Any home theater junkies around here?

Blakdeth


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Re: Home Theater
By: Blakdeth to All on Sun Mar 09 2008 09:26:00

Any home theater junkies around here?

Never much liked the idea. All those actors coming around to my house in order to perform...

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Re: Home Theater
By: Blakdeth to All on Sun Mar 09 2008 09:26 am

Any home theater junkies around here?

I don't know if "junkie" is the right word, but I have currently have 3 home theater systems in my house (varying in cost and quality, obviously).

digital man (xbox-live: digitlman)

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Digital Man wrote to Blakdeth <=-

Re: Home Theater By: Blakdeth to All on Sun Mar 09 2008 09:26 am

Any home theater junkies around here?

I don't know if "junkie" is the right word, but I have currently have 3 home theater systems in my house (varying in cost and quality,
obviously).

I think three home theaters is verging on junkie territory :) At the very
least you certainly enjoy movies.

Up until recently, one of my major hobbies was home theater. I had a very
nice 2002 Hitachi (CRT based) RPTV that required careful calibration on a regular basis. Since upgrading to a plasma display, I have not needed to
adjust it much beyond the initial calibration.

With Warner's announcement and the demise of HD-DVD, I recently purchased a
PS3 and a Blu-ray player and am liking it very much.

Blakdeth


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Re: Re: Home Theater
By: Blakdeth to Digital Man on Mon Mar 10 2008 08:03 am

Digital Man wrote to Blakdeth <=-

Re: Home Theater By: Blakdeth to All on Sun Mar 09 2008 09:26 am

Any home theater junkies around here?

I don't know if "junkie" is the right word, but I have currently have
3 home theater systems in my house (varying in cost and quality, obviously).

I think three home theaters is verging on junkie territory :) At the very least you certainly enjoy movies.

Yes, and I'm very particular about sound (the quality and realism).

Up until recently, one of my major hobbies was home theater. I had a very nice 2002 Hitachi (CRT based) RPTV that required careful calibration on a regular basis.

My main theater room has a 65" Mistubishi from about that same year. It does require re-calibration (convergence tweaking) every once in a while, but it's been a great monitor. I am looking forward to replacing it with something that doesn't take up as much space and consume as much power (and has HDMI) in the future.

Since upgrading to a plasma display, I have not needed to
adjust it much beyond the initial calibration.

I have 2 Vizio plasmas too (a 50" and a 42") and they're pretty good too.
Even with the "noisy" plasma picture, I prefer it (greatly) to LCD.

With Warner's announcement and the demise of HD-DVD, I recently
purchased a PS3 and a Blu-ray player and am liking it very much.

Yeah, I don't have any HD (or Blu-ray) DVD technology in-house yet. All my satellite receivers and PVRs are HD however.

digital man (xbox-live: digitlman)

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Digital Man wrote to Blakdeth <=-

Yes, and I'm very particular about sound (the quality and realism).

I'm something of a videophile. I originally calibrated my Hitachi with
Milori's Colofacts software. I purchased Colorvision's Spyder but it
doesn't hold a candle to something like Colofacts.

I have 2 Vizio plasmas too (a 50" and a 42") and they're pretty good
too. Even with the "noisy" plasma picture, I prefer it (greatly) to
LCD.

I've been recommending the Vizio to a couple of friends. Last year's model
got a great write up in the Perfect Vision. I have a Pioneer 5070 myself.

Yeah, I don't have any HD (or Blu-ray) DVD technology in-house yet. All
my satellite receivers and PVRs are HD however.

I am actually loving both so it is a little sad to see HD-DVD go. It is good that there is one format though. I have a dated DirecTV HD Tivo on my plasma and a standard DirecTV Tivo on my display in the bedroom.

I am just dying to upgrade to something better but I find myself between a
rock and a hard place. I simply don't want cable because I have been happy
with satellite for so long, but D* isn't really supporting the old Tivo
branded DVRs anymore. My wife is addicted to Tivo and simply refuses to
switch. While I love Tivo myself, I really want to additional HD channels a
new D* receiver would offer.

Fun huh?

Blakdeth


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Re: Re: Home Theater
By: Blakdeth to Digital Man on Tue Mar 11 2008 08:55 am

Digital Man wrote to Blakdeth <=-

Yes, and I'm very particular about sound (the quality and realism).

I'm something of a videophile. I originally calibrated my Hitachi with Milori's Colofacts software. I purchased Colorvision's Spyder but it
doesn't hold a candle to something like Colofacts.

