Your Home Entertainment Center

[AG_PharmD]

One thing I hate about my house is that the structure of my room is restrictive; the locations of the patio door, fireplace and other accoutrements give me extremely limited options for large TV placement. Mrs. Veil has already nixed one option, so that left me a single corner in which 55" is the biggest I can go.

So I'll just have to go on envying the much larger TVs at other people's houses. 😐

In my old apartment we had a beautiful fireplace with built-in bookshelves on either side, so arranging the room with a normal TV would have been strange. Of course, mounting the TV over the fireplace wasn’t really feasible unless I wanted wires all over the place.

So I put in a a projector and electric drop screen. The projector was an Optima DLP and the screen was from EliteScreens. I used the Logitech Harmony universal remote system (sadly now discontinued) to control everything. With 1 button the remote (or iPhone/iPad) would turn on projector, drop the screen, dim the lights (using Lutron Caseta light switches), turn on the stereo (Bose 321), and turn on the cable box. It worked great and was a fun project.

This was back in 2015 or 2016. These days you can get a very big TV for much less than the cost of doing all this. Plus projectors bulbs are not efficient at all.

I have since moved and all this equipment is sitting in storage. I’ve been meaning to find someone who might want it.

My new home’s entertainment system is not particularly impressive. We have a 50” Samsung 1080P TV thats probably almost 10 years old connected to the even older Bose 321 (2.1 system)- but it still sounds fantastic and it’s nice not to have all sorts of wires for a 5.1 or 7.1 system, though now that wireless systems exist this is less of a concern.

The reality is my wife and I watch very little television. Every once and a while we might binge something. On average we use our TV maybe once every couple weeks. We dumped cable a couple years ago which was smart considering we never watched it.

 

[P___X]

In my old apartment we had a beautiful fireplace with built-in bookshelves on either side, so arranging the room with a normal TV would have been strange. Of course, mounting the TV over the fireplace wasn’t really feasible unless I wanted wires all over the place.

So I put in a a projector and electric drop screen. The projector was an Optima DLP and the screen was from EliteScreens. I used the Logitech Harmony universal remote system (sadly now discontinued) to control everything. With 1 button the remote (or iPhone/iPad) would turn on projector, drop the screen, dim the lights (using Lutron Caseta light switches), turn on the stereo (Bose 321), and turn on the cable box. It worked great and was a fun project.

This was back in 2015 or 2016. These days you can get a very big TV for much less than the cost of doing all this. Plus projectors bulbs are not efficient at all.

I have since moved and all this equipment is sitting in storage. I’ve been meaning to find someone who might want it.

My new home’s entertainment system is not particularly impressive. We have a 50” Samsung 1080P TV thats probably almost 10 years old connected to the even older Bose 321 (2.1 system)- but it still sounds fantastic and it’s nice not to have all sorts of wires for a 5.1 or 7.1 system, though now that wireless systems exist this is less of a concern.

The reality is my wife and I watch very little television. Every once and a while we might binge something. On average we use our TV maybe once every couple weeks. We dumped cable a couple years ago which was smart considering we never watched it.

Pojectors are the best. I got one in 2013 and it was one of the best purchases of my life, but I ended up giving it away when we moved to a "glass-walled" high-rise without any good projection surface. Now I bought one and my kids love it. Full wall picture and these LED/laser ones consume the same or less as a TV.

Also, as much as I've always hated the sound bar concept, by now I do think that it's the only way for the common people to have adequate cinematic audio. I've seen maybe 2 or 3 homes where 6.x speakers were adequately placed and when I tried to do this 5.1 thing in 2015, it was still plagued with phase issues.

Ironically, by now I consider my Airpods the best cinematic sound system. The only issue is that head tracking is turned on when 2 Airpods are connected.

