Guest Simon* Report post Posted August 26, 2009 Bit of tech talk lads and ladesses Have just bought a new house and am keen to upgrade some hardware. I have a pretty clean slate to start with but a far from unlimited budget and have a fair idea of what I'd like to do already, but keen to hear people's thoughts and experiences. Essentially I don't want to go overboard so am looking along the lines of: - 32" HD (1080p) LCD with freeview built in (looking at Samsung series 5) - PS3 as DVD player, media centre front end (I have a whole lot of ripped and compressed movies on an old PC), plus the gaming factor - and probably a home theatre in the box surround package with an ipod dock or the like (as I'm bound to use it 9/10 times for music day to day) What are you guys doing and what do you reckon? Oh and I won't be forking out for Sky (unless flatmate wants to pay) and I'm running a wireless N network with broadband too of course Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
drifty325i 0 Report post Posted August 26, 2009 Mate im from the trade and if you do as you say (9/10 times for music day to day) id say do not by a HT in a Box. You and I both no they do a very average job in terms of musicality. If you need a hook up on a decent reciever and speaker package ill look after you. Think Wharfedale/Mission/Pioneer Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
martyyn 2 Report post Posted August 26, 2009 Ohhhhh, you and me need to have a talk my friend. Its not something to explain here so either give me a ring or let me know next time you are down here Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DRTDVL 0 Report post Posted August 26, 2009 (edited) depending on how you want to there are a few other options... PC based home theatre... You can build these very cheaply now days... Hell i'm running an old p4 3.8ghz machine with a reasonable graphics card and big hard drive... Connect up something like xp media center edition (or windows 7) and run from a remote or bluetooth mouse/keyboard (bonus of net in lounge then). you can get full HD cards that would happily run in that system for sub $300. depending on the size of the room we ran a setup like this with a logitech speaker setup (http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/speakers_audio/home_pc_speakers/devices/224&cl=nz,en - older version of this - paid around $480 for it... ). If you got a tv capture card you could run the tv through the pc and control everything from the remote/mouse keyboard... and record your shows... A few of the guys here use old work machines for it... P4 3.2ghz slap 4gb of ram in it (cheap), 1/2 height hd card (sub 300) 1tb drive, and just use that for it all... Just remember all your old ripped movies will not be in HD... I've got mine running from my soundcard, into my old as Merantiz amp and into Wharfedale speakers with a 15inch sony powered sub... more than fine for me... Edited August 26, 2009 by DRTDVL Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Andrew 30 Report post Posted August 26, 2009 I rock a Mac Mini into my HDTV. Most of my digital media is purchased from iTunes (movies, tunes) so it works out pretty mint. Can drive it with the iPhone as a remote. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
OLLIE 26 Report post Posted August 26, 2009 I'd go the home pc based media centre. with large capacity NAS on the wired network somewhere. The Apple Media Centre is nice to use and you only need the little white apple remote. Only downside is the need to encode the movies to run in itunes. We used a little mac mini under the TV, was brilliant. Re. the ipod dock thing, don't let the ipod dock choose the stereo, because you can always just get and ipod universal dock, complete with little white remote again. Very versatile and your ipod will charge whilst playing music. - http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB125. although if you go down the media ecntre route you won't need to dock your iphone to play music as it will all be on your server / hard drive right. If you have an ipod touch or iphone you can use it as a remote to control your media centre over wireless, there are heaps of apps to support this. When we had the mac mini setup i used it all the time, very responsive and easy to use. another bonus is because of the iphones screen you aren't limited to volume up, down, tracvk fwd, back and play pause - you can actually search albums, movies etc ... from anywhere in the house .... I could go on for ages I Personally would 1. choose a nice TV 2. choose a nice stereo amplifier and speaker set up 3. build or buy a suitable computer (small form factor, low power consumption, quiet and cool, good video and sound cards, other specs to suit) 3. Install Media Centre Software of choice on the PC and a remote app on iphone 4. Plug in some Network Attached storage or install a media server (as an alternative to putting harddrive/s under your TV) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
antil33t 90 Report post Posted August 26, 2009 I use my dirty old HP from the university. Though, Deff don't get a Home Theater all in one, they're utter crap. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DRTDVL 0 Report post Posted August 26, 2009 (edited) I'd go the home pc based media centre. with large capacity NAS on the wired network somewhere. Becareful with NAS devices, make sure they will park/put the hardrive to sleep when not in use for extended time periods otherwise they will burn the drive out much quicker than your home/work pc... on some of the cheaper drives i've heard stories of them burning out in less than 6 months... I'd soon slap a monster drive in your media pc, and run it via that... if your running N standard it's 108mb anyways... just share it from your media center pc for use in the rest of the house... thats what i've done as 90% of the time i'm playing my music/movies through that pc anyways... Set your pc to wake on lan activity and it will always be available with the benifits of drive parking... Edited August 26, 2009 by DRTDVL Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
1rotty 40 Report post Posted August 26, 2009 Never mind that other stuff. WHENS THE HOUSEWARMING?????????????????? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
