What is Your Tv Set Up like?

POSTED BY: spqr
UPDATED: Wednesday, June 22, 2005 08:40
VIEWED: 7893
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CALHOUN

Sunday, June 19, 2005 12:20 AM

Quote:
By the way: My Philips DVD player (which is a real beauty, btw) cost $85 at KMart. I stumbled across it last December (2004) while waiting for my wife to finish lusting after a Martha Stewart cookware set. I was flabbergasted that it played DivX format on recordable DVDs (*winks knowingly at people who know stuff*) and immediately bought one

Heya Zoid,

I got me a Philips DVP642K a while back in similar circumstances to you. I am happy with the player but I have found it does have limitations. The unit doesnt seem to support DivX encoded with global motion compensation. It would also be nice if it played quicktime. Other than those small gripes I like it much.

JRC

Sunday, June 19, 2005 5:28 AM

Ok, here goes,
First, a Toshiba 36" CRT, sucker weighs about 150 lbs. Today, I just bought a Pioneer VSX-815 which has 7.1 DTS, but I haven't hooked it up yet. It will power JBL tower speakers left and right, Bose center channel, JBL 10" subwoofer, with Atlantic Technology surround speakers left and right and Yamaha center speaker. I view my DVDs and hear CDs through my Toshiba progressive scan player, about a year old.
My computer is a Power Mac G5, 1.6Ghz, using a 17" Apple flat panel LCD, which my kids also use to watch their own DVDs. They listen to them using my Altec Lansing ATP3 speakers and subwoofer. These speakers sound great, but they look even greater!

Everyone dies alone.

SPQR

Sunday, June 19, 2005 5:37 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by mojave:
SPQR, thanks for starting this topic. I'm putting together a home theater to maximize my Firefly viewing, so far it's just a Samsung 27" HDTV. Was looking closely at that Denon DVD-1910, but you don't sound too impressed? And can you report if they did anything interesting with the surround mix on the Firefly DVDs?

the thing I don't like about the Denon DVD-1910 is that I get blocky colors (there is a name for it but can not find it now) in the 'darks colors-black range', & mostly on tv shows, this is when it see it the most, Angel is somewhat anoying to watch, + Inara ship on firefly, because all the blacks/Dark colors on her ship. Space shots/seens & bright lit seens are Good A++++. I have it hooked-up DVI to the TV, I have read that changing to a 'component video' can get reduce or getride of this, but I do not have that cable. Also the 'DVD player menu' can Only be gotten to with out a DVD disc in it + the DVI buton is in a bad spot & it has no light, so keep a flash light near by.
Sound out is Very Good for the coxal Digital, remember its the A/V that does the 'main work' & good range speakers 20hz-120khz, w/ 'high' gauge wires (small # the bigger the wire), to get all the power to the speakers, a cheep up-grade. & keep the wire langths equal A/V & speaker wires.
I don't think that I would get one again, I got this because it had the DVI & few had that at the time, look a toshiba or sony there cheeper & they have DVI now. check out cnet for reviews of 'new' & 'old' stuff, anything tec.

www.cnet.com

My computer:
Compaq presario X6000
3 ghz Pent
2 gig ram
60 gig HD
ATI X600 Vcard
dvd-rw (loud & very ruff running, but not on DVD movies)
17" widescreen 1700Xsomething
Better then my last computer, 200 hz that needed to run 3 days in safe mode to 'warm-up' then I could run it normaly or it would crash (that was the last few months of its life)

ZOID

Sunday, June 19, 2005 8:37 AM

Calhoun:

Mine's a Philips DVP642/37. Don't know if that's different from yours or not. I haven't had any problems playing DivX files, and have no clue what "global motion compensation" is. As I may not have made perfectly clear, I'm not an audio/videophile. I snapped it up because all the other available retail models costing upwards of $250 at several stores around town played fewer formats, and none of the others played DivX or WMVs; few even played AVIs. I considered it a steal, and it has proven most serviceable, delivering everything promised.

In case the preceding paragraph caused anyone's head to hurt, I'm saying it's my favorite piece of a/v equipment, especially because it only cost $85. No raiding other budgets required to purchase it...

My theory on electronics of every kind: Never buy bleeding edge technology. For computers, I regularly research the latest developments, then I wait a year (sometimes more) to buy the stuff I deem to be the best of class. This practice lowers the cost by at least 50%, while still providing lots of headroom for software applications that will be shipping in that timeframe. For example, the hottest processor today goes for in excess of $600. Wait six months to a year and that price will be less than $250, and it will still treble the "Recommended System" specs of the hottest game on the shelf at the time I install it.

On the other hand, thanks to everyone who buys bleeding edge. Y'all clearly have more money than I do, and you're driving Moore's Law, keeping me in affordable and effective upgrades in the process...