 

[AG_PharmD]

Pojectors are the best. I got one in 2013 and it was one of the best purchases of my life, but I ended up giving it away when we moved to a "glass-walled" high-rise without any good projection surface. Now I bought one and my kids love it. Full wall picture and these LED/laser ones consume the same or less as a TV.

Also, as much as I've always hated the sound bar concept, by now I do think that it's the only way for the common people to have adequate cinematic audio. I've seen maybe 2 or 3 homes where 6.x speakers were adequately placed and when I tried to do this 5.1 thing in 2015, it was still plagued with phase issues.

Ironically, by now I consider my Airpods the best cinematic sound system. The only issue is that head tracking is turned on when 2 Airpods are connected.

I don’t think projectors make a ton of sense these days in most cases considering the price of large LCD TVs. For $1200 you can buy an 85in Samsung TV… $1700 if you want a Sony. A true 4k Laser Projector is what, $2500-$5000? Single lasers on the lower end. Sure you can probably get to probably 120”+ but at a certain point it doesn’t really matter (at least IMO) and there is a point where you can go too big if your room isn’t big enough. Then you also have to add in the cost of the screen, which for a quality one can be $400-$1000+.

Then you may or may not have audio built into the projector, kind of irrelevant because it’s going to be terrible quality and not positioned correctly, so add in the cost of a stereo, which obviously can vary tremendously. At least with a TV the audio quality will hopefully be at a minimum usable.

So minimum your in probably $3200 for a projector, projector, and speakers?

You can obviously cut that down if you go for a traditional halogen DLP or LCD projector. I believe there’s some legit LED projectors out there too (not the garbage pocket projectors). Still, you’re probably at or more the price of a large LCD TV.

And you’re going to spend a bunch of money, I would imagine you’ll get better quality with OLED or similar technology over projection.

There’s definitely some applications where projection makes sense, but the cheaper and larger LCD TVs get, the less and less they make sense.

Interestingly, I know the the guy who wrote the first patent on laser projectors.

Edit: With a TV you have the convenice of slapping it on a wall or putting on a piece of furniture. If you want to do a clean install of a projector, it requires a lot more planning and calculation of where to mount the projector based on the throw ratio and lens adjustment properties and whether you not you have lens shift, etc. It’s not hard but it’s kind of a pain to have to deal with.

 

[P___X]

I don’t think projectors make a ton of sense these days in most cases considering the price of large LCD TVs. For $1200 you can buy an 85in Samsung TV… $1700 if you want a Sony. A true 4k Laser Projector is what, $2500-$5000? Single lasers on the lower end. Sure you can probably get to probably 120”+ but at a certain point it doesn’t really matter (at least IMO) and there is a point where you can go too big if your room isn’t big enough. Then you also have to add in the cost of the screen, which for a quality one can be $400-$1000+.

Then you may or may not have audio built into the projector, kind of irrelevant because it’s going to be terrible quality and not positioned correctly, so add in the cost of a stereo, which obviously can vary tremendously. At least with a TV the audio quality will hopefully be at a minimum usable.

So minimum your in probably $3200 for a projector, projector, and speakers?

You can obviously cut that down if you go for a traditional halogen DLP or LCD projector. I believe there’s some legit LED projectors out there too (not the garbage pocket projectors). Still, you’re probably at or more the price of a large LCD TV.

And you’re going to spend a bunch of money, I would imagine you’ll get better quality with OLED or similar technology over projection.

There’s definitely some applications where projection makes sense, but the cheaper and larger LCD TVs get, the less and less they make sense.

Interestingly, I know the the guy who wrote the first patent on laser projectors.

Edit: With a TV you have the convenice of slapping it on a wall or putting on a piece of furniture. If you want to do a clean install of a projector, it requires a lot more planning and calculation of where to mount the projector based on the throw ratio and lens adjustment properties and whether you not you have lens shift, etc. It’s not hard but it’s kind of a pain to have to deal with.

