We are buying my just-retired father a Home Theater system and I would appreciate any advice on the following items we are planning to buy this weekend:

Display: Samsung PN50A650
Receiver: Denon AVR-2309
Speakers: Klipsch RF62, RC52, RS42, RPW10
Blu-Ray: Panasonic DMP-BD35
Remote: Logitech Harmony 550

This will be in a dedicated room in his basement and will be used mainly for HD movies and tv (70%), but also quite a bit of SD media (25%) and some occasional gaming (5%).

Our budget was $5000 and we're at $4500. The extra $500 will go on furniture unless we could benefit from improving some of the above items.

Thanks for helping out! :)

Wow...nice choices!

Only thing I could think of in addition is possibly a PS3 instead of the BD35, or putting some of the extra towards professiona calibration of the Samsung. Regardless, I think he'll be very happy with the system :)

Have you bought the equipment yet?

I recently retired like your Dad and couldn't wait for our kids (very nice of you to want to give him HT) so I had to buy my own components.

I started with a VERY nice 56in HD 1080p tv - it does TV really well BUT I learned that a television simply cannot produce Theater in the Home which learned to simply define as: The creation in one's home as near as possible the visual experience of a Commercial Theater.

If you want you Dad and his friends to all go: "WOW, now this is just like being at the movies!!" then please consider a projector and screen so he can have something better than watching television - the larger than life true Theater experience that only a projector and screen can bring to the home.

I bought the TV two years ago and when the disappointment set in by bride was nice enough to support the upgrade to true Home Theater and now, almost two years later, I still sit in front of our Theater sized screen going WOW and WOWEEE. I just finished watching Batman - TDK - simply amazing!

We haven't been to a commercial Theater since the first time we dimmed the lights and fired up that BIG screen and I can't think of a "toy" I have bought since retirement that I enjoy more and as often - not even the arcade games and pinball machines.

So, consider taking my experience to heart - see if the room is of a size and characteristics so that you can give your Dad the REALLY SPECIAL experience of true Theater in the Home.
goodluck

Thanks both for the input!

We have bought nothing yet but we have settled with the TV route instead of a projector. I definitely agree that a projector and screen is the only option that will give you a real "theatre-like" experience and we did consider it for a while.

However, we wanted an option that we could install quickly and easily without any construction work. This will be in a new house and dad will be busy enough working on other rooms so we hope this will be the room where he'll go relax between fixing the kitchen and the bathroom.

What I'd like is that in a couple years (when the more important parts of the house will be done) we'll bring the tv up in the living room and build a real nice theatre in the basement together, with a nice screen wall, stadium seating and all. But for now I guess it'll be a TV-room rather than a "home-theatre".