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Re: Considering jumping into Home Theater

Posted by monk (A) on January 6, 2004 at 09:26:46

In Reply to: Considering jumping into Home Theater posted by GOS on January 4, 2004 at 17:39:56:

Up to 32"/36", I'd consider a regular *tube* TV,...but if going bigger, look at RPTV (rear projection TV). Mostly I think the tube TV's just get too big/heavy at the bigger sizes, but it also starts to push the limits for this kind of technology (hard to make them really big).

If your motivation is truely regular TV and rarely DVD/VCR/Movies,...then you should look to the local newspaper for a used TV. Many people dump nice TV's these days, more than in the past, to upgrade.

I don't know the prices, but a TV that can use a *progressive* video signal is worth having. A DVD player that can output a progressive signal will also be required, but they are cheap, under $80 in many cases. I won't go into it here, but tradtional video was done as an *interlaced* video signal and *progressive* is better and it's worth having. Research the two terms if interested.

I'd recommend not trying to buy into the future with the technology. You like regular TV (for now), so buy a nice one off the paper that's a little bigger. And when you're ready or desire to focus on movies, then buy a display that suits that application.

If you wanted to do movies as a priority, everything changes. In this case I'd best value and best enjoyment is a front projector (from $1000 to $2,500 buys very good, hugely enjoyable display). But, these get better and cheaper all the time, it's not the kind of thing you want to buy ahead of time. It would be like buying todays *fast* computer because you might need it's performance in 2 or 3 years.

As for sound/home theatre,... basically, keep a sense of proportion and scale between the size/scale of the sound and the size of the picture. Think about the size of the sonic picture created by the speakers,...does this match well with the proportion/size of the screen you have? A singers head might be the size of a beach ball on Martin Logan's and closer to an orange with little bookshelves - what is that the screen shows you?

This also applies to the sonic description of events by the sound proecessiong. If you see an object move 4" across the screen, you want to here something proportional, not a 12' sonic movement.

You might be plenty happy with one of the room friendly micro systems for sound. For example, check Ebya for the 5 speaker Acoustic Energy Aego system (with amps/processor, the whole lot, just need to feed it DVD/TV/VCR sound signal). You could even do fine with just stereo sound set either side of the TV (keeping in mind that your main priority is regular TV watching).

Unless you have a mind as to where you like to end up with home-theatre, I'd say err on the side of spending less. However, if you do a bit of research (try www.AVS_forum.com ) and want to get into the home-theatre,...I'd highly recommend a front projector as the best performance and value. These are brilliant for movies,...they are also HDTV's and so sports can be extemely good too.

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