Comments on: Going HD: Part 3 (Blu-ray and Surround Sound)

By: Atlanta to San Francisco: What I Learned Moving Cross-Country — PaulStamatiou.com

Tue, 25 May 2010 09:38:14 +0000

[...] 50-inch plasma HDTV, surround sound system, PS3, Roku player, Vudu box, Core i7 + Windows 7 Gaming/Boxee/Home Theater PC, 24-inch Dell monitor and [...]

By: Review: Roku Digital Video (Netflix and Amazon) Player — PaulStamatiou.com

Review: Roku Digital Video (Netflix and Amazon) Player — PaulStamatiou.com — Mon, 11 May 2009 03:30:16 +0000

[...] It’s a bit of an ugly duckling. Fortunately it’s small enough to hide behind my 5.1 receiver, PlayStation 3, Vudu box and HTPC. Roku Player – [...]

By: Murali

Murali — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 18:12:26 +0000

Hey Paul, I have a Denon AVR 1909 – AV receiver with 3 HDMI input, which connects my PS3, DVD to my HDTV and all audio to my 5.1 speakers. I can’t find 5.1 audio content to hear pure 5.1 audio on my speakers. PS3 supports MP3 surround – but hard to find decent 5.1 MP3/AC3..

By: Chris Lentz

Chris Lentz — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 01:07:07 +0000

Hey Paul, the setup is looking nice. I picked up that same TV not to long ago. It is a beauty. Also I own a PS3 as a Blu Ray player and am very happy with it. I tested other Blu Ray players, and the PS3 doesn’t even compare to the others. How is GT I am debating on getting it or waiting for the full version which I like it less than a year away.

I also agree with ^ Brian about Burnout: Paradise City I love that game and I am not a huge gamer.

By: Brian Dusablon

Brian Dusablon — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 19:37:48 +0000

I second the MediaLink referral. It’s pretty nice for $20. I have a Samsung 40″ 1080p hooked up to my PS3, which is networked with my Mac. MediaLink has some minor streaming issues occasionally, but overall I’ve loved having access to all my movies and TV shows through my PS3.

Oh, get Burnout: Paradise City. It’s only $20 now, and the addons (especially Burnout Bikes) they’ve released are awesome.

By: Sameer

Sameer — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 06:54:21 +0000

I’d like to second the Medialink plug by Scott. As far as I’ve been able to find, it’s the easiest (only?) solution for streaming from Mac to PS3. I’ve had a few issues with it though. It’s not perfect. I’ve noticed sometimes it completely stops working and freezes the PS3 and my iBook. I’m not sure if it’s a resource issue or a network problem, but I’ve seen some other reports of this happening on message boards as well.

Either way, I’d still recommend it, and would love to see some kind of write up on how it all looks on an HD TV. Thanks.

By: Scott

Scott — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 18:21:16 +0000

Hey Paul, I think you might like NullRiver’s MediaLink software for the Mac. It’s indispensable. I can stream all my media (audio, video (including HD) and photos) from my Mac to my LCD TV via the PS3. http://www.nullriver.com/products/medialink

By: Michael

Michael — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 15:44:34 +0000

Man, you all have me beat. I have a floating shelf hanging on my wall with a projector, my xbox 360, digital cable box and a samsung home theater system I got open box from best buy a few years back. I only turn on my cable box about four hours max a week. With netflix on the xbox, I usually have the xbox on most of the time running netflix, playing dvds, streaming content from my imac with connect 360 or gaming. I’m looking at buying an lcd and an inexpensive, maybe 2.1 system for my room.

By: Carlton Bale

Carlton Bale — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 14:59:47 +0000

For blu-ray playback on a HTPC, you need Slysoft AnyDVD HD to get rid of any potential HDCP issues. It also allows backup to a media server. Get it now, because they are switching from a lifetime single purchase to an annual subscription model.

Arcsoft Total Media Theater is the best Blu-ray software player I’ve found. You don’t even know that you’ve left Windows Media Center.

For hardware, a motherboard based on the nvidia 9300/9400 chipset is ideal because it has hardware decoding for HD video.

By: Ben K.

Ben K. — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 06:50:40 +0000

Thanks for the comment on the switch Mark.

