gooch's Home Theater

[gooch]

I took the plunge the other week and decided to upgrade my HDTV downstairs. Luckily, I was able to find a TV with a bigger screen size and still get it to fit in the entertainment center. I picked up a Samsung HL-S6187W 61" 1080P DLP set.

This thing is gorgeous, and the picture is stunning. I think I have some pics posted on my images site.

[Carter]

It has been a while gooch!

[gooch]

yeah, I have been lurking a bit every once in a while. Here is a pic of the new TV in the entertainment center:

New TV

I have had some 'builder's remorse' on the entertainment center though with the lack of rear access to the components. I also purchased a power conditioner (mainly for the surge protection, and it looks cool, but I have witnessed some sparkles on the TV when the neighbors were running their electric weed whacker) and found it quite difficult to get everything wired up with the lack of the ability to get to the back of the components easily. Not sure how I could address that issue though, as I am limited on space, and there is no room behind my entertainment center to create an access panel of some sort.

Oh well, once wired everything works just fine.

[DoubleDAZ]

Nice setup. Your complaints though are the main reason I don't like built-in cabinets, etc. I've had my Hitachi and cabinet out several times recently to swap out DVRs, etc., and that makes reconnecting things a whole lot easier. I've also had all my equipment on the 3 different walls in the room, so built-ins really would have limited my experimenting with different arrangements.

As far as the power conditioner goes, do you have you TV cable plugged into it too?

[gooch]

As far as the power conditioner goes, do you have you TV cable plugged into it too?

Yup, I sure do. The cable that came with the TV is a little too short to make it to where the conditioner is located, so I had to buy an extension cord just to hook it up. The cable and plug on the power conditioner is huge, so I had to drill another hole to have enough room to feed the cable to the wall socket. I haven't noticed any difference in audio/video clarity after I have installed the conditioner, but I have a newer home and probably don't have much of a problem with how clean the lines are. It is cool to see the what the actual voltage coming out the wall is, and also the amount of current all my components are pulling.

Unfortunately, my wife wants to repaint the entertainment center to match the rest of the living room (Peanut Butter color) so I will get the opportunity to wire everything up again (joy)

[DoubleDAZ]

The reason I asked about the power conditioner is because I had similar problems back when I ran my cable through the one I have too. I had read somewhere (don't ask me where though, it was a few years ago when I got my first HD cable box) that it is not a good idea (and not needed for cable in the first place) and once I removed it from the cable loop, my problems disappeared. YMMV, but I thought I'd mention it in case you want to do some testing as you rewire things after painting. I don't think it bothers a direct cable connection to the TV, but it sure caused problems feeding the HD cable box.

[gooch]

Interesting. What kind of problems were you having putting the cable through the power conditioner loop? I haven't run into any differences (that I can tell) with my HD Cable signal. I even have the cable running through my VCR before it hits the STB.

I was running into signal problems with the HD channels when I first installed the new TV, but a wiggle of the connection to the VCR and the problem went away.

[DoubleDAZ]

I don't remember exactly anymore, but they were intermittent. I think it was someone over on AVS way back when that suggested I try taking it out of the loop and the problems went away. It could be that the signals were borderline because of a splitter for the VCR and a direct connection to the TV at the time. Back then I didn't know all that much about this stuff.

Anyway, I mention it only because you mentioned the "sparkles" and I always start with a pure connection, then add things one by one until I figure out what is causing a problem. In my case, it could just as easily have been the splitters vs the conditioner, but someone (might have been TomCat) at AVS convinced me that the conditioner/suppressor wasn't needed and just added a needless connection that could cause problems sooner or later.

[gooch]

Ahh, okay. Right now, everything seems to be working fine, but if I run into problems, I know that the power conditioner loop could be one of the suspects. Well, one of the three: Power Conditioner, splitter, VCR. I have always enjoyed troubleshooting problems (even if they do get kind of frustrating) so knowing that there could be problems there helps tremendously.

If there are no potential problems with surges through the cable wire, can the same be said about my OTA antenna? I would think that would be more susceptible to a close proximity lighting strike. But the antenna is indoors in the attic so maybe that isn't a problem.

[DoubleDAZ]

Well, I'm not saying there can't be problems through the cable, but supposedly the cable system is well grounded and there shouldn't be any problems that a conditioner/suppressor would help with. If it's not causing any problems, I'd leave it in. In fact, the next time I have my TV out, I may just connect mine back up to find out if any problems start showing up. Even though the grounding might be good now, it may deteriorate over time, so no one knows for sure I suppose just how good it really is until something adverse happens, then it's too late.

As for the antenna, I can only surmise that even in the attic, there would be a potential for a surge, but you've got to know that there are a ton of ungrounded antennas around the valley and I've never heard of any problems like that. I don't know what Dish and DirecTV do with the antennas they install. Personally, I wouldn't worry too much about it. Besides, if there is a problem, it probably means half your attic is gone too.

[gooch]

It's been a few months, and a home theater wouldn't be a home theater without continual changes/improvements. I've added a few tactile transducers to my setup - and instead of typing up the experience again, here's a link to my blog with the info...

My updated setup

I love it for action flicks and video games. Of course, not much benefit to these things when I playing the Wii...

[gooch]

The changes and upgrades never end do they?

I pulled out the built-in entertainment center. It was great while it lasted, but I'm liking the open look much better. I actually pulled everything out over a year ago. I'm just a slacker when it comes to forum visitation Here's a link to the pic of the update (halfway down)
http://goochin.blogspot.com/2008/09/remodel-time.html

I also finally was able to get the subwoofer I have been pining for. I got the PC12-Plus from SVSound. Simply awesome.
http://goochin.blogspot.com/2009/10/improving-low-end.html

[DoubleDAZ]

No, they don't. We're still rearranging rooms to make my daughter and granddaughter feel more at home with us. It's really tough trying to wedge in over-sized living roon and master bedroom furniture into smaller guest bedrooms and a living room that already has furniture. The living room has been done for awhile and we finished the granddaughter's bedroom yesterday. I think I have a solution for the daughter's bedroom that we can finished this weekend.

Anyway, I too favor open entertainment setups. Built-ins always limit options, especially for TV size, or require significant changes. My wife has a knack for decorating around speakers, etc., so they just fit in with the rest of the decor. In fact, I have a small fake tree sitting on top of my subwoofer, our family room theme is birds and bird house line the columns between our windows.