It all depends. I moved enough in my life to not want to buy a tv >55". I also have kids because of whom, I have wall mount tvs high up, so they can reach them.
For a projector I can get huge picture without much hassle. It's also portable so I can take that huge screen to any room. I've never had dedicated screens.
You can get a 4K laser ultra short throw for $1.2K these days which is oled price range. These have decent enough speakers too.

So I like projectors because I can move them around and use them in 5 different areas in my house. Eg, I don't have a tv in the bedroom and will never have one. but a projector for saturday nights is welcome.

 

[Herdfan]

Pojectors are the best. I got one in 2013 and it was one of the best purchases of my life,

Same here, but maybe for a slightly different reason. The summer when my daughter was going into HS, I embarked on a project to build a real HT. She had a playroom in the basement since she was 5 and I turned it into a HT. Finished it right before the Superbowl that year.

Aside from the main reason of me just wanting a 110" screen and full 7.1 (wired for multiple configurations of 9.2) sound, I wanted it to be a place where the kids all wanted to come and hang out. Figured if I knew where they all were, they weren't getting into trouble. And it worked. On any given weekend, there would be girls sleeping in her room and the boys would all be asleep in the theater. And they loved when I fixed waffles for breakfast. 🙂

Some things did not go according to plan. I bought a cheap Epson 1080p projector figuring I would replace it with a 4K when it died in a couple of years. Been running almost every night for 7 years with just a couple of bulb changes.

 

[P___X]

Same here, but maybe for a slightly different reason. The summer when my daughter was going into HS, I embarked on a project to build a real HT. She had a playroom in the basement since she was 5 and I turned it into a HT. Finished it right before the Superbowl that year.

Aside from the main reason of me just wanting a 110" screen and full 7.1 (wired for multiple configurations of 9.2) sound, I wanted it to be a place where the kids all wanted to come and hang out. Figured if I knew where they all were, they weren't getting into trouble. And it worked. On any given weekend, there would be girls sleeping in her room and the boys would all be asleep in the theater. And they loved when I fixed waffles for breakfast. 🙂

Some things did not go according to plan. I bought a cheap Epson 1080p projector figuring I would replace it with a 4K when it died in a couple of years. Been running almost every night for 7 years with just a couple of bulb changes.

Agree! I do prefer LED/Laser because of the low maintenance and low energy use.

 

[Thomas Veil]

Power Reset to get your TV to turn back on
I have. 55” Sony TV that has been relegated to our bedroom. It’s about 10 years old. Periodically it will not turn on. I’ve double checked power available to the TV and found this article:

Will Your Sony TV Not Turn On? A Few Common Fixes

The Sony brand is synonymous with top of the line electronics, and their TVs certainly meet those expectations. But what do you do when your TV refuses to

www.alphr.com

It mentions a power reset. Unplugging the TV for several minutes, then back in fixed it. I’m wondering what would cause the need for a power reset? I was gone last week and there was a power surge/loss of power momentarily and I suspect that is the cause. 🤔

Any TV technicians reading this? 😀

I had this happen repeatedly to my JVC TV during its first year. And as you say, unplugging it and plugging it in again helped. But it was frustrating to need to do that.

Then I called the Costco Concierge. (Yes, that's what they call it.) The guy suggested the problem was caused by some sort of power surge, and recommended I go deep into the TV's menu and completely reset it. By that point I no longer even realized it had a reset function. I mean, it's at the bottom of the menu and its submenu. But I did as he said, and sure enough, I haven't had the problem since.

 

[AG_PharmD]

It all depends. I moved enough in my life to not want to buy a tv >55". I also have kids because of whom, I have wall mount tvs high up, so they can reach them.
For a projector I can get huge picture without much hassle. It's also portable so I can take that huge screen to any room. I've never had dedicated screens.
You can get a 4K laser ultra short throw for $1.2K these days which is oled price range. These have decent enough speakers too.

So I like projectors because I can move them around and use them in 5 different areas in my house. Eg, I don't have a tv in the bedroom and will never have one. but a projector for saturday nights is welcome.

