As we are deep into the doldrums of summer waiting for new news from CEDIA I find myself looking back over my HT history. One inquiring thought keeps coming up.

"What is the worst or most useless piece of equipment I've purchased for Home Theater?"

For me it's probably been cables. Not only have any of the fancy speaker wire I purchased in the old days not added to the overall quality of the image or experience, but I can also say this about all cables above basic varieties.

Do you have a piece of equipment that has turned out to be a total POS or all hype and no performance?

Oh man.. No way....

I know I am going to post up one or two and then get slammed by fans of the company or device. :)

It will be interesting to see how long it takes this thread to get locked. :)

For me it has been the purchase of PC based media boxes/players over the years. All have been blunders full of disappointments which never matured to meet their advertising. I have a pile of these things right up the latest purchase which is my fav but even it has issues that I scratch my head over.

power conditioners=voodoo

They are one step behind the claims of some cable manufacturers.

These are two easy targets.

In no way was this piece a piece of junk it was just ahead of its time. Video Guide. Small box that gave me cable TV listings, AP news, etc. Back before cable boxes came with guides themselves. It cut the picture when you went to it, but if I remember right it still passed the audio. You could select a program to watch from the guide and with those little IR warts would change the channel on the box. Or you could set your VCR to record etc. WAY ahead of its time, went under because patent issues IIRC, but did get a refund from it, when it went under. I think the bill was $12.99 a month (or x amount for 6 months or x for 12 months) just to have a guide, and news and weather, but so worth it. Looked better then some guides out there today, and for a 12 year old product, not bad.

Well - one of the 'mistakes' I was thinking about recently was my purchase of an LCD screen to serve as a preview monitor. I was planning on adding it to the stack of equipment in my rack - but it still sits on a shelf gathering dust.

I guess its just too easy to flip on the projector and do what needs doing - and the extra complexity of trying to cable up two displays just makes it more work than it is worth.

Roo

The worst HT hardware that I bought was my Toshiba MT700 PJ. I bought it, second hand from a fellow AVS member, about 1 month before the lamp problems surfaced. Toshiba refused to transfer the warranty. It took 3 months and a number of phone calls to get the Warrantek lamp warranty transferred and another 9 months to get a replacement lamp (after mine failed at 390 hours). Even though it put out a very good image, the lamp problems (which Toshiba refused to acknowledge, even though the OEM BenQ, found and fixed it) made that purchase the biggest waste of money I've spent on HT stuff.

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k251/ammar456/Blog/lists/1980-Magnavox-Model-4245-19in-TV.jpg

Sorry - I don't have a picture of it so I had to find one online...

Htpc

The PS2. I thought it was going to be such a killer video game system and really, I think I enjoyed no more than 3 games. I swore I would never buy a Sony video console again...and then I got the PS3.

Sony SACD player.

Another HTPC thumbs down. Too complicated, unreliable, and limited. It is handy to have a windows PC in the rack, but it was a dud for me on the theater side.

Yes, I've had numerous Sony products that have been duds over the years. I guess that's the price you pay when you try to build a product for everyone in all sectors :(

Media, VHS tapes I have them all all the favorites, James Bond all of them you know the others. Now they're all boxed up and sitting in the garage replaced by DVD's.

Next up DVD's to be replaced by HD-DVD's, it's sick the money that gets wasted in this money sucking hobby. Somtimes I wish I just stayed with my Sony Trinitron and JVC 2hr micky mouse buttoned VHS player. :)

I dont even know what its called, but it was a piece of equipment that attached to your preamp or receiver and it was supposed to make the sound not sound so bright. Maybe it was me but I never heard a difference. The good part was that the company allowed me to return it but screwed me because they said that it had gotten scratched during the shipping back and discounted the refund

Not that is the the machines fault, but my most useless piece of equipment I now own is the Toshiba HD-DVD player. Its now a heavy paperweight. When D-VHS went belly up i had no problem selling my three units, but I cant get a bite on the Toshiba

Well - one of the 'mistakes' I was thinking about recently was my purchase of an LCD screen to serve as a preview monitor. I was planning on adding it to the stack of equipment in my rack - but it still sits on a shelf gathering dust.

I guess its just too easy to flip on the projector and do what needs doing - and the extra complexity of trying to cable up two displays just makes it more work than it is worth.

Roo

i purchased a 10" audiovox portable dvd player with video aux input just for that very purpose. works great! saves a lot of pj lamp time.

my worst purchase was my first pj, an infocus x-2, a 4x3 pj. this was before i got online. the phone sales rep told me it was hi def so i went for it.
but i came to realize it wasnt hd before my 30 day return window was up, returned it and got an hd unit.

Let me be the first one to break the mold and help to fulfill this threads purpose: generating argument.

Fact: a properly configured HTPC currently does a better job playing bluray material than most commercially available bluray players. Plus, it can be used for other fun things like surfing the net on a huge screen. Add to it music and video storage and you have a real valuable piece of HT equipment.

Granted, it would be better if you could just plug in your cable box and have a fully funtional DVR, but those kinds of solutions are coming and one is perhaps here already.

An Onkyo HTIB, followed closely by a Bose Cube system.

Anything with "Russ Andrews" written on it.
http://www.russandrews.com

http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/adjudications/Public/TF_ADJ_44177.htm

Let me be the first one to break the mold and help to fulfill this threads purpose: generating argument.

Fact: a properly configured HTPC currently does a better job playing bluray material than most commercially available bluray players. Plus, it can be used for other fun things like surfing the net on a huge screen. Add to it music and video storage and you have a real valuable piece of HT equipment.

Granted, it would be better if you could just plug in your cable box and have a fully funtional DVR, but those kinds of solutions are coming and one is perhaps here already.

I loved my previous P4 HTPC . ( hell I loved my itty bitty P3 one before that)

I had Theatertek for dvd using ffdshow and it was just great .

I had nebula digiTV with two tuners for Digital terrestrial PVR duties and manually switchable bob/weave deinterlace..and it was great.

I had Dscaler and an RGB input card for analogue from consoles and general messing about with video signals and as a backup route for digital terrestrial if I was recording on both tuners..and the kids could watch their VHS tapes through it....it was great.

Thing was bulletproof , never crashed , never stuttered utterly reliable.


Then it wasn't enough. Then I needed a BD/HDDVD solution that would play discs from anywhere.

Gutted my faithful loyal P4 , totally new mobo , cpu , graphics card the works. Welcome to the delights of Vista MCE and Total Media Theater and powerdvd.

Damn thing has nearly flown out the window twice. I've yet to watch an entire film on it that didn't glitch or stutter at least once.

So what have I done. have I paid over the odds for a standalone BD player hacked for mulitzone capability (its the principle of the thing).

No I bought a Reserator XT watercooling system cause I'm a sucker for twinkly lights and analogue needle dials:confused:

Anything with "Russ Andrews" written on it.


But they are Award Winning Products:)

But they are Award Winning Products:)

Yes ...awards... from the Wican Society of Great Britain.

Maybe these things do ward off vampires and werewolves , worth a try I suppose.

My 65" Toshiba Theaterwide RPJTV. I wouldn't have enough fingers to count all of the service calls I had on it. It was supposed to be the best of the best at the time. 16:9 Widescreen and the whole ball of wax. For the price of what I paid for that thing I now have a projector, huge 2.35 screen and a lens. My it's amazing how much quality you can get with today's dollar in Home Theater compared to just 10 years ago.

Wow, I had no idea what I've been missing...good thing my hearing is getting worse every year. "Cable burn-in service"?? "Deep Cryogenic Treatment" for cables and CD's?