Can you recommend one that’s not too pricy? I’ve found two that seem to be decent but not really in my budget right now.

http://www.digitalconnection.com/products/audio/aa1177.asp
http://www.inday.com/da4x/da4x.htm

By: Nicholas

Nicholas — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 23:09:01 +0000

Apple TV hardware isn’t strong enough to play 1080p/i video consistently, unfortunately :(

By: Mike

Mike — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 22:26:48 +0000

Works on the apple TV too, but I’m not impressed with the HD quality on the apple TV…. it’s just not powerful enough to handle it. As soon as they come out with an upgrade to the apple tv though, I’ll be getting one.

By: Taylor Brooks

Taylor Brooks — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 21:30:57 +0000

I’m curious, has anyone used the Western Digital Media Player?

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=572

I’ve thought about buying one instead of fooling around with a full-blown HTPC setup.

By: Paul Stamatiou

Paul Stamatiou — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 19:31:50 +0000

Thanks for the comment Jonathan – I’ve actually used Boxee on Mac but it was a long time ago and I haven’t touched it since. Didn’t know they now have a linux version!

By: Wes

Wes — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 18:53:50 +0000

I’m hoping to pick up a PS3 this week to finally play the Blu-Ray copy of Dark Knight I got for Christmas. I certainly agree that if you’re going to spend money to get a Blu-Ray player, why not spend slightly more and get a media center and game console to go along with it.

The PS3 will connect to our 51″ rear projection and 5.1 system.

By: Chris

Chris — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 14:37:36 +0000

Don’t know how much you can swing for speakers, but you might try something from PSB, Paradigm, Cambridge, or Gallo.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 13:47:30 +0000

Try out boxee (www.boxee.tv) superb HTPC software for windows and linux.

By: Dan

Dan — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 11:03:28 +0000

Looks like you need a Logitech G25 to complete your GT5P setup!

By: Paul Stamatiou

Paul Stamatiou — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 09:30:36 +0000

eek, that sucks. This one was only $20 bucks so it might suffer from this issue. I’ll keep you posted.

By: Paul Stamatiou

Paul Stamatiou — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 09:29:25 +0000

As for the placement – if I go more left then the couch to TV-centered ratio would be wrong. I have a lot more couch to the right of the TV than to the left. It’s kind of an awkward placement as the internet/antenna hookups are right there.

By: Mark Jaquith

Mark Jaquith — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 09:14:07 +0000

Keep the receipt for your Toslink switcher. I’ve found that they don’t always work (if the two ends aren’t perfectly aligned, light bleeds out and you lose the signal).

By: William Brawley

William Brawley — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 08:33:16 +0000

Very impressive setup. It’s something I’m looking forward to setting up my self as soon as I graduate, find my own place, and have the income to afford it.

By the way, why is the setup skewed over so close to the doorway? Looks like it could be scooted over to the left a bit.

By: Jeff Smith

Jeff Smith — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 08:13:19 +0000

My home theatre setup is made up of a 42″ Sharp Aquos LC42D64U, a Sony STRDG520 5.1 channel receiver (tons of inputs with 2 HDMI inputs with video passthrough to the Aquos), Polk Audio RM10 5-piece surround speakers, Polk Audio PSW10 subwoofer, a Motorola DCT3416 HD PVR, an Apple TV, and an XBox 360.

I’ve spent the past year and a half purchasing the various parts of my setup and I’m pretty happy with everything at this point–great sound, lots of great sources for HD video. The only other thing I’m thinking about adding is a Blu-ray player (likely a PS3 for the same reasons Paul mentioned above or some other Sony Blu-ray player).

By: Cory O'Brien

Cory O'Brien — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 07:57:40 +0000

My home theater setup consists of a 50″ Vizio plasma (Yay plasma!), an older Teac receiver (It’ll do 5.1 surround and has one optical input, but no HDMI. Probably going to replace it soon.) and a JBL speaker set (ArcCenter flanked by Arc1000s with Arc10s in the rear.) Right now the Comcast cable box does all of my HD content (Including movies in 1080i), and I’ve got a Wii as well, but I should be adding a PS3 to the mix soon, both for the Blu-Ray and for the games.

I love that you dropped the Wii partly for the color! It’s a shame they don’t do a Wii2.0 that outputs in 1080 and comes in more than one color.