Thanks to Pat here in Chattanooga I FINALLY have my Marquee 8500 set up the way it should be with some fair tubes. In addition to helping me set up my projector, Pat has educated me some on how terrible the rest of my home theater is. :) I'm still using an old DVDO iScan Plus as a transcoder and I'm running signal to that from an also old Onkyo 5.1 TX-DS494 A/V receiver through an RCA cable. (Yes, RCA) Obviously I probably couldn't be sending a much crappier signal to my projector if I wanted to. My goal, as it should be, is to view as much HD content on my projector as possible. I'm gonna get the HD package from the my cable company, HD video package for my Xbox 360, etc etc. To this end I am about to purchase a new transcoder (Crescendo RTC2200) but my next problem is finding a nice receiver to pair it with. The issue is this, as always - MONEY! I'm a college student guys and I can't afford to be dropping hundreds of dollars on a receiver right now. Can somebody please point me in the direction of a receiver that will do what I need without forcing me to live on Ramen Noodles for the next 6 months?

Forget the cresendo and save up and wait for a moome hdmi card. much better options for future use and no hdcp problems. keep your reciever for now and just dont send the video signal to it. the Moome card is the first thing you should get for your Marquee. it has component and an hdmi input. start there then move on later.

Athanasios

anybody else want to weigh in on this?

Absolutely LOVE my Moome HDMI internal, granted its in a Sony G70 but I have not had one single issue with it other than I Love it.Sources include, Toshiba HD-a2 & Samsung BD-P1200 into a monoprice switcher, and DVDO iScan HD+ DVI > HDMI. no HDCP Handshake issues nothing but big screen goodness.

What HD output does your cable box and 360 have? HDMI, Component, VGA... what? This info is needed for us to properly help you.

I dont have the HD cabling for the 360 yet and I'm waiting to sign up for the HD cable package until I can actually use it so I don't have the cable box yet. You can be assured though that they will both have component outputs and possibly HDMI. I've heard varying opinions on whether or not HDMI is really a noticeable improvement over component unless you are doing bluray/hd-dvd.

That doesn't help much. Find out what cable box your cable company uses, then download the manual and find out if it's DVI, HDMI or VGA.

Do the same for your 360.

Let us know what connections you'll have available! I can give you all the advice in the world, but unless my advice matches up with what you have available... then it's all useless.

Forget the cresendo and save up and wait for a moome hdmi card. much better options for future use and no hdcp problems. keep your reciever for now and just dont send the video signal to it. the Moome card is the first thing you should get for your Marquee. it has component and an hdmi input. start there then move on later.

Athanasios ditto, I agree 100% and there's no reason to send video through a receiver, especially component analog. :( Use an outboard HDMI switcher and send only Audio to your receiver with a digital co-ax cable.
If I was running a Honkyo HTIB my seond purchase would be for a real set of main speakers and center channel like this
http://www.**********/products_product.php?section=stock&product=113.1

I'm not running a "Honkyo HTIB", I'm just using an Onkyo reciever. These are my speakers and I'm quite happy with them. http://www.fluance.com/fluanceavhtb.html

Just need a good sub to go along with them.

http://www.x2vga.com/

what would this do for me?

http://www.x2vga.com/
what would this do for me?
well it would probably make you want to set your theatre on fire :D What do you think a $59. box aimed at video gamers will for your theatre anyway? I've been down that road, my first transcoder was this little plastic thnig from Viewsonic . Cost $450. about 5 years ago. when a good scaler was still around $5k Thank god they took it back and gave me a refund.
If you want a nice sub, get a used Velodyne DD10 servo drive from videogon.

lol wow...a $2000 sub to pair with my $200 speakers??? hehehe. i remember my speakers were highly recommended on this forum and at the time there was a <$150 Yamaha sub that was likewise highly recommended as a good match but that was a few years back and i have no idea which one it was now...but thats kinda the price range this poor college student has.

anyways, i would love to grab one of those new moome cards but they are kind of expensive for me too. i need to find a solution to this problem thats a little closer to the $250 range...and yes i know that compared to you guys' $2500 transcoders and such, $250 will buy me crap but point me in the right direction :)

If you're good with PC stuff and you've got a reasonable PC sitting around, you could save some money that way. Get a good HD TV card for $200 or so (which would have the side benefit of letting you do tivo-like things in HD) and go VGA->RGBHV from the PC, which will be as high quality a signal path as you can get.

Then you've got one piece of hardware doing everything, and it can be upgraded in ways that upgrade all functionality (IE, better proc = better post processing for DVDs, snappier interface for TV stuff...).

But if you're not comfortable doing a lot of PC software tweaking, that'll be frustrating.

PJ, I'd be interested to hear more about your DIY sub. Can you link to a thread about it?

Back in the day I wanted to build an internal combustion subwoofer, ("Screw watts - mine's measured in horsepower") just to be crazy, but that's a bit more DIY than I've ever had time for. ;)

Right now my sub is a 12" Pioneer 200-watt RMS car sub, in series with a stack of 2-ohm resistors, in a modified housing from an old (and dead) Advent loudspeaker, hooked to an oldish Yamaha receiver's left channel. It's ghetto, but it goes boom, and to describe me as 'unconcerned' regarding pinpoint accuracy when reproducing moviebooms (which appear to all be at precisely the same frequency anyway) would be an understatement.

But I do have to be pretty careful how I drive it as I'm not totally confident in the impedance I really have there, and it's not ideal in terms of enclosure. So I'd love to hear more about how to do it Right.

I suspect not everybody would know how to do that right. Would you be willing to share the specs/plans on your sub? Sounds like a winner. Roughly what were the costs for the parts?

Really like the Samsung bdp-1200 with it's reon processing...but if your a college student on a budget, then that's out.
Why not just get a $40 HDMI switcher, HDMI input card (cheap one is about $250) HD-DVD player (down to $200 now) or if you think Blu-Ray is the way to go, they are closing in on that price point, and will be there by Christmas.
All that's left would be a hi-def Sat/ broadcast receiver.
Monoprice has excellent prices on HDMI switchers and cables.

or if you think Blu-Ray is the way to go, they are closing in on that price point, and will be there by Christmas.


Which BD player is closing in on $200?