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Hey folks,

I finally got the last bit of parts to hook up my cheap home theater (ran me a little under 500 bucks after Mail in rebates and cables, connectors, etc.) Naturally, im but a student so I cant afford anything fancy like a HD projector, espcially since this is just for my room, but to hell if Im complaining with the setup I have now.

I have a ViewSonic PJ503D projecting the image, and my server computer is pushing out the movies/music, so its bascily my media center. I also have my wii, but in order to compensate for the short legnth of the sensor bar i did a bit of a hack job, so its now wireless, and works like a charm Oh, and the sound system is just a crappy stereo that happends to have RCA input, so, itll do for now.

A few Pictures:

My room with my puny tv...nothing special


The Projection surface....not smooth at all, shame on me


And The final product, Big screen baby!


So, what kind of setups do you guys have? I know there has to be a few A/V nerds on these forums.

Projectors rock do they not? First time I used a good one was at a mates place. He had an old 720p Panasonic effort. Uptill that point I love movies in cinemas but never considered a projector cos is not as good. Big screen TVs were fine. Then I tried his watching Star Wars (SD quality) and Indiana Jones. God. So I had to have one. Took ages getting the screen to attach to my wall properly, but once done is magnificant! Nothing better. Oh and games are awesome, but there is something about Guitar Hero or Buzz at 100+ inches that is totally tops...

Mine is getting on a bit now. I have a 36" Panasonic CRT, a 104" projector screen with a Sony HS50 projector (720p) hanging from the ceiling. Then I have a 6 disk autochanger DVD player plugged into the projector with Dolby Digital 5.1 and full speakers and sub around the room. TV has standard cable TV and a PS2 plugged into it for DVD. Projector also has a HD-DVD player and a PC plugged into it. 2 of the bedrooms, the TV in the lounge, and the projector in the lounge, all have HD media streamers (TVIX M5000U) with 250gb drives inside each linked to the network by CAT5 100mbps cable (good olde apartment runs through walls). Also have a few portable HD's for storage. Is nice to rip all my DVDs (have about 200 or so) and then have the Tvix show them all nicely with thumbnails in a menu.

Must upgrade at some point though. Just hurts with the price. For example my TV cost £2500 ($5000) about 8 years ago. Worth nothing now though. Am thinking of upgrading to the following (easier because can share when move in with my bird soon):-
1. Sony 1080p projector (for the money my old 720p Sony is unbelievably good)
2. Sony 1080p 46" LCD (esp. the new ones with built in XCross)
3. Sony PS3 (for Bluray into TV and projector, but only once the new SKU comes out)
4. 720p 32" LCD (my bird's current one for the bedroom with HD-DVD plugged in for decent upscaling and good catalogue of cheap films now is dead format)
5. New sound system
6. Upgraded media streamers (say a Mac Mini or similar cheap small PC that are coming out now, although PS3 is good for DivX now)
7. Birds Wii I got her plugged into TV and projector (forgot about that, but am loving the idea of projected Wii Jedi)
8. Upgraded network to 1gbps

Only thought is what to do with my old stuff...

Cheers

61" Samsung dlp





Here is my HD movie collection so far.

Zone Chicken, if you don't have the movie Donnie Darko in that collection, then it's worth nothing


I don't have much of a setup yet. Soon, I'll have something worth showing.

I'd post mine, but... it's just my computer I'll wait for the next 'post your RL desktop' thread.

Wow, I just very recently got an HDTV.

I just use my PC as i dont have a TV, but if you dont have WindowsMediaCenter or a TV Card then you could just make your own system using Darkbasic

do you guys use Power Conditioners? If so what brands/models. I want one for my new pc but I know jack about them and buying one correctly. This pc has an 850 w psu, plus monitor and speakers. Any advice?

My Ye-Olde 32" Widescreen 5.1 Suround Sound System.

I'm waiting for it to die before I replace it and the bugger won't go so I've kinda missed the whole DVD thing

I'm not getting a set top box either until they switch off analogue so I've got an amazing 5 channels of viewing pleasure

Bah! Way too busy programming to waste time infront of a goggle box!

Ooh, thats the TV my parents have got. I've got the 36" model (the silver flat screen version, not the black normal screen). And yeah, they last for yonks annoyingly. Can't justify giving £2500 (originally) and 36" of CRT goodness away to a mate. Although thats what my friend did with their 36" black version (worth about £1800 at the time).

Cheers