We're moving to a new house that finishes construction in the spring. There's going to be a decent sized den for doing a home theatre setup and I've been assigned the task of doing research. Firstly, as far as wiring goes, the speaker wire is being put in the walls for a 5.1 setup, and the placement is good. In addition, the TV is going above a fireplace in a fairly small area which is only 40" wide: LCD is the only real option space wise. A conduit is going behind the TV and opening a few feet to the right, where there will be a unit housing all of the the AV gear (so we can run AV wires behind the wall), and the Subwoofer is going beside that in the corner. I've picked out some gear, trying to get the best possible value. If anyone has any kind of experience with these items, I would really appreciate hearing it as I've had trouble finding reviews:
TV: HP LC3700N 37" LCD TV. Chosen because it has detachable speakers (saves space), same LCD panel as the Sharp Aquos (which I hear is the best) and full 720p res. Plus it's very stylish.
DVD: Samsung HD850 Upconverting DVD player. As far as I can tell it's the cheapest uconverter by a little bit, plus it has a free HDMI cable. I couldn't find any real reviews of the image and sound quality and I'm unsure about DivX support (not a killer issue though).
Reciever/speakers: Yamaha YHT160S. It seems like a really good price, plus it looks stylish and compact. Seems to have a decent radio and enough power.
The one I'm most unsure about is the Yamaha home-theatre-in-a-box. This is going to be used mostly for films but also for music. It's not going to need to ever be EXTREMELY loud, but needs to be loud enough for parties. Also, it doesn't say anywhere whether the box includes speaker wall mounts.
In addition to questions about the quality of all these components, I have a question about wiring. The DVD player is going to be connected via HDMI to the TV, the HD Cable Terminal is going to be connected with DVI to the TV and optical digital out to either the TV or the reciever. Would it make more sense to connect the terminal to the TV and then run an optical digital out cable from the TV to the reciever, or would it be better to connect the Cable terminal to the TV with DVI and to the reciever with optical digital out and then connect the DVD to the TV with HDMI AND to the reciever with optical digital out. I would be willing to sacrafice controlling the TVs volume with the TV remote (using the cable boxes remote) if it meant better overall sound quality, since both setups would require the same number of cables (and they will be out of sight).
Thanks in advance for any help: I've never had to fumble about with an all digital setup and the wiring is quite overwhelming. And thanks for any tips on these comonents. Also, if you think any of these devices are going to be updated before then or replaced, please say so as there are still a few months before everything needs to be bought. I'm going to probably get everything from bestbuy: I've priced out the whole setup at $3300 Canadian, minus sales tax.
TV: HP LC3700N 37" LCD TV. Chosen because it has detachable speakers (saves space), same LCD panel as the Sharp Aquos (which I hear is the best) and full 720p res. Plus it's very stylish.
DVD: Samsung HD850 Upconverting DVD player. As far as I can tell it's the cheapest uconverter by a little bit, plus it has a free HDMI cable. I couldn't find any real reviews of the image and sound quality and I'm unsure about DivX support (not a killer issue though).
Reciever/speakers: Yamaha YHT160S. It seems like a really good price, plus it looks stylish and compact. Seems to have a decent radio and enough power.
The one I'm most unsure about is the Yamaha home-theatre-in-a-box. This is going to be used mostly for films but also for music. It's not going to need to ever be EXTREMELY loud, but needs to be loud enough for parties. Also, it doesn't say anywhere whether the box includes speaker wall mounts.
In addition to questions about the quality of all these components, I have a question about wiring. The DVD player is going to be connected via HDMI to the TV, the HD Cable Terminal is going to be connected with DVI to the TV and optical digital out to either the TV or the reciever. Would it make more sense to connect the terminal to the TV and then run an optical digital out cable from the TV to the reciever, or would it be better to connect the Cable terminal to the TV with DVI and to the reciever with optical digital out and then connect the DVD to the TV with HDMI AND to the reciever with optical digital out. I would be willing to sacrafice controlling the TVs volume with the TV remote (using the cable boxes remote) if it meant better overall sound quality, since both setups would require the same number of cables (and they will be out of sight).
Thanks in advance for any help: I've never had to fumble about with an all digital setup and the wiring is quite overwhelming. And thanks for any tips on these comonents. Also, if you think any of these devices are going to be updated before then or replaced, please say so as there are still a few months before everything needs to be bought. I'm going to probably get everything from bestbuy: I've priced out the whole setup at $3300 Canadian, minus sales tax.