Recommend a home theater (HTIB) under $400?

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as far as im aware you cant use a hdmi cable with the wii just the component cable unless you got one of those hdmi connectors for the wii. other then that you should be good to go with what ive been reading.

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that thing with the goveronment was about analouge verus digital not hd but yeay most broadcast are eaither 720p or 1080i

 

That's right, BTA, my cable signal is 720, the same as the native resolution on my Sony TV. On the Samsung TV in my bedroom, which is 1080p, the picture actually looks worse because of the 720 signal. I have to pay an extra fee to get the 1080p signal.

 

@ Gaear,

The native on the TV, which is the UN46C6900, is 1080p. The Pioneer AV receiver - if it gives me an onscreen display at all (which at this point I doubt - will not up-scale to that resolution. If there is an onscreen display, the TV will have to do the upscaling, and if it doesn't, it'll display on standard resolution. But if what the review is saying is accurate, this is all moot and I won't have an onscreen display. I'll have to rely on the LCD screen on the reciever to adjust the sound. But that's not a big deal to me. (EDIT: Oops! I see BTA already covered this. Tee-hee!)

@ Topken,

Thanks - I had no idea there wasn't an HDMi port on the Wii. Sometimes I forget it's a 4-year old system. I'll look into the adapter.

 

Ignore me - I only now just realized exactly what we're talking about here, and it isn't really video.

Apologies - I think I got confused by the 'upscaling' references.

 

Ordered.

That tearing sound you hear on October 8th will be my pants, succumbing to the intense pressure.

 

Congrats! Be sure to let us know what you think of the new setup, DR.

 

Well, 'bad' is relative, and a person's standards for making a quality judgement will differ. Maybe 'not as good as it could be' would be a better way of putting it.

Interestingly, I would think that converting something like 720p to 1080p would be worse than the other way around, because you're essentially enlarging the picture. Let's say x amount of data is contained in a screen area of 1280 x 720 pixels. That data remains constant in the signal, I think, but when applied to 1920 x 1080 pixels, there is less of it to go around because the area it needs to occupy is greater. Reduced image quality results, unless the signal itself is somehow dynamic and can deliver more data to the 1080p box as necessary.

I'm more familiar with audio than video, but I'm not sure the quality of a converter alone would be responsible for the resulting image quality. Not in the case of audio, at any rate. An audio signal of 22050 Hz 8 bit mono is never going to sound like 44100/16/stereo, no matter how you convert it.

 

Well I brought the TV home tonight. UNBELIEVABLE. The picture is so clear and the 120hz smoothing so well done that even Netflix streaming standard-def movies looks like BlueRay. The blacks are PITCH black. The colors are bright and vibrant. I've only tried out one game so far - Batman: Arkham Asylum - but it looks fantastic.

I'll chime back in again in a little over a week, when all the other audio components arrive.

 

Sometimes Amazon amazes me. I ordered the combo Chandos suggested on Tuesday evening. As they sometimes do, Amazon divided the shipment up into 3 parts (the receiver, the speakers, the wiring) as they came from different locations. Being a frugal (read: cheap) fellow, I opted for super-saver shipping, estimated to take 5-8 business days to deliver.

The receiver arrived yesterday at 11am. Less than 24 hours. The speakers will arrive today before noon.

This awesomeness is tempered by the fact that the wiring will take the full 5-8 business days. Oh well. Still pretty awesome, no?

 

you get the large expensive stuff quickly and the minor cheap stuff takes forever sounds about right lol

 

Great. And you should be able to track the progress for the rest of your order on your account page (I suspect you are aware of that though).

 

Yes, sorry Tal. I remembered long after the shipments started coming in. I'll chip in a few bucks this month to make up.

 

Right - so everything arrived on Friday - a full 5 days sooner than I was expecting it all. I spent the better part of yesterday evening running wires and installing everything. And what was my inaugural entertainment experience for my excellent black-level TV surround-sound system?

Dead Space. Dude...

Followed closely by The Big Lebowski on BluRay. Dude...

This is, simply put, the home theater I've always wanted. Rocks so hard.

Thanks again, everyone, for all the recommendations.

 

glad to see you love the setup death rabbit

 

Excellent, DR.