HD Stuff

HD antenna

Prerak Patel — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 18:53:23 GMT

Hey all, did a search and didn't find a topic on this.

Is anyone using one of these to grab free over the air HD? Is it worth it, and do the channel lineups only include broadcast network TV, like Fox, CBS, etc...

Many thanks.

How do I adjust the screen on my Panasonic plasma?

David — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 11:31:25 GMT

When I watch my blu ray movies on my PS3, the only way I can fill the screen is by switching the setting to zoom, when you do that it cuts part of the picture off. I heard it is not good to watch tv for an extended period of time with the letterboxes on top and bottom. Is there a way to fix this problem? I have a panasonic PATH58PZ800 58" plasma.

What sound setting for PS3 blu-rays?

David — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 11:28:10 GMT

I bought a PS3 just to watch blu-rays and I am not wishing I would have just bought a blu-ray player. The problems is the only surround sound setting I can use that is DTS is direct, when I first turn it on it will say neo but when the movie starts it will switch to direct. Do I have something hooked up wrong, I can't even get truehd sound on it. Any ideas on fixing this problem. I have an Onkyo TX-SR607. Also, what volume do you guys listen to movies at? I normally watch my around 50. I had some friends over last night and we watch Transformers and I think they sat there with there mouths open not believing how awesome it sounded. I have 5T's, 5C, 4 satelite and a 10D.

Sony vs. Samsung

Prerak Patel — Mon, 04 May 2009 15:25:01 GMT

So I am shopping for a new TV, and see that these two have very similar specs. Help me choose, and many thanks.

Sony KDL-52V5100

Samsung LN52A650

Any comments on the Panasonic Viera TH-58PZ800U 58-Inch 1080p Plasma ??

David — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 20:24:22 GMT

I have been reading reviews and wanting to buy the Panasonic 58" plasma. I was just wanting to know if anyone here has one and if they like it.

THX Cinema vs. Doby Digital

Jason — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 15:50:15 GMT

Since most of us have onkyo's I have a question to ask everyone. I finally got around to balancing my 6C, 6T's and 4B's since upgrading and was playing around with some movies. I noticed on my onkyo 805 that there was a difference in the surround field between THX Cinema and Doby Digital. I found the doby digital had more punch and a much wider surround sound field. Maybe I'm crazy. Has anybody else noticed anything about the two settings? It's my understanding that THX Cinema is just additional processing of DD, but I'm not sure why it sounds flatter. For example I used the opening two scenes of Gladiator. On THX the horses move left to right between the FL to FR. On DB they move RL --> FL --> FR.

CD Player

Jason — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 22:55:37 GMT

Hey all. I wanted to start a post for people to write what hardware they use to listen to CDs/LPs/internet music. I am personally interested in getting another player to help relieve some of the strain of CD playing from my Oppo 981 and was wondering what everybody else uses. I love the 981 and I highly recommend it but I was thinking of getting a second player for CDs only. In any case I was considering either an older pioneer elite DVD player with good DACs since I use the analog audio out with the older receiver or the Oppo 980 which is the same as the 981 without the video processor and can be had for cheaper than the 981. Anyway I'd be interested in what you guys use with which connections.

Emotiva

Russ — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 20:38:09 GMT

Looks good to me!

http://emotiva.com/umc1.shtm

Cheers

Which LCD would you buy??

mike — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 23:29:12 GMT

Hey everyone,

We need your help! We are currently in the process of setting up a second, smaller listening room at our Aperion headquarters here in Portland and wanted to get a new 1080p display. The new room is going to be quite small (cozy) more like a standard living room. We also intend to use a receiver to power the set up...maybe a new Denon or Pioneer Elite? Thoughts?

Sharp LC-46D62U and the Samsung LN-T4665.

What do you think? Which one would you buy?....or should we go for a plasma instead?

Thanks in advance!

Mike Hopkins

Aperion Audio

[Please visit the site to access the poll]

plasma and video games

delvalle — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 09:30:57 GMT

hi everyone,

finally my wife agreed so i bought myself a ps3...primarily for viewing bluray discs. anyway, i am also thinking of playing first shooter games... is it true that plasma tv's are not good for playing video games and that LCD's are better? i have an LG-PX1D which i bought around april of 2006

Plasma TV shopping tips

Korey Kather — Fri, 04 Jun 2004 23:01:00 GMT

TVs, like speakers, come in all price ranges and quality tiers. There are many nice options out now and they are improving with every model. You can look at specifications until your head hurts, but here are a few things I look for when comparing plasma sets that may help.

1) Contrast – Some sets are better than others at producing a black level. A darker black will generally produce more contrast, or depth of image. High contrast is great with a bight clear image such as a football or baseball game in the sunshine for a crisp image. The down side is that you may have a harder time seeing detail in darker scenes in movies, TV shows, etc. TV’s with a higher contrast will want to make the gray and dark images more of a single black color. TV’s with a more varied grayscale will allow you for better vision in the darker scenes, by showing light gray, dark gray, black, etcetera. Generally, these sets have a greater variance in their grayscale but not as dark of a black. Thus, not as much contrast giving you a softer picture. Some of this can be adjusted in the brightness and contrast, but each brand will tend to have its set of characteristics. The question becomes: do you personally like more contrast or better grayscale?

