Should I get a Blu-ray player?

PS3s are power hungry beasts, which also can mean more fan noise when the fan runs. As for Profile 2.0, that's one of the advantages of the PS3. If you plug it into your network, it will stay updated to the current standard. You can also download add-ons to individual disks.

Tom

 

Try more fiber, that worked for me

I have a Samsung 32 LCD tv that claims to support HDTV and 1080, an open box special at $400. Last year got a Sony upconverting floor demo for $40. A common theme for me is "cheap bastard"

I have co-workers with fancy-schmancy home theater systems costing many thousands, eg $11,000. Does the sound shake the room? Yes. Is the picture quality better? Slightly

Faroudja has a long and well-respected history for line doublers and other interesting gadgets. They are now part of Genesis Microchip

Genesis Microchip Inc.

Because I don't watch enough tv or movies to even *think* of such an expensive investment, I'm pretty happy with my "home theater" now

However, I do like the idea of a dual boot Ubuntu box. I run Ubuntu on my primary Internet browsing computer, and am very happy with the ease of installation, performance, and features

Ubuntu will usually, right at install, work video and sound that requires the driver cd for a Windows install.

 

Oddly enough, I tried Ubuntu on my year old Compaq 6820s business laptop, which came preinstalled with Vista Business, with a free "downgrade" to XP Pro. Ubuntu had no trouble getting the sound and video to work right at install

When I wiped the drive and went to XP Pro, I spent hours at HP's site downloading XP drivers. Despite the fact the XP CD is clearly marked "HP with drivers." Even then it refused to recognize my Logitech trackball, even after I ran the Logitech install CD. Ahhh, Windows ...

As far as projectors and image quality, any high end video/audio stores near where you live? Such a store will have setup things like projectors, HD, etc, for you to sample.

Since I'm a cheap bugger, I was able to get a pretty decent Samsung LCD tv and Sony upconverting dvd player, for under $500. I'm not that much of a tv or movie viewer, so the combo works just fine for me

 

The firmware updates are very easy. I went with HDDVD over a year ago, when I got a Toshiba player for $100 , first thing before even playing a DVD was to update it by plugging in an ethernet cable and downloading the upgrade. So that shouldn't concern you. If you decide to get a BR player, make sure it's profile 2.

I could be wrong, but when you say "system" it sound like you mean HTIB (Home Theater in a Box) since your DVD player sounds like it also your amp/receiver. So you might be limited on your ability to upgrade.

Buying separate components might be better but requires more time consuming research, but it does allow you to upgrade individual pieces or do workarounds until you upgrade. The post you quote about not understanding is a work around for the better sound if someone doesn't have a HDMI receiver.

If you were buying a basic home theater component system today you would probably want:
HDMI Receiver
Blu Ray Player
Left, Right, Center and 2 Back/Surround Speakers
Subwoofer
Whatever display device you like
You can find these components in all budget levels. If you browse the categories at AVS Forum, you'll find pretty friendly knowledgeable people that will help you (after you do some searching on your own) and point you in the right direction for the best deals.

Costco has a great return policy, if you don't think the difference is worth the upgrade, take back the Blu Ray player and copy of Planet Earth.

 

Firmware updates have been important, since Blu-ray was released as a work in progress. With version 2.0 behind us, future changes should be much smaller.

As for the PS3, firmware updates are as easy as selecting "update system" from the on-screen menu. If no update is needed, it tells you so, otherwise the download and installation is automatic.

Tom

 

Another good idea.
I know it costs a little more but I really like heading out to the cinema now and again. I get out of the house, the sound and pictures are usually first rate and the atmosphere in a cinema is better than my lounge room.

I have a DVD player I hardly ever use.

 

Daniel,
I suspect that your DVD player is not upconverting, they are a relatively new thing, and the DVD player would likely say right on the front if it was. Does your current DVD player have HDMI out? If not then it is almost certainly NOT upconverting. It may be a progressive scan DVD player but that is definitely not the same thing. If you don't have an upconverting DVD player then you really should heed my advice and try the $50 Sony from Costco, the picture quality is night and day above a standard DVD player, absolutely no comparison. And it is only 50 bones, that is $3,350 less than your Blu-Ray/New Projector upgrade!

 

I like the new iMac's. I know what you mean about Ubuntu +2 years ago. I always have a machine just for tinkering, and can tell you current version of Ubuntu - 8.10 - is far better in every respect.

