers and everything else in a very precise alignment (the ITU equidistant circle with the mains at a 30 degree angle and the surrounds at a 110 degree angle), but to make more play space available for my daughter, we pushed the sofa back almost to the wall and brought the surround speakers right next to the sofa. More room to play, but knocked the surround effect down a few notches. If anything, my goal would be to get the surround sound back to where I had it before!

BTW, if anyone knows how I should repair a dinged corner on a standmounted speaker, let me know! (my daughter knocked one of my Studio 40s off the stand and it put a nice dent in the front corner)

harley .guy07
01-21-2011, 08:57 PM
Well I just added a new pair of Emotiva surround speakers to finish and upgrade my theater system and they are doing really well. the only thing I have left to do is to add a dedicated preamp for 2 channel that I can integrate into my system for music use. I am really close to getting something and I will post when this happens but otherwise I am done for a while and I will just enjoy the system for what it is.

BadAssJazz
01-21-2011, 09:41 PM
Initially I was going to stand pat and simply enjoy my current rig for all it's worth ...

...and then someone went and posted an ad on Audiogon for a pair of Silverline Sonatina Mk III's for under $3K. And in the luxurious briarwood veneer, which I really, REALLY like. Tempting. So damn tempting.

If someone doesn't buy the Sonatinas between now and Thursday, when I return home from the road, I will have no choice but to buy them. Said purchase will trigger a domino effect of incremental upgrades/swapping.

Firstly, I'll want a separate amp to better drive the new speakers, not that there is anything wrong with the Pioneer Elite SC-07's amp section. Rotel, Emotiva, Parasound, Anthem, Marantz...any decent stereo amp will do. I'll continue to use the PE for the rear surrounds, center and sub, unless I stumble upon a 3 or 5 channel amp at a decent price.

After the amp, I'll want to repurchase the center and rear surrounds in the matching veneer, as they are are currently in the rosewood, not briarwood finish. Sell the old and replace them with the newer versions. Too bad Silverline Audio doesn't have an exchange program.

Third, the TV stand has to go, too. Actually, that should have gone a year ago. It's truly designed for a 40" TV, but I continued to use it even though my current set is slightly larger than that. Whether I purchase the Sontinas or not, the stand is the one surefire improvement that I will definitely make this year.

Wow, that's quite a bit of change for a guy who intended to do nothing HT-wise this year. Someone please do me a favor and buy those Sonatinas before I get home. Please! I'm begging you!

eisforelectronic
01-22-2011, 06:26 PM
Silverline Sonatina Mk III's? Very Nice!!

basite
01-23-2011, 01:48 AM
To actually have a home theater :D

I'm building a home theater attic now, completely redoing the attic altogether. It won't be such a big room, the H/T area is about 12feet x 15feet, but space will be well used :), components will go in a shelf/cabinet in a lower area under the roof, that's not "part" of the available space.

seating will be mostly on big sitting cushions, ... think of it as a fairly large "cosy corner", for sitting, reading, relaxing, which just happens to have a projector & speakers in it... :14:

We will project on the wall, with "special paint", projection size will be around 80-85 inch :)
speakers will be Wharfedale Diamond 10.2's for the fronts (see thread), diamond 10 CS center, rears are undecided yet, subwoofer is undecided too for the moment, in the beginning we will use an old subwoofer from a (really decent) PC set).
AVR will be Yamaha RX-V667.
projector is a Benq MP625P at the moment, we'll see what the future brings :), it does 720p and it looks really good actually, tested it a few times already in here, and at friends, screen size was 80" here, and 110" at friends, both on walls, and the "110 inch was somewhat of a challenge, it lost some sharpness and it all looked to "busy", but here it was just perfect :)

sources are a "home made" media center PC, running win7 and xmbc, hdmi connection for video, digital coax for sound (hdmi on graphics card doesn't support audio too :(, future will bring either a dedicated blu ray player, or a PS3 :). We have a large part of our dvd collection digitalized on a server here, pc will have a blu ray player too.

So,
lot's of work to do :)

Keep them spinning,
Bert.

pixelthis
01-23-2011, 12:46 PM
I think that aside from maybe a universal remote, I won't do too much this year. Having a three year old running around the living room really changes a lot of priorities for the home theater setup. Thought about a new receiver, but it's just not worth it to me right now.

For the longest time, I had the speakers and everything else in a very precise alignment (the ITU equidistant circle with the mains at a 30 degree angle and the surrounds at a 110 degree angle), but to make more play space available for my daughter, we pushed the sofa back almost to the wall and brought the surround speakers right next to the sofa. More room to play, but knocked the surround effect down a few notches. If anything, my goal would be to get the surround sound back to where I had it before!

