Home Theater Mega Thread

[19Yzerman19]

There wouldn't be any drilling into concrete! It's not a support wall, there is either just drywall there or there's a stud placed back there specifically to hang a TV off of - which I only suppose because it was clearly intended that a TV be put there; there's a cable and power outlet there. If I'm just hanging it off of drywall I'm not sure how to approach it. Maybe straight drywall anchors into the wall through the mount (the whole apparatus is going to be 50lbs, which should be supportable you'd think), or maybe you put something in between. Not sure.

There's also metal framing in the walls but that would probably be tough to work with. However, this is what makes figuring out what's behind the drywall difficult; if you use a stud finder it'll tell you there's a stud there when in fact it's a piece of metal framing.

[Vulcan]

I see, I got thrown off by it being a concrete building.

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by YYC in LAX

Thanks guys. The 720 looks pretty good but eBay users seem to want a premium unless it is a used one.

That's because the Harmony 720 is an old model but a very kick-ass one. That said, it's still a LOT cheaper than a Harmony 900 or a Harmony One, and IMO it's worth it.

[19Yzerman19]

Picked up the new TV tonight. Samsung F8500 Plasma, 60".





Pumped. Now to wall mount this sucker.

[nixon45]

Likely this has been covered before, but I need recommendations.

I recently set up my home theatre system in my main living room. I have chords for the rear speakers that essentially are laid across the floor to the other side of the room where my receiver is located.

What are some good ways to hide these cords? Unfortunately there is no furniture that they could go under, but ways to run them alone baseboards and against wall I am all ears for.

[DownhillGoat]

Originally Posted by nixon45

but ways to run them alone baseboards and against wall I am all ears for.

Remove the baseboards, notch a groove in the drywall, run wires in groove, put baseboard back on.

If it's an inside wall, it's easy to drill a hole under the baseboard, run the wire behind the wall, drill another hole where the speaker is mounted and fish it out (you'll likely want to use a CL2 rated wire). Outside wall is tougher unless you've got some flex in the vapour barrier.

You can fish it under carpet too, but I'm not a huge fan.

[19Yzerman19]

Just bought one of these to diminish clutter.

[Deviaant]

Originally Posted by 19Yzerman19

Picked up the new TV tonight. Samsung F8500 Plasma, 60".





Pumped. Now to wall mount this sucker.

Great choice I love mine. Too bad plasma is going the way of the dodo.

[19Yzerman19]

That's why you have to get 'em now... Or wait for OLED to make sense.

[Deviaant]

Originally Posted by 19Yzerman19

That's why you have to get 'em now... Or wait for OLED to make sense.

I am pretty sure I recently read that Samsung was stopping OLED production in order to ramp up 4k tv production. I will try and find the article I was reading. I want to say it was on cnet.

[darklord700]

Originally Posted by Deviaant

I am pretty sure I recently read that Samsung was stopping OLED production in order to ramp up 4k tv production. I will try and find the article I was reading. I want to say it was on cnet.

I read that too. Numbers like 4K sells better than technology. Most people will op for 4K intead of OLEC.

[19Yzerman19]

Really? I would think they would want a market with two options like they've had to date; it's worked quite well for them. Also everything I read about OLED makes it sound freaking amazing (potential for better picture than plasma in a lighter and more energy efficient form than LED), and everything I read about 4K makes it sound like a total crock of crap that isn't worth paying money for.

[darklord700]

Originally Posted by 19Yzerman19

everything I read about 4K makes it sound like a total crock of crap that isn't worth paying money for.

Joe Six packs can't tell the difference between LCD and OLED. But they will appreciate the difference between 4K and the obsolete 1K 1080p TV. 4K is 4 times better than 1K, right?

It's the marketing and not the R&D department who's making these kind of decisions.

[DoubleK]

Originally Posted by darklord700

It's the marketing and not the R&D department who's making these kind of decisions.

And that's not wrong. If you aren't selling anything you don't have money for R&D.

