The theater you’ll be seeing today is pretty awesome for a lot of equally good reasons. Sure, it’s got a lot of the great hardware that we pretty much expect to see in a sweet home theater setup, but it’s also got one extra addition to make it great–see, when this walkthrough was filmed, it actually represented something important.
It had a copy of Playstation Network’s Home beta.
Now, of course, we know that these days Home is widely available, but back then, it was the centerpiece of a home theater system. But what else was this system packing? Thankfully, the owner provided a complete manifest. Check this out:
I have a Panasonic PT-AE900U projector running a 107 inch screen at 1080i HD. My sound system is a Yamaha 5960 home theater receiver running Orb audio speakers at 7.1 THX certified surround sound. And the most beastly part of the whole setup is my luanch 60 gig PS3 with many games and blu-rays oh ya and the HOME beta!
Pretty awesome, no? At least for its time–admittedly, having home isn’t so big a deal these days. But between that and everything else, this definitely has to qualify as a sweet home theater setup.
One thing I don’t see very much of, despite the fact that I look for this stuff every weekday, is home theater setups from other countries. There are plenty of American setups out there, but when I found a video today of one from Brazil–or at least that’s what the guy who posted this video was suggesting down in his comments section–I was definitely surprised.
The home theater is not just an American invention, folks. In fact, people from all around the world are embracing this new concept in home living, eschewing overpriced movies for a night at home. And as our Brazilian friend shows off his setup via a video and a song from Depeche Mode, we should also bear in mind he’s got plenty of great equipment in there too.
Equipment like a Yamaha receiver, a Pioneer DVD, CD, and even a laser disc player, speakers from infinity and Panasonic, an Infocus projector and plenty more besides!
Our Brazilian friend has loads of choice equipment, and showing it off for us confirms that this truly is one sweet home theater setup.
When you first lay eyes on the Pioneer VSX 819 H-K receiver, the first thing you might think is that it looks an awful lot like the Pioneer VSX 1019 AH-K, except just a bit smaller. And you’d be right on that score, but of course, that isn’t the only difference. Read on:
The Pioneer VSX 819 H-K is a five channel surround sound receiver with three HDMI inputs and one HDMI output, a front mounted USB input, auto level controls, and DTS-HD and Dolby TrueHD decoding.
I know, it doesn’t really sound like there’s a lot there, but I can tell you this much, they’re only asking three hundred bucks for a sweet five channel Pioneer receiver. Sure, it’s a bit of a step down from the 1019 AH-K, but it’s definitely not a huge difference. There’s a lot to like here and chances are you’ll definitely find a lot of uses for it.
The Pioneer VSX 819 H-K may not look like its big brother, but it definitely brings enough value to the table to be worthwhile.
Pioneer is well known among home theater enthusiasts for generally putting together a quality piece of hardware. Sure, it may not always be top of the line, but it will generally be a good value, and sometimes, that’s good enough. And in the case of the Pioneer VSX 1019AH-K receiver, it’ll also be an excellent description of the product itself.
The Pioneer VSX 1019AH-K is a seven channel surround sound receiver with HDMI with 1080p video scaler, analog-to-HDMI upconversion, four HDMI inputs, iPhone compatibility, Dolby TrueHD and a color GUI output.
See, there’s definitely plenty of value here. in fact, the only real problem I had with the unit is that it’s got this port cover on it that, when you go to open it, basically just pops off, so unless you’re ready with a hand underneath it you’ll just wind up dropping it on the floor. That’s not good for anybody.
But considering they only want five hundred bucks for this, I think you’ll all agree with me that the Pioneer VSX 1019AH-K is a good solid unit that should take care of most of your needs.
And so we come to the last link in the chain of Yamaha receivers that we’ve been talking about right here over the last few weeks now, the Yamaha RX V465.
The Yamaha RX V465 is a five channel surround sound receiver with a Bluetooth audio receiver, iPod dock, compatibility with XM and Sirius Satellite Radio, four HDMI ports, and seventeen separate DSP programs with Adaptive DSP Level technology.
Interestingly, the Yamaha RX V465 is very similar to the 565, which isn’t a surprise being that it’s basically one step below, as far as we can tell from model numbers. Indeed, there are some small differences in available features, but there are still plenty of great features here. And, of course, there’s also a bit of a price savings for the budget conscious shopper; the Yamaha RX V465 retails for three hundred and eighty dollars, and you can get some serious savings by shopping online or going used, as is generally the case.
So if you’re looking for something a bit bare bones but that represents a good value, then the Yamaha RX V465 might be what you want to see most.
