O where, o where's my Tivo?!

How long can we last? We don’t know. The Series 3 Tivo is out, and I’m leaving it for the early adopters for the time being. Why?

To put it bluntly, I’m cheap.

It took a large leap for us to justify making the previous home theater purchases, but the only big purchase was the TV, which we all love. None of the other components went beyond $250, and most were well below that. I don’t want to pay $800 + monthly fees for a new DVR unless it can do a whole heck of a lot more. The new Tivo has lots of great features, for which not a day goes by without my longing for each one of them. I want to have a DVR that responds quickly to commands. I want to have more space to store HD recordings longer than 4 days. I want to be able to set up recordings from my PC, so I don’t have to interrupt the show being watched. I want! I Want!

But, not so much that I would spend that kind of money on it. I guess we’ll be waiting a little longer for more HD trickle-down.

When I get over my current case of “poutrage”, I’ll post a few handy links I’ve found for HD and home theater information.

Settling in for the show

The ongoing adventure to find the home theater products most suitable for my home & family has come to a happy ending. There will be a few updates on this topic in the future, but the supporting cast has been set in stone for the most part, and will hopefully provide many years of happy viewing. The future of this blog lies will most likely lie in the path of discussion of replacements for our DVD player and DVR.

We are waiting for any definitive information on the forthcoming Series 3 Tivo units. I don’t want to have to pay for it, but it seems to be the best option available if we want to be able to keep up with the next seasons of our favorite shows. I hope it arrives soon, and that somebody comes up with a way for it, via firewire interface, to control my favorite DVD device: the Sony VGP-XL1B2. He have no plans currently to do anything about HD DVD or Blu-Ray discs, as there is still no unified solution and none of the current options offer enough of an appreciable improvement over our cheap upconverting DVD player.

Tune in every month or half-year for updates! ;^)

It All Falls Together

All of the equipment and associated hardware are here. Most everything that can be is set up on or in the TV stand has been. Here’s the list of equipment, starting from the top:

Television: JVC HD61FH96 $3200
DVD Player: Samsung HD850 $150
Amplifier: Pioneer VSX-815-S $250
DVR: Motorola DCT6412 (Comcast Cable service with Microsoft Software) $10/mo.
Front Speakers/Subwoofer: KLH MP06HT $80
Rear Speakers: Pioneer XW-HT1 $90
TV Stand: South Shore Furniture City Life Classic $215
DVD Storage: Atlantic Oskar Multimedia Storage System $90
Primary Remote Control: URC-8811 $25
Backup Remote Control: URC-6131n $14

All I can say is WOW!!! It has certainly been worth the wait. I love the fact that we were able to build such a great home theater for relatively little money. We’ve been waiting FOREVER for the TV stand to arrive and everything just fits together great now. While I know that the up-conversion process done by the Samsung is not the best possible, it still looks damn fine, and I’m not sure I’ve ever sat and watched cable TV (in this case Discovery HD) for this long without even caring what I was watching. I have always tried not to be too overt of a snooty bastard because I know everyone has their own combination of finance/comfort level & A/V knowledge. Unfortunately, what we have here is a great way to start feeling uncomfortable with sub-par material. Each component has the ability to transparently pass hidden nastiness on to the audience. There are very few shows I can stand to watch in standard definition any more, let alone “zoomed in” to fill the screen. Some of the animated shows are alright, but there are others that already look borderline bad. Two of my favorite shows: The Daily Show with John Stewart, and The Colbert Report can be painful to watch. These shows look like crap on our TV, but the humor (and truthiness) keeps me coming back. We had some friends over a few nights back and someone wanted to watch the Mariners game on Fox Sports. I barely remembered where that channel was, and then immediately regretted it. The picture was just not right. On the other hand, I can honestly say you haven’t lived until you have watched sports in HD. The NBA playoffs, The World Cup, and Baseball on INHD are gorgeous and I never tire of them. From what I’ve heard, we are lucky to have a “local” TV station that broadcasts their news in HD. How come they don’t all do it yet?

While I’m complaining, I need to let TNT-HD have it. They usually have something good on, but you can’t always to tell what you will be getting. Sometimes the movie or TV show are in genuine Hi-Def, and it is wonderful indeed. The bad part is what happens when they don’t get to show a movie in it’s widescreen form. They have to do the same trick my TV does to fill the 16:9 screen with a narrow 4:3 image. While I will say that they do a visibly better job than my TV can (not that it is bad by any means) at stretching the image. What I don’t like is that when they do it, I can’t undo the distortion they add when they stretch the picture. Further, their show listings all say they are in HD, when clearly they are not. I don’t know if anyone else has seen this, but there have been numerous occasions when watching Alias where the voices (and probably everything else) are audibly lower in frequency than they should be. This can get rather distracting. I hope they can get all this fixed. :^)

Anyway, I’ve got links and lots of humble advice for anyone needing help finding the right equipment for their own home theater. I stand by all of the components we have, but know there are others that can be a better fit for other folks. My TV decision was a combination of upkeep price ($200 replacement bulbs really is GOOD), ability to match with a really nice (but still CHEAP) TV stand, and my wife’s desire for “the best picture we can get”. I think we did a good job.