Economically,

zoid

P.S.
My next 'year old tech' upgrade of my computer, sometime this July: GIGABYTE GA-K8NS PRO Socket 754 NVIDIA nForce3 250 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail ($88 at newegg), AMD Athlon 64 3400+ Newcastle Integrated into Chip FSB 512KB L2 Cache Socket 754 Processor - OEM ($178, ibid), CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit System Memory - Retail ($79, ibid). Total upgrade cost: $345; buying bleeding edge would top $800; buying retail...fuggedaboutit. I thought about going with a Socket 939 mobo, but I've gotta have PATA RAID (I ain't ready to sink $500+ into SATA drives just yet) and I love NForce chipsets. Dual-channel memory architecture smokes its peers and I get better performance from my NVidia 6600GT as an added benefit.
_________________________________________________

"Sure as I know anything, I know this: I aim to misbehave." -Capt. Mal Reynolds, Serenity, a.k.a. 'the BDM'

CALHOUN

Sunday, June 19, 2005 9:26 AM

Quote:
zoid wrote:
Friday, June 17, 2005 21:51

I was flabbergasted that it played DivX format on recordable DVDs (*winks knowingly at people who know stuff*) and immediately bought one, before somebody figured out what it was and either outlawed them or jacked up the price a couple hundred bucks. All my friends got the tip from me, so I can appreciate the spirit in which you intended this thread...

Speaking of jacking the prices up...

I bought my DVP642 for $135 Australian and the following week went back to the same Good Guys store to buy another for my brother as a wedding present but the price was now $195!! When I questioned the salesman about the price hike he said that this was the price they have always been sold for. I said No it wasnt because of my prior purchase. He LAUGHED at me and said I must be confused because I was wrong....(he said a few other things which were quite rude) I demanded to see the manager and after explaining the situation to him he backed his salesman and said I was wrong.... I stormed out of the store, went to my car to drive home and look for the receipt but found it in the centre console! I went back inside and slammed it down on the counter in front of the manager and his rude lackey. They were both red faced and the manager promptly sold me one for the same original price. On my way out of the store I looked directly at the rude salesman and laughed at him HEHEHEHEHe.. If looks could kill I would probably be dead a hundred times over.

Its nice to have a win every now and then.

MOJAVE

Monday, June 20, 2005 6:05 AM

SPQR, got it, thanks, the Denon DVD-1910 is off the list. You can't access the DVD menu unless the DVD is out? You need to keep a flashlight around? That kind of user interface problem just drives me up the wall. The DVI macroblocking thing you mentioned shows up in a few reviews out there, not just the Denon unit. OK, I'm going to go lower for the moment, and spend some real money next year on a Blu Ray DVD player.

JRC, do you want to give us a review of that Pioneer VSX-815?

SPQR

Monday, June 20, 2005 8:44 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by mojave:
SPQR, got it, thanks, the Denon DVD-1910 is off the list. You can't access the DVD menu unless the DVD is out? You need to keep a flashlight around? That kind of user interface problem just drives me up the wall. The DVI macroblocking thing you mentioned shows up in a few reviews out there, not just the Denon unit. OK, I'm going to go lower for the moment, and spend some real money next year on a Blu Ray DVD player.

JRC, do you want to give us a review of that Pioneer VSX-815?

You can kill two w/ one stone, the new 'PSP3' will have a 'BluRay' DVD player. Price not set yet, it will be out for this X-mass, but I would wait 2 months, sometimes the first off the line stuff can have problems. The 'X-Box 360' a ? on the player type.

YT

Tuesday, June 21, 2005 3:41 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by zoid:
will be replaced by a 50+" HD rear-projection by this year's end, manufacturer yet to be determined. Price, performance and features will be carefully considered, with price being weighted above other variables. I will not pay more than $1800, and would prefer to catch a deal around $1200. They pop up now and again, but you've gotta be quick to catch 'em. (I got my eye on a particular Philips 52" model that keeps flying off the shelves at my local Sam's Club for $1295.)

I know what you mean. Been keeping my eye out for deals but, twice since January, I decided on one and it had sold out since the previous day -- permanently, as in, end of model run.

Keep the Shiny Side Up . . .

ZOID

Tuesday, June 21, 2005 12:30 PM

YT:

As we speak (write), my local Sam's has got a 60" Philips rear-projection on offer for $1299. Now I've just got to see about selling one of my shot kidneys to a medical researcher to come up with the 13K. Me no likey credit. As a wage slave and tax payer, I reckon I've already got two masters I'd like to get rid of; but credit brokers are the modern day equivalent of Simon LeGree.

Of course, selling the kidney may make the point moot...

Fatally,

zoid
_________________________________________________

"Sure as I know anything, I know this: I aim to misbehave." -Capt. Mal Reynolds, Serenity, a.k.a. 'the BDM'

JRC

Wednesday, June 22, 2005 8:40 AM

A review may be next week, once I get another set of surround speakers tomorrow, along with a couple of new wires for hooking up DVD player to receiver. I can say that this Pioneer is rather complicated, and I expected that, but it makes my 8-year-old Kenwood receiver look like child's play.

Everyone dies alone.

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