new video setup

[dean_martin]

I've been saving through 2012 to upgrade my family room video system. I currently have a Panny plasma that's several years old. It's going to the bedroom to replace a ball-bustin' heavy-assed 32" Sony CRT that died early 2012. (The Sony is still sitting there waiting on a crane to remove it.)

Anyhow, the highly rated 2012 Panasonic plasmas are on sale - the ST50, GT50 and VT50. The VT50 may be a dream display but it's not within my budget. I had decided on the 55" ST50 then realized the 55" GT50 is currently only $50 more. I pulled the trigger on the GT50 and it's supposed to be delivered Friday. If it performs as reliably as my old Panny and ups the ante on picture quality, I'll be pleased. The wife should love the SMART features.

I'm going to partner it with an Oppo BDP-103.

After being down with the flu for a week, implementing this long-planned upgrade is making me feel a little better. The wife and I were going to try to get it done before New Year's Day, but the influenza virus had other plans for both of us.

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

Congrats Deano! Looks like you got a nice set for sure. You will love the Oppo as well.

I love upgrades.......:)

[dean_martin]

Congrats Deano! Looks like you got a nice set for sure. You will love the Oppo as well.

I love upgrades.......:)

Thanks, Sir T. The tv arrived yesterday. The design of the GT50 is stylish. I found that some of the picture settings were very good right out of the box (particularly THX Cinema mode), but I'm fine tuning using the custom setting as well. What's interesting so far is that it appears that I may have to switch picture settings depending on content. For example, the best setting to my eye for watching Sherlock Holmes on a premium movie channel is not the best setting for watching NBA basketball on ESPN.

The Oppo BD-103 is in the house too. This machine was thoughtfully packaged for safe shipping and handling. Not much time with it yet. The first test scene was the pod races from Phantom Menace blu-ray. Wow!!! The Oppo and Panny GT50 combo really performed. The whole family was sitting there saying "look at that", "look at that"!

It's still early in our evaluation. One thing we've noticed is that the sound is quite a bit different from our old Panny plasma. The new tv is much thinner. I'm not sure whether it's the size of the speakers or their position on the back of the tv. The sound seems to be somewhat muffled. I need to satisfy myself that there's nothing wrong with the tv's speakers and then come up with a way to reinforce the sound for regular tv viewing (we're not in the habit of using the audio system for regular tv watching). This may take some getting used to.

As luck would have it, upgrades often reveal flaws elsewhere. We used to run component out from our DISH receiver to our old 768p plasma. That's how it was installed and I never tried the hdmi output. For the new tv, I connected an hdmi cable but got no signal. The hdmi output from my current DISH receiver does not work. The wife got on the phone and lined up DISH to come out Tuesday. They said they would upgrade all our receivers for no charge! My evaluation of the tv's performance on broadcast content won't be complete until after we get our new DISH receiver.

Right now, I'm satisfied that this tv has the best picture quality I've seen with blu-ray content (although my experience is only slightly more than pedestrian) . It really shines when being fed by the Oppo. The evaluation will continue when we get our new DISH receiver Tuesday. Oh yeah, I still need to at least try 3D too!

[Worf101]

Congrats on the new gear. You don't run your set up via a Home Theatre receiver? I couldn't go with television sound for five minutes without losing my collective mind. I'm considering upgrading my HT receiver this spring once the taxes come in. I find it much easier to route all the stuff (HD cable, Blu-Ray and anything else) through my Onkyo and let my vintage ADS 1290's handle the rest. Still I'm glad you've spent some moolah on yourself. Of course you know this thread is useless WITHOUT PICS!!!!!

Worf

[dean_martin]

Congrats on the new gear. You don't run your set up via a Home Theatre receiver? I couldn't go with television sound for five minutes without losing my collective mind. I'm considering upgrading my HT receiver this spring once the taxes come in. I find it much easier to route all the stuff (HD cable, Blu-Ray and anything else) through my Onkyo and let my vintage ADS 1290's handle the rest. Still I'm glad you've spent some moolah on yourself. Of course you know this thread is useless WITHOUT PICS!!!!!