Anything with "Russ Andrews" written on it.
http://www.russandrews.com

http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/adjudications/Public/TF_ADJ_44177.htm


Simply awesome

$350 HD DVD player and 10 movies 3 weeks before it was summarily executed!

I had the pleasure of owning a Hitachi 50V500 LCD projection TV. As far as I can tell, every one of these sets eventually developed what is known as the "red ring of death" , the "red cloud" or the "red blob." You get it. There was a problem with these TVs. See here (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=351829).

For me, it was spending $1700 for a Sony 1271 PJ with 9000 Hrs on the tubes. I spent hours and hours trying to calibrate the thing to get a good picture. It had image area burn on the tubes, and was so dim it couldn't even light up my 84" screen decently. With 11 fans, when it ran it sounded like an F-16 sitting next to me.

And it weighs like 150 pounds. The damn thing is still sitting in my garage 10 years later because I don't know how to get rid of it!

Mike

Tryg -- Your Sony experience is quite different from mine. I've had 2 sony radios, 1 semi-pro portable cassette deck, 1 laptop PC, and 2 Sony CRT TVs -- all worked without a problem. However, Toshiba is on my "do not buy" list. In addition to my MT700 fiasco, my Toshiba laptop stopped working 13 months after I got it (1 year warranty, of course).

RE: HTPC -- Since I've been working with computers since the 1970's (both at work and at home), I know better than to go with a HTPC -- I'll use stand-alone HT hardware, thank you. I do use my PCs for audio and video archiving (I have a PVR-250 card and 2 cheapie KWorld cards, for the latter - SDTV only).

Andrew Low & westgate -- I use a flat panel HDTV (my regular TV set) as a preview monitor, when needed - it sits behind my, pull-down, PJ screen and gets turned off only when I decide to use my PJ.

a little elaboration on my HTPC comment:

It is the most frustrating piece of equipment I have. I haven't turned it on for a couple of months now.

When it was working, the picture it produced was much better than either my Pioneer Elite 95 blu-ray player or my Toshiba XA2...

when it was working correctly.

If you have the time and inclination to work with an HTPC it can be a thing of beauty.

Mitsubishi 55859 and D-VHS deck.

Horrible customer service and I was suckered into believing in their "you don't need HDMI, firewire is the future" nonsense.

I'll never buy Mitsubishi again, although it did have a nice picture after 9 months of service calls followed by an ISF calibration. Not worth it.

As we are deep into the doldrums of summer waiting for new news from CEDIA I find myself looking back over my HT history. One inquiring thought keeps coming up.

"What is the worst or most useless piece of equipment I've purchased for Home Theater?"

For me it's probably been cables. Not only have any of the fancy speaker wire I purchased in the old days not added to the overall quality of the image or experience, but I can also say this about all cables above basic varieties.

Do you have a piece of equipment that has turned out to be a total POS or all hype and no performance?


How do you spell Monster cable? :p

The worst HT hardware that I bought was my Toshiba MT700 PJ. I bought it, second hand from a fellow AVS member, about 1 month before the lamp problems surfaced. Toshiba refused to transfer the warranty. It took 3 months and a number of phone calls to get the Warrantek lamp warranty transferred and another 9 months to get a replacement lamp (after mine failed at 390 hours). Even though it put out a very good image, the lamp problems (which Toshiba refused to acknowledge, even though the OEM BenQ, found and fixed it) made that purchase the biggest waste of money I've spent on HT stuff.


Isn't the Toshiba MT700 a rebadged Benq PE7700? They had lots of problems with their lamps failing prematurely.

An Onkyo 805 AVR. It's not a bad piece (though it has some lip sync issues), but I got it so as to be able to get the new hd audio formats. Frankly, though, I don't really hear that much diff from the std digital (coax, Toslink) DDEx, etc. audio, and for that my previous Pio 1014 was just fine.

Without any doubt the Samsung SP-H710AE projector !

A 10 month nightmare !

Monoprice 4 x 2 HDMI switcher version 1 (returned), then later tried version 2.0 (returned). Returned both but had to pay restocking fee. The scarey part is I am thinking of trying the new version 2.5. I am glutton for punishment.

Monoprice 4 x 2 HDMI switcher version 1 (returned), then later tried version 2.0 (returned). Returned both but had to pay restocking fee. The scarey part is I am thinking of trying the new version 2.5. I am glutton for punishment.

Hmmm. I have the simple, manual 2x1 HDMI switch (not splitter), and it's been just fine.

Wow, I had no idea what I've been missing...good thing my hearing is getting worse every year. "Cable burn-in service"?? "Deep Cryogenic Treatment" for cables and CD's?

I gotta try that cable burn in thing.

Anybody try this yet?

http://www.russandrews.com/images/products/4227l.jpg
CABLE ELEVATORS

Reduce the effect of vibrations in the floor on your speaker cables

It's well known that mechanical vibrations (from equipment, from loudspeakers) affect the performance of Hi-Fi equipment. The internal components are microphonic - meaning that they convert vibrations into small electrical signals that mix with the signal an pollute the sound audibly.

Kimber's Monocle and Select speaker cables recognise this too, and use a unique acoustic damping core - X38R. But it makes sense to lift any speaker cable away from one area where vibrations are often highest - the floor.


My cables touch the ground!:confused:

Da-lite HP screen. :) :) :)

Da-lite HP screen. :) :) :)

Boy, Mark, I'll bet you're going to get quite a bit of kick back on this one. I think my HP screen is one of the wisest of all HT decisions I've made.

I gotta try that cable burn in thing.

Anybody try this yet?

http://www.russandrews.com/images/products/4227l.jpg


My cables touch the ground!:confused:


I prefer to make my own....from meringue. The covalent ions in the eggwhite are more effective at absorbing alpha waves... and "ju-ju".

An Onkyo 805 AVR. It's not a bad piece (though it has some lip sync issues), but I got it so as to be able to get the new hd audio formats. Frankly, though, I don't really hear that much diff from the std digital (coax, Toslink) DDEx, etc. audio, and for that my previous Pio 1014 was just fine.

Not hearing a difference? You do have a Blu-Ray player outputting a difference? There is no way I could go back to DD/DTS, when True HD and DTS Master Audio are out there.

One of the best investments I made was a Dynaco QD1 or maybe it was a 2. It looked like this.

http://kantack.com/surround/images/qd14.jpg

The thing was awesome. for $40 it took stereo sound and made it into 5 channel surround and did a very good job. You cant get those bargains anymore. :(

Not hearing a difference? You do have a Blu-Ray player outputting a difference? There is no way I could go back to DD/DTS, when True HD and DTS Master Audio are out there.

My BR player, the Sammy 1200, can't output True HD and DTS MA, but it can do Uncompressed LPCM from BR discs that have this track, and my understanding that this is essentially equivalent to the former. I don't hear any essential diff between this and the traditional optical digital audio, both on the Onk 805; but this just may be my lack of audio sophistication/discrimination.

Millerwill. This is a Tryg started off topic thread. I'll jerk a jerk everytime he is jerking around. This is a digital front projector forum. Not a forum to discuss anything other in HT other than digital FPs over $3K. If your worst purchase was a Samsung projector, fine. Tryg said purchasing a Da-lite HP was a cure for everything. He was wrong. It didn't cure my sore butt. It was the worst cure my sore butt purchase I ever made. :)

Millerwill. This is a Tryg started off topic thread. I'll jerk a jerk everytime he is jerking around. This is a digital front projector forum. Not a forum to discuss anything other in HT other than digital FPs over $3K. If your worst purchase was a Samsung projector, fine. Tryg said purchasing a Da-lite HP was a cure for everything. He was wrong. It didn't cure my sore butt. It was the worst cure my sore butt purchase I ever made. :)

I was just reporting my experience, which is clearly different from yours. I have no problem with accepting that.

