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The Fandango at Home Forums are designed to help viewers get the most out of their Fandango at Home experience. Here, Fandango at Home customers may post information, questions, ideas, etc. on the subject of Fandango at Home and Fandango at Home -related issues (home theater, entertainment, etc). Although the primary purpose of these forums is to help Fandango at Home customers with questions and/or problems with their Fandango at Home service, there are also off-topic areas available within the Fandango at Home Forums for users to chat with like-minded people, subject to the limitations below.

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Perfect home threater setup

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    #16
    Re: Perfect home threater setup

    I feel the center channel is very important, as it carries most of the dialog. I've lived without a subwoofer because my Sony floor speakers can shake the walls pretty well, so if you HAVE to do it piecemeal, I'd hold off on the subwoofer first, unless your DVDs are mostly war movies (explosions, etc). But I have a little trouble hearing some frequencies, including most speech, in one ear.

    Comment

      #17
      Re: Perfect home threater setup

      Max is right, you need a good center speaker. And I would definitely get a Sub-Woofer. DD5.1 movies have an "LFE" content which really adds the rumble to things. LFE is "Low Frequency Effect." The subs handle this much better than the speakers. And a sub is non-directional. Mine is in the back of my family room....

      Comment

        #18
        Re: Perfect home threater setup

        L+R and Center are important. You can probably balance the cost of a sub by getting smaller front speakers. Its a good idea to get a center speaker that is the same brand as the fronts as they sound profiles tend to match up better. As far as brand, I would avoid brands where your target price is in the range of either the cheapest or most expensive model offered.

        Comment

          #19
          Re: Perfect home threater setup

          Originally posted by Nded View Post
          Can you be more specific about what "a lot of money" is in your philosophy? If you can say how much your willing to spend, we can probably give you some good advise on how to get the best bang for your bucks. I've worked with all types of budgets - once you set the budget, the other pieces will fall together fairly easily.

          It's kinda hard to be specific. Let's say I have budgeted up to $3K for this holiday on large screen HDTV plus sound system (I have none, as I use the speakers on my dinky 20" Vizio LCD TV).

          So if the price come down enough, I might shoot for a 42-46" LCD, what's left is the "sound system"... whatever that may be.

          I do have hand-me-down Bose speakers (AM5 - large bass and 2 small wall mount speakers) and a pair of L+R Bose 30X (?) from my brother.

          Comment

            #20
            Re: Perfect home threater setup

            Do you rent or own your housing? That will impact whether you can go with in-the-wall speakers or stand alone speakers.

            Comment

              #21
              Re: Perfect home threater setup

              Own. single story house. It's a large room... combination kitchen, family room, dining room.. we knocked down the wall between kitchen and family room. Total size is around 30x20, although one corner is kitchen (18x12). Wide open space. So acoustic is kinda bad.

              I have to turn the TV sound down at night, or use head phones because the sound can be heard in the kids bedrooms.

              But during other time, I would not mind being able to enjoy a movie experience.

              Comment

                #22
                Re: Perfect home threater setup

                Tin,

                $3K is not a lot as the TV is going to eat into at least half of that, IMHO. My Bose speakers that I mentioned earlier cost about $300 each. So for 3 speakers that's $900 there. Now, this is a good time of year to buy as it is end of the model year in AV equipment. All the new TVs have already come out so as to be ready for the start of the fall TV system, but the rest of the components seem to lag behind and come out in the start of the 4th quarter. So you might be able to get some deals.

                The Bose speakers you have may be a good choice at this point. If you like how they sound, then I would stay with them if they look good and are in good shape. Bose tends to have a particularly tight sound that take a bit of getting used to, but once you do get used to it, I think they sound very natural. They are a good middle of the road speaker system.

                Now, if you keep the speakers you have then it will give you more cash to get other aspects like a new receiver. Personally, for middle of the line equipment, I like Yamaha quite a bit. They have nice receivers starting probably around $300 to $400 and going up from there into the several thousand dollar range. Starting at $600 or so, Denon is another very good brand.

                If you spend say, $1500 on the TV, and say $500 on the receiver, then you have $100 left to spend on speakers or other "toys" for your setup. Other toys include the obligatory DVD player, DVR, Audio player, etc.

                Upconverting DVD players can be had for $100 or less easily. In DVRs if I was starting out today, I would buy the new Tivo HD models. You can get upgraded ones from DVRUpgrade.com with larger hard drives. The base TivoHD starts at $299. I know I'll take flack from my Replay buddies like Ed or Max for recommending this, but lets face it, Replay doesn't do HD. This new Tivo does and it's affordable. Plus the Tivo has cable card slots which allow for you to directly tune and record all your digital cable channels w/o a cable box (more on this later). For an audio player, I would get either a Squeezebox or a Roku Soundbridge. Given that Patrick came from SlimDevices, you might want to go the Squeezebox route but regardless, it's awesome to have a box that connects to your audio library or to internet radio that you can then stream music to over your home stereo system. Or another option is the new Netgear Digital Entertainer HD for a video driven system (the Soundbridge/Squeezebox don't use the TV for their display) that not only plays music but plays video files, shows photos, etc. It's a nice new product as well. A media player will cost your around $250 or so for audio only to something like $400 for the NetgearHD box.