Those are reasonable reasons. I’m too much of a perfectionist not to have everything permanently installed.

The only 4k short throw laser projector I could find at that price point is the VAVA LT002- $1299 on Amazon, but $2800 just about everywhere else. It’s not a true native 4k projector, it’s upscaled from 1080p. The reviews say the color accuracy is pretty awful, worse than comparable bulb projectors, and that they had to downgrade their lumen ratings from 6000 to 2500 to 1800. Otherwise they apparently appear to reasonably well built machines and consumers are generally happy.

Regardless, it’s a new company and their first product. Apparently they have a new mode coming out with native 4k and presumably would improve upon its previous model.

I would be a little leery dropping $1300, let alone $2800 on the first product from a brand new company. But if they can undercut the competition I say go for it.

I do have to say though, short throw projectors are very cool. The physics of them just doesn’t seem like it should be possible.

This reminds my how dated some of our projectors are at the hospital I work at. Despite bringing in tons of money, especially with our private pay programs, some of our smaller conference and patient group rooms still have 4:3 format LCD projectors. They’ll buy our office furniture West Elm, spend $20,000 on a handmade leather couch to put in a hallway, give me a $2000+ Thinkpad X1 Carbon, drop a billion dollars on a custom EMR, and yet we still have these ancient XGA resolution projectors here and there. I’m sure they’ll get around to replacing them but in the meantime we avoid having to use these spaces.

 

[Huntn]

Unplug, wait a minute, and plug back in is the magic solution for everything. TVs are powered by computers now, so it makes sense that a ”hard reboot” would fix some issues.

It made a difference leaving it unplugged for 5 minutes vs 20 seconds. The unplug and plug back in if too quickly did not fix it.

 

[P___X]

Those are reasonable reasons. I’m too much of a perfectionist not to have everything permanently installed.

The only 4k short throw laser projector I could find at that price point is the VAVA LT002- $1299 on Amazon, but $2800 just about everywhere else. It’s not a true native 4k projector, it’s upscaled from 1080p. The reviews say the color accuracy is pretty awful, worse than comparable bulb projectors, and that they had to downgrade their lumen ratings from 6000 to 2500 to 1800. Otherwise they apparently appear to reasonably well built machines and consumers are generally happy.

You're correct it's the VAVA. I don't care too much about color accuracy as long as it looks good, LOL.

This reminds my how dated some of our projectors are at the hospital I work at. Despite bringing in tons of money, especially with our private pay programs, some of our smaller conference and patient group rooms still have 4:3 format LCD projectors. They’ll buy our office furniture West Elm, spend $20,000 on a handmade leather couch to put in a hallway, give me a $2000+ Thinkpad X1 Carbon, drop a billion dollars on a custom EMR, and yet we still have these ancient XGA resolution projectors here and there. I’m sure they’ll get around to replacing them but in the meantime we avoid having to use these spaces.

Sounds like "man's greatest hospital." The projectors I've seen there were indeed outliers. 🙂

 

[m21]

i need a Xbox Series S

 

[AG_PharmD]

You're correct it's the VAVA. I don't care too much about color accuracy as long as it looks good, LOL.

Sounds like "man's greatest hospital." The projectors I've seen there were indeed outliers. 🙂

Your conjecture is close, very close. We’re related.

We definitely spend money in interesting ways. They’ll buy me a $2000 laptop but getting the drums replaced in my laser printer… still waiting on that.

It’s funny because when we switched to Epic, one of the (numerous) problems was that a lot of computers among the hospitals, especially in exam rooms and nursing stations, still had 4:3 monitors. They lacked the resolution to adequately display all the data Epic throws on the screen at once. So they had to spend god knows much on new monitors.

 

[P___X]

Your conjecture is close, very close. We’re related.

