oliphillips
Established Member
BUDGET BEDROOM HOME CINEMA CONVERSION FROM SCRATCH!
Ok so this is how it began. A new TV was needed for mine and my girlfriends room and reading the 'London Lite' I noticed some cheap looking deals in an advert from Hyper-fi. So a plan began to form of getting a new TV to replace my old piece of junk 20" CRT that I'm sure is going to blow up!
I am very much a noob to the technical side of things, but a fast learner! I have always been an avid AV fan and dreamt of certain setups but never got round to buying much, sadly being an addictive gambler I don't own much (Note I have stopped gambling, regularly attend GA and havent done it for nearly a year now!)
Now when I get involved in looking for something new to buy my addictive personality goes into overdrive! I start reading Specs, comparing with other models, then as always one model has these specs but lacking the other, and the other has those but lacking this, etc etc, I'm sure you know the feeling.
The Hyper-fi TV turned out to be a rear projection TV, so I thought to myself 'X$%^ that!". So I began to look into the lastest available, large, budget TV's. Then over the course of 24 hours, reading reviews, forums, price comparison, etc, somehow wanting to spend around £300 on a new telly turned into installing a home cinema in my room! It went from getting a 37" then slowly up to 50", then added WD-TV Media Player, then 1tb filled Hard Drive, then an added AV reciever, then speaker package, lol!!
In the end the grand total came to: £1320. This is everything from scratch, every single cable newly bought!!
Anyway, after comparing specs, reading reviews, comparing prices, coin flipping, etc, I decided upon the following :::
LG 50" PLASMA :: LG 50PS3000http://www.lge.com/uk/tv-audio-video/televisions/LG-plasma-tv-50PS3000.jsp @ £721.99 Delivered (used 5TV code) + £10 cashback from RPOINTS
Ok now I thought if I'm gonna get a bloody 50 incher I'm gonna need to watch some HD content!! The lack of BluRay DVDs made me think I would prefer something to watch HD Media files on.
WD-TV Media Player :: WDAVN00 @ £79 Delivered
Now this wasn't essential as I had my own collection of movies. However someone I knew was offering this 1TB drive with a choice of around 180 1080P h.264 films on, so I decided to buy one.
1TB Western Digital HDD :: Elements @ £100 Delivered
With ~180X
---------------------------------------------------------------------
AV reciever wise it was a tough decision, between HD audio or not. It came down to this: a) Low end HD AV reciever that would also break the budget a bit or b) Closer to the top half of the 5.1/dts range within budget. I decided against going HD at the moment, especially as I would mostly be using WD-TV Media Player to begin with and I wouldn't be watching anything with a TrueHD or DTS-HD soundtrack. Also I have had some bad experiences with cheap equipment so I decided I would go for better quality but not as modern technolgy, rather than lastest HD audio but crappy quality. In the end it was a tough decision between the Yamaha RX-V363 and the Cambridge Audio AZUR 540R V2. Below you can see what I went for:
Yamaha RX -V363 AV RECIEVER @ £169.99
Right now I needed some 5.1 speakers to connect up to the AV reciever, I decided upon a Harman Kardon 5.1 speaker package. I looked at a few cheaper sets including the Yamaha NS-P110, which I nearly bought, but after reading some reviews I decided it lacked the build and quality. The Harman Kardon set came to my attention and it looked perfect. In my opinion it matched the same sort of quality of the rest of the kit, I found a really good price so I went ahead and ordered it:
Harman Kardon HKTS7 Speaker Set @ £179.99 Delivered
---------------------------------------------------------------------
I currently already own the following too, so they will be hooked up:
DREAMBOX FLASHED WITH DW 1.6 : DM500C
SUMVISION LYNX HDMI USB XVID/DVD
OK, so this is everything I now own. It's all been ordered and I'm eagerly awating it all!! I am going to get a mount and 4 speaker mounts. As I set it up in my room I will update the thread. I live with my girlfriend in a shared house and we spend most of our time in our room. It is a large double room, but I am fearing the 50" will be too big. We'll See. My full list of equipment so far is as follows:
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VISUAL
LG 50" PLASMA LG50PS3000
MEDIA