Worf

Thanks! The odd shape of the family room has me stumped on setting up surround speakers so I've been going with an integrated stereo amp, a pair of NHT SuperOnes recommended when I first joined here and a Velodyne subwoofer. But I'm beginning to re-think the need for an a/v receiver for several reasons (including connections, as you mentioned). Interestingly enough, we're getting in the habit of turning on the amp for regular tv since the new display arrived. My wife reminded that our older panny plasma distorted too except that we could turn up the volume a little more before we heard distortion as compared to the new display. I'm thinking you just can't get around the laws of physics with today's thinner displays. Anyhow, our viewing habits adapted easier than I expected and of course upgraded video now has me itchin' to upgrade the audio.

DISH came yesterday and replaced our boxes. Now we have HD via hdmi in not only the family room but also in the bedroom with the old 50" plasma (also using a stereo amp for sound). It's kind of mind-blowing.

Most of my obsessiveness has gone into my main listening-only, tube-based stereo system in my studio (some call it a "mancave", but I think my space has a little more class than that and females are welcome even though they don't enter often). I'm just tryin' not to spin out of control.

I'm gonna try to get some pics up of the new display and updates to my stereo system this weekend. I need to clean out and update my gallery anyway.

[recoveryone]

Nothing like a upgrade to have you rethinking past decision :)

[BadAssJazz]

Congratz on the upgrades!

I think it's safe to say that manufacturers intentionally build flatscreens anticipating that buyers will inevitably use something other than the built-in speakers for audio, even for "standard" TV viewing. It sucks, but what can you do?

While I can watch sitcoms, news, and some of the variety shows using only the flatscreen speakers on the TV in the main room, I have to turn on the Marantz for full length movies, premium cable series, live concerts, and sporting events...especially if the channel is offering up the audio content in DD 5.1. It helps with immersion.

On the otherhand, the flatscreen in the bedroom is not connected to an AVR. For some reason the sound quality doesn't bother me at all. Great sound is not an expectation.

But heaven forbid, if the day should come when I'm bedridden and sick for more than a couple of days, I will not hesitate to install something in the bedroom. Even a run of the mill 2.1 system would work better than the Panny TV speakers.

[Mr Peabody]

Did you get the Hopper set up from Dish?What I did in our living room when I put our 46" on the wall is use a small HT receiver for the video switching and only having to have one HDMI in the wall. I went with in-wall speakers, left, right and a center. The sound isn't quite as good as floorstanding speakers but much better than a sound bar. Could be an option for you if there is an odd room configuration to deal with.

[bfalls]

I have in-wall speakers in my living room and bedroom. Legacy had a closeout on their $400/pr Gallery speakers for $115/pr. I bought 5 pairs.

I originally thought about having all in-walls in the living room, but ended up with only right and left. I have my main setup in the family room (two different systems of electronics and speakers), so my wife doesn't really want speakers all over in the living room. I conceded as long as I'm not limited in the family room.

I enjoy buying good but inexpensive surrounds systems. I recently purchase an NHT New Wave system with small satellites. They perfectly blend with my Sony XBR6 TV, so practically unnoticeable. I've slipped them into play, so far without the wife noticing. I use a Yamaha RX-V2095 with the in-walls on speakers 'A' and the New Wave mains on 'B'. The cables are hidden in the TV cabinet, so doesn't look too cluttered.

The living room setup gives me a taste of both worlds. For TV I use the in-walls, for movies the New Waves. The cables are easily hidden in the TV cabinet if I want a cleaner look for entertaining----or if/when the wife notices them. BTW the NHTs sound great with the help of my Klipsch SW8 sub. I also have a B&W LM1/C2, Klipsch B2/RS3/KV3, Emotiva ERM1/ERD1, Scandyna Minipod, PSB Intro and Klipsch GMX-D5/1 systems.