Community poll forum: What kind of home-theater setup do you have?

Except on my TV which is a 50" Panasonic Rear Projection LCD. It was recommended more than the comparable Sony, and it was cheaper. Have never had a problem with it and the picture is great. I have a 5.1 system with a Denon AVR-3805 receiver and Kef KHT 2005.2 speakers. My DVD player is a Denon 2910 that I have hooked directly to the TV through an HDMI cable.
I dig it and not a bad set up for around $6000.

I have the works. I have a dedicated home theater with a DA-Lite 110 inch screen, Sim2 HT300 E-link front projector, Audio Design Associates (ADA) 7.1 processor, Mcintosh MC126 6 channel amplifier, 6 Elan Elite 950 series inwall speakers and 2 Triad 10 inch subwoofers. DVD player is a OPPO Digital all components including DirecTV receiver is connected via HDMI or DVI and routed to the projector via fiber optics. You won't believe your eyes and ears.

While I am a home theater nut, my pay keeps my fascination in check. Nevertheless, I have a full 5.1 Dolby Digital setup with Kenwood Receiver, with a Jensen sub, center and surround speakers. My front speakers are gigantic Technics that I bought 4 years ago and continue to amaze me, despite their modest $300 price tag. Each has a 15 in. sub inside so the base rocks. The jensens came with the receiver and I have never gotten a chance to replace them. This combined with my 42 Sony LCD projection and Sony Progressive scan DVD, I must say that I am impressed everytime I watch a movie, or baseball game. Although there is room for improvement (specifically the center and rear surrounds) I love it and think it is all worth it. A good system starts in pieces, allowing you to build as you go and replace piece by piece as your income allows. Anyone who doesn't have at least a surround system is missing out on a lot. Start small and build gradually. Unless you have a ton of extra money in which case: WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!

Some of us have the entertainment center, so mine is a Sony HD tube TV (all pro's have agreed the best, sharpest possible picture) via HDMI with Brighthouse HD DVR, RCA DVD player (pro. scan via component) hooked into an RCA 5.1 via coaxial.

Sharp 36" flat CRT
Concast Digital Cable (General Instrument Dolby Digital box)
Onkyo TX-SR501 receiver
Mission 773 front speakers
Mission 771 rear
Mission 77C center
Infinity 12" sub
Sony DVD player w/ SACD
Sony VCR
Sony CDP CX455 400 CD mega changer
MCE powered computer / Ahanix case / Sony DVD burner
- Pentium 2.4
- 2 gig RAM
- Radeon 9800 Pro / 250 RAM / DVI out
- Soundblaster Live
- Hauppauge Win TV-PVR-250 MCE
Nintendo Game Cube w/ Wavebird wireless controllers
BIC Beambox antenna (vintage 1972)

Plus I am still suffering apartment life. When I get a real home, then I may consider a posh home system. In the mean time, the computer works just fine.

Quality sound systems stand the test of time. If you read mine above, my system is 5 years old right now and I don't have any "needs" to replace anything. I WOULD like better center and rear speakers, but they came with the receiver and the entire thing cost about $300. Add in $300 for the good front channels and you are talking a sound system that cost me about $600 and is as up to date as the technology today. It has both optical and coaxial sound inputs speaker technology has been in place for YEARS. If I wanted to I could hook up my dad's 20 year old kenwoods, which would work fine. TV's and digital video on the other hand are relatively new and with so much money people have invested in it, the market would have a tough time switching. Newer better stuff is always available, but the old stuff doesn't turnover in 6 years. These aren't computers where more RAM, more hard drive space and more processor speeds are a must.

I took vaderrulzz's post to be about video and audio.
Both of the other post seemed to only to address the audio portion. I agree that audio has reached it limit. Video on the other hand has not.
I agree about the upgrading and have not made the jump. I still use a 14 year old Sony that's doing fine. If I upgraded now I'd be looking at replacing or repairing every couple of years because the newer technology doesn't hold up. I get this message from all the sales people in all the local stores.

ps I live at over 6000 feet.

It would be nice to have a HDTV but I will have to wait till the price lowers even more. I have a SONY surround system and I guess it works OK. If I understood how to set up the darn thing so it works better, that would be a blessing. The instruction manual sucks.

I'm trying to get my Comcast HD/DVR box hooked up to my new Sony KDF50E2000 lcd rear projection. Comcast's self install manual isn't the most well depicted and with Sony's diagram's I'm getting sound from my tv on the surround but no pic or sound from my dvd which is a Pioneer. I have the Pioneer Component and AV (red/white) cables in the same column on the tv but have no sound or pic. Any suggestions on this? Do I need splitters and such? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I am trying to hook up a SA-HT940 by Panasonic for surround with a pansonic tv.I am getting surround sound from dvds, but not when playing tv alone. Please help if anyone can have time to do so. Thank you very much. Please reply to jam2hrd@yahoo.com or tuzfra@gmail.com

While I wouldn't call it a home theater, the Cable box stereo output goes to a Dolby 5.1 A/V Receiver as does the VCR output (which almost never gets used). The video from both is also switched by the Receiver to the video in of the 34'' Tube TV.

In fact this house, built 4 years ago, was built with wiring for the speakers in the walls because I knew ''mama'' wouldn't accept the wires being visible.

2 houses ago I was in a ranch on a slab. This was before Dolby 5.1 and both rear speakers had the same content. After a surround sound demo at a showroom I was hooked. So I ran 1 rear speaker. The wiring for that speaker went up to the attic (inside the wall), accross the ceiling, and down thru a closet and then thru the closet side wall. I guess it might be called Dolby 3.0. Of course, I was using the ''old fashioned'' type speakers, but with an 18 inch woofer in each of the front speakers there was no need for a ''sub-'' woofer.

I find something lacking in any movie or sporting event without the rear speakers running in Surround Sound. I loose the sense of ''being there.''

As far as flat screen and DVD, I'm waiting for the dust to clear on the different HD formats, especially 1080p, and for enough content to be available to make it worthwhile.

It struck me as odd that you have paired planar speakers with an otherwise conventional set up. Your perceived inefficiency may be due to the fact that you're running Maggies in combination with conventional speakers and a mass market receiver. You didn't specify the models of either the Maggies or the JVC, but unfortunately even the introductory model Magnepans require a receiver with a good 4 Ohm capacity, and there are very few (if any) mass market receivers out there that can meet this requirement. It's hard to be sure because they typically don't publish 4 Ohm power ratings. NAD's receivers are a fabulous bargain for what you get and match up very well with Magnepans. I suspect that if you were to run your Maggies with a receiver that was designed to produce power at 4 Ohms and go with Maggies all the way around your sound would even out considerably and you'd be thrilled with the result.

I have a Pioneer 42" Plasma monitor (PDP-424MV), Pioneer VSX-D812K 6.1 receiver, Polk Audio R50s for the fronts, R15s for the rears, Infinity Entra Center Two for the front center, no sub. Comcast HD & a Philips DVD player are the sources running on component video. Also have an Apple Aiport Express w/Air Tunes as an audio source running digital music off my Mac in my home studio.