WD-TV MEDIA PLAYER w/ 1TB HDD (180 X H.264 1080P MOVIES)
DREAMBOX DM500C (DW 1.6 IMAGE)
SUMVISON LYNX HDMI USB XVID/DVD
AUDIO
YAMAHA RX -V363 AV RECIEVER
HARMAN KARDON HKTS7 5.1 SPEAKER SET
ACCESSORIES
LOGITECH HARMONY ONE
CABLES
3 X 3m JVHD HDMI 1.3b CABLES
5m HDMI 1.3b CABLE
HURO 2X2.5 Speaker Cable (5.1 speakers)
399 STRAND Speaker Cable (2.1 speakers)
Nakamichi Gold Banana Plugs
Gold Flat Scart Cable
2 X Gold Optical Cable
5m Gold Jack to Jack Cable
5m Gold VGA Cable
5m Gold Jack to Twin Phono
Pure AV Belkin HDMI to DVI adaptor
2 X 3m Triple RCA Chrome/Gold Cable
10m Gold Coax Male to Male
Gold 3 RCA to Scart Convertor
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---------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Here is the current setup in my room, comprising of my friend old broken Yamaha amp, 2 of my friends Matrix, out the back of a van speakers, that as it happens do have good sound quality. 20" panasonic tv that turns off every 20 mins with a weird hissing noise, 2 dvd players that are interchanged when ones not working!! As you can see the tv is simply on top of a chest of drawers with 2 wooden racks either side:::
WHAT I AM CURRENTLY PUTTING UP WITH
WHAT I AM CURRENTLY PUTTING UP WITH
Damn it's gonna be a nice change! We have to keep it to this layout due to the limited size of the room. This is the plan so far:
--- Mount TV on wall behind chest of drawers
--- Mount 2 front speakers either side of the tv
--- Mount 2 rear speakers to back walls
--- Have centre speaker sitting on top of chest of drawers
--- Spread AV equipment over the 2 racks (if i can get rid of those bloody hair straightners and other crap!!)
--- Soon buy 2 dedicated AV racks for either side of the chest of drawers, same sort of size as the ones there at the moment
--- Have some sort of throw to pull down and cover the front of the chest of drawers. Any ideas?
Also planning on connecting the big floor speakers to use at 2.1 when listening to music.
I'll keep this thread updated with my progress, with pics. Hope its of interest to some people! Anyone got any advice or comments? Im very excited about this, and looking forward to setting it up/ experiencing it set up!
Cheers, Oli
Ok so this is how it began. A new TV was needed for mine and my girlfriends room and reading the 'London Lite' I noticed some cheap looking deals in an advert from Hyper-fi. So a plan began to form of getting a new TV to replace my old piece of junk 20" CRT that I'm sure is going to blow up!
I am very much a noob to the technical side of things, but a fast learner! I have always been an avid AV fan and dreamt of certain setups but never got round to buying much, sadly being an addictive gambler I don't own much (Note I have stopped gambling, regularly attend GA and havent done it for nearly a year now!)
Now when I get involved in looking for something new to buy my addictive personality goes into overdrive! I start reading Specs, comparing with other models, then as always one model has these specs but lacking the other, and the other has those but lacking this, etc etc, I'm sure you know the feeling.
The Hyper-fi TV turned out to be a rear projection TV, so I thought to myself 'X$%^ that!". So I began to look into the lastest available, large, budget TV's. Then over the course of 24 hours, reading reviews, forums, price comparison, etc, somehow wanting to spend around £300 on a new telly turned into installing a home cinema in my room! It went from getting a 37" then slowly up to 50", then added WD-TV Media Player, then 1tb filled Hard Drive, then an added AV reciever, then speaker package, lol!!
In the end the grand total came to: £1320. This is everything from scratch, every single cable newly bought!!
Anyway, after comparing specs, reading reviews, comparing prices, coin flipping, etc, I decided upon the following :::
LG 50" PLASMA :: LG 50PS3000http://www.lge.com/uk/tv-audio-video/televisions/LG-plasma-tv-50PS3000.jsp @ £721.99 Delivered (used 5TV code) + £10 cashback from RPOINTS
Ok now I thought if I'm gonna get a bloody 50 incher I'm gonna need to watch some HD content!! The lack of BluRay DVDs made me think I would prefer something to watch HD Media files on.
WD-TV Media Player :: WDAVN00 @ £79 Delivered
Now this wasn't essential as I had my own collection of movies. However someone I knew was offering this 1TB drive with a choice of around 180 1080P h.264 films on, so I decided to buy one.
