Anyone here into dedicated Home Theaters??

Is there any way to have a screen saver added to the media center? Seems like you could just add software to black out the screen if noone does any menu function for 5 minutes. Then it could come right back on when anyone enters a command.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(NoMoShocks @ Apr 29 2007, 03:13 PM) [snapback]432173[/snapback]</div>

Well yes there is and most of the time it comes on. I use a program called SageTV if you've ever heard of that. It runs on top of W2K. There has been times when the screen saver has not come one for whatever reason. I can't use the screensaver built into Windows because it will kick in when watching TV- thinks no one is using the pc so I have to count on SageTV to work.

Went to the BestBuy to look at the LED DLP and they didn't even know what I'm talking about. It seems they sell them on the web but not in the stores yet

b

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(BT Tech @ Apr 29 2007, 05:29 PM) [snapback]432240[/snapback]</div>

Hi Brian,
How much compression do you think there is in the OTA signals? I have found the Dish Network HD and OTA decoded by the Dish Network receiver to be far superior than HD over land based cable. I tried Comcast just for a month to compare, and thier HD was I swear, comparable with Dish Netword SD.

As for HD DVD, Has anyone heard of anyone having trouble with XB360 HD DVD add on? Or specifically with the HD DVD "Babel"?

I thought Babel was an interresting film, but I am not a big fan of subtitles because I don't watch movies to read. I wish they would add an option for engish doubing over subtitled forign language. With Babel on the XBox 360 HD DVD, a lot of the subtitled phrases were only poping up momenarily, not long enough to read, just long enough to know I missed something. Also, it kept freezing when I tried to rewind and fast forward. It has not done this with any other movies, so I was just wondering if anyone else noticed this with Babel on other players. I was also really surprised there was no optional audio of directors comentary.

I snaped a few pics of my 7.5 ft high by 11 ft wide screen, viewing during the day with enough light leaking around window shades that you can see fairly well everything in the room. I prefer completely dark room, but it is totally veiwable during the day. Somehow, but optical illusion, the blacks in the picture look darker than the actual wall around the screen

I was having some problems with my camera memory card, so I lost some of the better shots. below:
1. Bright courtyard scene from Bable
2. Dark lite scene with some stray light from the kitchen skylight.
3. Close up of a Prius 1/6 of the screen. Camera moved, but it's a Prius so it gets posted anyway.
4. Another dark screen where I experimented with blocking the stray light from the kitchen skylight.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(BT Tech @ Apr 29 2007, 08:49 PM) [snapback]432357[/snapback]</div>

HDNet's horizontal resolution dropped from 1920 to 1440 (now it's 1440x1080i) several months ago. And all of the Voom channels are (I believe) 1280x1080i. Still, I'd have to rate HDNet's picture quality above HBO-HD and SHO-HD which are sent as full 1920x1080i on Dish Network. Much of HDNet's shot-on-video (as opposed to shot-on-film) content was captured with a camera capable of only 1440x1080i anyway. UNI-HD and AE-HD have looked noticeably bad recently, especially on content with a lot of dark scenes. Sadly, this is unlikely to change, as most people would prefer more channels over higher picture quality.

 

Dumb question time. I have the OPTOMA HD70 Projector.



It supports HDTV (720p, 1080i, 1080p), SDTV (480i/p, 576i) NTSC (M/J, 3.58/4.43 MHz), PAL (B,D,G,H,I,M,N), SECAM (B, D, G, K, L)

Will I see much of a difference with a BLU RAY Player, over a standard DVD? I know it's a simple question, but I am looking for simple answers. Thanks.

 

Pardon me for posting a differing viewpoint but...

...I think I'll continue waiting for the quality of the content itself to catch up with the pace of this technology.

Regarding the previous post...EIGHT HOURS OF TELEVISION IN ONE DAY?!?!?

There's your problem right there...not the durability of the flywheel!