I have 2 Vizio plasmas too (a 50" and a 42") and they're pretty good too. Even with the "noisy" plasma picture, I prefer it (greatly) to LCD.

I've been recommending the Vizio to a couple of friends. Last year's model got a great write up in the Perfect Vision. I have a Pioneer 5070 myself.

Yeah, I don't have any HD (or Blu-ray) DVD technology in-house yet.
All my satellite receivers and PVRs are HD however.

I am actually loving both so it is a little sad to see HD-DVD go. It is
good that there is one format though. I have a dated DirecTV HD Tivo on my plasma and a standard DirecTV Tivo on my display in the bedroom.

I am just dying to upgrade to something better but I find myself between a rock and a hard place. I simply don't want cable because I have been happy with satellite for so long, but D* isn't really supporting the old Tivo branded DVRs anymore. My wife is addicted to Tivo and simply refuses to switch. While I love Tivo myself, I really want to additional HD channels a new D* receiver would offer.

Fun huh?

Yes, I know exactly where you stand. I've been using DirecTivos since 2001 (I have 3 of them) and paid like $500 for my HR-250 (the last HD DirecTivo), but alas, it doesn't do MPEG4/AVC and DirecTV is axing more of more of the old MPEG2 HD channels every day....

So I took them up on their free upgrade offer: got a new slim line 5 LB dish and an HR-21, while the software isn't TiVo, the video quality is excellent and I didn't have to pay a penny extra. I still have my HR-250 (hooked up to another system) so I didn't lose any of my recorded programs and I have an H-20 (receiver only), so all my DirecTV receivers are to at least some degree, now HD.

digital man (xbox-live: digitlman)

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Digital Man wrote to Blakdeth <=-

So I took them up on their free upgrade offer: got a new slim line 5 LB dish and an HR-21, while the software isn't TiVo, the video quality is excellent and I didn't have to pay a penny extra. I still have my
HR-250 (hooked up to another system) so I didn't lose any of my
recorded programs and I have an H-20 (receiver only), so all my DirecTV receivers are to at least some degree, now HD.

I must have missed the free upgrade. You wouldn't happen to know if it is
still available?

How do you like the software provided with the HR-21? I've read mixed reviews from many sources. The general consensus seems to be that if you have/had
Tivo, it is a step down. Otherwise, it could be considered quite good. Have
you lost any recording or did it fail to record anything as scheduled?

Blakdeth


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Re: Re: Home Theater
By: Blakdeth to Digital Man on Wed Mar 12 2008 07:43 am

Digital Man wrote to Blakdeth <=-

So I took them up on their free upgrade offer: got a new slim line 5
LB dish and an HR-21, while the software isn't TiVo, the video quality is excellent and I didn't have to pay a penny extra. I still have my HR-250 (hooked up to another system) so I didn't lose any of my recorded programs and I have an H-20 (receiver only), so all my
DirecTV receivers are to at least some degree, now HD.

I must have missed the free upgrade. You wouldn't happen to know if it is still available?

It probably is. They called at least 3 or four times last year and left messages that I needed to get the upgrade to continue to receive all the HD channels (plus new ones coming online). I finally called them back and got the upgrade in January I think it was. Just call 1-800-DirecTV and ask for the upgrade. The westcoast HD network channels in the 80-99 channel range are displaying a warning banner that they're going offline soon and you must upgrade to get continue getting those channels in HD.

How do you like the software provided with the HR-21?

It's okay. It's not TiVo, that's for sure.

I've read mixed
reviews from many sources. The general consensus seems to be that if you have/had Tivo, it is a step down.

It is, but you don't really have much choice if you like to record/watch in HD.

Otherwise, it could be considered quite
good. Have you lost any recording or did it fail to record anything as scheduled?

I haven't set up all the keywords and favorites that I have in my HR-250 yet, but so far, so good. I'd say watching (more) programs in HD outweighs the TiVo usability advantages.

digital man (xbox-live: digitlman)

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Digital Man wrote to Blakdeth <=-

I haven't set up all the keywords and favorites that I have in my
HR-250 yet, but so far, so good. I'd say watching (more) programs in HD outweighs the TiVo usability advantages.

Thanks for the information about the HR-21. I might just give D* a call and
see what they say. If nothing else, I could hook it up to my Pioneer and my wife could use the HR-250 in the bedroom.

Blakdeth


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