1TB Western Digital HDD :: Elements @ £100 Delivered
With ~180X
---------------------------------------------------------------------
AV reciever wise it was a tough decision, between HD audio or not. It came down to this: a) Low end HD AV reciever that would also break the budget a bit or b) Closer to the top half of the 5.1/dts range within budget. I decided against going HD at the moment, especially as I would mostly be using WD-TV Media Player to begin with and I wouldn't be watching anything with a TrueHD or DTS-HD soundtrack. Also I have had some bad experiences with cheap equipment so I decided I would go for better quality but not as modern technolgy, rather than lastest HD audio but crappy quality. In the end it was a tough decision between the Yamaha RX-V363 and the Cambridge Audio AZUR 540R V2. Below you can see what I went for:
Yamaha RX -V363 AV RECIEVER @ £169.99
Right now I needed some 5.1 speakers to connect up to the AV reciever, I decided upon a Harman Kardon 5.1 speaker package. I looked at a few cheaper sets including the Yamaha NS-P110, which I nearly bought, but after reading some reviews I decided it lacked the build and quality. The Harman Kardon set came to my attention and it looked perfect. In my opinion it matched the same sort of quality of the rest of the kit, I found a really good price so I went ahead and ordered it:
Harman Kardon HKTS7 Speaker Set @ £179.99 Delivered
---------------------------------------------------------------------
I currently already own the following too, so they will be hooked up:
DREAMBOX FLASHED WITH DW 1.6 : DM500C
SUMVISION LYNX HDMI USB XVID/DVD
OK, so this is everything I now own. It's all been ordered and I'm eagerly awating it all!! I am going to get a mount and 4 speaker mounts. As I set it up in my room I will update the thread. I live with my girlfriend in a shared house and we spend most of our time in our room. It is a large double room, but I am fearing the 50" will be too big. We'll See. My full list of equipment so far is as follows:
---------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------
VISUAL
LG 50" PLASMA LG50PS3000
MEDIA
WD-TV MEDIA PLAYER w/ 1TB HDD (180 X H.264 1080P MOVIES)
DREAMBOX DM500C (DW 1.6 IMAGE)
SUMVISON LYNX HDMI USB XVID/DVD
AUDIO
YAMAHA RX -V363 AV RECIEVER
HARMAN KARDON HKTS7 5.1 SPEAKER SET
ACCESSORIES
LOGITECH HARMONY ONE
CABLES
3 X 3m JVHD HDMI 1.3b CABLES
5m HDMI 1.3b CABLE
HURO 2X2.5 Speaker Cable (5.1 speakers)
399 STRAND Speaker Cable (2.1 speakers)
Nakamichi Gold Banana Plugs
Gold Flat Scart Cable
2 X Gold Optical Cable
5m Gold Jack to Jack Cable
5m Gold VGA Cable
5m Gold Jack to Twin Phono
Pure AV Belkin HDMI to DVI adaptor
2 X 3m Triple RCA Chrome/Gold Cable
10m Gold Coax Male to Male
Gold 3 RCA to Scart Convertor
---------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Here is the current setup in my room, comprising of my friend old broken Yamaha amp, 2 of my friends Matrix, out the back of a van speakers, that as it happens do have good sound quality. 20" panasonic tv that turns off every 20 mins with a weird hissing noise, 2 dvd players that are interchanged when ones not working!! As you can see the tv is simply on top of a chest of drawers with 2 wooden racks either side:::
WHAT I AM CURRENTLY PUTTING UP WITH
Damn it's gonna be a nice change! We have to keep it to this layout due to the limited size of the room. This is the plan so far:
--- Mount TV on wall behind chest of drawers
--- Mount 2 front speakers either side of the tv
--- Mount 2 rear speakers to back walls
--- Have centre speaker sitting on top of chest of drawers
--- Spread AV equipment over the 2 racks (if i can get rid of those bloody hair straightners and other crap!!)
--- Soon buy 2 dedicated AV racks for either side of the chest of drawers, same sort of size as the ones there at the moment
--- Have some sort of throw to pull down and cover the front of the chest of drawers. Any ideas?
Also planning on connecting the big floor speakers to use at 2.1 when listening to music.
I'll keep this thread updated with my progress, with pics. Hope its of interest to some people! Anyone got any advice or comments? Im very excited about this, and looking forward to setting it up/ experiencing it set up!
Cheers, Oli
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