The Home Theater Showcase Thread

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The People's Republic of Clogher
I've got an old Phillips upscaling DVD player hacked for region-free which only comes out occasionally. I suppose I should get a region-free Blu Ray player at some stage but as the PS3's quality is as good as players twice the price I'm loathe to let it go.

The Onkyo's remote works everything, fortunately.

EDIT - For my non-Region 2 DVDs, I've made backups of them with DVD Shrink so they're region free. I suppose I could get a Blu Ray Writer for the PC and do the same but the cost would outweigh just buying another player.
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"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how the Tatty 100 is done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan



A system of cells interlinked
Made a couple of changes recently:

50" Samsung 1080p Plasma


Still using my 2011 Plasma TV from Samsung. LCD TVs are still not up to par IMO. Until OLED TVs come down in price, I am sticking with this. Still the most film-like result in display tech, and it blows my mind that plasma tech has been phased out as of late.


Denon AVR



I'm not at home, and can't recall the exact model, but this looks like the one. I finally retired my old HK, which had become outmoded - got that back in 2003 before everything went all HDMI.

Polk Audio 5.1 system



I don't have a Polk sub, so this pic is wrong, as well.


Velodyne Sub



This thing rocks.


Roku Premiere +



This provides all my app support, as well as linking my PC media center into my system.


Sony BDP5500



For watching that physical media. Also has app support, but the processor isn't anywhere near as snappy as the Roku. This thing also streams PS3 games with no problems. Fun!


X-Box 360



My original 360 is still kicking. Way past its projected life span at this point. I have put a ridiculous number of hours on this thing.


PC Media Center



Lastly, lots of content from the PC, as well.


Cable TV is gone! Glad to see that bill go.
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“It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.” ― Thomas Sowell



“Sugar is the most important thing in my life…”
All that high-end AV makes me wonder if you still have both kidneys?

Looks like a who's who of Crutchfield. Nice!



“Sugar is the most important thing in my life…”
This reminds me I really need to get on the ball about procuring VCRs. For all I know, the scarcity price climb may have started.

1 is none and 2 is 1.



The Adventure Starts Here!
Sedai, we have three Rokus of various incarnations around the house and love them. What's with the earbuds in the remote, though? How well does that work?



The People's Republic of Clogher
I'm still rocking the same as I was 12 months ago.

Sony KDL-50W805C 50" TV



Onkyo TX-SR507 receiver + a load of German separates and a Yamaha sub



PS4 for discs, while the TV has Kodi, Plex, Netflix, Amazon Video and Google Music installed.

EDIT - And a 4TB NAS with 750 assorted DVDs and TV episodes on it, which I ripped myself from my physical media. The NAS supplies Kodi and Plex - Plex is the better system but it requires a server running to decode/encode the media files while Kodi does it on the fly.

My PC is usually my Plex server although I've got a Raspberry Pi on which I've been meaning to see if I can get a server installed. A lot of NAS units can do this natively, but not mine.



A system of cells interlinked
Aus: I haven't tried the earbuds in the remote yet. I doubt I will get much use out of that feature.

Taccy - Whoops! Thanks for reminding me to get KODI going on my system. Almost forgot!



The People's Republic of Clogher
Kodi's very good, and highly configurable. The downside I find is, because it does the encoding itself, that you need a reasonably beefy machine to use it properly. The version on my Android TV can get very slow when navigating menus so dunno what it would be like on something like a Roku box. It also trips up a bit when using the audio passthrough feature, but they're constantly updating it so expect common bugs not to be around for long.

I recommend the Titan skin.




Okay, here's my set-up...

My TV is a 65 inch LG OLED E6 model, which is probably my proudest and most precious belonging. I actually had the 65 inch LG OLED B6 model at first, but I just got tired of it after while and simply bought me a better model #richpeopleproblems
Nah, I'm only kidding. I did have that TV, but I sold it off because the opportunity came to me, so yeah. But all in all, this 65" OLED retired my old 47" Philips, so I nice upgrade indeed.