We definitely spend money in interesting ways. They’ll buy me a $2000 laptop but getting the drums replaced in my laser printer… still waiting on that.

It’s funny because when we switched to Epic, one of the (numerous) problems was that a lot of computers among the hospitals, especially in exam rooms and nursing stations, still had 4:3 monitors. They lacked the resolution to adequately display all the data Epic throws on the screen at once. So they had to spend god knows much on new monitors.

It's funny enough that the discrepancy of the projectors was obvious even to me, and I only spent 2 weeks there on an away rotation.

About Epic, it was never the 4:3 monitors, LOL. Not even our 4K laser projectors could host it's shit. And I'm saying this as a someone with developer training for the platform.

 

[lizkat]

Apparently vanishing from home "entertainment" centers: real pianos.

https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/free-pianos-flood-internet-many-don-t-even-move-19889678.php

If Facebook Marketplace and Craiglist are to be believed, the household piano is marked for death if it is not dead already.

A search for “piano” turns up row upon row of instruments being given away or sold for next to nothing. Across the region and the country, there are pianos virtually everywhere, free for the taking but usually coming with the requirement that the seller must pick up the instruments, which can weigh nearly 1,000 pounds.

Pianos like Steinways may last a century or more if properly maintained, but less expensive pianos are often not properly looked after, and have nowhere near that lifespan as a useful instrument or an inspiring one to learn on.

“Overwhelmingly, the biggest misconception when it comes to pianos is that they last forever and that’s because the cabinets last forever,” Jennings said. “What you don’t see inside of a piano is that there’s 20 tons of tension on the strings which translates to 700 pounds of pressure on the soundboard that is expanding and contracting every time the seasons change."

Jonathan Cohen, a piano tuner who works with the area’s foremost musical venues, said he understands the desultory response would-be buyers show for the instruments online sellers are eager to unload.

“Most of it is crap,” he said, as he got to work tuning a baby grand at Blue Sky Music Studio in Bethlehem. “People don’t understand what is required of them to properly maintain a piano.”

 

[ronntaylor]

Apparently vanishing from home "entertainment" centers: real pianos.

https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/free-pianos-flood-internet-many-don-t-even-move-19889678.php

Pianos like Steinways may last a century or more if properly maintained, but less expensive pianos are often not properly looked after, and have nowhere near that lifespan as a useful instrument or an inspiring one to learn on.

We got rid of our piano during the Pandemic Summer. It was rarely used and taking up too much space. My FIL listed as free with immediate pickup. It took days for someone to contact him. And we discovered the guy does it as a living, salvaging parts for repair of other pianos. My husband was glad to see it go, remembering all the agita of learning classical and religious songs that damn thing.

 

[P___X]

We got rid of our piano during the Pandemic Summer. It was rarely used and taking up too much space. My FIL listed as free with immediate pickup. It took days for someone to contact him. And we discovered the guy does it as a living, salvaging parts for repair of other pianos. My husband was glad to see it go, remembering all the agita of learning classical and religious songs that damn thing.

we have a digital one. i remember once my father's friends finished residency, they purchased baby grand pianos even if they didn't play. it was a status symbol along with those large pendulum clocks in the hallway. never got the appeal of stuff like this.

 

[lizkat]

We got rid of our piano during the Pandemic Summer. It was rarely used and taking up too much space. My FIL listed as free with immediate pickup. It took days for someone to contact him. And we discovered the guy does it as a living, salvaging parts for repair of other pianos. My husband was glad to see it go, remembering all the agita of learning classical and religious songs that damn thing.

I still have a much cosseted George Steck baby grand from the mid 1920s that my grandparents had bought for my mother. Steck pianos in their day varied in quality from middling to excellent. Ours was at least sturdy and somehow remains so even now. It got moved more than a few times back then and also after it landed with my generation. I had to have a new front porch built just to get it safely into my house upstate when I finally let my NYC apartment go.