2) Color – True to life color is tough for plasma. They are very vibrant, but somewhat exaggerated colors. The scale of color will make a difference from TV to TV. If you compare an image from one set to the next, take a look at the shades of a specific color. Green can be a particularly tough color to reproduce well for plasma. If you can see an image with a trees or plants, take a look at the different shades of green. Some sets at better than others at making the ferns a different shade of green from the douglas fir and the maple trees for example. The sets that do not handle color as well will want to make these all one shade of green.

Since this is already more wordy than I had planned, here is the ‘Cliffs Notes’ version of the rest. These are more things to compare brands when shopping.

3) Motion – Look for artifacts (blocks in the image) with fast camera movement or fast object movement such as a basketball game.

4) Up-conversion – How well does it take an analog signal and display it at the TV’s natural display resolution.

5) Shimmer – for lack of a better word. Does the image artifact, flatten, or shimmer when you see reflection such as spot lights shining on a hockey rink or the sun setting on the ocean.

Don’t let the fact that I references sports on a few occasions give you the impression that I am a sport fan. ….ok, I maybe am.

I am not the ultimate video critic, but some of these things may help you in selecting your plasma set.

-Korey

Speaker Wire

cucore — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 23:35:46 GMT

I was talking with jason of sorts earlier today. In trying to decide what speaker cable to buy for my sytem. Now i allready have the monoprice 12g wire. I thought since i bought more speaker, and im out of wire i might consider an upgrade.

Does anybody know of any speaker wholesaler or retailers that sell a nice 12/10 Gauge wire. Astetics are important as my wire is on the outside of the walls.

There is sorts some stuff on ebay, i found this site, dont know if its any good?

http://www.knukonceptz.com/productMaster.cfm?Category=Speaker%20Wire

How important is the wire count. Whats a good number for 12/10G wire.

Please let me know of any sites you guys have found or wire you would reccomend. A small side note though, im not spending thousands on cable, my room is far to small, and i have far to many speakers. Something in the monster cable price range would be good. THANKS!

Monster XP

cucore — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 04:40:23 GMT

Hey, getting right to it. What on earth is Magnetic Flux tube and special LPE insulation. Other than marketing hallebalu. Here the thing i ran out of my 100ft monoprice 12gague wire. And i scowered all over town and nobody sold 12 gague wire. Walmart had some aluminum based wire but it was 10 ft for like 30 bucks, and i wouldnt buy aluminum anyway. The only wire that was even close was Monster Xp, sold by radio shack. I was quite hesitant to buy 50 ft of undisclosed gague wire for 40 bucks ( since monoprice is $11 for 12 gagueX50), but i needed wire and i had no choice. I cut it at 12 and still stripped some copper but its definitly smaller than the monoprice, but its close. I went ot monsters website and it seems i payed retail (which is hard to do at radio shack) but it still doesnt list anything about the gague. And nowhere does it explain what it is about this cable that is supposto make it so much better. There is a tube in the copper lol? I do have to say that short of it being pink from a distance. It really is beautiful cable, while it makes no difference on sound this cable is very tightly wond and crystal clear sheething. (atleast i get something out of it right). So hopefully this cable keeps up with the mono price running to the rest of the system? Hopefully its not going to sound any different from the other cables? and does anybody know what any of that marketing stuff really means?

Though i do love all the things it says the cable does on the package :)

"Lets you hear more of the music with deeper, tighter bass, better imaging, and power dynamic range that easily supasses any other wire on the market including "audiophile" grade premium cables" Ow and it also makes you breakfast *food sold separately

Dolby Volume

mjwarburton — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 04:42:45 GMT

Just read the updates on the Cedia show on the email I received from Aperion. It's supposed to control all sources to similar audio levels. What a brilliant invention. Those blasted commercials. I can only wish that my new receiver had it in it. Maybe next time. Go Dolby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!This feature will save many husbands from hard slaps and dirty looks for waking the children at night.

2.35:1 vs 16:9

mjwarburton — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 05:56:50 GMT

Let me start off by saying how great this forum has been for me. Thanks everyone. The last couple of weeks have been interesting for me. I got my 5.1 setup from Aperion. They sound incredible. My friends and family are jealous. So I bought the 875 and get it hooked up and try to upconvert to 1080p. No signal. At that point after further research, I find out that my Toshiba 10080p lcd tv is not a true 1080p tv. Bummer. I was going to buy a Bluray player, but now have no need. I go to demo a dvd for some friends of mine and my dvd player gives up the ghost. Today I bought an Onkyo sp 405 player from Circuit City and get it hooked up. Great pq, but is being upconverted through the HQV in the 875. However, my problem is in the OSD in my dvd player, I can either select 4:3 or 16:9. Obviously went the 16:9 route. Now I am missing some of the movie. My other dvd player played movies in their native format which for the most part these days is 2.35:1. I was wondering if this is standard on most upconverting dvd players. I would like to see the movie how they were intended to be seen which on the last two I have watched is 2.35:1. Anyone with any input please help. Do I need to return the player and go another route or am I missing something along the way. Thanks everyone.