westy 614 Report post Posted August 26, 2009 Spend all ya money on a stereo. Who needs home theater. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Driftit 1959 Report post Posted August 26, 2009 For the media side of things I am getting one of these. http://www.wdc.com/en/products/wdtv/ They are cheap. Full HD. Play all the formats (PS3 does not). And saves you from having to build a media PC. And the WDTV unit can decode 1080P with out any stuttering. It is also easily portable. There is other far more expensive versions if you are wanting to get Wifi etc. But this will cost you less than half of what building a capable media PC would cost. Software for it is also upgradable for when new codecs come out. RRP: $250 + an external or Thumb drive. Then I would talk to Riley about getting a decent Receiver and Speaker package. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bmpower 3 Report post Posted August 26, 2009 (edited) Get a decent HD TV, a decent AV Amp, PS3, good speakers & sub, and connect it all with decent leads ie. HDMI, component, digital optical, decent speaker wire. No point having $$$ worth of equip if you connect it all with crap leads/wire. I was always told spend 10% of the equip price on leads and your about right. Definatly go with Seperates/Component stuff over 1 box Equip - you can upgrade any 1 piece as technology advances etc.... I run a 37" Sony HD LCD, Sony QS AV Amplifier/Reciever, Sony QS CD Player, Sony DVD Player, Sony PS3, Sony MD Player, Sky box, with Pure Acoustics speakers, 2xFront Floorstanders, 1 Front centre, 2 Rear Bookshelf, Optional Rear Centre, and Pure Acoustics Sub - All hooked up with good leads etc.... All works well for me ...i am slightly SONY biast though... My 2c.... Edited August 26, 2009 by bmpower Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
OLLIE 26 Report post Posted August 26, 2009 For the media side of things I am getting one of these. http://www.wdc.com/en/products/wdtv/ they look pretty sweet, good price too. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pjay 8 Report post Posted August 26, 2009 Simon I have the EXACT setup you've described. 32" Samsung LCD and PS3. Mated an External HD and http://code.google.com/p/ps3mediaserver/ as my media server, it rocks. Used to use TVersity as my Media server, but the google one was recommended by another guy. Its simple as! All you have to do is install it on the computer you want to stream media off. Select the folders you want the program to "watch" and bobs your uncle. Easy to setup. Just don't stream bluray rips over wifi. It fails, hard. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Wervie67 0 Report post Posted August 26, 2009 As for TV's I just bought a samsung 32" series 4 today for just under a grand. works great with freeview and i didnt see many worthwhile upgrades in the series five. definatly go all out on your sound, wharfedale or B&W with onkyo or harmon/kardon amp will always be amazing so try go in that direction Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Simon* Report post Posted August 26, 2009 Cheers everybody am getting lots of good advice, keep it coming. Incidentally does anyone have a line on quality leather loungesuites while we're at it? Never mind that other stuff. WHENS THE HOUSEWARMING?????????????????? Don't worry mate you're all invited! Haumoana, October - probably Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
E30 325i Rag-Top 2915 Report post Posted August 26, 2009 I recently upgaded to a media server PC and it is most worthwhile, only downside was the time taken to go through and rip all my CDs and DVDs onto the hard-drive. Prices have really come down now, a good PC set up for just over a grand, I splashed out a bit and got a bluray read/write drive in as well for the full HD. Have recently seen the Windows Media Centre software for Windows 7 and it's got some big improvements over the current version, especially with respect to Freeview, so that would be worth getting. On the surround sound side I am very biased towards the mid-range Denon receivers as I like their warm sound, for movies and music, but they can be a bit pricey. As with most things it's down to your own tastes and what you would use it for, just try and balance all the different parts of the system, no point having a top end player and a $100 receiver killing the sound. Find a good retailer, who is prepared to hook things together for you to listen to for more than 2 minutes, and try a few different combinations. That's part of the fun in my book. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
1rotty 40 Report post Posted August 26, 2009 Don't worry mate you're all invited! Haumoana, October - probably Jeez mate-are you building the bloody thing Why does anyone want freeview? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Apex 693 Report post Posted August 26, 2009 Sounds like you have a good plan Simon, it’s all about user friendliness, you don’t want to be stuck trying to get your favourite episode of Top Gear going due to it being complex. I have a similar set up to what you are looking at and its great, only down side is that old people and women can’t figure out how it works. Would be great if you could feed an external hard drive or even an I-Pod through the PS3, they don’t like a lot of external devices. PS3-HDMI Cable-AMP-HDMI Cable-Monitor = Win. If you like CD’s like I do, look for a Carousel. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Apex 693 Report post Posted August 26, 2009 Jeez mate-are you building the bloody thing Why does anyone want freeview? Free View has a superior picture too Sky HDI, I know because I run them side by side, also, its notably better. Sky only transmits certain programs in HD anyway. Free View now has Prime. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Simon* Report post Posted August 26, 2009 Free View now has Prime.It does? Awesome!It's my understanding that all new channels, services will be aimed at freeview with the big broadcasters leaving VHF transmission to wither and die Like I said I won't be getting SKY (too busy out driving) so freeview suits me better Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Andrew 30 Report post Posted August 26, 2009 The Apple Media Centre is nice to use and you only need the little white apple remote. Only downside is the need to encode the movies to run in itunes. We used a little mac mini under the TV, was brilliant. Not true - iTunes/Frontrow will play any media. The other option I would consider (and use at work) is the apple TV with the atvflash hack (very easy to do). Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Andrew 30 Report post Posted August 26, 2009 Free View has a superior picture too Sky HDI, I know because I run them side by side, also, its notably better. Sky only transmits certain programs in HD anyway. Free View now has Prime. The H264 freeview broadcasts is badass. I always cringe when I see a music video I have worked on on C4/Juice. They look sh*t and are normally in the wrong aspect. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Andrew 30 Report post Posted August 26, 2009 annd I use an elgato eyeTV tuner to get digital broadcast over uhf (freeview) HD TV into the apple TV - again with the atvflash hack. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
steve R 0 Report post Posted August 26, 2009 As for TV's I just bought a samsung 32" series 4 today for just under a grand. works great with freeview and i didnt see many worthwhile upgrades in the series five. definatly go all out on your sound, wharfedale or B&W with onkyo or harmon/kardon amp will always be amazing so try go in that direction where did you pick the TV up from? for under a grand, cant say no to 32" for the bedroom Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
