HTPC Dreams

While looking for something to do, and worrying about all the holiday shows and movies that were piling up on our DVR, I decided to bring my desktop computer down to the living room and see what I could do about connecting it to our home theater. I swapped out the older video card (Geforce 6600LE) for a newer model, a Geforce 7600GS, in the hopes of playing a few games at the TV's full resolution via DVI. The motherboard has optical digital audio output and firewire built in, so I can send Dolby Digital Live to the audio receiver and capture the transport stream from the DVR for temporary storage.

With a little tweaking I was up and running, playing Half Life 2 @ 1920x1080, and getting really scared at how immersive the game could be. Wow! I really loved playing it at my desk, but it was nothing like this. I'm literally too scared to play for more than a half hour at a time.

I was able to find instructions and software to capture programs from the DVR and save, view, or burn them to DVD from the HTPC. This is pretty cool in a time when there are so many good shows in HD and our DVR has a relatively small hard disk. While playing shows on the DVR to record them on the PC, I was able to watch the un-aired episodes of Vanished in near-HD quality by pointing my browser to the show's M*Space page. By dropping the display resolution to 1280x720, and expanding the streaming video in the browser, it almost filled the screen.

One of my reasons for wanting a home theater PC is to more easily control our television. One of its weaknesses is that it has no discreet remote-control command to switch it the second HDMI/DVI input. All other inputs can either be selected by their own code, or by toggling through each one in succession. The other weakness is that it ignores anything you tell it to do while it is switching between inputs, which takes a few seconds (we'll call it 4) to do.

The "exciting" new bit about having the PC nearby is that have been able to experiment with the serial port on the TV's back panel. I managed to find a program that would allow me to send commands to the TV, by manually constructing the words required for the TV to pay attention. I was able to send commands to switch between a number of inputs. Just about every function available from the remote control can be duplicated through the RS-232 interface. My Pioneer receiver has serial control, too. I have found a few references to controlling Pioneer components, and that will be the next challenge.

I am starting to see the Infra-Red Light at the End of the Tunnel. My goal is to have a small "not-quite-a-PC" appliance sitting in the entertainment center that can be connected to most of the devices there, that would receive a specific set of commands from my remote for which it responds by changing the TV and receiver's inputs, and be the main interface to the entertainment center's UPS. Until I have that device, I can use the HTPC for the same job, and develop the device using the HTPC. An interesting possibility would be to put the "intelligent" bits into the wireless router (a Linksys WRT54G currently running DD-WRT software) and connect an Ethernet accessed serial controller of some sort to it.


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Heroes Alert!!!
On Monday night, January 22nd, during a commercial break on Deal or No Deal, there will be a sneak preview of a new and previously unknown Hero. I can't wait!
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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.

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!!

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!

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.

Shifting the Scope, assuming I had one to begin with...

My wife, being the only person I know who reads this, suggested that I add a little more to my blog so that I can keep a more continuous stream of (BS) information pouring forth. Sounds good enough. Maybe I can use it to help her and other "resistant to change" types step into the ever-widening world of Gadgets & Technology Entertainment. I think I'll coin my own acronym here and call that GATE for short. Yeah! That's the ticket.


The first thing today will be RSS feeds. Many folks know all about them and can tell you their favorite feed-reader and why. RSS stand for Really Simple Syndication, and is a method of making information available to internet users who would like to read just the articles or headlines they want from a given website supporting RSS. You can get more information here.

I try not to use much more than a core of programs for most tasks on my computers, so I'm not very interested in feed-readers (or news aggregators as some call them) unless they plug into another program I already use. Being a heavy Firefox user, I tried a few readers that were set up as Firefox extensions a while back, then Firefox started supporting RSS somewhat natively. At that point, I quit using add-ins and only used Firefox. They way I do it is to make a folder in the Bookmarks Toolbar Folder called (pretend I'm being imaginitive here, okay?) "News Feeds". When you come across a website where Firefox is showing this symbol:

you can click on the symbol and Firefox will ask you whate folder you want to save you Live Bookmark in. I always select my (imaginitively named) "News Feeds" folder. Right now, I've got Live Bookmarks for my GMail account, Techbargains, Local TV headlines, The Inquirer, and my Lovely Wife's Blog.