To play movies I recently got myself an XBOX ONE S, which works as a DVD/Blu-ray/4K ULTRA HD player, which you kind of need for such televison. I had a PS3 Slim before that...


And to handle the audio I got this OOOOOLD piece of machinery from Sony. The Sony DAV-DZ660 Home Theatre Surround System. So... I think y'all can guess which thing is going next, right? Yeah, this system has been a great one to be honest. Still works and does wonders with what it got. But of course, what I need is a solid surround receiver and a set of speakers, preferably an atmos set-up; I'm thinking the kind of speakers which can fire upwards, so you still have the 5.1 channels, but then with extra depth without several speakers on the ceiling and whatnot.



_______________________________________________

Aaaand, here is how it looks... I got the XBOX ONE S set in the cabinet to the right and I simply open it when I play movies. The left and right speakers used to hang on each side of the television, but when you move from 47" to 65" you kind of have to make... compromises. Anyways, at least for now, they are behind the TV, out of sight.



Here it is, the way I got it set up... this is where all my nightly viewings take place.
My heavenly control center.


So that's it! Hope y'all like it!



The Adventure Starts Here!
Aus: I haven't tried the earbuds in the remote yet. I doubt I will get much use out of that feature.

Taccy - Whoops! Thanks for reminding me to get KODI going on my system. Almost forgot!
I ended up getting a refurb Roku 3 (one of the models that actually works with the Xfinity streaming app right now), and it has those earbuds in the remote. Works great if I want to watch something here in my office late at night and not have the sound carry across the hall to the bedroom or the guest room. Seems silly to plug earbuds into a remote, but then I am not tethered to the TV or the Roku, so I can get up and move across the room at will. Nice little feature.



The People's Republic of Clogher
Kodi's very good, and highly configurable. The downside I find is, because it does the encoding itself, that you need a reasonably beefy machine to use it properly. The version on my Android TV can get very slow when navigating menus so dunno what it would be like on something like a Roku box. It also trips up a bit when using the audio passthrough feature, but they're constantly updating it so expect common bugs not to be around for long.

I recommend the Titan skin.

Kodi update, because you know you want one!

The latest build just won't work well with my TV so I've switched back to Plex. There's a Kodi fork called SBMC which has better performance for me but isn't the most stable.

Plex's only downside is that I need my PC running as a server to use it so for the occasions when the PC's in use I've put Kodi on a Raspberry Pi, where it's working a heck of a lot better than the AndroidTV build.

I also need more hard drive space since I stated ripping my blu ray collection. Did Withnail & I last night and it's 21GB!



Okay, so y'all know I just COULDN'T live with that old Sony DVD surround system much longer, right? I mean, with such amazing tv as the 65 inch E6 OLED from LG and the capability of 4K and HDR on its own and together with the Xbox One S, I just had to do something about it...

So I finally did it and added these babies to the online basket and hopefully they will arrive soon.

Yamaha RX-V781 Receiver with 7.2 channels (thinking of a 5.1.2 atmos setup later on but will start with the basic set below this image)



Yamaha NS-P40 5.1 system



My body is ready for movies in ALL of its glory! I have really hungered for this upgrade in a long time.



I converted my loft about a year ago. I've since had a skylight fitted and I plan to go proper surround sound one day, but for now the sound coming out of this Sony speakers I use is fine.




Okay, so I could get a really great deal on some speakers that I just couldn't pass on...

I bought these babies for only about $65... standard price, at least here were I live, is $285. So, yeah... what a deal.





They were used, but only for about 2 years... they are in great shape; inside and out.

I'm using them as fronts together with the set-up I posted two posts above this one... Now I got two of the old speakers to spare and you know where they are going... Atmos, that's right. I just gotta get the fronts set up right and then I'm going to get to the Atmos next... As stated earlier, it's gonna be a 5.1.2 set up because my theater room is small and because my receiver can only handle two height speakers. But that should be fine for the room and acoustics I have to work with...

Updating once I get the Atmos speakers up...