BTW, if anyone knows how I should repair a dinged corner on a standmounted speaker, let me know! (my daughter knocked one of my Studio 40s off the stand and it put a nice dent in the front corner)

TWO options open for ya.
If the speakers black, shoe polish or a magic marker. Any other color, a marker to match.
WHEN I got my B&W's back from an abusive friend, went over the various spots, now get
compliments about how "new" they look.
Which brings up another goal...PIANO FINISH!:1:

RoyY51
01-24-2011, 03:23 PM
To not have to sell any equipment in order to make the house payment...

Hyfi
01-24-2011, 05:07 PM
I think I hit my goal with the OPPO BDP93. After some tweaking I will be good for a while.

noddin0ff
01-25-2011, 06:16 AM
My goals have been to simplify, digitize, and network. I got the TV I'd spent 4 years lusting for and a modest AV receiver upgrade in December, so I'm content with gear.

Networking is looking good:
I just upgraded my central wireless router to a simultaneous dual band (5GHz/2.4Ghz) in order to better handle video through the house. Yes, Macboy that I am, I went with the Apple Extreme, although I closely shopped the D-link offering. In the end the cost difference was negligible and I went for easier integration and familiarity. I bumped my existing Extreme down a floor to extend the 5GHz network to the basement where there's a small TV w/ AppleTV serving my wife's elliptical machine (and my rowing machine that I never use). Now she can stream Netflix (+youtube,flickr, n stuff), the music library, the photo library and my expanding video library.

The main AV center is the 50" plasma + 5.1. It too is fed by an AppleTV as well as a internet enabled Samsung Bluray. So far, AppleTV streams Netflix way better than the BR. Both of these are actually hardwired to the main router so streaming is solid. Plus, the AppleTV accesses iTunes, Photos, and my video library, etc.

Audio also streams to two more systems via the little Apple Airport Express thingies, one to a DAC (MD10), the other analog for now.

The main server is a Mac Mini with a 2T external drive. It operates wirelessly on the 5GHz network. I might hardwire it if I can find a long cable. Although I don't experience problems.

Digitizing is ongoing:
All my music is digitized lossless. I've been working my way through my DVD library. It's a much slower process. I do a few a week and have about 70 movies ripped, maybe more than 150 to go; the rips all can pass through 5.1 DD to the main system via the network. Finally. I've collected and organized 7+ years of digital photos into iPhoto and am contemplating scanning the many prior years of negatives. I was really reluctant to hand control of photos over to iPhoto. But, in the end, it's made everything much more accessible.

All of this gets backed up regularly, although I need to improve my regularity. It would suck to not have backups, as you can imagine.

Simplify:
Well...I try. In the perfect world my wife could run this all. As she really has no interest in setting aside time for me to give her a walkthrough, we're not there. Next up is my 7 year old. She's almost ready to figure it all out. However, most the basic functions work through the Harmony One remote. I did simplify the gear dramatically when I got the 50" + and new HDMI receiver. I took out the CD player, the DVD player, and the DAC from the rig. and replaced with BR and AppleTV. Far less clutter now, far fewer buttons to worry about. However, in came a whole new suit of unfamiliar remotes...

More recently, Apple has been greatly improving the usability and capability of the Remote application for the iPod/iPhone. Anything involving the AppleTV or my libraries can be run from iPods now, making everything about as easy to run as it ever has been. I love that I can send any music anywhere in the house via the iPod in my pocket.

I suppose my last goal is to figure out how to calibrate the TV and fine tune the audio processing in the AV Receiver. I switched from Yamaha to Denon and now need to familiarize myself to a different organization and bring myself up to speed with all the HDMI AV stuff. By and large everything works just fine so I'm not in any hurry. It would satisfy the geek in me, if the geek in me had the spare time to be satisfied.

(O0o*o0O)
02-11-2011, 02:38 PM
:smilewinkgrin:

dean_martin
02-11-2011, 03:07 PM
2 modest goals:

I run a two channel integrated with a subwoofer (2.1, I guess). I'd like to upgrade the integrated or go with a stereo receiver like the Outlaw unit which has bass management. I haven't had any problems with the speaker-level connections to my sub because I only use this system for tv and video but I'd like the option of a sub out with bass management. Plus, the remote for my integrated is starting to act funny when trying to control volume.

Netflix at a higher resolution. Unless Dish comes along with on-demand as part of my existing package, I'd like an improvement over the current picture we get from using the Nintendo Wii. Nintendo has a proprietary cable (a $50 extra) with a component connection that takes the signal from 480i (with the stock composite connection) to 480p but I don't know if that will make much difference. (My BR player doesn't do Netflix but I love it anyway or I would just get the new Oppo and be done with it.)

