My new home theater setup.

[Mendel]

The Home Theater Setup. Almost done! Never really totally happy with it, always something small left to tweak...

TV stand... two hdmi cables connected to tv, one in use (from av receiver) and the other is a fail safe so I only have to connect the other side in case there seems to be hdmi cable problem. All cable managed.

Cable management became anger management. Still got some work to do, I think I´ll have to nail parts of these things to wall so they will stay on.

Cable management continued: HDMI, usb, power,ethernet and speaker cables all happily managed. Can actually vacuum behind tv. Lots of curse words went to assembly phase

Rear speakers. Also cable managed.

hdmi, power and ja wlan usb for the telly goes here.

The big picture. (the glass door can be closed during use now that the PS3 is not in there )

Hardware list:

Panasonic TXP-65 VT 30Y 65" Neoplasma 3D PDP

Denon AVR-1611 5.1 AV Receiver

Denon DBP-1611 Universal Disc player

Tannoy Mercury V1 speakers, 5 of them

BK Electronics XLS200-DF MK2, subwoofer

WBOX 2 HD PVR cable receiver with 1 TB HDD

Playstation 3 "fatty" original 60GB model bought on PS3 european release day but this one now has 120GB Vertex 2 SSD.

Kaon legacy 80GB SD PVR (Still got some old recordings not backed up)

PC in the other room, hdmi, gamepad,ethernet wires come through the wall from the next room. The next room is not quite as tidy though.

Pair of Vogels VLB200 wall stands for speakers, another pair of similar stands, can´t remember brand. Logic LTVBCX10 tv stand.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Nice, it's too bad you couldn't route the TV cables behind the center channel speaker so that they would be generally obscured from view. Very tidy though.

Regards,
SB

 

[Davros]

have you got wallpaper on the ceiling ?

 

[Grall]

I think that's some kind of ceiling tile. But on the other hand, he appears to have brown curtains, eww ugh!

 

[Malo]

You couldn't go in-wall for cable management? So much better in the long run and generally fairly easy depending on what's behind your plaster.

 

[Grall]

Dunno how things are made in the US, but interior walls in Scandinavia are generally large panels of drywall - sometimes double layers depending on what the fire code states - which is pretty difficult to cut into and then put back together in a way that still looks nice afterwards...

 

[dizietsma]

Looks like a prison cell with a huge tv in .. that man has his priorities right.

OK which pr0n film will you be watching first on it?

 

[Malo]

Dunno how things are made in the US, but interior walls in Scandinavia are generally large panels of drywall - sometimes double layers depending on what the fire code states - which is pretty difficult to cut into and then put back together in a way that still looks nice afterwards...

Same thing in the US, large sheets of drywall. With a handsaw it's quite easy to cut into and usually you have a sealed hole behind the TV with the cables going into that, then another hole near the floor behind the receiver etc. where the cables exit. You can't see either since they're behind the equipment. You're mounting a huge TV bracket on the wall anyway.

For speakers you get wall mounts which the wires run through the middle of them into the wall behind the mount, so you can't see that either. You're mounting the speaker on the wall anyway and you don't end up with a cable run cover down the height of your wall.

 

[Mendel]

Well the curtains do manage to make the room quite dark even though the color choice wasn´t mine.

Some kind of paint job on the walls may be done eventually. Prison cell is quite fitting seeing as there´s no way I can run away from this marriage now... but at least I have a little bit of av equipment

As for 3d pron... hmmm nice idea. For now I have like 5 or so 3d blu rays and then there´s some 3d games on the ps3.

btw: Avatar 3d should arrive in a couple of months from Panasonic.

edit: Oh now I see what you mean by routing cables in the wall. It´s not a bad idea actually but probably won´t go there for now. Maybe in a year or two when everything needs to be re-configured. (swapping the place of tv and couch is eventually bound to happen,dunno why, wife is like that )
Oh and you know what? The speakers are actually seated a little bit too high. It´s a little bit of a bummer, didn´t see their eventual height being there when drilling the holes. :/

Now I´m also considering some kind of photo wallpaper. Something like these http://www.photowall.fi/photo-wallpaper/categories/bestsellers#page=1

 

[Alexko]

Am I seeing things or is your TV not parallel to the piece of furniture below it?

 

[Mendel]

You are correct it is not properly straight yet. In use you don't really see anything wrong but it is visible in picture and if you really look at it without watching anything. I need to invite a couple of friends to hold it while I detach a couple of screws, adjust it a bit and reattach

The wall mount itself is straight, the thing that was installed behind the tv that attaches to the mount is the problem. Really, really small adjustment with screw placement make a huge difference.

 

[RudeCurve]

The cheap clean way to route speaker wires in the wall is to make two small openings in the wall about half an inch...one at the speaker level and one at the bottom base of the wall. Both holes need to be vertically aligned. After you've made the two small holes you take some string and tie a metal nut onto one end then you drop the nut into the top hole in the wall. Next you slowly let the nut drop down until you see it through the bottom hole at which point you pull it out along with the string. Now that you have the string through the holes and into the wall you tie the other end of the string onto your speaker wires and just pull it through.

Just like this.

 

[pascal]

Congratulations Mendel

Nice HT setup.
Tannoy is a great speaker :smile:

I have the Tannoy Arena speakers and Marantz AVR.

 

[Alexko]

You are correct it is not properly straight yet. In use you don't really see anything wrong but it is visible in picture and if you really look at it without watching anything. I need to invite a couple of friends to hold it while I detach a couple of screws, adjust it a bit and reattach

The wall mount itself is straight, the thing that was installed behind the tv that attaches to the mount is the problem. Really, really small adjustment with screw placement make a huge difference.