I guess it's safe to dive into AVS again after a 6-month hiatus; hi everyone.

My biggest blunders when it comes to buying HT gear have to be two HDMB mediaplayers and a Crystalio II video processor, all by the same company. $8500 for buggy, almost instantly obsolete junk. *sigh*

I prefer to make my own....from meringue. The covalent ions in the eggwhite are more effective at absorbing alpha waves... and "ju-ju".

:D

My "T" HDDVD Player and some HDDVD Disc ! ! ! :eek:

Without any doubt the Samsung SP-H710AE projector !

A 10 month nightmare !

whoops, I just got one. Its working now and it is glorious.

(Actually, this is the forth try, the first three couldn't get past the start up issue and the inverted green screen::rolleyes:)

I actually watched two movies back to back with it last night.

I'll defend HTPC and put the blame squarely on the DRM goons and none of the other software/hardware developers.

A properly configured and maintained (e.g. tuned and setup PRIMARILY for theatre, don't go web browsing all over the place with it or installing random crap) HTPC is still awesome.

The problem is they definitely take a lot more hours to get to that state than your average A/V component.

Take sufficiently good HTPC hardware and throw in Logitech DiNovo Mini + Microsoft MCE 8000 keyboard/mouse set + Hulu + Vista MCE + WebGuide + MyMovies + Core Community Codec Pack + Slysoft AnyDVD + Daemon Tools Lite + Cyberlink Power DVD 7.3/8.0 with HD-DVD addon + LG CD/DVD/Blu-ray/HD-DVD combo drive + 2xHD-QAM/ATSC tuner and a several terabytes of RAID5 storage and a few decent PC games = something that no standalone A/V component can touch (let alone even grovel at the feet of). Now if only cablecard and directTV addons for HTPC were OEM purchaseable and weren't locked down.

Customization is grand and the end result is worth the trouble imho, but it DOES take a lot of time and effort to get there sometimes ;)

And anyone that understands what all the above means will probably agree, but hey feel free to add to the conversation chain.

My vote for my worst purchase of the last decade would be Intervideo WinDVD 7 for playing HD-DVD/Blu-Ray (what a pile).

If only there were better HD-DVD + Blu-Ray playback software sigh...

If only there were better HD-DVD + Blu-Ray playback software sigh...

Yep, the problem here is the BR consortium: They don't even start to care about the consumer yet. (But there is always a fox telling you some secrets).

To all complaining about HTPCs: Better ask a human that knows how to handle these things (rather than pounding on the case and hoping for results) ;)

I'll defend HTPC and put the blame squarely on the DRM goons and none of the other software/hardware developers.

A properly configured and maintained (e.g. tuned and setup PRIMARILY for theatre, don't go web browsing all over the place with it or installing random crap) HTPC is still awesome.

The problem is they definitely take a lot more hours to get to that state than your average A/V component.

Take sufficiently good HTPC hardware and throw in Logitech DiNovo Mini + Microsoft MCE 8000 keyboard/mouse set + Hulu + Vista MCE + WebGuide + MyMovies + Core Community Codec Pack + Slysoft AnyDVD + Daemon Tools Lite + Cyberlink Power DVD 7.3/8.0

If only there were better HD-DVD + Blu-Ray playback software sigh...

The raw HTPC hardware is certainly up to the task, but even in your own post you've listed TWO VERSIONS of the playback software. That says it all.
The use of a HTPC for watching movies is so much pain and inconvenience.
For example, some movies play with glitches in one version or Cyberlink, while not the other. Then as new movies come out you have to keep moving up to newer version of the cyberlink power DVD software forward and then "ooops" you are then required to move video card drivers forward, which of course then has the possibility of causing your old version of cyberlink to stop working so your old movies that used to play stop, and so on as a never ending treadmill. The latest version now has stopped supporting HD-DVD playback (I suppose you could argue that one should setup several HTPCs, one for each version of the cyberlink that you need). :mad:

Sigh. HTPCs have sooo many layers of complexity. For me, the technology and hardware can be fun to discuss, but when it comes time to sit down and just watch a movie and hear the soundtrack, the HTPC is not the way to do it. A HTPC fails so badly as an investment in terms of entertainment time per dollar spent (unless you enjoy the time spent doing pc administration - which is fine if you do)

When I was 15, I shelled out for a pair of BOSE bookshelf speakers with futuristic "stereo anywhere" technology.

It actually took me about 6 months to finally admit to myself that my cheap Pioneer floor standers sounded about 100 times better.

I always felt ripped off by those speakers, but I didn't realize what a FUBAR Bose is in general until I was much older and stumbled upon intellexual's article on the Internet.

The use of a HTPC for watching movies is so much pain and inconvenience.

You need to have somebody who knows this stuff set up the HTPC for you. However, this service is not cheap. People expect to pay only for the PC hardware and forget about the rest, it's called service! ;)

You need to have somebody who knows this stuff set up the HTPC for you. However, this service is not cheap. People expect to pay only for the PC hardware and forget about the rest, it's called service! ;)


Much as I love HTPCs the HDM side of things is still at best functional.
I think its a bad move to jump in at the high end hardware level on an HTPC. The ones I've had in the past seem to work best if you aim for a system somewhere in the middle with hardware that's been around for 12-18 months.

My new one feels like a skittish racehorse. Sometimes it flies , sometimes it chucks me off and tramples me to death.

I really wish the card manufacturers and microsoft would get people involved that actually have some understanding of what's required for a high end PC based video platform.

Things could be so much better in PC land , we could have very sophisticated scaling and deinterlacing ( purevideo and avivo are still a bit lacklustre and tempremental...especially for PAL).

We could have profile based closed loop calibration systems that would give you perfect results on most displays if only software developers thought to give us the option ( most of them barely manage to include a proper gamma control).

I'd love someone to make a proper media center that just handles everything absolutely to the best level your machine could handle.

I keep toying with the idea of getting John Adcock and the Dscaler guys to sort something out: even get a business plan together and some financing.

Things could be so much better in PC land , we could have very sophisticated scaling and deinterlacing ( purevideo and avivo are still a bit lacklustre and tempremental...especially for PAL).

You are kidding, right? Who cares about PAL? OTOH: At least with an HTPC you can get rid of this ridiculous PAL speedup! Bobby DeNiro sounds like a chipmonk in Meridian High-End DVD players (but also in cheap ones) with PAL. :)

You are kidding, right? Who cares about PAL? OTOH: At least with an HTPC you can get rid of this ridiculous PAL speedup! Bobby DeNiro sounds like a chipmonk in Meridian High-End DVD players (but also in cheap ones) with PAL. :)

Well it would be nice to be able to watch broadcast without the Avivo deinterlacing choking on the content once a minute: strangely enough it seems to hate push ins on PAL field based material. And I see a lot of aliasing considering how capable the scaling is supposed to be.

At least I can always resort to Dscaler and my sweetspot card with an outboard tuner box. Oh look its absolutely perfect....at least some things in life you can rely on.

