Your home theater setup (pictures if possible).

[Morris Schæffer]

I'm about to move into my own appartment and so I'm thinking of getting a new TV (HD ready just don't cut it anymore), new surround sound speakers (preferably with rear floorstanding speakers) and a new Blu-Ray player.

So what do you guys have to watch movies? Post some pictures if possible and mention product names so we can google them. Talk about whether you're happy with your hardware, how the picture quality is etc...

[Skitch]

I have a 50" Panasonic Viera I nabbed for $875. Its pretty great.

[Ezee E]

I need to invest in some speakers.

[Dukefrukem]

oh man... give me a month to post pics while I move into my new house

[bac0n]

I'm currently in the midst of a major home theater upgrade - new TV, new receiver, new PS3, and I'm swapping out the old entertainment center which takes up an entire wall and can hold a TV no larger than 27" for a smaller one that fits nicely in the corner and places no size restrictions on the telly.

I've been struggling with the TV, and am planning on taking it back Monday for a different one. Eventually I plan on running the HDMI & stereo cables through the walls and mounting the TV on the wall too, but that's a project for a little later on when I have some more important projects tackled and have had an electrician come out and put in another outlet.

[Spun Lepton]

I live in a very small apartment, so I don't need much. I have a 40" Sony LCD and a PS3.

[Morris Schæffer]

I need to invest in some speakers.

I'd also like to get some killer speakers. What's infuriating is how in brochures everything looks so goddamn clean and cable-free.

I'll never be able to get it to look like that. Speaker-wise, I definitely want to get 5.1 dolby Digital speakers with the rear speakers perhaps being floorstanding. That was I won't have to attach them to my wall.

[Scar]

Maybe I'll post pics of Spun and bac0n playing games/watching movies on my set up while Jess serves beer.

[DavidSeven]

Does anyone else think some of these newer TVs are making HD channels and blu-ray DVDs look terrible? A couple of friends have newer, higher quality TVs, and everything they watch looks like a soap opera or home video. It looks too real. Maybe I'm stuck in my ways and need more time to adjust, but I sincerely hope this is not the wave of the future.

[Scar]

I've seen some high level LCD's that seem to 'speed up' the movie, and I just can't watch it.

[number8]

Does anyone else think some of these newer TVs are making HD channels and blu-ray DVDs look terrible? A couple of friends have newer, higher quality TVs, and everything they watch looks like a soap opera or home video. It looks too real. Maybe I'm stuck in my ways and need more time to adjust, but I sincerely hope this is not the wave of the future.

Yes. I was browsing TVs some time ago and I came across one playing a Blu-ray of Transformers 2. I was horrified. It looked like it was a box and Shia was actually in it, except he had plastic surgery to graft a windshield on his skin.

[Lazlo]

Does anyone else think some of these newer TVs are making HD channels and blu-ray DVDs look terrible? A couple of friends have newer, higher quality TVs, and everything they watch looks like a soap opera or home video. It looks too real. Maybe I'm stuck in my ways and need more time to adjust, but I sincerely hope this is not the wave of the future.

Yeah, it's a result of their 120hz+ refresh rate, which they sell as an improvement. I don't get it. It works fine for things shot on video, but it makes anything shot on film look like a video game. It eliminates motion blur, but film naturally has motion blur (as, by the way, do our EYES). It's too perfect looking, an unnatural sense of motion and I'm afraid that it's going to be the standard for TVs from here on out. For some reason my dad loves it. :crazy:

[megladon8]

Here's our basement setup, and DVD collection.

First image is from the seating, looking towards the TV. Second picture is from the TV, looking back into the room.

[D_Davis]

Yeah, it's a result of their 120hz+ refresh rate, which they sell as an improvement. I don't get it. It works fine for things shot on video, but it makes anything shot on film look like a video game. It eliminates motion blur, but film naturally has motion blur (as, by the way, do our EYES). It's too perfect looking, an unnatural sense of motion and I'm afraid that it's going to be the standard for TVs from here on out. For some reason my dad loves it. :crazy:

Yeah, it's terrible. 120hz televisions totally destroy the inherent qualities of film. I'll never own one. Movies look terrible - like cheaply shot television shows.

[D_Davis]

Great shelves, meg. Did you guys buy those, or build them? Looks like a very nice movie-watching room.