In 1080p RPTV research news, I have found some good threads pertaining to the televisions in question at AVS Forum . I'm starting to get a better handle on some of the Audio pass-through capabilities of some of these sets. I'm still trying to gleen some of the useful information, but it is taking a long time because of the sheer number of posts involved. The good ones have over 600 posts! I still have a long way to go before there are more than a handful of people reporting their own experiences with the TVs. The big question is: Does any TV pass along anything more than stereo audio from an HDMI connected source? The HDMI spec says that it can carry as much as 7.1 channels, but I keep reading that the TVs only output 5.1 channel audio sourced from their own tuners, and not from HDMI. This is not what I wanted to hear. I guess I shouldn't be getting my hopes too high for this generation of sets, but I feel like I've waited long enough.

The Field Becomes Foggy.

Just when I thought this was getting easier, I found some disturbing information about my favorite HDTVs. The HP's maximum VGA input resolution is only 1280x1024, rather than the native 1920x1080. On the other hand, I was able to confirm that it can not only receive a full 1080p signal from the HDMI inputs, but the Component inputs as well. This takes the HP down a notch, as I had hoped that I could use the VGA input with an HTPC. All is not lost as there are also folks who have gotten various video cards to display 1920x1080 on the HP via DVI. I'm trying to stay away from reliance on DVI as I have been led to understand that DVI's resolving of color definition leaves something to be desired compared to HDMI, Component, or even VGA.

To make matters worse, I found that the Toshiba 56MX195's VGA input will not accept an input signal beyond 1024x768! Admitedly, this is not much worse than what the HP set can display from it's own VGA input, but what a disapointment on both sides!! I had been considering "stretching" to buy the 56MX195 for it's VGA input, and network connectivity compared to the "basic" features of the 56HM195. Now I hardly think it is worth considering at all. The Samsung sets are slowly creeping up on me again. I'm sure there has to be a way to disable the "Image Enhancement" features on those TVs. I have resolved to find the person who has found it (rather than being that particular guinea pig myself).

While the HP MD5880n has almost everything I want in my next television purchase, I'm putting it on the "Too Large for My Living Room" list. If the dang thing didn't hang out so far on either side of the screen, there would hardly be any question. As it is, it's too wide. I need to fit the stand for this TV (which needs to be more useful and taller, not to mention cheaper, than the one designed for it) and the subwoofer beside it to fit in within the confines of a 73-inch wallspace. When the TV is already over 60 inches wide, that doesn't leave much room to spare. HP, I'm sorry. I really wanted this to work out. $3200 is a really nice price, but I don't think that's gonna be enough.

So I've got most of the pertinent information about displaying native-resolution images down. Next I'll try my hand at the TV Audio version of "Where's Waldo" so we can figure out which audio sources can get to into each set and how it leaves (if at all) from the digital audio output so my Pioneer VSX-815s can make my ears happy. Dig?

I just need to say one thing more: If you think you found the big ticket item you need to make your dreams come true at BestBuy, Circuit City, or any other big-name retailer with twin-initials, you need to thank them for helping you find it, then go somewhere else to purchase it. I've got friends and relatives who have made big purchases from them, and I feel sick knowing that they could have gotten either better quality for the same money, or paid MUCH less for the same quality. If you need advice, let me point you in the right direction. I'm not saying I have the advice, I'm saying I am good at finding advice, and I want to help. I'm a cheap bastard, but I admire quality and demand functionality. I also know that everyone trying to make these same decisions will feel better about their purchase if they can take a more interactive approach to it and learn what features are available so they can still feel proud of their purchase 3 years later rather than wondering why they couldn't have found out about the snazzy gadget their friend got 3 months later.
My surprise today? LED backlights for LCD panels. This appeared much more quickly than I had anticipated. Sony is already showing off laptops featuring this technology. Granted, it still has a few drawbacks in this early implementation, but wait another half year or so, and you will be amazed by the wonderful change that the LCD display industry will be taking. Displays will get Thinner, use less power, and I predict that they will continue to drop in price (how else will you get the new ones to sell?). To put it simply, current LCDs are color-handicapped because the backlighting is not pure white. This is bad because the panel must compensate for it's lopsided backlight before caring about what color it is supposed to be displaying, losing color accuracy in the process. They are also less than efficient when it comes to power consumption because of the power wasted in producing a high-voltage source to power the backlight. LED backlighting fixes these shortcomings, and makes the world a better place for it. Why is it it that I'm not going to wait for it? Two many little things to go wrong can screw up that picture on a big TV for my taste as I see it. I can handle a computer monitor, and hopefully we can find something like that for my wife fairly soon, but not the family TV yet.

And the Finalists are...