The raw HTPC hardware is certainly up to the task, but even in your own post you've listed TWO VERSIONS of the playback software. That says it all.
The use of a HTPC for watching movies is so much pain and inconvenience.
For example, some movies play with glitches in one version or Cyberlink, while not the other. Then as new movies come out you have to keep moving up to newer version of the cyberlink power DVD software forward and then "ooops" you are then required to move video card drivers forward, which of course then has the possibility of causing your old version of cyberlink to stop working so your old movies that used to play stop, and so on as a never ending treadmill. The latest version now has stopped supporting HD-DVD playback (I suppose you could argue that one should setup several HTPCs, one for each version of the cyberlink that you need). :mad:

Sigh. HTPCs have sooo many layers of complexity. For me, the technology and hardware can be fun to discuss, but when it comes time to sit down and just watch a movie and hear the soundtrack, the HTPC is not the way to do it. A HTPC fails so badly as an investment in terms of entertainment time per dollar spent (unless you enjoy the time spent doing pc administration - which is fine if you do)

HTPCs have come along way. In the old day, I had endless problems tinkering with things. Did hardware acceleration work? What is all the stuttering? The list went on and on.

I honestly don't experience any of that anymore. Yes. I am hesitant to upgrade drivers or software versions until others have made sure they are safe and I am reluctant to upgrade a piece of hardware that works, but generally, I turn on my PC, pop in a BD disk, and just watch.


The difference, I think, is that now the video card companies, especially ATI, are focusing on Home Theater. The Catalyst software now, in some respects functions like a primitive video processor and gives some control over things like gamma, DNR, and color saturation. Features are steadily improving.

I think that people are correct when they describe the state of HTPC as bad, even a short time ago, but now, provided you pick your hardware and software properly, you can get a very functional machine that does a great job at DVD and BD blayback, among many other things.

HD DVD, sorry but it had to be said :o

One vote for HTPC. I am using it for years and love it. Even for BR playback it is very-very good plus you can enjoy the new HD audio formats (provided you are equipped with a good sound card). The main benefit for me though is that I can instantly access over 250 BR/HD-DVDs from my collection (ripped in Hard discs). And that when the standalone players were only capable of 1080p60, the HTPC could give 1080p 23.976fps without much hassle..
Sure it needs some basic computer understanding and patience..But it rewards you in so many ways!

I would not say so for the Dalite screens though... I had to change four (!) Matte units to find one with acceptable "wriggles" (which I sold after couple of months-not so acceptable after all.. ).

Millerwill. Did your HP make your sore butt feel better? I never commented on the quality or use of the HP. Tryg pushes it as the cure to most every thing in a HT. My experience is that if my butt is sore, putting a HP inmy HT and sitting in one of the chairs won't help my butt feel better. You'e experience is different than mine?.

+1

$350 HD DVD player and 10 movies 3 weeks before it was summarily executed!

This is just for one feature of a product - the IR receiver of the Faroudja NRS. I could never get the d*&^ thing to respond reliably. Otherwise, it was an excellent piece of equipment.

Millerwill. Did your HP make your sore butt feel better? I never commented on the quality or use of the HP. Tryg pushes it as the cure to most every thing in a HT. My experience is that if my butt is sore, putting a HP inmy HT and sitting in one of the chairs won't help my butt feel better. You'e experience is different than mine?.

I'm not sore there or anywhere else. Yes, Tryg can be ridiculous, but I give him credit for focusing attention on the HP (even obsessively so), which got me to consider its virtues. Sure, it doesn't work for everybody, but it fits my setup perfectly, and for making me aware of this I'm grateful to Tryg.

Those that are saying that their HD-DVD players were their worst equipment purchase, can you give a reason why? My $99 Toshiba HD35 works beautifully along with my 100 or so movies, ooh and cheaper than BD movies too. ;)

Those that are saying that their HD-DVD players were their worst equipment purchase, can you give a reason why? My $99 Toshiba HD35 works beautifully along with my 100 or so movies, ooh and cheaper than BD movies too. ;)

I just got a firmware update on my PS3 then watched a blu-ray movie that came out last week that I got from Netflix. How you doing?

My experience is that if my butt is sore, putting a HP inmy HT and sitting in one of the chairs won't help my butt feel better. You'e experience is different than mine?.

Mark, you need one of these connected to the D box odyssey. Then your High Power will work

http://kingkongusa.com/products2/products2.php

I just got a firmware update on my PS3 then watched a blu-ray movie that came out last week that I got from Netflix. How you doing?


Do NOT turn this into some juvenile format war slanging match please.

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k251/ammar456/Blog/lists/1980-Magnavox-Model-4245-19in-TV.jpg

Sorry - I don't have a picture of it so I had to find one online...

I had this exact tv. Beautiful pictures all 60 lines of it. And the ghosting was so bad and delayed it was almost DVRish. The worst was my dads yamaha ac3 converter, you know, the first one, black box with weight of a stamp. It was fine but the cord I made that went from 6 rca's to the din type 5.1 in on a Onkyo 919thx receiver. I still don't understand how I pulled that off. If you touched the cable, left front became right surround or the .1 came out the center, spectacularly. I wasn't trying to remix the soundtrack. That worked well.

Tryg. I did that but during sex my Johnson goes limp if I do what you suggest. But thanks for the tip. :)


A HP is a fine screen in the right applications. But it won't help a sore but no matter what Tryg says. :)

I'm not sore there or anywhere else. Yes, Tryg can be ridiculous, but I give him credit for focusing attention on the HP (even obsessively so), which got me to consider its virtues. Sure, it doesn't work for everybody, but it fits my setup perfectly, and for making me aware of this I'm grateful to Tryg.

I'll agree.
My 10' HP screen looks great in my 17'x45' multifunction room.
Definitely one of the best purchases I've made.

Those that are saying that their HD-DVD players were their worst equipment purchase, can you give a reason why? My $99 Toshiba HD35 works beautifully along with my 100 or so movies, ooh and cheaper than BD movies too. ;)


Reason? Really? I paid $350 for the same Toshiba HD35, 3 weeks before the announcement. I purchased 10 movies for another $200 or so. Those 100 movies of yours are HD-DVD? I've lost count of how many DVD's I have but I only purchase a few of the classic gotta haves since Netflix. I, like everyone else that buys them, watch them once maybe twice and then they collect dust.

Back to my wonderful HD-DVD player: No support from Netflix, minimal to zero new movies over the long term, etc. Clinging to HD-DVD is just like all the Betamax people back in the early '80s, it's just a matter of time.

And for the record I have both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD and I definitely preferred HD-DVD. But that's pointless now...it's dead...move on.

I'll also say it was a toss up between the HD-DVD player and the $700 pair of MIT speaker cables and their mysterious brick size boxes I purchased in the '90's.

Randy

Those 100 movies of yours are HD-DVD?
Back to my wonderful HD-DVD player: No support from Netflix, minimal to zero new movies over the long term, etc. Clinging to HD-DVD is just like all the Betamax people back in the early '80s, it's just a matter of time.

And for the record I have both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD and I definitely preferred HD-DVD. But that's pointless now...it's dead...move on.

Randy

Yes. Those more than 100 are HD-DVD. I'm not arguing which one is better. I also support both. I only ask because my player still works and I got a hold of a bunch of movies for an average of ~$9. The players didn't stop working because the format lost.

Anyways, my worst purchase has to be the upconverter DVD player from Zenith DVB318. It never worked as it should have.

