I have noticed that many people on the forum have become virtual experts in home theater in what appears to be in record time. Has the Next-Gen system that you own; PS3, 360, Wii etc. help accelerate your journey down the home theater path or simply complimented it?

I for one have always enjoyed home theater, gaming, computers and electronics all together. These systems have helped me step deeper into the realm of home theater... (and well over the $1,000 price range on most of my items)

Most of my consoles are not with my HT stuff, they are with my PC stuff. I don't know why I did it that way, but I did. I never really combined the two, but with the PS3 being able to play Blu-Ray and the 360 playing HD DVD, I guess that line is becoming blurred. It's certainly a great way to attract new people to HT. When I've been in houses with high-end HT gear, the consoles usually reside in a secondary system, though. I can only imagine Wii audio coming over some Swans 2.2's. :D

My 360 is connected directly into my HT and its really something amazing. My 360 didn't enter me into HT, my HT entered me into next gen. gaming.

My 360 is connected directly into my HT and its really something amazing. My 360 didn't enter me into HT, my HT entered me into next gen. gaming.


Pretty much how it worked out for me as well. I purchased my first HDTV about 6 years ago so I was already well into the whole HT thing. My 360 was bought for the sole purpose of replacing my htpc as I was tired of the constant upgrading/tweaking. I've owned it since June and still do not own a single game for it, although I do occasionally rent them.

The 360 has allowed me to use my old azz PC as a HTPC with its streaming. Now finding good HD content on the web has become a task but I have come up with a few things.

Yes, I knew I was going to get a 360 so I started looking for deals on a Home Theatre Surround Sound System. Once I got both the surround sound system and the 360 I started looking for a deal on a 50" plasma TV and found one.

Before this generation I was playing on a 27" CRT with no surround sound.

Got a 360 at launch. Then started searching for HDTV info. That led me to AVS forum. And now Im hooked.

It was the console to HT for me. I got a 360 over Thanksgiving and was playing Gears of War on my old 27" CRT SDTV. As I was playing I could tell I wasn't getting the most out of the game visually and knew I needed an HDTV to really appreciate all that Gears had to offer. So I went out and bought a 40" LCD. Playing on that was great, but then I could tell that I with just the basic TV speakers I was missing out on rich audio. So then I went out and bought the Onkyo 7.1 surround sound system.

It's a whole new world for me and I never want to go back. But to answer the original question, yes, I entered the home theater world solely to take advantage of my next gen system.

Well, I've always been into home theater. Although I think when I bought a ps2 I was tempted to buy a HTiB, and I did when I had a better TV. Over the last 5 year I slowly upgraded the system first the speakers, then the TV (went from a 25" RCA analog CRT to a 32" zenith CRT HDTV, which failed after 3 years, at which point I bought a 30" samsung CRT HDTV, which I've been very happy with)

After updadting all my small RCA 50w sattillite speakers to JBLs and a sony poewered sub. My cheep 5.1 RCA amplifer failed. I think becase of the now 200w speakers I had. Although it was time as I had run out of inputs. I had also better understood the power of an optical connection vs a std analog stereo connection. At this point I made a rather large investment (at least to me) on a 7.1 yamaha THX select amplifer (HTR-5790). Wow, did this thing have inputs just an great amplifer. Which I still have. At firt I set it up for 7.1 using my old RCA speakers for the rear sourrounds. But a 7.1 setup seemed a little much for a 9x10 bedroom so I down scalled to 5.1. Which is what I have now.

About 2 months ago I upgraded to a HDDVD player. At first I was in seach of the xbox 360 add on. But to my disbelief I could not find it anywhere. So after reading a lot on the HDDVD fourms. I found a A1 on sale for $399. I figured what the heck ill buy it. My first movies where serenity and the rundown.

I poped in serenity and wow was I amazed my 30" CRT had looked the best I'd ever seen it. Far surpassing any directv or OTA HD brodcast.. a

At this point I've become addicted to HD-DVD. I've got over 20 HDDVDs in only 2 months far surpassing my average DVD intake.

Although I find HDDVDs have set my gaming on the side for now. I'm starting ti get back into them. Just the other day I popped in COD3. The sond on this game is unreal. When no ones around the house I like to crank the ampifer up to about 75% (any higher I'd lose my hearing in a small room). But the envroment were at amazing at one point I thought it was raining out side. At another I though some one lite a firework off.

So gaming with a 5.1 system at high voulme levels is the best ever. The only thing that could make it better would be to get a larger TV. Although my budget is very tight at the moment. As like said I've been going crazy with HDDVds. And those things aren't cheep. Although thanks to amazon I've saved a lot of money. Their 10% of 3 HDDVDs or more for a year is great.

Now the question is do I get another TV. (Sell my old one for a few hunderd) or get a ps3. I'd primarly use the ps3 for movie playback at this point. But as they get more exclusives ill buy them as well. I'd really like to get their top game. The sond is mostlikly great. Although the system is still $600. A nice LCD in th3 32"-40" range could be bought for just a little bit more. I like samsung and have noticed many stores use them for video game displays. They look better then my CRT. The black may not be as good. And their may be a small Ms dely. But I think I'd be worth it for the added PQ. I could always use my old CRT as another Gameing t.v. Link the xbox and 360 for halo matches. I've always hated how pepole cheat buy looking at your screen.

Hmmm. Somthing to think about.


But to make a long story short, yes video gaming has played a large part in my further interst in gaming. I found I'd want to upgrade a piece to futher the gaming experince.

HD-DVD all the way...

This thread reminds me of the Rage song "bullet in the head"...we are all victims..lol

Cellular phones soundin' a death tone
Corporations cold
Turn ya to stone before ya realise
They load the clip in omnicolour
Said they pack the 9, they fire it at prime time
Sleeping gas, every home was like Alcatraz
And mutha f***ers lost their minds

Just victims of the in-house drive-by
They say jump, you say how high
Just victims of the in-house drive-by
They say jump, you say how high

Believin' all the lies that they're tellin' ya
Buyin' all the products that they're sellin' ya
They say jump and ya say how high

After PC gaming for years on a 19 inch monitor, the original XBox put the HD bug up my butt. After hooking a few of them together in a LAN set-up it just started to escalate. 10 XBoxes, 4 360s and a boatload of HD TVS and HT equipment later, my house is a whole new place for fun. :) Viva le XBox !!

My 360 is connected directly into my HT and its really something amazing. My 360 didn't enter me into HT, my HT entered me into next gen. gaming.

Same here. :)

It's great to be able to view the downloaded HD trailers on a big screen with nice audio, stream all my music through the 360 into our audio system, view our digital camera pics to music through the 360 while we put them on slideshow an look at them on the big tv, etc.

-JR