• HP Pavilion MD5880n
• Samsung HL-R5078W
• JVC HD-56FH96
• Samsung HL-R5668W
• Mitsubishi WD-52627
• Samsung HL-R5678W
• Mitsubishi WD-52628
• Samsung HL-R5688W
• Toshiba 56HM195
• Sony KDSR50XBR1
• Toshiba 56MX195
  

These are the televisions my family has to choose from. The price leader is the Toshiba 56HM195, which can be had for less than $2500 after shipping. My favorites were the HP, JVC, and Sony, until I had the opportunity to compare a Toshiba (not sure which one) to the JVC and Sony side by side. The Sony has fallen out of favor after realizing that the picture was getting washed out by a slight reflection from the overcast day outside. Neither the Toshiba or JVC had a problem overcoming the diminished outdoor reflection.

The best part about all of this is that while I'm waiting for the proper time to make the purchase, and balancing the pros and cons of various stands for the winner, I get to hear all about why each particular TV carried by each local store is so much more superior than the rest by the local misguided salesfolk. I had a guy at BestBuy try to tell me that his Sony was the only true 1080p set available on the market right now. What a laugh! There are about 4 different ways to interpret that, and in no case is it true. True, the DLP sets (all but the JVC and Sony) use "wobulation" to double the number of pixels, but after that, they all natively display 1080p from any material you can send to them. Every one that has a VGA input can display 1920x1080 from a computer's video card. The standout for the moment is the HP. It can accept a 1080p signal via the HDMI inputs. I honestly don't care if any of them can display a 1080p signal. I want the best looking 1080i picture I can find, and native 1080p is the best option for that right now. I realize that these sets are not the only choices, but they are the best fits for my size/weight/brightness/contrast/cost requirements.

It's all here... for now.

Well now it is getting to be rather fun. I've got all the new audio toys hooked up for the time being. It sounds great! The speaker set is more than I could have hoped for, and the wireless speakers do everything I need them to quite well. The receiver has such a depth of flexibility that I don't know where to begin describing it. The best part is that it is still easy to use with a minimum of fuss.

There are 4 functions it needs after setup for maximum enjoyability: Power, Source Selection, Volume Control, and Midnight Mode (for late night movie viewing when the kids are asleep). Our URC-6131 universal remote can handle everything but the Midnight Mode part. It would have to be reprogrammed via JP1 interface for it to work right, but we are gonna try to replace our former "best remote" instead: the URC-8811. Better button spacing, backlighting, more devices, JP1 headers installed, learning... The best hope for the 6131 will be backup. Bye-bye!!


Anyway, the sound system is great. The receiver has been calibrated (through automated means no less!), and sounds great no matter what I feed it. The DVD player and Comcast STB are both connected via S-Video and SP-DIF coax. The reciever sets itself for whatever surround mode is appropriate and all I need to do is set the volume. Me likey!!! When the HDTV come into the picture, I hope to use both HDMI inputs for the same type of components to directly connect to the TV and pass the audio from the TV to the receiver. We'll see where it goes once the DVR picture becomes clearer in the next year.

Home Theater Shopping...

Ever since my wonderful, movie-fanatic, lovely, electronics-friendly, awesome wife told me she thought we should get a nice HDTV and new home theater components, I've been running around like crazy trying to find out how to get the most bang for my buck. What the heck is happening here?

We are pretty much replacing everything. About the only thing that might be reused is my old 8" powered sub which resides in the back of our current A/V nook under the stairs. I don't remember the brand. I got it for $40 from Onsale.com about 7 years ago, to complement my soon to be replaced equipment. It has all aged well, with the possible exception of our DVD player that we had to get when my wife-to-be tried to give me some line about how she thought it would be easier to watch DVDs by using a DVD player rather than my highly customized, but not easy to use computer. We got a JVC DVD player, and it has had little hiccups every once in a while, but not bad until we got our latest DVD, Madagascar. That moved up the replacement date for the DVD player as well.

So as of now, we are watching the new DVD player (Samsung DVD-HD850), and we have ordered the receiver (Pioneer VSX-815S), a set of speakers home theater speakers (KLH MP06HT), and a wireless rear speaker contraption (Pioneer XW-HT1) so we don't have to run wires too far, because I am rather lazy like that.

All we have to worry about in a few months will be the TV and stand. I'm looking at any 1080p RPTV and an appropriately nice stand to hold four components. Within a year, I hope to be rid of the "Evil Comcast STB" and back in the welcoming arms of a cable card ready TIVO, or some other PC-based HD PVR.