The TV has Arrived!!

We’re halfway there, at least for the moment! I was going to hold off on posting the results until both items arrived, but thanks to a certain party who has somehow found my blog I feel somehow obligated to add something here in the interim.

The TV has finally arrived, and it is really nice. I’m especially pleased by the way the screen handles light sources from behind and beside the seating area. No matter what kind of lighting situation I have tried to throw at it, we could always see a beautiful clear picture. Because the JVC is such a hulking dark monolith when turned off, we are looking for some way of obscuring the black hole when not in use. My wife wants to find some type of cabinet or hutch we can encapsulate it in, which I don’t mind the idea of either. We paid a few extra dollars up front for the (still not delivered) TV stand so that we wouldn’t have to pay any penalty (restocking fee or shipping) if we decided we didn’t want it. I really want this stand though, as I think it will look really good under this TV, and I don’t want to wait any longer than I have to. I’ve got the left, center, and right speakers sitting on the floor waiting to be installed over the TV, and getting a different TV stand means the vertical center of the TV may change such that the speakers will [gasp!] look poorly placed.

I had a moment of inspiration this afternoon when I realized that we could use a pair of curtains to close away the entertainment system. They would be of the type that attaches to the ceiling like they use in hospitals to divide rooms. I think they would look really good, but the wife still has to be convinced. Other areas where these curtains would be advantageous are sound absorption (the TV’s cooling fan is easily audible during quiet moments) and wire management (to conceal the wires for the speakers overhead).

I’m off to look for some alternative cabinets. Later!!

TV and Stand Day Approacheth!

The next phase is on the way! We ordered the JVC HD-61FH96 TV, along with an interesting TV Stand from South Shore Furniture. Before these arrive I will need to figure out how I will be attaching the front speakers to the wall, so that I won’t need to worry about it once the TV finds its final resting place.

All we need after this will be a Series 3 Tivo! While we wait for that, I will be trying to find out if Comcast has a DVR with more hard disk space that I can swap for. I’d like to be able to start recording our favorite shows in HD, and then enjoy the high resolution goodness on the new TV. Right now I have a hard time justifying that as we can only record about 12 hours of HD material, and we usually have the hard disk about 60% full. That leaves us somewhere around 4.5 hours of room for HD shows. We come close to recording that much at least 3 nights a week, and usually don’t watch it all until a few days later. Definitely need more room.

The Fog Gently Cloudifies

Indecisions, indecisions! The fun bit about not having taken the big bite and actually bought the “dream TV”, is that I don’t have to regret any glaring weaknesses for that particular product… On the other hand, I also don’t get to enjoy the glaring glory of my “dream TV” either!

My latest reason not to get the big rear projection flat screen: processing delay. Many DVR victims are familiar with those instances when the sound and picture don’t sync up and while you can’t always tell which of the two is lagging the other, you can tell that something just isn’t right. This problem can be turned into a constant time warp by new HDTVs by way of too much video processing taking too long to put the finished pictures on the screen, thus the processing delay. Most decent Audio/Video Receivers perform some amount of processing and also incorporate delays to account for different speaker distances. Audio processing is pretty much cake compared to some video processing at this point. With the newest TVs displaying images at 1920x1080 (progressive “scan”) and most programming being presented in (some number)x480 (interlaced), there are a lot of picture to be pulled out of nowhere so it can look it’s best on the big screen. It’s no wonder the TV picture lags a little. There’s so many techniques involved, and many of them done on top of each other, that I am left rather amazed at what we are asking these magical machines to do. Some folks use a device which delays the audio before it gets to the receiver. I don't want to add this complication, or spend extra money to fix a "feature" of the TV I already spent so much on. Here's the one my wife won't like: it'll make video games suck.

My solution? Find the TVs that don’t have too many people complaining about sync problems, then feed it only 1080i signals so that the biggest job, short of minor picture tweaks, is to de-interlace the signal. This will require source devices that can supply video signals that are pre-scaled to 1080i. I’ve got the temporary measures in place. Our DVD player is a Samsung HD850, which is MUCH better than the 1st generation JVC player we had previously. It has what I’ve heard is an acceptable HDMI output, which is the key to making current DVD’s sing visually. The other temporary measure is the Comcast provided Motorola 6412 DVR. This one has a DVI output, and I have cables for each one to connect to the two HDMI inputs on whichever TV we get.

