Home Theater Room Connection Details
With the new HDTV, I could finally call my family room a home theater room. The Toshiba 52HM84 I bought has 1 HDMI input, 2 component inputs, and 3 composite/S-Video inputs. I use the HDMI port for my 8300HD cable box. I’ve been real impressed with the 20 hours of HD storage and the ability to record two shows at once. It’s also nice having one box that does it all instead of having a TiVo and a cable box. The 8300HD’s user interface wasn’t as nice as the TiVos, but the $7/month for the box is a lot better than the $600 plus $15/month it costs for a TiVo Series 3. Sorry TiVo, your user interface is just not worth the cash. I went ahead and cancelled my TiVo subscription.
One of the TV’s component inputs was used for my HTPC while the other component input was used for the PS2’s 480p output. Honestly though, I don’t think I turned on the PS2 once on this TV. The HTPC allowed me to play games like Half Life 2 and F.E.A.R. in HD, and I was quickly spoiled by the unbelievable graphics. I just couldn’t go back to low res gaming. The same goes for the GameCube, which I haven’t turned on either.
I have to say I’m lacking on the audio side of things. The Toshiba 52HM84 has stereo output which I used to connect to my Philips stereo. I’m still using the Philips stereo as mentioned in my previous posts, but now only in a 2.1 configuration. The speakers I have are probably 20 years old and are hand me downs from my parents. My next home theater upgrade will have to be a receiver with surround sound speakers.
HTN Posts (RSS)
I’ll trade you my surround sound for your tv?
You can get a decent system for around $500. You’re over the main hump and have a sweet tv.
What kind of Graphics card do you have in the PC you hooked up to your plasma?
Thanks, but I’ll keep my TV
I’m one of those people who will wait till I have enough money to buy the higher end stuff …even if it’s a couple of years. The Yamaha RX-V2700 Receiver is one I have my eye on because it has three independent zones where I can control the amplifiers. However, there is a Onkyo home-theater-in-a-box with HDMI capable receiver and 7.1 speakers for $500 that is becoming real tempting.
My graphics card is ATI X800. It’s starting to show its age, and can’t handle some of the newer games.
I am new to this stuff, what is the purpose of this “One of the TV’s component inputs was used for my HTPC”? What are you using the component for which is connected to your PC?
I used a component output from my HTPC’s video card to provide a video signal to my HDTV.
Just another question, what is your primary reason for including an HTPC? I mean what were you planning on using the PC for? Being that you installed WinXP and not MCE, my guess would be to surf, email, play movies, and stream music. Also, how do you have the PC’s audio connected? Is it connected to the TV, stereo, or Cablebox? If so, what cable type?
Being that you are knowledgable with the equipment and connections, do you have an email address that I can bounce questions off of? I have a few questions to you ask you regarding my situation. Your help is very much appreciated.
I use the HTPC for DVD upscaling, Blu-ray player, DVR, PC games, internet video, media center, etc. Its amazing how many uses I get out of it, for example, when we have guest over, we could spend hours watching youtube and other video sites. The link below has a list of reasons to have an HTPC:
http://www.hometheaternetwork.com/HTN_HTPC1.htm
You don’t need MCE. The only thing MCE has over XP is a nice user interface. I don’t have a receiver so I run plain old analog audio signal to my HDTV. My TV then outputs audio to my Philips stereo.
See the Contact US tab for email addresses.
Did you ever have any trouble with overscan on the HTPC?
Yeah, overscan can be a pain. I wound up using Nvidea’s software adjust the screen accordingly.