Folks, I’m growing to love YouTube for the incredible array of video that it brings me to talk about, especially when it comes to proud home theater owners showing off their pride and joy in video form. And today, the video in question is only going to take two minutes to show, but it’ll give you PLENTY to think about.
Like how unbelievably cool it is to have a remote control that turns your lights on and off, for one.
But it’s not just awesome little traits like that in a two minute video that catch your eye–the equipment manifest is also nice and chunky too. Included in this home theater setup is a Denon receiver, a Samsung Blu-ray player that can stream Netflix, Blockbuster, Pandora, and YouTube, an Xbox 360 Elite, a Wii, Klipsch speakers, a Sony projector, and a Draper one hundred and six inch screen.
When you put all of that together, you’re left with a home theater setup that can only be called sweet.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
That’s from, as best I can tell, French novelist Alphonse Karr way back in the eighteen hundreds. But it actually fits very well into today’s review of a Yamaha receiver, the Yamaha RX V565.
The Yamaha RX V565 is a seven channel surround sound receiver with analog video up-conversion to component video, Bluetooth music streaming capability, iPod connectivity, Direct Mode, seventeen different DSP programs with Adaptive DSP Level, audio delay (to adjust lip-sync; if you’ve ever seen a movie where the soundtrack’s slightly off this takes care of that, two component video inputs and one output.
Now, on the surface, the RX V565 looks a LOT like the 365 and 665. This really should be expected as the 565 is just an intermediary between the two. But the 565 has some advantages and some disadvantages over either other model. But the key takeaway here is that it offers some incredible utility and at a decent price–three hundred thirty bucks if you’re willing to buy refurbished from Amazon.
Thusly, the Yamaha RX V565 is a pretty solid system, and though it looks a lot like the others in the line, it’s got plenty of features to set it apart.
The Yamaha line of receivers has generally given me a lot of reason to be happy. They come with plenty of excellent options and lots of capability, offering plenty of value. And the Yamaha RX V365 will be no different, but for different reasons.
The Yamaha RX V365 is a five channel surround sound system with two HDMI inputs and one HDMI output, iPod and Bluetooth audio compatibility, Compressed Music Enhancer, and CINEMA DSP.
Now there’s two ways to look at value. One, you can look at it as having a lot of features for the price, or, you can look at it as having a really low price and getting only the basics in return. As you can see, the Yamaha RX V365 fits into that second category easily. Sure, it’s not offering a whole lot of features, but what it is offering is a receiver that’s got decent surround sound (five channel is NOT bad, folks) and will do it for about two hundred and thirty bucks on Amazon.
Value, definitely. If you don’t mind a lack of features and don’t have a lot of wallet space, then the Yamaha RX V365 should serve your needs just fine.
Denon receivers are proving to be well worth their time to cover. I can see now why so many of the sweet home theater setups we cover around here depend on Denon for their sound transmission. Today, we’ll be talking about the Denon AVR 590, another in a string of quality Denon receivers.
The Denon AVR 590 is a 5.1 channel surround sound receiver with three HDMI inputs, 1080p output, support for Dolby TrueHD and DD+, dts-HD and dts-HR formats, Audyssey MultEQ, Dynamic Volume and Dynamic EQ.
The biggest thing here that’s missing is the upconvert capability that’s actually really welcome on a lot of higher-end receivers. You’ll need a 1080p system if you want the 1080p here. But if you’ve got the TV or projector to handle it you’ll still get plenty of utility out of this. And seeing as the price weighs in at right around three hundred and fifty bucks, the value is also there. Add value to quality and you get a seriously good buy.
And yet, sometimes, disaster represents opportunity as much as calamity. In the case of today’s sweet home theater setup, that’s exactly what happened.
When a home in Florida burned down–and completely, too, by the sounds of it–the homeowner was left with a fat insurance settlement check (see, this is why you pay your homeowner’s insurance bill) and a need for a new house. So rather than simply rebuild the one he had, he opted to build a slightly new one, with a home theater inside. But being as the check was finite, he had to be careful, and thus assigned contractors a very strict budget.
The results are astonishing. Lighting controls and a retractable curtain are just part of the equation here–there’s also a JVC projector with a hundred and ten inch Draper screen, a Marantz receiver, Monitor Audio speakers and more.
Taking something as horrible as a house fire and turning it into this is a fantastic way to make a sweet home theater setup, both for what it is and for what it represents.
Sometimes I’m really, REALLY, puzzled by home theater equipment producers. Remember how I was talking about the Denon yesterday, and how a couple small tweaks produced a bargain model that was almost identical to the original? Well, that’s about what’s happened with today’s model, the Yamaha RX V665.