In near future, these boxes will be replaced by more capable hardware. The ideal machine would be a series 3 Tivo, and some sort of universal Blue-Ray/HD-DVD transport/changer. Even better: Have the Tivo control the disc player. There is a Sony media PC that comes with a similar 200 DVD transport/changer, which is connected via Fire wire to the PC. Can someone say Linux drivers? That shouldn’t be too hard right? I know. I shouldn’t be dreaming so much when I can’t even pick out the right TV.

Long story shortened, I am thinking about the one of the JVC models at this point now. DLP has too many moving parts and seems expensive to keep up (replacement lamps), so LCOS looks really good, but Sony has too much processing delay for its wonderful picture. JVC looks good, has cheap lamps, and doesn’t seem to induce too much processing delay.

Of course you know, the 2006 models are just around the corner. I’ll keep wiping the drool off my chin and tell you when I need another towel.

Under-Appreciated Audio

I’m feeling the need to express my feelings for the under-appreciated audio components used in our home theater. This would mostly mean the speakers (which I will get to later), but credit is also deserved for our receiver, a Pioneer VSX-815S.

For the price (we got ours a grand total of $255), I don’t think you can find any better unless you already have the necessary equipment to accurately set up the EQ / crossover / time-alignment for your system. I didn’t have anything but my own ears, and I didn’t want to leave it to them alone if some certain persons of small stature were to inadvertently press the wrong buttons. I won’t go on much longer about the receiver, as it has already gotten much credit and has a bit of a following in the Bang-For-The-Buck camp. Let’s just say that it is Very Flexible, with assignable component video and digital audio inputs, and line outputs to mirror each amplified speaker output. Add decent power output and choice of manual or automatic calibration, and this is an amazing deal. Really. If you don’t have a home theater receiver, or (like me) have an older model with no digital audio capabilities, this is a great way to get your foot in the door. One misnomer I have read a number of times is that this receiver comes with a learning remote control. It doesn’t. It does have a preprogrammed remote which can be set up to control a variety of components. I’ll tell you right now that I don’t enjoy using it. It provides access to virtually every function possible, but that also complicates it beyond my desire to hold it in my hand. Get a good aftermarket universal remote for everyday use. Because I’m cheap, I have to recommend a UEI (One-For-All & Radio Shack) non-kameleon model. To get an idea of what these remotes can do, run on over to www.hifi-remote.com.

On to the speakers! While our home theater speakers don’t have some remarkable pedigree, they perform wonderfully well for our living room layout. We have a mix of speakers from Pioneer and KLH.

The Pioneer XW-HT1 wireless speaker system is a nice little package consisting of a processor/transmitter and an amplifier/speaker cabinet. The processor features Circle Surround from SRS, and has 3 modes for each of its two inputs. I leave ours on all the time, set to Wide Stereo, and feed it the line outputs from the back surround channels of our receiver. It also has a subwoofer output which can be used if you need more low frequency response. Audibly speaking, this system isn’t much by itself, but I’m lazy enough about running speaker wires that this was worth it, especially when our receiver has the required line outputs. This system is more ideally suited for folks with just a TV and DVD player, as its processing can be used to generate rear-channel information all by itself. The one fun bit about using these speakers is that, like so many other consumer electronics, it uses the 2.4GHz band. Thus it is possible to produce audible effects from the speakers by way of interference. It was fun to juggle frequencies to get our cordless phones, wireless network, and wireless speakers to all get along without stepping on each other’s toes. It’s more fun when my neighbors also have wireless devices. A few months back we started hearing some strange clicks coming from the speakers and found that somebody had set up a network access point using a conflicting frequency. Don’t tell anyone, but I checked out their setup from my laptop and found that they hadn’t enabled any encryption or security settings on their system, nor had they changed the default factory password. I took it upon myself to change the channel they were using to something less obvious to my speakers. I don’t think they will know or care.

Our main speakers are a set of KLH MP06HTs. KLH does not go out of their way to advertise themselves, but they have quite a following, and are known for producing high-quality products. This set literally came with everything you need: Subwoofer, five matched speakers, wires, mounting brackets, and wall hardware. Right now we are only using 3 of the 5 sats, but it is comforting to know that our 7.1 channel receiver is ready to make use of the two spare speaker should we so desire to use them. While these speakers can be had for a very low price, don’t be fooled. They are very well constructed and have gold-plated 5-way binding posts that can accept huge wires.