 

Pinto Girl has got the right idea. Most broadcast quality sucks. With either cable or dish, providers are trying to cram as many channels within a given bandwidth as they can - the results are pretty poor. When dealing with the quality (or lack thereof) of such sources, worrying about native resolution, refresh rates, etc of a given TV is pretty silly. Chalk such obsessions up to the hobby... obsessions that are encouraged by those that stand to benefit from the sale.

A DLP-based picture is a good solution for 99.9% of pepole out there. Be sure to confirm that you're not one of the unfortunate 0.1% that sees rainbows with DLP. If in doubt, just be sure that the retailer will take the set back if you experience rainbows at home. I won't go into detail on this syndrome if you're not familiar with it because some have convinced themselves they see them - even when they're not looking at a DLP.

Samsung makes a very good DLP TV - I recommend them. The color wheel problem you mention was solved with their rear-projection DLP televisions some time ago, so this concern is no longer an issue. A decent-quality DLP is a good way to get into a big(ish) picture without having it take over your life. As for bulb replacements, rear projection DLP's are about as cheap/easy as they come. I watch far more TV than I care to admit and I have yet to replace the bulb on my set (about two years on the current bulb). I think bulbs are going for around $150 or so - pretty cheap relative to other options.

Trust me - I'm familiar with the uber-expensive stuff. If you want to spend a ton, go for it, but any monkey can put together a good setup when given a huge budget - the trick is to find the point of diminishing returns.

Hope this helps...

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Pinto Girl @ Apr 30 2007, 04:47 PM) [snapback]432793[/snapback]</div>

You really should rent some HBO series on DVD. Carnivale is better than 99% of anything coming out of Hollywood( or Foreign).Deadwood is also great.Also good are Six Feet Under,Sopranos ,Rome ,Entourage.
The HBO productions are a modern renaissance era in filmmaking.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(BT Tech @ Apr 30 2007, 02:10 PM) [snapback]432774[/snapback]</div>

I have a satellite receiver that allows me to capture the MPEG-2 transport stream, and I use whatever I have laying around to examine the headers. I normally use VideoRedo to edit out the commercials, leaving me with an MPEG-2 program stream, which I can drop on top of BitRate View.

First graph is for full 1920x1080i from HBO-HD.

[attachmentid=7776]

Second is for reduced horizontal resolution 1280x1080i from Voom's RAVE channel.

[attachmentid=7778]

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(BT Tech @ May 1 2007, 06:06 PM) [snapback]433637[/snapback]</div>

www.r5000hd.com

I'm about to see if they will move mine from my Dish 6000 (non MPEG-4) to a newer receiver (ViP 211), now that I think I have an MPEG-4.10 (AVC/H.264) playback solution.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(BT Tech @ Apr 30 2007, 05:06 PM) [snapback]432802[/snapback]</div>

Yes. So I went out and bought a BLU RAY player from SONY㊮.


And it came with FILTH ELEMENT for free; I also had bought some titles in anticipation of this purchase. I hooked it up, and at first, no picture through the HDMI. I had to hook up the RCA Output at first (yellow RCA cable), to get to the set up screen; then I told it where to find the HDMI.

I watched NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM, and at first, it only wanted to show 720, but then I figured out how to get the 1080p.

Boy Howdy what a picture! I compared the Blu Ray version to the standard DVD version of NIGHT; (I still have my DVD player hooked up, thankfully, since the BLU RAY won't play CD). Anyway. The difference is clear. Then I took the DVD of the film, put it the BD, and while it does improve the picture, it's not as clear as the BLU RAY version.

Neat.

 

As any true Home Theater enthusiast must do, I upgraded my system last evening. The XBox 360 HD DVD add on to my son's XBox 360 was giving me grief with freezing pictures and subtitles as described in an earlier post. Microsoft was very quick to tell me it was out of warrantee, but I had purchased a service contract from Best Buy. The main reason I bought the service contract was becasue the sales person said I could exchange my unit for full purchase price toward a different unit if there was a fault within two years.

Reading the fine print, I went in expecting a potential fight, but without any questions, I got the full $200 purchase toward the $399 Toshiba HD DVD. I will play the Babel disc again and let you know if it fixes the subtitles problem.

With Blu-Ray, I would worry about the technology eventually going away.