                Cable Card:

                Whatever you do, make sure you get a TV that accepts cable cards. With a cable card you do NOT need a cable box. It takes care of all the channel decrypting and authorization. Cable companies do not advertise these but by law they must provide you one if you ask. They will want you to rent their box but you don't have to. Now, their box will give you additional features like channel menus and Video on Demand. Oh yeah, wait a minute, we don't need VoD with Vudu! Well, yeah, you still do as there's a lot of network TV shows that are available on demand after they air and it's nice in case you have a conflict with your DVR, etc. Anyhow, the cable card plugs into the TV and gives you all the channels. I have one on my LG and I also have a cable box. That way I can record one thing and watch another at the same time.


                So how does that sound?

                Jon

                Comment

                  #23
                  Re: Perfect home threater setup

                  My room is about as perfect a home theater as I was able to do in the space provided.

                  I've got a dedicated 14x27 room above a detached garage.
                  Room is painted a very dark brown, including the ceiling. Front wall is a very dark, flat black. Carpet is a very dark burgundy.
                  There's a bathroom in the back of the room.

                  On that front wall, I have a 119" screen. There's one window in the room, but that's covered by blackout shades and the screen. I've got two rows of seating with the first row about 16 feet back (3 theater seats/recliners). On a 12" riser in the back, I have a leather reclining sofa.

                  If the room gets crowded, I also have a loveseat on the side and two children's rocker chairs in the front.

                  The projector (Sharp XVZ12000 Mark II) is hanging right above the front row.

                  Sound is provided courtesy of an Onkyo 989 THX Ultra receiver & AT350THX Ultra Speakers. Unfortunately, I'm not truly THX Ultra certified as I only have one subwoofer in the room.

                  Most everything is controlled via my HTPC under the screen.

                  I do not have a popcorn machine in the room but that'll be saved for another day.

                  My room sounds more expensive than it is, really.

                  The screen & projector can be had for under $2300. Less than $200 on cabling. Double that cost for audio (receiver/speakers & misc stuff (like an hdmi switcher) and about $5k in equipment gets you a full movie theater.

                  The room and furniture will add to the cost. Biggest obstacle is getting the space. We bought this house because of the detached garage and the option to do with it what we (I) wanted.

                  Comment

                    #24
                    Re: Perfect home threater setup

                    Jon,

                    I know... $3K isn't much when it comes to large flat screens, and then adding on the other required components...

                    But if I don't put an upper limit before I start, it can get out of hand quickly The number is the budget I am comfortable with.

                    I just might concentrate on just getting the best large screen I can this year, and update my audio components next year. Thanks for confirming that the speakers I have are adequate.

                    Ah.... decisions, decisions at least I will have a good video source, the VUDU STB, to go with my new large screen TV!

                    Comment

                      #25
                      Re: Perfect home threater setup

                      I have a dedicated room for the home theater. Dimensions 25x15x9.5.
                      Front Projector
                      110" diagonal screen.
                      7.1 sound system.
                      You can see it all at my website below.
                      Anxiously awaiting the release of VUDU!!


                      Visit the 5 Star Cinema

                      Comment

                        #26
                        Re: Perfect home threater setup

                        Way cool...have you ever been published in home theater mag? Setup look great....

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                          #27
                          Re: Perfect home threater setup

                          Originally posted by kmulder View Post
                          I have a dedicated room for the home theater. Dimensions 25x15x9.5.
                          Front Projector
                          110" diagonal screen.
                          7.1 sound system.
                          You can see it all at my website below.
                          Anxiously awaiting the release of VUDU!!


                          Visit the 5 Star Cinema
                          Cool. If you have the home theater, you will LOVE the Vudu...

                          Comment

                            #28
                            Re: Perfect home threater setup

                            Originally posted by kmulder View Post
                            I have a dedicated room for the home theater. Dimensions 25x15x9.5.
                            Front Projector
                            110" diagonal screen.
                            7.1 sound system.
                            You can see it all at my website below.
                            Anxiously awaiting the release of VUDU!!


                            Visit the 5 Star Cinema

                            Wow! Very cool! All I can say is.... I am not worthy! I am not worthy!



                            Way out of my league!

                            Comment

                              #29
                              Re: Perfect home threater setup

                              Originally posted by RonV View Post
                              Way cool...have you ever been published in home theater mag? Setup look great....
                              No, I have never been in a magazine, but they did put my theater in a book on how to construct a home theater.
                              Check it out here:
                              http://www.thehometheaterbook.com/


                              Visit the 5 Star Cinema

                              Comment

                                #30
                                Re: Perfect home threater setup

                                Originally posted by TinL View Post
                                Wow! Very cool! All I can say is.... I am not worthy! I am not worthy!



                                Way out of my league!
                                Ok, since my account was finally "repaired" I can reply to this thread, woohoo

                                Depending on the space/arrangements in your viewing room (ie mine is reasonable but not front projector worthy...) IMO a mid sized DLP (50-60") is a great option... I just added an Anthem AVM50 preamp to my setup - 4x HDMI switching + everything else upconverting (using the Oppo 970HD for those rare DVD titles not yet on VUDU ) to go with my 5ch amp. Beautiful picture and sound with my Samsung 56" DLP and 5x NHT SuperOnes + Sub.

                                Even as a jaded engineer working with this stuff every day, it took me watching it at home to realize how good the encoding is vs most DVDs, let alone my crappy Dish movie channels... can't wait for *HD*

                                Comment

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