my mom and I are moving into a home soon, and she agreed that we could piece togethor a home theater. (DVD, TV, Speakers, tivo) the whole works.

some questions I have:
1) what type of TV would you recomend? (DLP, plasma, LCD, projector)
a. what has the best picture, lasts the longest
2) for speakers i planned on using a set of Logitech Z-5500's or higher. I use them on my computer and love them, but how would they compare to bose, or any other company.
3) command center. having a seperate cable box, DVD player, others. OR having 1 media center PC that controls everything.
a. Can you store DVD media on computers or do you still need the disc?


thank you,
Garrett

 

I dunno about all that. All I know is if I had the money, I would buy some speakers from http://www.trtheaterresearch.com cuz they have such a tight beat on thier homepage.

 

CRT's last the longest. It's really going to depend on your budget.
I would just make sure whatever reciever you get, it has S-video, Component (red blue green RCA's) DVI, HDMI, and an optical audio port. When you get your cable box, make sure it's one that can handle HD, because if you do go that route, you'll be set up for it.

 

I would go to Crutchfield.com, they have a large help section that you can look through.

 

Projection fosho, not sure what your budget is but we got a 71"HD for $4k. Our old 55" projection lasted around 7-8 years until it got messed up, but it was a simple fix. After sitting for a bit it was good as new

edit: and we have the old Bose 5.1 (9ish years old), the bass on this thing is CRAZY. I can get the whole house shacking

 

I've only had experience with HD LCD's, but since the newest 1080p requrements for HDDVD hasn't been standardized yet ... I'd hold off buying the newest and most expensive on the market.

Supposedly, a new HDTV signal is in the works. It'll generate 2x the resolution of the current HD.


You'd have to get a cable box for your HD needs. If you use Comcast, they register each box with the HD signal. You just can't HD turned on and expect it to work thoughout the house.

You can do the media center PC, but you'd need a graphics card with a DVI out. Even with a media center PC, you'd get the best results from a stand alone DVD player.

You can easily rip DVD movies to a hard drive. Remember, each disc is about 5 to 9gb in size. You'd fill an entire 300gb hd with about 60 movies, tops.

 

CRT is going to look the best and last the longest. projection is going to be the cheapest but you cant view it from alot of different angles. as far as the receive goes i would say go with a big name like Denon or Marantz. personally i like Aragon but i would rather do a pre-amp and amp setup. as far as the pc goes you have alot of options. you can go with a prebuilt media center from dell or HP or sony or whoever they are about the same. i would recomend building it yourself if you can. either way make sure you get a huge hard drive. I just saw a 500 gig maxtor drive for cheap so go get a few TB so you can hold a ton of movies. oh ya speakers, it depends on how big your room is. tons of choices are floating around so look at all the shops and look online at review sites lots of things to do. my setup: Sunfire Stereo Amplifier Series II, Aragon sound stage, Mirage M3's in front, Mirage OM-C2 Center Channel Speaker, Mirage OM-R2 surrounds, Sunfire True Sub MK II Subwoofer (Bob Carver all the way), 46" Sony CRT TV, Phillips DVD player.

 

huge hdds are just a few years away. By the time I graduate and move out, They'll be uber cheap. They already have 2.5 Tb, even if they cost $2-3k. A few years ago we didn't know what to do with 30gb drives.

 

my parents just spent $11k on their setup at their house. i told them that they shouldve just bought the tv and gimme the rest :hs:

 

Swaggs21 makes the best speakers EVAR!!