Take sufficiently good HTPC hardware and throw in Logitech DiNovo Mini + Microsoft MCE 8000 keyboard/mouse set + Hulu + Vista MCE + WebGuide + MyMovies + Core Community Codec Pack + Slysoft AnyDVD + Daemon Tools Lite + Cyberlink Power DVD 7.3/8.0 with HD-DVD addon + LG CD/DVD/Blu-ray/HD-DVD combo drive + 2xHD-QAM/ATSC tuner and a several terabytes of RAID5 storage and a few decent PC games = something that no standalone A/V component can touch (let alone even grovel at the feet of). Now if only cablecard and directTV addons for HTPC were OEM purchaseable and weren't locked down.

Customization is grand and the end result is worth the trouble imho, but it DOES take a lot of time and effort to get there sometimes ;)

And anyone that understands what all the above means will probably agree, but hey feel free to add to the conversation chain.

If only there were better HD-DVD + Blu-Ray playback software sigh...

I revise my above list and substitute Arcsoft Total Media Theatre for CyberlinkPowerDVD 7 and/or 8.

At last someone makes decent playback software for HD-DVD + Blu-Ray other than Cyberlink.

So much faster, more stable, and responsive. Cleaner design, no annoying logos. Looks and sounds better too so far.

Here is the worst thing I bought for my HT. I bought an HD-A1 just after its release, but my PJ only had component and DVI input. I thus bought also an HDMI-DVI adapter. This had to be set on the HDMI output of the HD-A1 and was supposed to receive a DVI-DVI cable, to connect the player with the PJ.
Not only did this litle adapter not work, but it f***ed up the HDMI output of the player, which since then has only has the component output working.
Not bad, for a 5 Euros piece of equipement!

I thought this thread might be slightly amusing, but not of any real substance, but I was wrong. It is interesting that similar/same equipment is rated as best by some and worst by others. I had no luck with HTPC, but others love theirs. I see some complaints about HD-DVD, but I feel the opposite way - my Toshiba XA2 is one of my prized HT possessions (large SD-DVD collection) and I have zero regrets about buying it, and still recommend its purchase today as one of the best upconverting players out there. The fact that it plays HD-DVD's is a great bonus now that HD-DVD titles can be picked up for less than $10. I don't regret buying HD-DVD's either - they still look great and they did not disintegrate into a pile of dust in my media storage racks after Sony bought the HD disk format :)

A HP is a fine screen in the right applications. But it won't help a sore but no matter what Tryg says. :)

Tell your partner to use lube

Cute. But I am not gay. My butt is sore because it keeps on being kicked, just like yours.

Cute. But I am not gay. My butt is sore because it keeps on being kicked, just like yours.

Awwww poor Mark. I suggest you get some tea tree oil. It'll make the swelling go down in a matter of days.

http://www.vitaminbungalow.com/prod_images_large/tea1001.jpg

Do I put it on my rear end or must I apply it to the HP? :)

Worst HT gear I ever purchased
1. The dozen or so universal remotes that I purchased (ranging from $10-$150) back in the 90's before I discovered the jp1 programmable Radio Shack remotes. All of those crippled Sony, Philips, RCA, etc. remotes still give me nightmares.

2. The $99 Toshiba HD dvd player that is now collecting dust next to my PS3.

3. HTPC. I'm sure the latest gen hardware is easier to use with fewer headaches, but I'll stick with my super easy PS3s and Directv HR20s.

Do I put it on my rear end or must I apply it to the HP? :)

The tea tree oil might be a little bit too abrasive for the HP and take off its paint. Tea tree has chemical terpens similar to turpentine which might take off the paint. But it'll work wonders if applied to the mucus membrane of a sore butt!

Great thread. I've bought loads of AV gear without seeing or hearing it first, but I think I've been pretty lucky, and had very few duds. It's all good fun. However, there's one item that won't leave my memory.

Focus Enhancements CS-1 scaler. A case of "buyer beware" if ever there was one. I can't even begin to describe all the ways in which it didn't do its job. Never failed to make the picture worse, and it would hardly interface with anything I wanted. TYhings have got an awful lot better since then.

My Denon AVC-A1D AV amp was always a lingering disappointment considering all the invariably glowing reviews. When I thought I could use it to replace my stereo amp it almost stopped me listening to music for the sake of it. (Can't rememeber what it was called in the US - it was the first 5x140W AV amp with DTS).

Nick

Toshiba A1 HDDVD player, because it was truly a slow heap of junk.

Worst: $2500 for a 56" Zenith RPTV. Great picture but poor reliability.
Best: It's a toss-up.
1) Modded Xbox with XBMC.
2) building my HTPC (I run MediaPortal. Pretty easy to set up & the whole-thing's rock solid.)
3) Xantech IR repeater. I don't know I put up with IR repeaters for so long.
4) Front PJ. I have a Hitachi PJ-TX100 which i purchased 3 years ago. Hi-def looks awesome.
5) Harmony 659 remote. Simple to set up & easy to use. WAF shot up with that. It replaced a huge Marantz RC 2000.

Wost HT purchase? How about the monthly charges from my cable company?

Compressed signal, terrible service, constant outages, pixelation, and all with over 10 years of Fiber Optic experience...they make HTPC and HD-DVD seem absolutely genius. Thank goodness I'm using Monster Cables to minimize any additional interference. :D

Thanks Time Warner.

Tryg -- Your Sony experience is quite different from mine. I've had 2 sony radios, 1 semi-pro portable cassette deck, 1 laptop PC, and 2 Sony CRT TVs -- all worked without a problem. However, Toshiba is on my "do not buy" list. In addition to my MT700 fiasco, my Toshiba laptop stopped working 13 months after I got it (1 year warranty, of course).

RE: HTPC -- Since I've been working with computers since the 1970's (both at work and at home), I know better than to go with a HTPC -- I'll use stand-alone HT hardware, thank you. I do use my PCs for audio and video archiving (I have a PVR-250 card and 2 cheapie KWorld cards, for the latter - SDTV only).

Andrew Low & westgate -- I use a flat panel HDTV (my regular TV set) as a preview monitor, when needed - it sits behind my, pull-down, PJ screen and gets turned off only when I decide to use my PJ.

I guess mine is the $400 I spent on an HD DVD player.

CT my brother (really into computers) built his HTPC and it works great. He never seams to have any problems with it. He does not keep it in his HT room. He has it in his basement so you do not hear any fan noise. His music, movies stored on the hard drive and PVR functions are really nice.

Like you I use my TV for preview and pull down my screen in front of the TV for projector use.

My BR player, the Sammy 1200, can't output True HD and DTS MA, but it can do Uncompressed LPCM from BR discs that have this track, and my understanding that this is essentially equivalent to the former. I don't hear any essential diff between this and the traditional optical digital audio, both on the Onk 805; but this just may be my lack of audio sophistication/discrimination.

You should not be hearing a difference. The only thing any player can send LPCM is what it can decode and the 1200 can not decode True HD or DTS HD MA and it can not bitstream. You are not hearing a difference because of your BD player not your AVR. Buy, beg, barrow or steal a BD player that can decode or bit stream the new codecs and you will love it and change your opinion on the 805.

You should not be hearing a difference. The only thing any player can send LPCM is what it can decode and the 1200 can not decode True HD or DTS HD MA and it can not bitstream. You are not hearing a difference because of your BD player not your AVR. Buy, beg, barrow or steal a BD player that can decode or bit stream the new codecs and you will love it and change your opinion on the 805.

I have read many comments in the Forum that the UNCOMPRESSED LPCM track, if the BR disc has one, is essentially equivalent to True HD and DTS HD MA. Are you saying that this is not true?