The Yamaha RX V665 is a seven channel surround sound receiver with HDMI 1.3 with deep color, xv Colorspace, 1080p compatible, support for HD Audio formats, analog video to HDMI up-conversion and also de-interlacing from 480i to 480p, and independent 2 Zone, 2 Source operation.
The weird part about this whole thing is that, from what I’ve been able to tell, the Yamaha RX V665 is almost exactly the same thing as the Yamaha RX V1065, only missing a USB port, a few buttons and dials, and about four hundred bucks off the price tag.
Seriously, this sucker weighs in at just under five hundred bucks. It’s a nice piece, and the few things missing from the more substantial version likely won’t be that much missed at all.
Sometimes I have a really hard time fathoming the mind of the folks at the various equipment makers. Sometimes they’ll add things that don’t make sense and really don’t improve anything, and sometimes, they’ll cut off a handful of features to make a “bargain model” that’s almost a better deal than the earlier.
That’s really what I think of the Denon AVR-790. It’s less a few features from the AVR-890, but it was also half the price when I saw it on shelves at Best Buy.
The Denon AVR-790 is a 7.1 channel surround sound receiver with Pro Logic IIz Matrix decoding featuring front height effects channels, Audyssey MultEQ, dynamic volume and dynamic EQ system, and four HDMI inputs.
There are, as you can see, plenty of great features in here, but what’s really interesting is it, like I said, costs roughly half of what the AVR-890 costs. In fact, if you’re willing to go refurbished, you can actually get this one for UNDER four hundred bucks on Amazon. I don’t know about you, but that freaks me out a little bit. That’s some incredible quality for a relatively low price. So if you’re looking for a new receiver, keep the Denon AVR-790 in mind.
It’s easy to forget, in this time of big and loud, where screen size is limited only by the maximum stretch of a wall, that sometimes it’s the little things that mean the most in home theater.
For instance, have you ever had a home theater setup that would dim the lights as the show starts, just like they do in the theater? Well, it can be done, and more besides. Thomas Marino of Advanced Technologies in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, described this particular setup like this:
“If a hallway sensor notices someone walking down the hallway to the theater and the projector is on, the lights brighten to just 30 percent. The projector is like the gateway—only when it’s off can the lights turn back on to full intensity.”
So by using a series of motion detectors and sensors, the lights in your home theater can move accordingly. A pretty awesome prospect, sure, but what’s the REST of this home theater packing? Well, how does a one hundred and ten inch VuTec screen sound? Tack on an Onkyo receiver, Elan speakers, an InFocus projector and a custom-made home theater PC and you’ve got all the ingredients of a sweet home theater setup that makes lots of sense.
Receivers are actually funny things. It’s hard to gauge their performance individually, because they really serve more as connectors and conduits than anything else. An excellent receiver will do little good when paired with shoddy speakers, after all.
Basically, you have to use different measures when determining the quality of a receiver, and by these measures, I can tell you that the Yamaha RX-V1065BL is a pretty solid unit.
The Yamaha RX-V1065BL is a 7.2 surround sound receiver with lip-sync, DTS-HD, dolby trueHD, auto EQ, auto speaker setup, and the ability to upconvert analog television into 1080p.
That last part surprised me to no end, frankly. Converting analog to 1080p digital? Amazing! That’s almost like lead into gold as far as home theater goes, at least as far as I’m concerned. This sucker will do just about everything short of making you popcorn, and that’s probably the next version. And it had better provide lots of useful features, too, as this monster weighs in at right around nine hundred dollars.
So if you’re willing to shell out a thousand bucks on one component of your home theater system, then you could do a whole lot worse than the Yamaha RX-V1065BL.
I applaud any home theater setup that embraces the beautiful concept of VERSATILITY, folks.
And this sweet home theater setup, currently occupying a home in Texas, is an absolute bellwether of versatility. How versatile is this? Well, simply put, it’s got all the best features of a home theater, a sports bar, and a night club.
That’s right, folks, there’s a space to dance, light effects, a pool table and plenty more in here, allowing anyone in the theater to do most anything down there, up to and including karaoke.
But we came here for the theater, not to shake our collective booties on the disco floor! And that’s okay, because there’s plenty of choice theater gear involved with this setup too. How about a Sony blu-ray player with matching four hundred disc DVD carousel, a Denon receiver, a set of Klipsch speakers and a one hundred thirty inch projection screen to match?
With all those options in that home theater it’s a wonder the guy who owns it gets anything else done! But it’s a sweet home theater setup regardless, and that’s what we’re always looking for.
I believe we can all agree that having an indoor pool is sweet on an order of magnitude beyond what most of us are used to.
