The Big Screen
When we moved into our house in Eugene we had a few empty rooms since the new house was a bit bigger than our old one. One of them was in the basement, about 13 ft. square with no windows. At the time we didn't have any TVs and we were watching movies on my laptop set up on a card table at the end of the bed.
So I got the ok from Sarah to build a home theater and went to work. After some research I ended up getting a Sanyo projector, a Denon receiver, a set of 5.1 set of Klipsch speakers and enough wires to hook them all together. I made my screen by hand for about $50, and when it was all said and done I was blown away. It was better than I could have hoped. Numerous times over the next couple years I mentioned to Sarah that it was the best investment I'd ever made.
Then Ian came along, and we didn't have quite as much time to spend sitting around watching movies (which we did quite a bit). The a while after that Noah showed up. It didn't take long before Sarah decided the boys needed a playroom and I saw my theater disappear.
That lasted maybe six months before she decided we should move things around again and the boys moved out of separate bedrooms and into the big suite over the garage, along with all their toys. Now they have one giant bedroom/playroom combo thingy. More importantly, the room downstairs was empty again.
In the interim I ended up selling the projector since the bulb was on the way out and I didn't want to blow $400 to replace it, since the projector was getting a little obsolete. But the idea of having a home theater again was there. So I started researching again.
Since flat screen prices have dropped so much I was edging toward that instead of getting another projector. I taped together pieces of wrapping paper into big rectangles to get some idea of how different sized TVs would look on the walls. I wandered around Circuit City and Best Buy drooling. I read tons of articles online.
I finally decided that I wasn't nearly as picky as some of the reviewers I'd read and that I'd probably be happy with a low end model. Then fortune smiled, and Costco had an incredible deal with a Sharp LCD that was $500 off, putting it at the same price as some of the bargain TVs I'd been looking at. Unfortunately the guy in the store I talked to said that they've been selling out of them almost as soon as the shipments were arriving.
Then last Monday I stopped in again after dropping Ian and Noah off and there were two sitting there, ripe for the plucking. I was a little hesitant, but I was told that Costco has a 90 day return policy for TVs like this, and that I could bring it back for ANY reason. So I went for it.
Bling! Sharp Aquos 52D62U. 52" of sweet, sweet 1080p LCD goodness. I got a wall mount to go with it so Ian can't knock it over, and he'll have trouble getting greasy fingerprints on it, too. Lots of those picky reviewer types have noticed 'banding' issues with this TV, but I can't see anything and I'm not going to go digging for problems. It's awesome, and it's big. We've got Comcast Digital Cable, and the box I have is a HD-DVR. It's got an HDMI out, which is what I have going to the TV. I also spent some time a couple of days ago setting most of the audio system back up. I did everything except the rear surrounds because I can live without them for now and I can't quite figure out how to run the cable.
Anyhow, did I mention the TV was awesome? As I understand it, as good as HD is over cable, it's not quite as good as a clean over that air signal might be, and it's not as good as HD-DVD or Blu-ray. That being said, the picture I am getting is stunning. I spent a couple hours the first night just flipping through the channels looking at HD programming. Even though I hate sports I even watched some of that, just because it looked cool. The culmination of my viewing experience was watching Frank Miller's 300 via Comcast's On-Demand Pay-Per-View movies.
Wow. Just wow. I knew that was going to rock, and I told myself a while back I wasn't going to see it until I could watch it on a screen that would do it justice. The new TV fit the bill.
High definition is spooky clear. The only thing I'd seen that was this good was a Blu-Ray demo they had in Best Buy. Whatever they're using to output content to their display TVs doesn't do them justice. I watched some of Lord of the Rings last night, which isn't even HD content. I did get a DVD player that upconverts to 1080p, which isn't perfect, but it's probably better than the TV would do by itself. A few time on closeups of people's faces I could almost believe I was looking through a window as someone standing on the other side. It's that clear.
So I'm happy. The theater is back! And this time, I'm not letting go of it!
So I got the ok from Sarah to build a home theater and went to work. After some research I ended up getting a Sanyo projector, a Denon receiver, a set of 5.1 set of Klipsch speakers and enough wires to hook them all together. I made my screen by hand for about $50, and when it was all said and done I was blown away. It was better than I could have hoped. Numerous times over the next couple years I mentioned to Sarah that it was the best investment I'd ever made.
Then Ian came along, and we didn't have quite as much time to spend sitting around watching movies (which we did quite a bit). The a while after that Noah showed up. It didn't take long before Sarah decided the boys needed a playroom and I saw my theater disappear.
That lasted maybe six months before she decided we should move things around again and the boys moved out of separate bedrooms and into the big suite over the garage, along with all their toys. Now they have one giant bedroom/playroom combo thingy. More importantly, the room downstairs was empty again.
In the interim I ended up selling the projector since the bulb was on the way out and I didn't want to blow $400 to replace it, since the projector was getting a little obsolete. But the idea of having a home theater again was there. So I started researching again.
Since flat screen prices have dropped so much I was edging toward that instead of getting another projector. I taped together pieces of wrapping paper into big rectangles to get some idea of how different sized TVs would look on the walls. I wandered around Circuit City and Best Buy drooling. I read tons of articles online.
I finally decided that I wasn't nearly as picky as some of the reviewers I'd read and that I'd probably be happy with a low end model. Then fortune smiled, and Costco had an incredible deal with a Sharp LCD that was $500 off, putting it at the same price as some of the bargain TVs I'd been looking at. Unfortunately the guy in the store I talked to said that they've been selling out of them almost as soon as the shipments were arriving.
Then last Monday I stopped in again after dropping Ian and Noah off and there were two sitting there, ripe for the plucking. I was a little hesitant, but I was told that Costco has a 90 day return policy for TVs like this, and that I could bring it back for ANY reason. So I went for it.
Bling! Sharp Aquos 52D62U. 52" of sweet, sweet 1080p LCD goodness. I got a wall mount to go with it so Ian can't knock it over, and he'll have trouble getting greasy fingerprints on it, too. Lots of those picky reviewer types have noticed 'banding' issues with this TV, but I can't see anything and I'm not going to go digging for problems. It's awesome, and it's big. We've got Comcast Digital Cable, and the box I have is a HD-DVR. It's got an HDMI out, which is what I have going to the TV. I also spent some time a couple of days ago setting most of the audio system back up. I did everything except the rear surrounds because I can live without them for now and I can't quite figure out how to run the cable.
Anyhow, did I mention the TV was awesome? As I understand it, as good as HD is over cable, it's not quite as good as a clean over that air signal might be, and it's not as good as HD-DVD or Blu-ray. That being said, the picture I am getting is stunning. I spent a couple hours the first night just flipping through the channels looking at HD programming. Even though I hate sports I even watched some of that, just because it looked cool. The culmination of my viewing experience was watching Frank Miller's 300 via Comcast's On-Demand Pay-Per-View movies.
Wow. Just wow. I knew that was going to rock, and I told myself a while back I wasn't going to see it until I could watch it on a screen that would do it justice. The new TV fit the bill.
High definition is spooky clear. The only thing I'd seen that was this good was a Blu-Ray demo they had in Best Buy. Whatever they're using to output content to their display TVs doesn't do them justice. I watched some of Lord of the Rings last night, which isn't even HD content. I did get a DVD player that upconverts to 1080p, which isn't perfect, but it's probably better than the TV would do by itself. A few time on closeups of people's faces I could almost believe I was looking through a window as someone standing on the other side. It's that clear.
So I'm happy. The theater is back! And this time, I'm not letting go of it!
posted by Gabe at
6:59 PM
<< Home