Mine is my Phillips Pronto remote (the black and white kind). I got it to semi-work, but the thing was so difficult to program and so clunky (huge, and touch-screen was buggy), it just collected dust. I should've sold it while the thing still had some value.

Anyone want it? LOL.

I get urges to buy another universal remote, but my horrible experience with the Pronto has me keeping my greenbacks and piles of other remotes.

John

Well I don’t own one but my friend has one of these lemon LCD screens it’s a Samsung 42” screen and its pants its lemon because of lagging and I don’t give hoot it shouldn’t have been allowed to be on the market. You see all the noise in the picture moving around YUCK!:o

I have read many comments in the Forum that the UNCOMPRESSED LPCM track, if the BR disc has one, is essentially equivalent to True HD and DTS HD MA. Are you saying that this is not true?

No, that is not what I am saying. If all you had to do to get DTS HD MA was to receive LPCM then everybody would not have been clamoring for a player to either decode or send it bitstream. We would already have it. A BD player can only send LPCM the codecs that the player can decode. Your player can not decode True HD nor DTS HD MA.

Look at this thread and it will show you what your player can send. www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=980672

For True HD, DTS-HD HR and DTS-HD MA the 1200 only plays the legacy codecs Dolby Digital and DTS core. On the chart look at how it shows red for those codecs and read the note marked red. For you to send the new codecs by LPCM the boxes need to be marked orange. Read the orange note. Your problem is not the AVR, it is your player. Your player is not capable of doing what you want. The 805 is a good AVR. What your BD player was prized for is the Reon chip for SD DVD up-conversion.

No, that is not what I am saying. If all you had to do to get DTS HD MA was to receive LPCM then everybody would not have been clamoring for a player to either decode or send it bitstream. We would already have it. A BD player can only send LPCM the codecs that the player can decode. Your player can not decode True HD nor DTS HD MA.

Look at this thread and it will show you what your player can send. www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=980672

For True HD, DTS-HD HR and DTS-HD MA the 1200 only plays the legacy codecs Dolby Digital and DTS core. On the chart look at how it shows red for those codecs and read the note marked red. For you to send the new codecs by LPCM the boxes need to be marked orange. Read the orange note. Your problem is not the AVR, it is your player. Your player is not capable of doing what you want. The 805 is a good AVR. What your BD player was prized for is the Reon chip for SD DVD up-conversion.

From what I had understood, the 'Uncompressed' LPCM track provides essentially the same hidef audio as the new codices; and I'm stressing 'Uncompressed', which is not std PCM. This was discussed extensively in the Sammy 1200 thread some time ago.

I'm not claiming this to be the gospel, just stating what I've gathered from many other posts. If this is wrong, I would like to know.

Well my HTPC is worse than ever but my new reserator XT has made it all shiny and fancy seeming.

From what I had understood, the 'Uncompressed' LPCM track provides essentially the same hidef audio as the new codices; and I'm stressing 'Uncompressed', which is not std PCM. This was discussed extensively in the Sammy 1200 thread some time ago.

I'm not claiming this to be the gospel, just stating what I've gathered from many other posts. If this is wrong, I would like to know.

That is wrong. Look at the graph in the thread I linked to:

www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=980672

Looking at the 1200 the areas under True HD and DTS HD MA are shown in red. Then read the note for red. Then look at the note for players that show orange under True HD and DTS HD MA. Players marked orange can send True HD and DTS HD MA to their AVR's by LPCM. Players marked blue can stream the codec and players marked green can do both. Believe me when you hear True HD or DTS HD MA you will hear a difference.

Sanyo PLV-70 LCD front projector.
Replaced 3 times. Still had uniformity issues.
It did throw a very bright picture.

That is wrong. Look at the graph in the thread I linked to:

www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=980672

Looking at the 1200 the areas under True HD and DTS HD MA are shown in red. Then read the note for red. Then look at the note for players that show orange under True HD and DTS HD MA. Players marked orange can send True HD and DTS HD MA to their AVR's by LPCM. Players marked blue can stream the codec and players marked green can do both. Believe me when you hear True HD or DTS HD MA you will hear a difference.

Yes, I fully understand that the 1200 cannot decode and send True HD and DTS HD MA. What I have been saying is that I have read in many posts in the Forum that the 'Uncompressed' LPCM track that is on most (but not all) BR discs is the same audio quality as these hi def audio formats. And furthermore that the 1200 does pass this via bitstream over HDMI. At least this has been widely reoirted in the 1200 thread (months ago). Maybe it's all a fiction, but I would be surprised that so many supposed knowledgeable people would have stated this to be the case.

Without any doubt the Samsung SP-H710AE projector !

A 10 month nightmare !

whoops, I just got one. Its working now and it is glorious.

(Actually, this is the forth try, the first three couldn't get past the start up issue and the inverted green screen::rolleyes:)

I actually watched two movies back to back with it last night.

I agree with the first post 100%. As far as edflower's experience, I too thought I had a good one a couple of times but each ended the same way, no start and when it did, inverted green screen:mad:. The best thing I ever did was cut the cord because now it is just turn it on and watch:cool:, not hope it comes on and wait for green:(.

bguzman

power conditioners=voodoo

They are one step behind the claims of some cable manufacturers.

These are two easy targets.

Unless you buy the power conditioner strictly as a "protective" device...

Peter

Yes, I fully understand that the 1200 cannot decode and send True HD and DTS HD MA. What I have been saying is that I have read in many posts in the Forum that the 'Uncompressed' LPCM track that is on most (but not all) BR discs is the same audio quality as these hi def audio formats. And furthermore that the 1200 does pass this via bitstream over HDMI. At least this has been widely reoirted in the 1200 thread (months ago). Maybe it's all a fiction, but I would be surprised that so many supposed knowledgeable people would have stated this to be the case.

Have you looked at the sticky thread chart? It plainly tells you that the 1200 can not send True HD nor DTS-HD MA in any way shape or form (bitstream nor LPCM) to your AVR. For the BD player to send the LPCM in the correct format (True HD or DTS-HD MA) the player has to contain the required decoder. The 1200 does not have the required decoders. I have shown you this information in the audio chart. You can't hear a difference and there is a difference. I have shown you the problem. I don't know what else I can say.

This is the same reason that people could not get the PS3 to do DTS-HD MA. They had their PS3's set up for LPCM, but until Sony supplied a firmware upgrade that decoded DTS-HD MA the PS3 could not send DTS-HD MA as LPCM to your AVR. As I said before if the only thing needed was to send LPCM then all of the PS3 owner's would not have been clamoring for DTS-HD MA since they would already have had it. The PS3 was one of the first players that could decode DTS-HD MA to send it to your AVR as LPCM.

Have you looked at the sticky thread chart? It plainly tells you that the 1200 can not send True HD nor DTS-HD MA in any way shape or form (bitstream nor LPCM) to your AVR. For the BD player to send the LPCM in the correct format (True HD or DTS-HD MA) the player has to contain the required decoder. The 1200 does not have the required decoders. I have shown you this information in the audio chart. You can't hear a difference and there is a difference. I have shown you the problem. I don't know what else I can say.

Well, I agree that we are not communicating! I understand everything that you say about the 1200 not being able to decode these new hi def audio formats (and have known this for a long time). What I am talking about is the UNCOMPRESSED LPCM track on BR discs. You have to go to the 'audio setup' of a BR disc to see if it lists 'UNCOMPRESSED PCM (or LPCM)' as one of the audio formats; if it does, you select it, and this track is sent from the 1200 via bitstream over HDMI to the AVR (Onk 805 in my case). And as I said, this is widely claimed to be the same audio quality as True HD and DTS HD MA.