All of these components work very well together and should easily meet the requirements of most budgets. I still consider myself lucky to have found them all, and then to have found great deals when purchasing them. They look great and, more importantly, sound phenomenal. Everyone has their favorites, but if you are in the market you really should check them out!

Good things come... Eventually

I’m glad to have waited. Toshiba has finally come out and admitted to the apparent quality issues associated with the light engines of their 2005 1080p DLP televisions. This was one reason I was more than happy to wait it out a while before trying to purchase one. They have set up a web page so you can determine if your set shipped with one of the possibly defective components, and if yours is one of them you are notified that your engine is covered by an extra year of warranty. Nice Job, Toshiba! I feel much better now. The bad part is that it is now so late in the year that it will be easy to just wait to see what else starts showing up in the stores from the 2006 model year. Help!!

New Tools for Fools

This is my first attempt at using the Blogger for Word Toolbar. We’ll see how it does here. Up until this point I’ve been emailing my blog posts to allow easier formatting and keep a separate record of posts. I thought I’d try this one out as it sounds even more capable.

So you may be wondering if anything interesting will ever happen here. The answer is: I don’t know. It’s nice to just have a place from which I can pronounce the silly thoughts that waft gently from my enigmatic inner machinations. I’m still looking for the ideal TV and the stand for it. I’m certain we’ll find the right ones.

In other news, we have decided to move on from our goals of finding a Saturn Vue to purchase, to the goal of finding a 2006 Toyota Rav4. I liked the distinctive styling of the pre-2006 Vue, and loved the Honda V6 that it picked up beginning in 2004. My wife was not as enthusiastic as I was, but slowly warmed up to it. The slight redesign for 2006 made her like it a little more, but had the opposite effect on me. When I saw a commercial for the 2006 Rav4, I had to go take a look at it some more. At this point, both my wife and I are really excited about it. We went to our local Toyota dealer on Friday to take a look at one in person. One of the salesmen walked us around the lot to see if they had any he wasn’t aware of. There weren’t any at all! They aren’t shipping big numbers yet, so as soon as a couple of them show up they are usually gone in a day or two. I called a couple of other dealers and got the same answer.

If you are interested in configuring a Rav4 for yourself, I would recommend visiting www.edmunds.com. Toyota’s “Build Your Own” tool is not complete in that you are limited to the 4-cylinder Base model if you want to build a Front-Wheel Drive Rav4.

Well, that didn't help much...

My attempt to use the Adsense box above did not ever pay off, but that's alright. We are going to take a step back in the quest for the perfect TV and TV stand. There are a couple of reasons for this:

1. I keep finding wonderful TV stands that either look great, but don't seem to fit things right, or can't be found for purchase anywhere.
2. The Toshiba TVs (62HM195 & 62MX195 ) which I have become a fan of seem to have been hiding a dirty little secret regarding lamp life. The replacement lamps are reported to be more robust than the original, but I think more time needs to pass before this can fairly be called true.
3. The Bonus Money got eaten up by other things.

Ah well, that's the way it goes. I'm really not too disappointed, considering what we are up against. From what I've seen the best thing you can do for a nice DLP or LCoS Television at the time of purchase (or shortly after) is to purchase an extended warranty. I am very opposed to extended warranties because I'm pretty darn good at keeping my gadgets running for a nice long time. Why should I do it for my new TV? The reason is simple: While they are exquisite marvels of technology and engineering, they aren't good enough to consistently last for a long time without failure. The biggest weakness is the "light engine". This process appears to be slowly getting solved by a few companies. The first out the gate has not been my favorite, but I'm happy that they can step up as guinea pig: Samsung. I have to give the idea credit. Elimination of the color wheel means no more Rainbow Effect, and replacing the the HID lamp with a multicolored set of LEDs has forever been waiting for the right time and application to show up. They last so much longer and require much less in the way of safety measures. Requirements for power conditioning and a UPS, not to mention the 15 minute cool down period for the lamp are now happilly missing.

I guess the 32" CRT non-HD Television will last a little longer. Hey, at least it was built to!

I found another one!! But I can't find where to buy it!

The South Shore Furniture model 4395 is one that my wife got rather excited about. I happen to think it is rather nice as well. The only problem is that I can't figure out where to get one from yet. South Shore claims on their website that the Burlington Coat Factory in Lakewood sells their products, but their website only shows South Shore's bedroom furniture. I may have to break down and ***eeek*** call them on the phone to find out what can be done. Then again, maybe I can depend on context sensitive advertising (see above) to tell me where I can find the South Shore Furniture Model 4395 Entertainment Center. We'll see if that works.