I believe we can further agree that having a sweet home theater setup is sweet on a somewhat more attainable level of magnitude than we’re all used to.
But what I don’t think any of us would ever dispute is that putting the two of them together is a mind-blowing concept the likes of which most of us will never see unless we read about it.
And indeed, this home theater has a swimming pool (not a really big one, but still!) running right down the middle of it. It’s also got lots of great gear, which has been specially housed so as not to have humidity play hob with the whole thing. There’s a forty two inch Panasonic plasma TV in here, along with an Integra receiver, Sonance speakers and a Triad power subwoofer, not to mention all the HVAC gear and such to keep that humidity level at bay.
I’m sorry, but the mere existence of a home theater with a pool is entirely too cool for words.
And no, that is NOT a typo, kids. That’s DIVE, as in plunge, in theater. And it’s one of today’s sweet home theater setups.
It’s a monster, too–see, this homeowner had a pool outdoors. Lots of us do, right? Sure. But this one had this really nice sort of cabana outside, which they tricked out with a collection of hardware, including Epson projector, Yamaha receiver, Niles speakers and a screen.
Now, you might think that this would be a bad idea, that the first windy day would rip that pricey screen to shredded fabric bits, but no! See, they installed an anemometer (and for those of you not up on your science, an anemometer measures wind speed), so that when the wind hits a sustained five miles an hour or higher for seven seconds, the screen AUTOMATICALLY retracts into its housing! How AWESOME is that??
Terribly awesome, I’d say. The remote even floats so they can watch the screen from the pool without risk of losing the remote. Put all those together in one convenient package and you’ve got a truly sweet home theater setup.
I’m always kind of baffled, and at the same time generally amazed, by themed home theaters. It’s not like they offer any technical advantages, nor do they really help you enjoy a movie, but they do look undeniably cool. And that’s the case with today’s sweet home theater setup, another one from the Stargate line, this time, Stargate Atlantis.
And this time, they’ve even managed to put a screen in a Stargate frame WITHOUT clipping the corners! You can see from that pic that the outer edges of the frame fit inside the Stargate’s circular frame without incident, thus giving the effect of a full viewing area without the inherent difficulties of a circular frame.
But it’s not just the engineering triumph that makes this a sweet setup–try a whole slew of awesome components like the PAIR of Sony DVD carousels holding a whopping EIGHT HUNDRED DVDs total. Average two hours per DVD and you get fully TWO SOLID MONTHS of run time, plus an extra week in there, and that assumes no stopping. Ever. For any reason. No sleep, no dinner, no bathroom break. Add on the JVC projector, the Marantz receiver, Atlantic Technology speakers and more to boot and you’ve got what can only be called the sweetest Stargate-based setup yet. Argue if you like, but I’m calling it.
Well folks, considering that right about now (at least for my American readers), your Thanksgiving feast is now reduced to a pile of leftovers. Maybe you’ve got plans for them, and maybe you’re just going to spend the next few days chewing your way through them.
It’s not just Thanksgiving feasts that become leftovers-sometimes home theaters do too. And for one homeowner, changing that leftover theater room became a whole new sort of leftover approach.
There were complaints about the original, you see…things like “the subwoofer is too boomy” and there were some echo troubles also (which, but I’m not sure here, I think are probably the same issue or close to it–correct me if I’m wrong down in the comments), and these were largely addressed with some structural improvements.
And then the Atlantic Technology speakers and the Integra Blu-ray player with matching receiver and the Epson projector and the one hundred five inch screen get added in, and you’ve got a complete package.
When you take a theater with lots of issues and make it into a masterpiece of sound and image quality, you get a sweet home theater setup. What else can there be?
And today we’re tackling another in a surprisingly long series of that most misunderstood and neglected of home theater equipment pieces, the receiver. Today’s target, the Denon AVR-890, shows that you generally get what you pay for, and if not specifically what you pay for, then at least you’ll get a lot presuming you pay a lot.
The Denon AVR-890 offers 7.1 channel surround sound with Dolby Laboratories new Pro Logic IIz Matrix decoding featuring front height effects channels, Audyssey MultEQ, Dynamic Volume and Dynamic EQ, as well as FIVE HDMI inputs and one HDMI output.
The controls on this beast are actually a lot simpler than its panoply of options would imply, although there’s one set that’s covered by this push-off cover that I frankly can’t stand because when you push it, it just flies right off, so unless you’re careful you’ll be picking that thing up off the floor every time you push it.
Worse, though, is the cost. You will NOT walk away with this thing for anything less than EIGHT HUNDRED BUCKS. I’m sorry, but for one component, that is a lot of cash. But you get what you pay for, and the Denon AVR-890 is perfect proof of that.
