We all watch our movies in various ways and so do I. I do a lot of movie watching on the go with my Nexus 7, but this week I’m interested in your home setup. In which technological world do you manage to escape the realities of every day life?:
What does your setup look like?
I’ve had my current setup for quite a while and I’m generally still happy with it. As movies are a visual experience let’s start with my TV. I have 42-inch Panasonic PV70 plasma screen. The reason I bought a plasma was basically because the blacks were much better on plasma TVs. I wish I could have had a bigger screen, but since I had to place my TV in a closet it limited my options. Still this doesn’t mean I am not looking at new TV’s. Since the bezels have become a lot thinner I could probably fit a 46 or even a slightly bigger TV in that same closet. As I was browsing one of my local electronics stores I have to say that the Samsung TV’s are looking really nice and the Samsung UE46F6100 for example would look good in my setup. Still I’m quite content with my current TV, but as plasma TV’s will start to get less bright through the years I know I will eventually have to replace it.
Next is my surround setup. I have a Rotel RSX-972 amplifier, with 100 Watts per channel so it is quite powerful. I am lucky it is still working as the house was once hit by lightning and my amplifier got the most of it. It resulted in a small repair and I currently have to keep it in standby or else it will lose all its settings. It does not have the latest options (for example it does not have HDMI), but I don’t need that at the moment. An amplifier needs speakers and I opted for relatively small speakers, the JM Labs SIB & CUB 5.1 Speaker System.
I still don’t own a Blu Ray player and play my DVD’s with an Xbox 360, but most movies are kept on a NAS with an Apple TV with XBMC streaming it all to my TV.
What does your setup look like?
Great question. We have a 52″ plasma in the living room. We would get a newer, thinner lighter higher def TV but have no idea what to do with the old one. It’s big and no one wants it. It works fine, so I guess I’ll deal with it when it dies. We have a surround sound rig with it which is very important since Garry is deaf. I think it is starting to die. It’s making ugly popping noises. We have a nifty 35″ flatscreen in the bedroom. It’s higher def with has pretty good sound — not surround, but the TV has decent speakers. About 8 years newer than the TV in the LR. I sometimes watch stuff on my computer or Kindle, but mostly like the better sound and big screen TV. We also have a Roku, cable, DVD and DVR in the living room and a decent DVD collection.
52 inch, really nice size. I don’t really care how thick movies are, but a thin one of course is easier to move and I’d imagine the newer TV’s produce a lot less heat. When I switch my plasma off you can feel the heat coming off of it. Popping noises isn’t good, although the cables might also be the cause of that…worth investigating.
Nice size TV in the bedroom. Although we have a small LCD in the bedroom we actually never watch it…really only the kids use it to watch DVD’s.
Overall a really nice setup Marilyn.
Forgot. Bluray in LR and bedroom, but like your our amp is old, tired and we also got hit by lightning. Thrice. Took out a couple of computers and the well pump, but everything took at least part of the hit. Lightning is SOOOO powerful. Just fries everything.
Wow, three times! That is really annoying. So do you now unplug everything if you are not using it or did you get any protective sockets?
I’m a big home theater guy, been using front projector since 2005. I’m in the process of remodeling my basement to expand my home theater. Currently I have a 100 inch widescreen, set up as 2.20:1 ratio; my HD projector is Epson Home Cinema 8700UB; Onkyo THX TX model for surround sound; I have a 7.1 surround speakers, Definitive Technology main speakers and Martin Logan for subwoofers. I hate going to movie theater since people are so annoying these days so I love watching films on my cool set up. 🙂
One day I hope to have an awesome setup like that (even though I am not complaining about what I have now). Still planning to put another floor on the house in the future and build a dedicated home cinema room. If that becomes a reality I’ll be sure to post pictures of the progress 🙂
I have a big flat screen SONY Bravia LCD in our basement, I think it’s a 46″, been a while since we bought it. We have surround speakers that was installed when we built our townhome. It’s our entertainment room as it’s nice and cool downstairs, we always turn the lights off completely when we watch movies 😀
Sounds like a really nice setup Ruth, especially that it is a room which stays nice and cool!
My home setup is very basic. My Family Room TV is in an armoire, so we are limited in size. We have a 27″ “widescreen” TV hooked up to a Boston sound system–a central speaker “stick” on top of the armoire and a separate woofer/base behind the sofa.
Typically, most of my movie reviews are from films in theatres, and that is where I watch them.
I wish I had more time to watch in theaters but with three kids at home it is hard to find time for that!