With the MSI motherboard in my "tinkering" machine, it recognized the audio immediately, and knew I was running a nVidia GeForce video card. With XP Pro, I have to run the MSI driver cd just to get the sound to work

I have tinkered with Ubuntu 9.0.4 A3, which is slated for final release in May. I think the new features will be nice, especially the ext4 file system, but it didn't like my nVidia video card. Since I can easily wipe the drive with my WipeDrive Pro cd or do a network-boot and wipe, I don't mind trying different OS's

With 8.10, I can look at streaming Internet content, do simple music and video, all the things I want to do. The 8.10 comes with OpenOffice 2, but it was easy enough to put in OpenOffice 3

In Fall, I built a fairly fast AMD quad core 9550 machine with an MSI motherboard, and nVidia GeForce card, 4 GB of ram, to run Vista Ultimate. I'm at the point I rarely turn the damn thing on, it's so frustrating. For giggles, I put on Ubuntu, and the difference in performance just about made me gulp.

Microsoft had better learn from their mistakes. Pronto

What I like to do is a fresh install, do all the updates from Microsoft, then make an image. There are good tools you can buy to do this. Everything easily fits onto a DVD, you burn it, and when you have to reinstall it's all there

I actually like to wipe my drives and reinstall every 3-6 months, the Windows Registry gets buggy enough for me to justify it.

I'm always suspicious of propeller heads who claim to be able to do something, but for some reason can't explain *how* to do it. Since I don't know how to do a Vulcan Mind Meld, I just assume they don't know how to , either

Interesting and suspicious. "Duh, I don't wanna get paid to do work." Okey-pokey. Seriously, 8.10 is a lot better, and the best way to learn is to tinker. If I didn't tinker in the workshop at my hobby farm, or with Ubuntu, I'd have no choice but to turn into an evil genius and enslave the world

Oh hell, at the office we have a "guys night out" every 2 months or so, whenever we can get our schedules to work together. I suspect the married guys just need an evening away from their women and kids. We'll usually do a supper somewhere, some boozing, and a movie

The last thing on our minds is a date and/or sex. Well, ok, maybe sex, but *not* with each other! Of course, in Canada there isn't anything too unusual with a group of 2-5 guys going out somewhere. Just friends, nothing "weird" going on

You've been overseas. How come guys in other countries can get together, have a fun evening, and be considered entirely "normal" yet in the US, everybody automatically assumes it's "gay?"

Back to home theaters: next time, actually go to a high end store and demo the gadgets. Even if you don't buy the parts there, you'll have an idea of how the video and audio quality is

 

If you're constantly changing the volume, could it be because your centre channel (largely where the dialogue comes out) isn't working properly?

 

I suspect HTMLspinnr has it figured out. The dynamic range is very high on modern sound tracks. If you set dialog to a comfortable level, especially for middle aged ears, the loud special effects scenes will blow out your windows.

Some systems have a "night time" or "neighbor friendly" mode which compresses the dynamic range. This can be good for people like daniel. As for me, I like to blow out the windows.

Tom

 

A co-worker has a very fancy-schmancy home theater system. Star Wars II was pretty good, the scene of them racing through the city sky in the speeder had amazing surround effects

Another good movie for sound is Cidade de Deus, or City of God. I have to warn folks this is a true, and very violent, examination of the slums - favela - of Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. Weapons going off, etc, very realistic

 

Jayman, what software do you like for saving system images? I have used a number, but I don't have an up to date version of any of them. I would prefer something OS independent.

Tom

 

If you don't mind an interjection...

If you're going to save a system image, the best way to do it, IMO, is to use some sort of home file server. I'd take a look at something like the D-Link DNS-321/3.

It's about 100 bucks, depending where you shop, you can put 2 HDs into it on a RAID, so you're not going to lose your data if one fails, and it's got a cross-platform backup solution (Windows, Linux and Mac).

More info here:

D-Link DNS-321 2-Bay Network Storage Enclosure

Best of all, it's a relatively low power consumption device.

 

I run a dedicated server, so I could always store the image on the RAID in the server. That said, there is something nice about the little server boxes, since you don't have to do anything to make them work well. Obviously, if you have the image on a network server, you have to boot the workstation to the network before you can recover the image. Depending on the system, that can be easy, or it can be harder than booting from a DVD.

Tom