BadAssJazz
02-11-2011, 05:42 PM
Silverline Sonatina Mk III's? Very Nice!!

Yep, but I've come to my senses. The seller is in GA and the likelihood of getting two 100-pound speakers all the way from GA to CA at a reasonable freight price & without being damaged en route are slim. I'll pass on the Sonatina's. If I happen to stumble upon a pair for sale locally, I'll pull the trigger.

Getting back to upgrades, suddenly my 50" flatscreen seems smallish to me. Anyone else ever get the urge to supersize for no practical reason at all?

Swish
02-12-2011, 06:15 AM
Yep, but I've come to my senses. The seller is in GA and the likelihood of getting two 100-pound speakers all the way from GA to CA at a reasonable freight price & without being damaged en route are slim. I'll pass on the Sonatina's. If I happen to stumble upon a pair for sale locally, I'll pull the trigger.

Getting back to upgrades, suddenly my 50" flatscreen seems smallish to me. Anyone else ever get the urge to supersize for no practical reason at all?

...from another state and it cost about $100.00. They arrived in excellent condition and were boxed so well that it would have been very difficult to damage them. The fact that they're insured also helped, so you may want to rethink this?

GMichael
02-12-2011, 06:53 AM
Getting back to upgrades, suddenly my 50" flatscreen seems smallish to me. Anyone else ever get the urge to supersize for no practical reason at all?
I have two projectors. One has a 92" screen and the other a 106" screen. I still get the urge to go bigger.

Swish
02-12-2011, 08:38 AM
I have two projectors. One has a 92" screen and the other a 106" screen. I still get the urge to go bigger.

Man do you suck. I'm pretty much set on a 110" screen, but you're making me wonder if I should go a little bigger. Actually, with the room size and throw, I don't think I can. That would make the screen 8 feet wide and 54" high, and I can't imagine having any regrets with that...or can I? My room is 18' wide, 23' deep, the ceiling is 7'8" high, and the throw will be from about 15'. I just don't see how or why I should go bigger.

pixelthis
02-12-2011, 10:49 AM
:smilewinkgrin:

think twice, your stuff sounds better turned off.:1:

BadAssJazz
02-12-2011, 11:46 AM
I have two projectors. One has a 92" screen and the other a 106" screen. I still get the urge to go bigger.

HMOG ... 106"?!? Always reassuring to know that I'm in the right company. :p

Guess I'll go look at some bigger screen tv's later today...while the little lady is out of town.

pixelthis
02-13-2011, 10:13 AM
Yep, but I've come to my senses. The seller is in GA and the likelihood of getting two 100-pound speakers all the way from GA to CA at a reasonable freight price & without being damaged en route are slim. I'll pass on the Sonatina's. If I happen to stumble upon a pair for sale locally, I'll pull the trigger.

Getting back to upgrades, suddenly my 50" flatscreen seems smallish to me. Anyone else ever get the urge to supersize for no practical reason at all?
aw...C'MON. Those speakers are orgasmically GOOD.
IFFEN you want a larger screen, QVC is having a DLP sale!
65" to 82", with or without stand. With a two year warranty , needed for DLP.
The 65" is 200 somethin a month for six months, the 82", 500 a month.
Includes two 3D glasses and HDMI cable. I HAVE seen the 82" at a local dealer, in 2 and 3d,
the picture is nothing short of amazing.:1:

TheHills44060
02-13-2011, 01:17 PM
A new tv stand and maybe a new remote control.

blackraven
02-13-2011, 01:47 PM
I'd like a larger Center channel speaker and the Oppo BDP-95. It probably won't happen this year.

GMichael
02-13-2011, 06:44 PM
Man do you suck. I'm pretty much set on a 110" screen, but you're making me wonder if I should go a little bigger. Actually, with the room size and throw, I don't think I can. That would make the screen 8 feet wide and 54" high, and I can't imagine having any regrets with that...or can I? My room is 18' wide, 23' deep, the ceiling is 7'8" high, and the throw will be from about 15'. I just don't see how or why I should go bigger.
I am sure that 110" will be great and you'll never have regrets with it. But those upgrade urges always sneak up on me. That JVC HD250 sure looks nice!:biggrin5:

amarmistry
02-15-2011, 08:02 AM
I would love to upgrade speakers and receiver. I got non-HDMI receiver connected directly to my projector.
I would love to get a new receiver and may be in-wall speakers... but seriously, if I can just have choppy blu-ray video problem resolved, I'd be very happy!

Hyfi
02-15-2011, 11:14 AM
think twice, your stuff sounds better turned off.:1:

+1 lol