SEAWOLF97
02-03-2017, 07:24 PM
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I don't have resources to dedicate a room and spend big bux on a SOTA Home Theater.
If you do or have done so already, then this thread probably isn't for you.
Last year the kids came to stay for a while and we put them up in a spare bedroom. They were aghast that it only had a 20 inch CRT TV. (I have trouble replacing any gear that's working well) . So for Xmas the kids sent a 32 inch LCD set. Was really happy with the pic, but the 26 inch CRT in the HT was working OK. fortunately last summer that set croaked.
I did a lot of homework and decided that 40 inch is the max that would work out in that room. I've always had the problem of "under buying" ie: not anticipating future needs,
This time I went for a UHD 4K up scaling smart TV. Turned out to be a good choice. Hardwired it to the router
That purchase started an upgrade cycle.
My HT room is my bedroom (14x24) that used to be the family room. It had the CRT , a Denon 2105 AVR , a JBL CL505 center, a/d/s/ L-1290 towers , a/d/s L300 surrounds and a Panny DVD player.
So I got a used Visio Bluray player, but was unhappy with the slowness/unresponsiveness and pickiness about disks. Didn't last long. Replaced it with a Sony 3D Bluray that is superior in every respect. NOW 1st problem. Sony is HDMI only, My old AVR does NOT have HDMI. The new TV has 3 HDMI inputs and pretty good DTS 5.1 sound. Doing it that way excluded the existing audio gear.
Making it all work only happened when I reprogrammed my vintage schematic idea of a HT system. The AVR is no longer the hub/center of it all. The "smart hub" in the TV is now the center and the AVR only powers speakers and no longer does switching. 2nd problem comes up. How to get signal to the AVR ? Turns out that the TV has optical output (TOSLINK) ... merely ran one of those lines to the never before used optical input on the AVR.
It now ran pretty good, EXCEPT Netflix sound would only play through the TV. Tried everything but no joy. In desperation I called Samsung. "NO SWEAT" said the CSR. He asked my name and city and found my MAC address from the "on set" registration.
Soon there was a permission request on the screen , giving temp control to the CSR.
He knew where to go in the settings and was patient while I double checked it all.
So now it's Audio upgrade time. I had forgotten that there was a DefTech SLCR powered unit in storage. In this 20 inch wide speaker there is a powered 8 inch sub. That was a huge upgrade.
The rears stayed the same. The fronts now had twin 10 inch subs vampired in and set as bases for the towers.
Also from storage came a Velodyne 12 inch servo-sub. Audio is now just fine with the two 8's in each tower,a 10 inch subs under each of them , a powered 8 inch sub in the DefTech and the 12 inch powered sub.
Lastly, the remote controls and constant switching was tiring. I acquired a Harmony remote. You do all the programming on their website and then download to the remote.
Very shortly after that, I picked up another Harmony. This was a much higher level "Ultra Touch" model with a color screen about the size of most cell phones.
Very, very versatile . Turn on order, delays, etc.etc. And Logitech claims gear codes for over 20,000 different peripherals.
Now..great picture, outstanding audio & easy control. Since there is a browser app , I picked up a blutooth keyboard.
Oh yeah, I went to their apps store and found Pandora , so it can just run as audio all day.:bouncy:
I don't have resources to dedicate a room and spend big bux on a SOTA Home Theater.
If you do or have done so already, then this thread probably isn't for you.
Last year the kids came to stay for a while and we put them up in a spare bedroom. They were aghast that it only had a 20 inch CRT TV. (I have trouble replacing any gear that's working well) . So for Xmas the kids sent a 32 inch LCD set. Was really happy with the pic, but the 26 inch CRT in the HT was working OK. fortunately last summer that set croaked.
I did a lot of homework and decided that 40 inch is the max that would work out in that room. I've always had the problem of "under buying" ie: not anticipating future needs,
This time I went for a UHD 4K up scaling smart TV. Turned out to be a good choice. Hardwired it to the router
That purchase started an upgrade cycle.
My HT room is my bedroom (14x24) that used to be the family room. It had the CRT , a Denon 2105 AVR , a JBL CL505 center, a/d/s/ L-1290 towers , a/d/s L300 surrounds and a Panny DVD player.
So I got a used Visio Bluray player, but was unhappy with the slowness/unresponsiveness and pickiness about disks. Didn't last long. Replaced it with a Sony 3D Bluray that is superior in every respect. NOW 1st problem. Sony is HDMI only, My old AVR does NOT have HDMI. The new TV has 3 HDMI inputs and pretty good DTS 5.1 sound. Doing it that way excluded the existing audio gear.
Making it all work only happened when I reprogrammed my vintage schematic idea of a HT system. The AVR is no longer the hub/center of it all. The "smart hub" in the TV is now the center and the AVR only powers speakers and no longer does switching. 2nd problem comes up. How to get signal to the AVR ? Turns out that the TV has optical output (TOSLINK) ... merely ran one of those lines to the never before used optical input on the AVR.
It now ran pretty good, EXCEPT Netflix sound would only play through the TV. Tried everything but no joy. In desperation I called Samsung. "NO SWEAT" said the CSR. He asked my name and city and found my MAC address from the "on set" registration.
Soon there was a permission request on the screen , giving temp control to the CSR.
He knew where to go in the settings and was patient while I double checked it all.
So now it's Audio upgrade time. I had forgotten that there was a DefTech SLCR powered unit in storage. In this 20 inch wide speaker there is a powered 8 inch sub. That was a huge upgrade.
The rears stayed the same. The fronts now had twin 10 inch subs vampired in and set as bases for the towers.
Also from storage came a Velodyne 12 inch servo-sub. Audio is now just fine with the two 8's in each tower,a 10 inch subs under each of them , a powered 8 inch sub in the DefTech and the 12 inch powered sub.
Lastly, the remote controls and constant switching was tiring. I acquired a Harmony remote. You do all the programming on their website and then download to the remote.
Very shortly after that, I picked up another Harmony. This was a much higher level "Ultra Touch" model with a color screen about the size of most cell phones.
Very, very versatile . Turn on order, delays, etc.etc. And Logitech claims gear codes for over 20,000 different peripherals.
Now..great picture, outstanding audio & easy control. Since there is a browser app , I picked up a blutooth keyboard.
Oh yeah, I went to their apps store and found Pandora , so it can just run as audio all day.:bouncy: