home theater eqt

[D.D.D.]

That's it... No native resolution. I remember that now. That's what I've heard about projectors. Is that at all accurate (still)?

[opticledilusi0n]

no

i'd look at the sony str-dg8xx receivers

they are relatively cheap, decent quality, 7.1 surround, and can remap inputs around (like video 1's video and tv/tuner's audio) and rename the inputs

the universal remote it comes w. is decent too .

[lordofduct]

Man, you guys are some serious gamer. Buying a 1000+ receivers. Anyway, lordofduct, do you have any suggestion on the Denon brand. Is that better than the Marantz with equivalent receiver??? I bought a cheap Denon 5 years ago and love it.

Denon makes some quality audio related stuff. I use a Denon in my bedroom for my surround set up for my computer. My cousin uses a Denon for his audio and video processing in his bedroom and the video is comparable to my Marantz, but it's hard to gauge as he doesn't have HDMI on his and uses component instead.


As for the comments about lag, the lag will be there, it's unnavoidable when bringing a 480i or lower resolution up to HDTV. (you probably don't notice it on SDTV because it doesn't have to be converted really and is usually a CRT display which isn't fixed ratio). The amount of lag really depends on the TV you select and the receiver you select.

It's hard to really gauge on an ambiguous level...

That's it... No native resolution. I remember that now. That's what I've heard about projectors. Is that at all accurate (still)?

To gauge the level of lag is not to check if you have rear-projection, front-projection, or standard stand-up. It's the way the video is created. You've got:
LCD
CRT
LCoD
DLP
Plasma

the only one of which that doesn't have a fixed resolution (native), is the CRT. CRT is also the only analog choice there. (there are other display capabilities out there, but these are the ones you'll find at your local dealers on the consumer level). If you have anything other then CRT, you're going to do a Analog to Digital conversion which creates lag no matter what... may it be 2milliseconds, or 11 milliseconds. The amount of time depends on the scaler and converter.

Once in digital though, the scaling doesn't take as long thank God. So yeah, have a Receiver, let its processor do the conversion. And even though your TV requires a different resolution then it puts out, save the 600 dollars and don't get the Receiver that does 1080 scaling as well. It's the deinterlacer and A/D transcoding that takes time, which a dedicated Receiver does phenomenally well.




...
personal opinion here, Sony Receivers suck loads of crap and break in a year. If you're going to buy a Audio/Video Receiver, do your self some justice, invest the money and get something good enough to quench your thirst in both the audio AND video realm so that way in 2 years you aren't thinking about upgrading. (Which I'm thinking the OP doesn't mind doing as he considered the price of the Marantz I showed all right).

Go stand in a Best Buy in their audio section, listen to the really good sound there, and then ask yourself... "Do I really like this? And if I do, wouldn't I want it to sound 10 times better then these dousche bags?"


ugh, I think I'm sick... not cool.

[Niode]

personal opinion here, Sony Receivers suck loads of crap and break in a year. If you're going to buy a Audio/Video Receiver, do your self some justice, invest the money and get something good enough to quench your thirst in both the audio AND video realm so that way in 2 years you aren't thinking about upgrading. (Which I'm thinking the OP doesn't mind doing as he considered the price of the Marantz I showed all right).

Go stand in a Best Buy in their audio section, listen to the really good sound there, and then ask yourself... "Do I really like this? And if I do, wouldn't I want it to sound 10 times better then these dousche bags?"

I completely agree with the above. Sony stuff, sucks ass. They're TV's aren't that good for the money, the audio gear is the worst i've ever heard apart from cheap chinese/korean tat. Everything i've had by Sony has broken within a year. The only thing that Sony have going for them is their console dept, at least that stuff last at least 2 years... give you some examples. Minidisc player, lasted a year, then the buttons on the front stopped working, impossible to fix. Sony Ericsson phones, k700, k750, k800 joystick broke in less than a year on all of them. They refused to honor warranty as they claimed it was wear and tear... First time I went "fair enough", second time, I thought, maybe it's bad luck, third time just took the piss. I was not a happy camper. Sony DVD-RW stopped accepting blank media after 9 months. I could go on all day. Suffice to say I don't deal with Sony other than consoles now. Even then I wish they would go out of business just so I don't have to buy their consoles anymore (stupid metal gear solid 4).

Yeah.. anyway.

There's no substitute for going out and testing this equipment yourself. You could read reviews all day and what sounds great to some people may sound shit to you. Or what sounds shit to somebody else may sound great to you. Just go with your gut instinct. You don't need good knowledge to know what sounds good to you, just instinct.

[lordofduct]

There's no substitute for going out and testing this equipment yourself. You could read reviews all day and what sounds great to some people may sound shit to you. Or what sounds shit to somebody else may sound great to you. Just go with your gut instinct. You don't need good knowledge to know what sounds good to you, just instinct.

Very much agreed in the audio department. People have their tastes! I like a lot of loud lows with sparkling of mids and not to tinny of highs.

Where my cousin likes all mids with not a lot of lows, and very loud highs.

Then my buddy Brian is obsessed with highs only and doesn't care about the lows and mids. He screams about his "tweeters" all the time.

[peace4myheart]

I agree that Sony has shit going for it in the audio department and cell phone. However, I stand buy them on their TV in quality. I love the pictures the TV produces and their quality is pretty good, though not as great since they don't assemble them in Japan anymore. We have owned Sony TV's and all of them have lasted more than 5 years plus without any problem. One lasted over 10 years before it just died one day. I guess I go with experience when it comes to new purchases and not loyalty to the brand.

BTW, I love lows and mid and hate highs. Trebble hurts my ears. My family always thinks I am ghetto because of it.

[lordofduct]

I agree that Sony has shit going for it in the audio department and cell phone. However, I stand buy them on their TV in quality. I love the pictures the TV produces and their quality is pretty good, though not as great since they don't assemble them in Japan anymore. We have owned Sony TV's and all of them have lasted more than 5 years plus without any problem. One lasted over 10 years before it just died one day. I guess I go with experience when it comes to new purchases and not loyalty to the brand.

BTW, I love lows and mid and hate highs. Trebble hurts my ears. My family always thinks I am ghetto because of it.

Don't take this the wrong way... but really I don't consider 5 years a long life time for a TV. This might be the poor ass son of a bitch who grew up on welfare in me... but before I bought my HDTV I used my mums TV from 1972 until I was 13 (1996), then when I moved to FL and out of my mums house I picked up a cheapy SDTV by Samsung and rocked that until I was around 22 (2005), and only upgraded to the HDTV because I had the change and I wanted something bigger then 27 inches. The Samsung still works today and my brother Dexter uses it at his house to play videogames. The 1972 pos that was one of those ones that was constructed with a wood case worked up until the day my mom sold it in a tag sale to move across country... I bet it still works for the guy who bought it.

Funny thing about that, I got him a 50 inch TV a while back and gave it to him for helping me work on my house. He brought it home for his XBOX 360, all excited to have a 720p display for his SpiderMan and the sort. His fiance forced him to put it out in the living room for everyone and keep playing his games on the small TV....


powned!

[RyaNtheSlayA]

Man, you guys are some serious gamer. Buying a 1000+ receivers. Anyway, lordofduct, do you have any suggestion on the Denon brand. Is that better than the Marantz with equivalent receiver??? I bought a cheap Denon 5 years ago and love it.

Denon makes some quality audio related stuff. I use a Denon in my bedroom for my surround set up for my computer. My cousin uses a Denon for his audio and video processing in his bedroom and the video is comparable to my Marantz, but it's hard to gauge as he doesn't have HDMI on his and uses component instead.


As for the comments about lag, the lag will be there, it's unnavoidable when bringing a 480i or lower resolution up to HDTV. (you probably don't notice it on SDTV because it doesn't have to be converted really and is usually a CRT display which isn't fixed ratio). The amount of lag really depends on the TV you select and the receiver you select.

It's hard to really gauge on an ambiguous level...

That's it... No native resolution. I remember that now. That's what I've heard about projectors. Is that at all accurate (still)?

To gauge the level of lag is not to check if you have rear-projection, front-projection, or standard stand-up. It's the way the video is created. You've got:
LCD
CRT
LCoD
DLP
Plasma

the only one of which that doesn't have a fixed resolution (native), is the CRT. CRT is also the only analog choice there. (there are other display capabilities out there, but these are the ones you'll find at your local dealers on the consumer level). If you have anything other then CRT, you're going to do a Analog to Digital conversion which creates lag no matter what... may it be 2milliseconds, or 11 milliseconds. The amount of time depends on the scaler and converter.

Once in digital though, the scaling doesn't take as long thank God. So yeah, have a Receiver, let its processor do the conversion. And even though your TV requires a different resolution then it puts out, save the 600 dollars and don't get the Receiver that does 1080 scaling as well. It's the deinterlacer and A/D transcoding that takes time, which a dedicated Receiver does phenomenally well.




...
personal opinion here, Sony Receivers suck loads of crap and break in a year. If you're going to buy a Audio/Video Receiver, do your self some justice, invest the money and get something good enough to quench your thirst in both the audio AND video realm so that way in 2 years you aren't thinking about upgrading. (Which I'm thinking the OP doesn't mind doing as he considered the price of the Marantz I showed all right).

Go stand in a Best Buy in their audio section, listen to the really good sound there, and then ask yourself... "Do I really like this? And if I do, wouldn't I want it to sound 10 times better then these dousche bags?"


ugh, I think I'm sick... not cool.

as far as sound systems i use some good ol Creative Labs 2.1 stereo. Works really well, has a 9" subwoofer, i dont remember the model though

[Niode]

I agree that Sony has shit going for it in the audio department and cell phone. However, I stand buy them on their TV in quality. I love the pictures the TV produces and their quality is pretty good, though not as great since they don't assemble them in Japan anymore. We have owned Sony TV's and all of them have lasted more than 5 years plus without any problem. One lasted over 10 years before it just died one day. I guess I go with experience when it comes to new purchases and not loyalty to the brand.

BTW, I love lows and mid and hate highs. Trebble hurts my ears. My family always thinks I am ghetto because of it.

I agree with LordOfDuct. 5 years is not impressive longevity for a TV. The shortest life of any TV i've ever seen is 8 years and that was a Sony Trinitron. I have one of the first ever colour TV sets in my garage. Cost a pretty penny back in the day that did. Doesn't even have a remote and only has RF input and the ability to have 9 channels... That still works. My panasonic 27" CRT has being going for over 10 years now and it's still perfect.