Can't believe how much work it has taken to keep it in shape, have to get it tuned twice a year, found some guy in Brooklyn who was a miracle worker on the thing when I lived in Manhattan, likewise a guy upstate here who manages to persuade it not to succumb fatally to seasonal changes in temperature and humidity.

Even now and in decent shape, it would be hard to find a new home for that piano. Most people don't have the room or the inclination to learn how to play other than a digital keyboard, unless intending to make a professional career of it. If I did not live alone in this place I couldn't have dedicated most of one of the front rooms to a baby grand. As it was until I closed up the apartment in the city I made do with a couple digital kbs upstate even though I missed not having a real piano. I had toyed with the idea of getting a cheap console piano but knew I'd have trouble even then getting someone else to buy it when ready to swap in the Steck from downstate.

I still have memories (and ok, envy) of a childhood friend's living room back in the day. Her parents were both musicians and her dad the concertmaster of the city's symphony orchestra; they had TWO nine-foot Steinway concert grand pianos in that living room, parallel-parked a few feet apart with keyboards set so the players could see each other. Their after-concert parties and totally impromptu but wonderful salon concerts in that place were to die for. All of us who were kids in attendance at those things were musicians too and to say it was inspiring to have been there would still probably amount to some of the biggest understatements of our lifetimes.

 

[P___X]

I still have a much cosseted George Steck baby grand from the mid 1920s that my grandparents had bought for my mother. Steck pianos in their day varied in quality from middling to excellent. Ours was at least sturdy and somehow remains so even now. It got moved more than a few times back then and also after it landed with my generation. I had to have a new front porch built just to get it safely into my house upstate when I finally let my NYC apartment go.

Can't believe how much work it has taken to keep it in shape, have to get it tuned twice a year, found some guy in Brooklyn who was a miracle worker on the thing when I lived in Manhattan, likewise a guy upstate here who manages to persuade it not to succumb fatally to seasonal changes in temperature and humidity.

Even now and in decent shape, it would be hard to find a new home for that piano. Most people don't have the room or the inclination to learn how to play other than a digital keyboard, unless intending to make a professional career of it. If I did not live alone in this place I couldn't have dedicated most of one of the front rooms to a baby grand. As it was until I closed up the apartment in the city I made do with a couple digital kbs upstate even though I missed not having a real piano. I had toyed with the idea of getting a cheap console piano but knew I'd have trouble even then getting someone else to buy it when ready to swap in the Steck from downstate.

I still have memories (and ok, envy) of a childhood friend's living room back in the day. Her parents were both musicians and her dad the concertmaster of the city's symphony orchestra; they had TWO nine-foot Steinway concert grand pianos in that living room, parallel-parked a few feet apart with keyboards set so the players could see each other. Their after-concert parties and totally impromptu but wonderful salon concerts in that place were to die for. All of us who were kids in attendance at those things were musicians too and to say it was inspiring to have been there would still probably amount to some of the biggest understatements of our lifetimes.

THis reminds, our neighbor was an opera singer and they had a Steinway baby grand on the 25th floor. To this day I wonder how the heck they got it in there. The walls were so thick, BTW, we could hear the music through the floor-to-ceiling glass windows (L-shaped corner unit) rather than the walls. I miss those times.

 

[ronntaylor]

we have a digital one. i remember once my father's friends finished residency, they purchased baby grand pianos even if they didn't play. it was a status symbol along with those large pendulum clocks in the hallway. never got the appeal of stuff like this.

My husband gifted his digital piano to a colleague's friend once he started teaching in Virginia. He used it in the past when he practiced for Sunday night services. Once he stopped playing and became a full professor he had no need for it.

 

[SouprMatt]

I still have the small spinet piano I grew up with as a kid. I may be a professional singer, but I’m not much good at the piano. It is used regularly though to help me learn and practice my singing. Honestly a digital piano would be fine for my needs, but I already have it and it’s small enough that it’s not terrible to move it.