[D_Davis]

My basement is currently being remodeled, so the projector and screen aren't set up right now. As soon as it's done, I'll post some pictures. The screen is 100'', and the projector is pretty nice. It's an older one, and only goes up to 1080i, without HDMI, but I really like the picture. It just looks more movie-like - I like something to enhance the qualities of film, and so it really feels like I'm watching a movie. Movies on my HDTV just look too crystal clear, although not nearly as bad as those on a 120hz TV.

[DavidSeven]

My concern is that this trend invades theaters with digital projection, a place where we can't disable or avoid such an annoying feature. Hopefully, the movie-makers have more sense than the everyday consumer.

[megladon8]

Great shelves, meg. Did you guys buy those, or build them? Looks like a very nice movie-watching room.

Built! And we kept adding to them for years because we continually run out of space :lol: It's cool having a whole family of movie buffs (even though all of our tastes' are diametrically different).

The shelves over-top of the chairs (in picture 3) were just put there about 6 months ago.

And you can see the small window in the top of pictures three and four - that's where, last March, we had quite a leak behind the wall that we didn't know about, which slowly deteriorated the cases of about 150 of our movies. Luckily it was just the cases and no actual discs were damaged, but still, for stuff like the Ran Criterion (which is not only OOP, but was given to me as a gift by Jen) it still kind of sucks.

But oh well, just material things, right? Not like there was an electrical fire or anything. No one was hurt. That's what matters.

[D_Davis]

That's cool. Hopefully I'll do something like that. Do you guys by the shelves pre-finished?

[megladon8]

My basement is currently being remodeled, so the projector and screen aren't set up right now. As soon as it's done, I'll post some pictures. The screen is 100'', and the projector is pretty nice. It's an older one, and only goes up to 1080i, without HDMI, but I really like the picture. It just looks more movie-like - I like something to enhance the qualities of film, and so it really feels like I'm watching a movie. Movies on my HDTV just look too crystal clear, although not nearly as bad as those on a 120hz TV.

I've long thought about going the projector route when I move out (which - fingers crossed - could be sooner than I imagined a month or two ago!).

Is there still the problem of bulbs dying, and needing to spend several hundred dollars repairing/replacing them? My uncle has a projector, and when one of his bulbs died a few years back, it cost him $750 to get a new one. Admittedly it's an ancient projector, but still...

[megladon8]

That's cool. Hopefully I'll do something like that. Do you guys by the shelves pre-finished?

Yes, we measured the lengths we needed, then went to Home Depot and bought the appropriate lengths of plain white-finished, particle board shelving.

They're attached to the wall with standard six-screw brackets.

It's nothing fancy, but it does the job, and it's not a material that's ever going to suddenly disappear...so as we add on to it, we don't have 12 different colours and styles of shelving (although I think that could look pretty neat, too ).

[D_Davis]

I've long thought about going the projector route when I move out (which - fingers crossed - could be sooner than I imagined a month or two ago!).

Is there still the problem of bulbs dying, and needing to spend several hundred dollars repairing/replacing them? My uncle has a projector, and when one of his bulbs died a few years back, it cost him $750 to get a new one. Admittedly it's an ancient projector, but still...

They cost about $250-300 for my projector. I've had to change one once, but it was because the projector had a problem and short-circuited. It was out of warranty, but I insisted that Panasonic pay half because the bulb had more than 1/2 it's life left. They did. I haven't turned the projector on in over a year because the basement has been in various stages of completion ever since.

I would imagine that newer projectors have less expensive bulbs. Also, the price of projectors has come down a lot. When I got mine, there weren't very many people using them for home use. People at Circuit City thought I was crazy! However, now I see projectors and screens everywhere.

[megladon8]

I remember in grade 9 a bunch of my friends smoked pot for the first time and watched House of 1,000 Corpses projected onto the side of a barn.

A couple of them freaked right out.

[Morris Schæffer]

Here's our basement setup, and DVD collection.

First image is from the seating, looking towards the TV. Second picture is from the TV, looking back into the room.

Thanks for the cool posting pics Meg. Are you at all aware of the position of those front speakers, what with them being so agonizinlgy close to the TV. I can't imagine this promoting the sound effects of a speaker setup.

EDIT: But I guess you have no 5.1 DD setup either so perhaps it doesn't matter.

[Morris Schæffer]

In terms of speakers, I'm really growing enamored of the Bowers & Wilkins brand. They're a UK company, they're not exactly cheap, but it's clearly one of the top brands and some of their 5.1 DD setups are still sorta acceptably priced.