It's All About the Box

I'm not going to be able to add to this very often after the TV gets here, but the focus is now on the box to get wedged under it. The biggest constraint will be width. The wall which everything will be parked in front of is about 75 inches wide between two doorways. The TV we are getting is 57 inches wide, and I have a subwoofer I'd like to place beside the whole thingwhich measures about 12 inches wide. This means we need to find a TV stand less than 63 inches wide, but not less than 57 inches so that the TV (and it's side mounted buttons) doesn't hang over the sides. On top of that, we'd like it to be reasonably tall enough that the munchkins can migrate around the floor in front of the TV and not totally block the picture as seen from the sofa.

The one I like the most so far is the Bush Industries model VS13588-03 . This TV stand has a nice bit of storage in the form of 3 drawers across the top, but I'd like something that would allow more of the components to be completely hidden as the TV we will be buying has extra IR transmitters. For my wife, who would like to keep the equipment out of sight if possible (why did I go to all the trouble of buying everything in a nice matching shade of silver again?), we are trying to find a more aethetically pleasing cabinet of sorts to satisfy this need, but I haven't found much so far. There are plenty of attractive stands available, but most of them are of the "open architecture" variety. Let me know if you find any!

You'll never guess what happened tonight...

I told my wife she could go out to console her friend about something (that didn't need to be my business and still remains no business of mine) and gave her some money thinking that she would be needing to pay for dinner and maybe a few drinks. Her friend ended up taking care of my wife, which I am quite happy about. Seriously. It's not the way I would have preferred to learn about it, but I'm always glad to find someone else willing to help watch out for my girl.

Thanks, Katie! :^)

I think I just heard a snore. Yeah!! I have to use a new term here: Tipped. Beyond Tipsy. She's the sweetest thing with an attitude you'll ever find, and I was amazed to find her as drunk as many boys I knew when I was in the Navy (not that there weren't a whole lot more that were worse, this one didn't warrant a Drunk Watch). Having never seen her this Tipped, I got quite an education about different topics. For instance, I never knew what a great thing vodka is after it's been microwaved for exactly 17 seconds.

------

I just got back from the first bucketwashing----- and now the second filling. Unlike most of my experiences with drunken individuals, I've never seen one before that was so hard to get to sleep.----- Number 3. I don't think she's got much left to worry about now.

I don't often take the chance to say this, but I do love her and treasure the way she gets inspired by events around her. She makes me better.

Maybe we'll try something a little better.

After visiting the "local" Video Only store in Tacoma, and seeing what they had in stock now, the new target for purchase is the 62MX195. They've got it for $3399 before tax and delivery, but the lowest I have it purchased and delivered to me from a Pricegrabber listed merchant is currently $3498. Being able to have a local merchant to complain to is very important for this types of item. Thanks Video Only!

This is actually a much nicer set than the 62HM195 in that is has the VGA input that I decided I didn't need, but still want, and a network interface to stream music or browse pictures stored on your home network. And since it is a 2-megapixel screen, it should be the best way possible for us to look at photos. This model has better Video processing and, while we won't be using them, audio capabilities as well. We'll see how soon which bonuses come in to see when we can buy it.

Does This Work?

This is my first attempt at emailing a post to the old Blogstead. I'm trying to see if this will make it any easier to format text.

And the Winner Is:

For now, The Plan is to buy the Toshiba 62HM195. I decided that a VGA input is not going to be a determining factor for family entertainment "needs". This decision has been reached through a long drawn out process that started just before our trip to Ohio. We stopped by our local Magnolia Audio Video on our way to SeaTac. There were more 1080P sets there than I have seen anywhere else. Allison was blown away by the picture, finally able to appreciate the clarity these machines can deliver. They had models from Samsung, Mitsubishi, and Sony, and we definitely enjoyed them all. The fun part for me was seeing Allison's look of glee when presented with the idea that we will have a picture looking that good in our own living room.

The amazing thing about it was that my wife said 56 inches was going to be too small. She wanted us to move up another notch in size. That caught me by surprise. She has often been critical of folks getting a TV too big for their viewing area. I was careful not to go for the 60" sets for that reason. I figured they would still be alright, but wanted to pick a safer size range. With the added size we have to watch a little more closely for the correct size of stand. The nice thing about the Toshiba models is that they come with IR transmitters to allow you to control devices which are hidden away. This opens up the options for TV stands even more. We can potentially hide everything but the TV away, out of sight, and away from prying eyes and fingers. I don't see how it can get any better than that. I'll let you know about the cabinets when I can.