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Home audio & video: Need Home Theater suggestions
Need Home Theater suggestions
by felix_phl - 1/7/06 10:55 AMI'm looking to put together a Home Theater for my living room and I'm a bit of a novice. I want it include a DVD recorder that plays CDs and has a 5-disc changer, . Since most HTIB packages don't seem to have a DVD recorder, I guess I'll piece components together.
I'd like to be able to either hook up my mp3 player (an iRiver) or otherwise access mp3s from another storage medium (flash drive, or copied directly to a hard drive on the player). I'm not sure if this is a function of the DVD recorder or if I should be looking for this functionality as part of the audio component. Am I looking at this the right way?
Any thoughts are welcome!
budget??
by sirroundsound - 1/7/06 3:00 PM In reply to: Need Home Theater suggestions by felix_phlYOu don't say what you are willing to spend for your enjoyment. Media centers have started to come down in price and would certainly offer many of the things you are asking about.
Oh yeah, my budget...
by felix_phl - 1/7/06 5:24 PM In reply to: budget?? by sirroundsoundI'm thinking about $1,000.
What's a media center?
1000 dollars
by assman - 1/14/06 4:43 PM In reply to: Oh yeah, my budget... by felix_phlwon't buy an especially good theatre system..
i just set out to buy a home theater system this week and i ended up spending over 3000 dollars (not including a TV)
in the end i expect to spend around 6000 dollars on the whole system.
..i got a set of 5 Aperion Speakers, the Denon 3805 reciever, and the Pioneer DV-588A dvd player..
you'd probably do best getting a cheap media center pc with monitor, speakers, tuner, and dvd burner included with your budget
Any additional suggestions?
by felix_phl - 1/8/06 8:05 PM In reply to: Need Home Theater suggestions by felix_phlI'd be grateful for any additional thoughts.
No replies?
by felix_phl - 1/13/06 10:31 AM In reply to: Need Home Theater suggestions by felix_phlGee, thanks...FOR NOTHING!
Sorry, but the truth is....
by Riverledge - 1/14/06 1:13 PM In reply to: Need Home Theater suggestions by felix_phlOne thousand dollars might buy a very good TV set.
...not including the TV
by felix_phl - 1/14/06 7:06 PM In reply to: Sorry, but the truth is.... by RiverledgeI guess I wasn't very clear...I wasn't talking about the TV. I just meant the stereo amp/tuner/receiver, plus the DVD/CD player. From other messages, it sounds like $1,000 is not realistic, so let's say $2,000. I'm not enough of an enthusist to need to spend more than that; my uneducated hear frankly won't hear much difference!
What I'm really interested in is knowing how I can play my mp3's on the system w/out burning them to CD's.
MP3
by sirroundsound - 1/14/06 8:21 PM In reply to: ...not including the TV by felix_phlI don't deal in the lower end electronics, so my familiarity with what is out there isn't good. I have read some nice comments about Yamaha, I also know that Marantz, Denon and Onkyo are all very good, plus they all have entry level equipment. You might be able to find an A/V receiver from one of those lines that start around 3-400.00, DVD players are now a dime a dozen, which leaves you with enough to buy a decent speaker package. Don't claim you can't hear the difference between good sound and crap, if you honestly believe that, then why are you even bothering, lots of TV's out there have 20w speakers in them.
As for MP3's, your player will have a headphone output, you could get an adapter cable so you can plug this into an audio in on your receiver, and your done. Don't expect it to sound great, MP3's are compressed, thus they loose sound quality. DOwnloading at higher bit rates will help , you can't store as many songs, but the audio quality will improve.
good luck
All-In-One systems
by assman - 1/14/06 8:59 PM In reply to: ...not including the TV by felix_phlGetting a system that already has all the components included will give you the best value.
The Onkyo HT-S780 (http://reviews.cnet.com/Onkyo_HT_S780_black/4505-6740_7-31481416.html?tag=pop) is a very popular 7.1 channel system that has all the speakers and the reciever included. This system has incredible bang for the buck.
In order to play mp3s you could use an mp3 player (such as the iPod..) that has all your music in its HD. For the iPod you could get the dock accessory with it in order to get a line-out connection that you can then use as an input for your reciever. Just so you know, mp3s are only two channel, so only two speakers will be used unless you change the settings on the reciever to use mixing effects to create a virtual multi-channel sound. (it generally delays signals to the other speakers and adds some reverb).
Since you aren't particular about the sound of the speakers, you could also save a lot of money by just getting some good PC speakers. For 2.1 sound the Logitech z-2300 has gotten fantastic ratings (http://reviews.cnet.com/Logitech_Z_2300/4505-3179_7-30993080.html) and i actually own the speakers. 5.1 (surround) : http://reviews.cnet.com/Logitech_Z_5500_Digital/4505-3179_7-31115626.html.
I would recommend that you just get a dvd player instead of a burner. A burner isnt necessary unless you plan to record television broadcasts onto dvd.. (are you?)
Using this setup will bring the cost to around $500 not including the TV. This is the only way you could get away with a $1000 budget. 1000 dollars is a fine number if you aren't much of an enthusiast as you have said.
good luck
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