post op tranny. either direction.

 

TV:
50" Panasonic plasma G10 with fully articulating monoprice mount.

Sound:
2.1 setup


Receiver:
Onkyo 709

Amp:
Behringer A500

Speakers:
Behringer eurolive 15" pa speakers
BIC America V-1220

others:
some sort of sony bluray, directv receiver with 2tb drive and lots of hdmi stuffs.

Room:
Weird wedge shaped with vaulted ceiling.


Impression:
Great for my uncultured ***, movies and tv are watchable, and internet concerts are nice and loud.

 

That's really all I was going for too

 

I have a 2.1 setup and I use on-wall speakers/TV due to having young kids:

• Yamaha RX-V2600 receiver
• Axiom M22 on-wall front speakers
• Yamaha YST-SW515 subwoofer
• Wall mounted Samsung 32" LCD TV
• HTPC running Windows 7 WMC + MyMovies

All the gear is located in another room, I have an IR repeater set up and use a Harmony remote.

It may not be the latest and greatest but I love it! I wouldn't say no to a slightly bigger TV one day though.

I'll have to take some pics, I'm pretty proud of the install!

Cheers

 

Rippin' my BluRay DVDs from Xmas. Worklfow:

1. Rip disc with MakeMKV
2. MKV to HandBrake- Same fps & res, FR constant, FFmpeg MP4, QP: 3, DTS-HD to AAC DPL II @ 160.

This is the most universally playable format I have found across a variety of hardware/OS I have here (Win7/XP, iOS, MacOS.) Yields ~5gb file from a ~35gb MKV. Streams fine over smb gigabit wired network from MacPro usb external hd to Win7 MC on dual atom nettop.

 

Ooh. Usable ripping tech advice. I like.

 

Okay, facing some decisions about ripping CDs for daily use and posterity. Some random thoughts which I will number to give illusion of some order.

1. Currently I have a mishmash of mostly ripped CDs and a few downloads, almost all in MP3 format at 160 kbps.

2. iTunes has made a mess of these files. Inconsistent file and folder naming, even within the same album. I hate Apple.

3. I intend to delete most of this (save for the downloaded stuff) and re-rip my CDs so that I have an orderly and complete collection available on my HTPC.

4. I'm intrigued by the lossless formats (especially FLAC) but don't know if it's worth the bother, particularly since I'll still have my CDs available and ready for listening. Pros for lossless: better quality without messing with CD's, saved for future use if physical CD is lost or damaged. Cons for lossless: uses more HD space, can't be used on our older iPods, Win7 MC wouldn't handle the ripping process automatically.

5. If I choose a ripping process that Win7 MC can't handle automatically, that means I will be doing it all myself. It's not a huge deal, I guess, but it'd be nice if my wife could just load a CD and select "Rip audio CD" on the TV. If I tell her she's got to close MC and open another program to rip CDs she'll likely decide it's not worth the bother and will just give me the CDs she wants to rip.

6. Also, does Win7 MC play FLAC files? I assume it does...but I don't know.

7. Win7 MC has a lossless WMA format but I hear it sucks.

8. Do I really need lossless? Couldn't I hit 90% of my needs by just letting Win7 MC automatically rip my CDs into appropriately high-kbps MP3s? This would be easy for me and the wife, would work in iTunes (and thus in our iPods), and would deliver reasonable audio quality on our home system. If I really wanted the best possible audio quality, I can still stick the CD in.

9. But even if I decided on just using the MP3 format, should I let Win7 MC handle the ripping duties? Or would I better off letting a dedicated program like EAC do it?

10. If I'm going to the hassle of using EAC to rip CDs, why wouldn't I go ahead and have it rip them into a lossless format? Oh wait, I'm back where I started.



Thoughts?

 

Bullet points:

* FLAC the stuff that needs it (critical listening)

* 256 VBR Lame for everything you listen to ("pop" music).

* who gives a **** about your Milli Vanilli and other throwaways (novelty will overshadow bitrate)

* easier to download it from somewhere than to re-rip it and technically legal if you own the CD.

 

Heh, unlikely. The majority of my music collection is fairly obscure instrumental/progressive rock, bluegrass, fusion, classical guitar, jazz, world music, and other odd bits of stuff.

 

If anyone is out near me (MS/LA border), there is a guy on Craigslist with a bunch of Klipsch speakers for sale, he said he would take $400. No affiliation:

Klipsch home speakers

 

that seems like a pretty good deal to me!

 

OK here are the pics:

TV and Axiom M22 fronts, kids artwork in the background:


Yamaha YST-SW515 subwoofer and kitteh:


The nerve^Wnerd centre at the top of our linen closet, keeps all the kit stashed out of view and away from the kids. Also have a NAS sitting on a shelf higher up in the same space, and an extraction fan:


I'm looking at new TVs, what do you guys recommend? The only restriction I have is it can't be any wider than 129cm due to archways and speaker placement.

Cheers

 

Me too, but it would be a year or more before I could even think about using them, so I decided to pass.

 

Nice setup Tim. Why not get another Samsumg? I see you have one now, if it's been good get another one. They're good TV's.

 

How are you controlling the HTPC, receiver, etc. if it's all stashed away inside a closet?

 

I'm willing to be he has IR signal extenders, or whatever they are called.

has a base where you can point remote, and that sends the IR signal through a serial cable and back out to a little IR transmitter that you put in front of each device's IR reciever.

 

How the hell do you keep your components cool in there? Its gotta be like a furnace when its shut!

 

probably has something to do with:

 

Yeah I have an IR extender under the TV. The remote signal hits the wall and bounces up to it. You can just make it out in the bottom of this picture (it's looking up under the TV):



You'd be suprised how useful that USB extension is, too!

Heat doesn't seem to be a problem, there's a gap at the bottom of the door where cold air is drawn in, and then hot air gets sucked out via this extraction fan:



It is a DC fan, powered by the same power supply as my on-roof Wifi AP.

 

Watch this.