Soundproofing Rooms

Jason — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 12:05:13 GMT

I was wondering if any gurus or fellow aperion owners have any experience soundproofing rooms? I live in an apartment building in NY and will be moving in the future but before I move I want to make sure that the new place will have a room that will help dampen sound so that I can listen to movies with a bit of a boom without pissing off the neighbors. I From the research I've done thus far, it seems like it just takes some sound absorbing material and putting it up over the dry wall. Is it then useful to follow that up with some acoustic paneling? Anybody else live in an apartment and have come up with a creative way to prevent the neighbors from getting irritated? I fear the power of my 8D will piss them off sooner rather than later. :) Maybe I should just invite them over to watch a movie.....

Dolby TrueHD vs DTS Master Audio

Patrick — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 21:29:19 GMT

Which do you prefer?

DirceTV or Cable

joetag — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 14:19:58 GMT

I had DirecTV for years but dropped it a few years ago when they couldn't seem to get some technical issues straightened out and talking to customer service brought on Exedrin headaches. I switched to Cox Cable and have been generally satisfied but I'm on my fifth DVR/HD Cable box in 9 months, I think they hired the customer service reps from DirecTV and the price keeps going up.

I'm considering going back to DirecTV, maybe just for a change, but they do have a lot more HD content than Cox has. My question is, any DirecTV stories out there (good or bad)? How about Dish?

Thanks!

Is Blue Ray really worth the extra money?

Dan — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 12:37:25 GMT

I sometimes find myself saying this same exact thing while watching Blue Rays on my 1080P Panny.

http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/4/what_hd_people_can_t_tell_the_difference_between_blu_ray_and_dvds

Home Theater Computer

dmgoodman — Sat, 31 May 2008 19:54:32 GMT

I bought an HP S3430F Slimline HTPC and I've been setting it up today. Comes with the LG Blu-Ray / HD DVD combo drive, 4 GB RAM, AMD Quad processor, wireless internet, remote control, TV card etc. It is a powerful little box, one-third the size of a desktop PC, so it fits nicely in my A/V credenza. I also bought a long range wireless keyboard and mouse so I can use the PC from up to 30 feet away. Connects to my Onkyo TX-SR805 via HDMI.

Bought it mostly for Blu Ray movies and it works well for that. What I hadn't thought about so much was playing music through it, but I've been ripping CD's in lossless format with excellent results using Windows Media Player. Ripping now as I write this post using my plasma TV for a monitor.

Given the price of Blu-Ray players and a music system like Sonus, this seems to me to be a great alternative. Has the added benefit of full PC usage as well.

Still experimenting with it but so far this HTPC seems like a great way to go.

Mike

Plasma vs LCD

Korey Kather — Wed, 22 Sep 2004 23:49:00 GMT

Plasma was becoming the way to go, but LCD screens have made a stronger push in the last year. I just wanted to see if we could get some feedback from people who have compared brands and formats. I know some you out there recently upgraded TV's and it would be nice to hear which format you decided on and what you liked better about it.

Upconverting DVD players:

Jack Gates — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 21:01:42 GMT

I am looking for suggestions from owners regarding the purchase of an up-converting DVD player.

I don’t want to replace my SD DVD library with BluRay.

I do want to get the most from my new Sony KDL-46XBR4.

This XBR4 has much better PQ than my old XBR CRT sourcing SD/TV and SD/DVD. I was actually surprised that it looked better considering it has two times the viewing area of the 36” XBR CRT in 16:9 presentation of DVD’s.

Jack

HDMI Switchers

Herbie — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 13:52:23 GMT

So I have found myself running out of HDMI ports. But I came across these HDMI splitters that can be switched by a button.

I had something similar way back for an older setup but not HD sources. My concern is signal quality. Does anyone own one of these or had experience with them? Seems they range from $50 to the hundreds from BB to CC. Never knew something like this was even out there

Acoustic blinds

ryarber — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 15:33:28 GMT

The room I am doing my HT in needs some help. The walls are mostly windows, the floor is tile with a few rugs, sheetrock 10' ceilings, and leather furniture. I think I will need some acoustic paneling to deaden the room down somewhat. The only thing I can think of is acoustic paneling in vertical blinds. I googled it and came up with some companies that specialize in this type stuff for commercial applications, but nothing for consumer. Anyone know of a company that does such a thing? Has anyone else had experience with something like this?

It seems to me that vertical would be the way to go especially on the sidewalls. Not sure if vertical blinds would add much to the back wall unless they were closed.

HD TV and Movies via Xbox360

mike — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 16:41:42 GMT

I was just wondering if anyone has tried streaming movies ( regular or HD) stored on your computer to a xbox360. I would think that the files need to be converted first? I saw recently that slysoft has release HD-DVD cracking software, allowing you to rip a HD-DVD movie to your hard drive, but my question is, can that can be streamed to the xbox360? I already use my 360 to access all of my music and pictures, but I would love to have all of my movies available as well.

Thanks in advance,

Mike Hopkins
Aperionaudio.com