[darklord700]

Originally Posted by DoubleK

And that's not wrong. If you aren't selling anything you don't have money for R&D.

Didn't say it was wrong, TV makers must make money to survive too.

But as an enthusiast, I was hopign to see OLED thrive. But it looks like we're stuck with LCD for the next little while.

[Deviaant]

I am hoping my Plasma will bridge the gap between LED and whatever fancy new tech wins the latest format battle. On my TV hunt I just did not find a LED tv that "wowed" me like the F8500. I was kind of getting excited about my next tv being an OLED tv I guess now we will have to wait and see what happens.

[MickMcGeough]

Originally Posted by 19Yzerman19

...everything I read about 4K makes it sound like a total crock of crap that isn't worth paying money for.

Can you tell me why 4K is a crock? I need to upgrade my main set soon and I've been waffling on 4K or not...

[OldDutch]

Originally Posted by MickMcGeough

Can you tell me why 4K is a crock? I need to upgrade my main set soon and I've been waffling on 4K or not...

It is not a total crock, just in most cases. This comes from almost every review saying that you cannot tell the difference visually between 1080p and 4K unless you are going 80" and above.

The consensus is that unless you age getting a projector, or like to sit 6 feet away, don't bother.

Now with that said, you will quickly see that the best LED TV's out there will be 4K because the profit margin will keep them at the $3-4K range and above. So if you want a top tier TV at 50"-65" you will have to get a 4K because the best picture TV's will be at that resolution to boost price and margin.

It is well argued that the best time to buy a TV in the last and the next 5-6 years was last year. The Panasonic Plasma last sets were some of the best ever, and the top tier LED's were lacking 4K and the boosted cost. So you had a few cheaper sets that could probably compete with the next few years sets but at less cost.

Now with that said, there are some great mid-range 1080p sets you can buy now, like the Samsung or Sony LEDs. So I wouldn't buy into the 4K hype unless you go very big, or want top picture.

[19Yzerman19]

Originally Posted by MickMcGeough

Can you tell me why 4K is a crock? I need to upgrade my main set soon and I've been waffling on 4K or not...

Basically at a reasonable distance with a reasonable screen size your eye is the lower resolution device, so it doesn't matter how high the resolution on the set is, you won't be able to see the difference. It's like buying high-tech speakers that emit sound at a frequency that the ordinary person's ears can't hear.

Unless you sit 5 feet from your 80 inch main set there's really not much point, but it's very easy and cheap for TV manufacturers to push this technology and it's highly marketable so they'll absolutely do it. Meanwhile all of the current problems with LCD still exist. These two articles sum it up.

http://www.cnet.com/news/why-4k-tvs-are-stupid/

http://www.cnet.com/news/why-ultra-h...-still-stupid/

This math, or just looking at your TV, tells you that you can't see individual pixels. What's interesting is that a 720p, 50-inch TV has pixels roughly 0.034 inch wide. As in, at a distance of 10 feet, even 720p TVs have pixels too small for your eye to see.

That's right, at 10 feet, your eye can't resolve the difference between otherwise identical 1080p and 720p televisions. Extrapolating this out, you'd have to get a TV at least 77 inches diagonal before you'd start having a pixel visibility problem with 1080p.

So if your eye can't tell the difference between 720p and 1080p on nearly all modern televisions, what's the need for 4K?

Excellent question. There isn't one. Not as far as TVs go, anyway. You'd need a 2,160p TV over 154 inches diagonal before you'd be able to see the pixels. On a 4K 50-inch TV, the pixels would be roughly 0.011 inch wide.

Where's the crossover where 1080p and 4K become noticeable? It's not exact because of all the above mentioned variables, but suffice it to say at 10 feet, it's somewhere well above 77 inches.

[MickMcGeough]

Hah this was me checking out 4K TVs in the Sony Store:



I still marvel at the sharpness of my "retina" devices so I sorta bought into the hype, but I can see that it's a totally different thing sitting in a living room.