Or I can select the traditional 5.1 DD track on the BR disc, and send this to the AVR. And to me--and this may be totally my shortcomings--I do not near a significant difference between this track and the 'Uncompressed LPCM' (which I noted is supposed to be the same higher audio quality as True HD, etc.).

Well, I agree that we are not communicating! I understand everything that you say about the 1200 not being able to decode these new hi def audio formats (and have known this for a long time). What I am talking about is the UNCOMPRESSED LPCM track on BR discs. You have to go to the 'audio setup' of a BR disc to see if it lists 'UNCOMPRESSED PCM (or LPCM)' as one of the audio formats; if it does, you select it, and this track is sent from the 1200 via bitstream over HDMI to the AVR (Onk 805 in my case). And as I said, this is widely claimed to be the same audio quality as True HD and DTS HD MA.

Or I can select the traditional 5.1 DD track on the BR disc, and send this to the AVR. And to me--and this may be totally my shortcomings--I do not near a significant difference between this track and the 'Uncompressed LPCM' (which I noted is supposed to be the same higher audio quality as True HD, etc.).

All I can tell you is no it will not do that. If it could then people would not need any of the newer BD players that are out unless they really wanted 2.0. The 1200 would be the nearly perfect BD player if you could get the new codecs and have Reon processing. Note that the 1400 gave you the new codecs (bitstream only for DTS-HD MA), but you lost the Reon. The 1500 also does the new codecs (only bitstream for True HD & DTS-HD MA) and it improved the SD up-conversion of the 1400. If the 1200 could do the new codecs then Samsung would not have been able to sell a single 1400 or 1500 since it would not offer anything additional on the BD side and they are both worse on the SD side.

Go to a HT store and have them play a BD in DD and then have them switch it to a True HD on a player that states it will do True HD. You can do the same for DTS-HD MA.

Go to a HT store and have them play a BD in DD and then have them switch it to a True HD on a player that states it will do True HD. You can do the same for DTS-HD MA.

Good idea; will do.

All I can tell you is no it will not do that. If it could then people would not need any of the newer BD players that are out unless they really wanted 2.0. The 1200 would be the nearly perfect BD player if you could get the new codecs and have Reon processing. Note that the 1400 gave you the new codecs (bitstream only for DTS-HD MA), but you lost the Reon. The 1500 also does the new codecs (only bitstream for True HD & DTS-HD MA) and it improved the SD up-conversion of the 1400. If the 1200 could do the new codecs then Samsung would not have been able to sell a single 1400 or 1500 since it would not offer anything additional on the BD side and they are both worse on the SD side.

Let me emphasize again (for the 3rd time) that I have NOT said that the 1200 can decode or pass the new codices, True HD, etc., but rather that it can pass the 'Uncompressed PCM' track (if there is such on the particular BR disc) via bitstream over HDMI, and that this 'lossless' track is reported to be comparable to True HD and DTS HD MA. Can you tell me how you know this is not true?

the sharpvision 37. It was fine then the lcd had a green line thru it .
My plv70 has been great for the past 6 years, accept for the number of lamps it eats.

My worst purchase had to be a BenQ PE7700. It blew its own lamp 3 times the first month alone! :eek: Finally they admitted there was an issue.

Worst: The (very) expensive S Video and Component video cables that claimed great image improvements but in my testing provided no such thing.

Second I guess would have to be my Pioneer VSX 49TX receiver - their original flagship, first one with an auto-eq set up feature. I love the sound, but that bloody thing is a LEMON. I have to drag that back-breaking SOB out of my rack at least once a year (for at least 5 years now) to put in the shop because it keeps failing on me. Oh...what a coincidence....it's failing on me again, right on cue. All the DSP engines seem to be out of order and only a direct analog connection will produce sound.

I can't wait to give this thing the boot. I've been waiting on the new Denon models with their touted Dynamic Volume and EQ. I'm sick of being blasted out of my chair by the commercials in between the cartoons my kids watch.

Let me emphasize again (for the 3rd time) that I have NOT said that the 1200 can decode or pass the new codices, True HD, etc., but rather that it can pass the 'Uncompressed PCM' track (if there is such on the particular BR disc) via bitstream over HDMI, and that this 'lossless' track is reported to be comparable to True HD and DTS HD MA. Can you tell me how you know this is not true?I understand what you are saying, but I believe the confusion is that when you send "Uncompressed PCM" over HDMI it is sent as LPCM, not bitstream. Compressed tracks (lossy or lossless) are sent as bitstream when decoding is to be done in the AVR.

RE: HTPC -- Since I've been working with computers since the 1970's (both at work and at home), I know better than to go with a HTPC -- I'll use stand-alone HT hardware, thank you. I do use my PCs for audio and video archiving (I have a PVR-250 card and 2 cheapie KWorld cards, for the latter - SDTV only).

With that kind of experience I am very surprised by your comments. I have been using computers since the C64 , Tandy Coco days and I wouldnt trade my HTPC for anything else. ;)

For me it was two pieces of gear.

A JVC RS1. What a waste of time. First waiting for it, then trying to get it to look anywhere near accurate and then returning it. I could never get used to the wacky colors.

Also, as another posted before me, the Toshiba A1. Slowest player on the planet. (I did sell it on ebay before HD-DVD imploded)

To echo Tryg's first post: cables, particularly HDMI Cables.

Last night I found myself in need of an HDMI cable and couldn't wait to get one delivered from Monoprices, or some other such place.

I just needed a short 3' cable. After trips to many stores, the cheapest price that I could find was over $30 at Target. Fact: You cannot walk out of Best Buy with any HDMI cable without paying over $100. I remember the days when Radio Shack used to have good prices on cables, no longer. It is as if all the brick and mortar stores collectively decided not to price cables competitvely.

Worse yet (and I hear this from from many dealers working under or over the radar on these forums) is that I actually heard the old, "you spent so much on your TV, what's another $100 for a cable?" Many stores say something to the effect of "watch out for some of those cheap internet cables, they will ruin your picture quality." The fact that people who presumably know better train people to say these things makes me a lose faith in humanity.

Yup, the "Monsterization" of the cable industry now seems complete, sadly.

No, that is not what I am saying. If all you had to do to get DTS HD MA was to receive LPCM then everybody would not have been clamoring for a player to either decode or send it bitstream. We would already have it. A BD player can only send LPCM the codecs that the player can decode. Your player can not decode True HD nor DTS HD MA.

Look at this thread and it will show you what your player can send. www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=980672

For True HD, DTS-HD HR and DTS-HD MA the 1200 only plays the legacy codecs Dolby Digital and DTS core. On the chart look at how it shows red for those codecs and read the note marked red. For you to send the new codecs by LPCM the boxes need to be marked orange. Read the orange note. Your problem is not the AVR, it is your player. Your player is not capable of doing what you want. The 805 is a good AVR. What your BD player was prized for is the Reon chip for SD DVD up-conversion.

That really was an excellent chart and thread. Unfortunately, it's not being maintained by the original poster, and has some errors. And new updates that many have forwarded have not been incorporated. :(

Anyway, I think you guys are talking past each other.

It is possible for a disc to contain multiple audio tracks with one of them being in LPCM (which by it's nature is uncompressed). If this track is selected, it will be passed via HDMI to your AVR to convert to analog and amplify.

It's also possible for discs to have one or more losslessly compressed tracks (i.e. TrueHD or DTS-HD MA). When selecting these one of 2 things may happen depending on your equipment capability and configuration: A) It is passed untouched as a bitstream for your AVR to decode, or B) your deck decodes it to LPCM and passes that to your AVR.