Ah, thanks, I was worried I was being neurotic again!

 

[digitalwanderer]

Awesome set up dude, my jelly is high!

 

[DuckThor Evil]

Nice setup and TV! Is there some differences between the VT30 and and the older VT20 plasmas?
What's the TV like? For crying out loud give us some impressions already!

It's a pity that it takes forever from them to send that Avatar disc.

Edit:
Lol seems like the guy is too busy with his new setup to log on here anymore and give us his friggin impressions of the telly.

 

[Mendel]

Yea I sure have all kinds of stuff going on and while I have occasionally logged in here too I have been all about my recent computer upgrade and discussing the failzors of Bulldozer and what not.

Anyways... Where do I begin? I really need to make a longer write up but for the time being, here are some highlights:

IMAX under the sea blu ray has a segment where I could swear a fish is swimming out of the tv, when I pause the image, I can actually reach out with my hand such that if I keep my hand next to the fish it seems like my hand goes to the level of the fish and beyond. It looks like I´m petting it if I move my hand around. If I move my hand through the fish though, the illusion is broken.

Avatar is just awesome. I heard a lot of critisism about the movie but it was just all around very positive experience. The 3d is properly done without being overdone. There isn´t that much pop out but there is a lot of depth to the image. Story is a bit cliche but its original enough to me. I´ll watch this again.

Thor 3d. People say the movie is too dark but this tv can manage it. I put a little bit of more brightness to this title though but it is very watchable. Some of the fx are nice but it didn´t rock my world. Funny at times.

Road to Perdition (2d blu ray): Now this is where the black levels of this tv are shown to be very, very good. The dark act with rain and gunfiring towards the end... just wow! Also the movie is deep, entertaining and exciting. Never saw this before and this is absolutely best movie I saw this year though this is a few years old iirc.

Gulliver´s travels. Horrible 3d done after shooting. Very flat image that just didn´t seem natural. Funny at times because nothing with Jack Black can totally fail.

Alice (3d blu ray) 3d didn´t convince me, might as well have watched it in 2d. Was ok movie though.

Resident evil 3d. Tries so very hard to be another Matrix. Just hanged my brains to a hook with my hat before I started watching it and it was okay. 3d was actually quite decent too at times. Story is something I didn´t worry about as there isn´t much... If I liked the type of woman that is Milla Jovowhicheverwayitshouldbewritten, I think I would have enjoyed it more as the director clearly enjoyed her.

Games:

PS3
Motorstorm 3d rift was enjoyable but short. Some of the higher jumps initially induced a little bit of fear of heights/ stomach whirled around.

Gran Turismo 5. With 3d I can kind of see better when to brake into a turn and I can see the distance to other cars more clearly but it´s not a very satisfying 3d effect.

Wipeout. At slow speeds it looks great, at higher speeds it´s just confusing as it just moves too fast to create a good illusion of 3d.


PC: (nvidia 3dtvplay)

Batman Arkham Asylum. 3d just works and adds some depth, but I don´t see it as bringing anything to the game. It´s as enjoyable in 2d.

Witcher 2: Nice pop out effect can be arranged by walking next to a tree and arranging the camera such that a leaf pop outs and moves in the wind over my living room table. Otherwise the game just works nicely with everything maxed at 720p in 3d. And what a game it was. Other elements than 3d stole the show, really, finishing this in like a month. I was quite nailed to this until the credits roll, with a few interrutions by other stuff though.

Gaming in 3d generally: Nice effects but I wish they could better incorporate this into gameplay changes. They can´t of course as most are playing these same games in 2d. (This is why I expect great things out of Mario land on 3ds Small as though the screen it, it is same for everyone)

General desktop usage: IRC with a 65" screen is ridiculous. Image is sharp though and most friends thought the resolution was higher than 1080p as they thought such a low res on such a large screen would look far worse

2dtv:

Formula 1 in HD is also finally available in Finland and boy did I ever enjoy it.
NFL Gamepass... The streams would benefit from even higher resolution but it´s still just good enough.
standard definition tv channels still has decent quality too and is definitely watchable... but when comparing the sd version of formula1 broadcast to hd version the difference is of course night and day... flawless in HD, some annoyances and visible pixellation in sd.



One more thing. Generally as an experience, it is still the "window to a deeper world" type of experience and not the "i´m there" kind of experience as the illusion is broken when objects move through the edge of the tv. So while the tv seemed even too large when installing, it´s still "too small" when viewing 3d content. I honestly could not fit in a bigger screen, tv, projector or otherwise. It´s very much good enough. I´m happiest about the black levels and general image quality... and the 3d works sufficiently for occasional usage. Avatar really shows the potential, other content is... well... let´s say everything else is being compared to that... and the one big ugly fish scene in that Imax under the seas documentary.

please excuse the typos and such


BTW. I had a bit of panic moment when I tried to straighten the tv, thought it would drop and break for sure... managed to put it down to table tv stand which is where it will stay for the time being... to do list has ordering professional people to install it properly on the wall stand

 

[DuckThor Evil]

Thanks for the impressions, always nice to read them

 

[suryad]

Congrats on the home theater setup. I currently have a PS3 and a Sammy 55 in 8000 series and the 3D in it is spectacular. I will be taking inspiration from you and go with a Denon AV receiver. I am recycling my Cambridge Soundworks S750 speakers currently as my home theater speakers (2.1 setup currently because of lack of AV) and they do the job nicely. Hoping to get something more decent when I buy my own place. Once again NICE setup!