[Shapermc]

I'm actually in the middle of a fairly large overhaul of my entertainment center.

It's in a bit of jury-rigged situation currently because after getting my new TV last year the TV stand I bought didn't quite work out for the best. Also, everything is a damn mess as far as wires.

So, I bought a new A/V rack recently, a new receiver, and more wires so that I can hook everything up.

The new rack will hold (top to bottom): satellite receiver, dvd player, ps3, 360, xbox/wii vertical, receiver. The receiver will take HDMI in from the PS3 and the DVD Player (the receiver accepts hdmi 1.3), the 360 will go through the VGA in on my TV and then into optical audio for digital audio, the Xbox will go component in with optical audio, Wii will go though component input with regular audio, and the satellite will go in composite in (though the receiver will upscale everything to 1080p using that awesome fujidora chip, so this should show some improvement on that for the wife even though I don’t watch TV).

Since this is going to quickly become a mess, I bought the really nice Harmony remote which you can program a bunch of things to one button (like if you hit “Play 360” it will turn the TV to the VGA input, turn on the 360, and then switch the audio on the receiver to that optical input).

The only hold up is that the new receiver is still on backorder as I pre-ordered it. So I haven’t set up the new rack, I haven’t programmed the Harmony remote, and I haven’t rewired anything to the TV. All this shit (plus all the wires) are sitting in my back room waiting for the receiver. Also, when I finally do this project I’m moving all my classic systems (PS2 and earlier) into my back room and connecting it all to a Regular Tube TV. I have enough connectors/switcher boxes to connect them all to the TV at the same time, and they’ll look better than on my HDTV. They’ll also be right next to my arcade cabinets.

Also, most of this was paid for with my Tax return, so don’t think I’m rich and can just go pick all this shit up on a whim. I’ve been working on buying all this equipment for the past two years, and am getting very near to done. My last step will be replacing and mounting all my speakers, as the ones I’m going to use came from a $450 “entertainment center in a box.” But that’s probably going to take another year to get done, possibly more.

So, when it’s all done (with in the next month) I’ll post pictures!
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The bad sleep well at The Gamer's Quarter

[Shapermc]

[Shapermc]

[Shapermc]

OK doodz. Got this shit mostly worked out now. Also, I guess I said I got a different rack than I though! Oh well. Anyways:



So, I was going to stick with the small "satellite" speakers from my last receiver, but I decided after it was all said and done that they just didn't have a good enough range. So I grabbed my dad's old Genesis speakers that he gave me when I went to college out of the back room. They bring a much fuller sound to the setup, but they are in pretty ugly shape (note the staining on the grill covers). I just ordered some new speaker grill fabric that will tie the color into the carpet better, and I will recover them in a couple of weeks. At that point I'll be done until next tax season when I plan to buy all new speakers (and enough to utilize my new 7.1-ness). Also, really quick, off to the right is a fairly decent sub-woofer.

The TV is still the same one (Samsung HLS-6187W, 61" DLP with 1080p).

The new AV Rack is nice, and before I brought the Genesis speakers in it seemed very lonely, but the speakers fill the area nicely. The stand was very easy to put together and it looks gorgeous. It cleans up really nicely with canned air, so I'll probably be using that since I use it for my consoles anyways.

From bottom to top:
Onkyo SR605 a/v receiver.
Xbox 360
PS3
Xbox(old)/Wii
Samsung Upscaling DVD player

The new receiver is really excellent. The main reason I got it is because I can input (nearly) all my video sources and output them through one HDMI cable out to the TV. The receiver even uses the Faroudja chip for upscaling anything that is passed through analog sources (i.e. the Xbox and Wii have slight visual improvements). Unfortunately the 360 is using the VGA cable, so that has to run straight to the TV. The receiver is also very impressive. I didn't notice how average my old receiver was, but I'm finding out slowly (still it was leagues better than using TV speakers). The spacial separation is now amazing with stuff that I'm use to (like Gears of War) now having even more depth to the audio. The bass is now also passed specifically through the LFE channel so there isn't so much bleed from the general low pass sound (so basically the bass is cleaner and not so constant). At first I thought this was a huge problem because I'm use to so much more bass, but then I watched The Last King of Scotland last night and I was absolutely blown away by the impact that separated bass has on the audio. Honestly, I wasn't expecting too much of an improvement from the audio quality with the receiver, just access to the new audio formats and getting rid of my switcher box for my a/v: so I'm happily surprised with the added bonus.

Well, that's the new set up. Unfortunately I don't have any good photos of the old set-up, but for fun: here's a photo of all the wires after taking down the old shelving, and here's the best old shot I have of the shelves.
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The bad sleep well at The Gamer's Quarter