Not all discs have a LPCM track however... just as not all discs have TrueHD. What the disc author decided to include dictates what you will see on the menu.

There's nothing more mindless then having to buy an HDMI cable locally. $6-10 on the internet. $40-$240 from local stores :mad:

Even places like Kmart have them for $39.99. What really pisses me off is they had TVs that use HDMI that were cheaper than the cables!

To echo Tryg's first post: cables, particularly HDMI Cables.

Last night I found myself in need of an HDMI cable and couldn't wait to get one delivered from Monoprices, or some other such place.

I just needed a short 3' cable. After trips to many stores, the cheapest price that I could find was over $30 at Target. Fact: You cannot walk out of Best Buy with any HDMI cable without paying over $100. I remember the days when Radio Shack used to have good prices on cables, no longer. It is as if all the brick and mortar stores collectively decided not to price cables competitvely.

Worse yet (and I hear this from from many dealers working under or over the radar on these forums) is that I actually heard the old, "you spent so much on your TV, what's another $100 for a cable?" Many stores say something to the effect of "watch out for some of those cheap internet cables, they will ruin your picture quality." The fact that people who presumably know better train people to say these things makes me a lose faith in humanity.


Screw Monster and the retail stores that carry them.... I buy my HDMI cables from Blue Jeans Cable... :D

There's nothing more mindless then having to buy an HDMI cable locally. $6-10 on the internet. $40-$240 from local stores :mad:

Even places like Kmart have them for $39.99. What really pisses me off is they had TVs that use HDMI that were cheaper than the cables!

I bet there is simple ways around this using (thin wires) and little soldering technique. I’ve seen those leads and after reading the mindless posts where users have spent silly amounts of money for the sakes of HDMI lead!

Use your head and think and buy a soldering iron or use thin wire and Blutack, now then!

Sanyo PLV-70 LCD front projector.
Replaced 3 times. Still had uniformity issues.
It did throw a very bright picture.

J.Mike,

I assume your old 20HD was not one of the units you refer to. If so, it must have been operator error because it still works great for me.

On the topic of the thread - Immersive Simmetry. I got one on the used market just before Immersive went under. Always flaky. I use it now only for the digital audio delay.

How about VCR+? Anybody? That was a joke. :)

Is that the DIVX thing where you watched the DVD for a couple times then it wouldn't play anymore?

Is that the DIVX thing where you watched the DVD for a couple times then it wouldn't play anymore?

Yes but not to be confused with the wonderful DivX codec which is great. Since been bettered...but great none the less.

I remember DIVX. I knew that was a bomb when they came out with it. Sometimes I just don't understand companies logic.

Roku

For me:

1) Cables. In the late 90's I thought I was cool to buy Monster cables at significant discounts on ebay which I look back on and still paid 10 times to much for.

2) HTPC: I built my first one in the late 90's when the Pentium 3 was out and S-Video showed up on Video cards. Never worked right no matter how many iterations of PC's I used over the years. Was replaced in a slit second when the PS3 came out and haven’t had a damn problem since. HTPC is different then media server. With my PS3 I run a media server to share the data using TVersity and it’s a flawless technology. It was getting better as time went on, (see picture below) with such things as blue tooth but was never "ergonomic".

3) HD-DVD: I dropped $400 on the unit and still have 20ish disks but at least I had BR at the time and was primarily buying movies on R unless it was HD-DVD exclusive. I bought it thinking it had a good year of life left and it turned out to die 4 months later.

4) Sony Universal remote. I at least got it working with basic functionality but that thing was just a POS. My Logitech Harmony 1000 has been flawless for me in just about any way.

5) Sega Genisis CD add on... ug... dont ask...

http://www.silverti.com/ht/October6,%202007/DSC00488a.JPG

Hey man, I LOVED Sewer Shark....


For me:


5) Sega Genisis CD add on... ug... dont ask...

This is absolutely the worst piece of equipment I ever bought:

The Rane PI 14 Pseudoacoustic Infector

http://www.rane.com/pi14fp.gif

http://www.rane.com/pi14.html and the datasheet http://www.rane.com/pdf/pi14dat.pdf

Rane makes great stuff so I could not believe my own disappointment with this device. Maybe I should not have hook-ed it up to my two 18" subs in bridged-mono mode, but the manual made me think that I could.

Piece of crap.

-Mr. Wigggles

With posts like that, I'm really surprised this thread has lasted this long.

Wit dat, I bought a pair of OTL tube amps a few years ago through A'gon. The amps were great but I was running them on 6 ohm speakers. They lasted one day. I sold them to a guy in Portland, OR that had 16 ohm speakers and, according to him, they worked out great.

I remember DIVX. I knew that was a bomb when they came out with it. Sometimes I just don't understand companies logic.

yeah I remember it to in the early days. The versions kept changing and usernames and passwords to their site kept going obsolete. I finally just gave up on it. However, my son thinks it's the greatest thing ever.

With posts like that, I'm really surprised this thread has lasted this long.

What, no humor in Saudi Arabia? ;)

The Rane PI 14 Pseudoacoustic Infector


Who the F would name their product "infector" :confused:

You must have neglected to try the full function ecstacy generator.




This is absolutely the worst piece of equipment I ever bought:

The Rane PI 14 Pseudoacoustic Infector

http://www.rane.com/pi14fp.gif

http://www.rane.com/pi14.html and the datasheet http://www.rane.com/pdf/pi14dat.pdf

Rane makes great stuff so I could not believe my own disappointment with this device. Maybe I should not have hook-ed it up to my two 18" subs in bridged-mono mode, but the manual made me think that I could.

Piece of crap.

-Mr. Wigggles

ok, I missed the pun. You guys reeaallyy worry me sometimes.......no, I mean really!:D

This is absolutely the worst piece of equipment I ever bought:

The Rane PI 14 Pseudoacoustic Infector

http://www.rane.com/pi14fp.gif

http://www.rane.com/pi14.html and the datasheet http://www.rane.com/pdf/pi14dat.pdf

Rane makes great stuff so I could not believe my own disappointment with this device. Maybe I should not have hook-ed it up to my two 18" subs in bridged-mono mode, but the manual made me think that I could.

Piece of crap.

-Mr. Wigggles

You couldn't detect the airiness and bright clarity it brought to frquencies above 25KHz?

I couldn't live without mine... it really allowed my $8500 Sunny Interconnects to open up... after burn-in, obviously.

Perhaps you were choking the true potential of the Rane by not elevating your speaker cables off the floor with non-resonating lifts?

On HDMI and other pricey cables; for those in medium to larger cities, look for 'computer & electronics' stores that cater to the hobbyist/smaller installer/contractor crowd if you don't have time to mailorder.

They'll often carry more reasonably priced DVI/HDMI cables as well as a host of other indispensable 'weekend project' stuff. Down here in Texas, there's one known as Altex Electronics. Can't say they're the best deal but they're certainly better than buying at retail.

Worst HT purchase ever: Sony STR-DA1000ES. Bought a new old stock unit for very little to use in a secondary system and even then hated it. It was total crap! No 80Hz crossover, it was either 60, 100 or 150. Even then it still sounded horrible when pushed past 3/5ths. Replaced it with a Rotel RSX-1055 I found used and have been so much happier ever since.

Best HT purchase ever: This is a bit out of the box... Yamaha YSP-1000 sound projector. No other way to do surround in the current bedroom so it's this or nothing. Good thing it works quite well. :)