*** THE OFFICIAL HOME THEATER & AUDIO THREAD**

[ru$$ell]

^one of what?You mean the center channel i'm guessing, it was 9.684 kg / 21.350 lbs. I cant imagine someone bringing in floorstanding speakers via skybox/air freight,that would be insane.

[blaine]

Ok so I've been reading this tread for the past month on my free time...only reached pg 54. I must say I've learned alot.

I do need a little advice though. I was looking at this receiver TX-NR609. It also comes in the package HT-S8409 http://www.amazon.com/Onkyo-HT-S8409-7-1-Channel-Network-Receiver/dp/B005EP2HMU/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1339432213&sr=1-1&keywords=ht-s8409
The receiver seems good, so says the reviews, but I know the speakers are not all that, may upgrade the speakers over time though.

Also what you guys think about this set http://www.amazon.com/Onkyo-HT-S9400THX-7-1-Channel-Network-Receiver/dp/B004VK0IOS/ref=pd_sim_e_1
Read some good reviews but had trouble finding anything much on the receiver.

Anyone has personal experience with any??
Which one is the better buy...I'm getting a good deal on both.

Thanks.

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

^ no direct experience with it

I'd get the best receiver you can afford and you can start off with good stereo speakers. You can always add a center channel and surrounds later on instead of planning to buy these speakers now and then change them.

it would be cheaper to get good left and right surrounds for now and use them as front speakers until you get better front stage speakers.

plus receivers that come with HTIAB setups are usually not the best models - I could be wrong about this particular model though.

[crazybalhead]

The TX NR 609 is the one I have. It only does everything, like the PS3, features up the ying yang. Great DAC's and video processors.

AND good power and authority too.

[crazybalhead]

http://www.avguide.com/review/paradigm- ... em-tpv-109

Atoms as surrounds though. Reviewer did a great job.

[ru$$ell]

^nice receiver there crazy,bought it locally?

[crazybalhead]

RAPTOR meng.

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

if it's a good receiver then if I was Blaine I would buy the receiver alone and take the extra cash and buy a pair of good satellites and start from there

what crazybalhead and ru$$$elll think?

[crazybalhead]

That's been my philosophy from the start.

[ru$$ell]

ditto,i started with some ancient ass pioneer HTIAB my bro bought from back in the day,and trust me,you would find yourself getting very fed up of the limited stuff your getting and you can do with it,dont get me wrong,i know there are systems now that are very advanced,but you will find yourself wanting more and more,and then you'll realize seperates is the way to go.Save up and get piece by piece as duane said,its what i did,heck i only finally got my center channel last week,the wait is totally worth it for these things!

BTW,you mengs saw act of valor yet? i know it got poop ratings on RT,but looks like the it will give any HT audio system a workout.

[blaine]

if it's a good receiver then if I was Blaine I would buy the receiver alone and take the extra cash and buy a pair of good satellites and start from there

Good advice Duane, but that was kinda the plan, I was really getting it for the receiver. The speakers I would use for the while until I'm ready to upgrade.
(Receiver alone $5000.00 @ Radio Shack)
The budget slightly stiff right now.

Also I was thinking of getting one of these http://www.amazon.com/Monster-MKII-10-Outlet-Power-Center/dp/B000AYDQB6/ref=sr_1_25?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1339460289&sr=1-25&keywords=voltage+regulator

Don't really know what to look for in a good voltage regulator...Is this any good?

[ru$$ell]

^the monster is good,if budget allows,you can get one like duane,which is a panamax

[blaine]

Recommend a good set of speakers to start me off using the TX-NR609. Budget <4K

http://www.avland.co.uk/aasp/onkyo/1120/txnr609/txnr609.asp

[crazybalhead]

Paradigm atoms. Hands down.

about 2700TT. The dealer is listed on the website.

[blaine]

What is the best way to connect my flow digital cable box to my receiver? Would a good set of composite cables be sufficient or is there another way??

Shown here...
http://www.avland.co.uk/aasp/onkyo/1120/txnr609/rearlrg.jpg

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

Yeah I bought a Auvio composite cable in RadioShack and it's working well.
http://www.amazon.com/AUVIO-Composite-V ... B004AGM94A
Connect the audio and video to your receiver.

Only thing going to your TV should be one HDMI cable from the receiver.

[Humes]

Trying to troubleshoot something here. Any advice would be appreciated.

From the looks of it, one of the HDMI ports on my rx is dead. It's the HDMI port I usually connected my htpc to. When I put on my htpc this evening, all I got was a blue screen (not the Windows blue screen) and a loud hum. I've done some switching around to verify what the issue might be:

- The htpc is working fine. I hooked it up to a monitor (not via HDMI) and it's normal.
- Bot HDMI cables are working. I switched them between the PS3 and htpc.
- The HDMI port isn't working. I connected my PS3 to it, and I got nothing but the blue screen and hum.
- The PS3 works fine in all the other HDMI ports. I tested them all.

Now here's the problem: The htpc doesn't seem to be working via HDMI in any of the other ports.

I've tried connecting it to them, but I only get a blue screen and no audio. When I hooked up the htpc to a monitor and the rx simultaneously, it automatically went into dual-monitor mode with normal signal on the monitor, but nothing on the TV except a blank blue screen.

I figure that either whatever killed the rx's HDMI port also killed the htpc's hdmi port, or I need to change some setting in Windows.

I'm going to check the settings now.

[Humes]

Ran a few more tests. My laptop works via HDMI on all the rx ports except the dead one.

More importantly, though: The htpc doesn't display when I connect it directly to the TV via HDMI. That seems to confirm that the HDMI port on the PC is dead or faulty as well.

One other note: I've seen the brief losses of signal from the htpc in the past. I'd be watching a movie and then both video and sound would blank out for a second. Didn't happen often, and I thought it might have just been some Windows or XBMC thing.

[Humes]

If it comes down to abandoning the motherboard's HDMI output, I realise I'll need a DVI to HDMI connector for video between the htpc and the rx. What will I need to connect the audio from the htpc to the rx?

The rx is a Onkyo HT-R390

[Soundstream_626]

Guys I need a little advice with Netflix. Basically I`m looking for a device that will work with my TV. I bought a LG BD630 Blu Ray player, but everytime I try to connect to netflix with it, it tells me "Cannot stream from this area", when I use Youtube through the player it runs fine. I paid for the same proxy Duane recommends and everything runs smoothly on the pc.

What Device do you recommend?

[copper_shot]

^ does the bluray player have a region or country selection? put it as US


i use the PS3, easy to navigate

but i think the apple tv is good for the price too, never used it though...

[Soundstream_626]

I will check for that option, but i don`t remember seeing it offhand. Thanks for the suggestion

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

Guys I need a little advice with Netflix. Basically I`m looking for a device that will work with my TV. I bought a LG BD630 Blu Ray player, but everytime I try to connect to netflix with it, it tells me "Cannot stream from this area", when I use Youtube through the player it runs fine. I paid for the same proxy Duane recommends and everything runs smoothly on the pc.

What Device do you recommend?

Apple TV is probably the best option for Netflix and everything else IMO

It's US$99 and it has movie trailers, youtube, netflix, vimeo and a ton of other stuff right out the box.

there are no moving parts and it doesnt over heat like a player or game console would

plus if you have an iPhone, iPod or iPad the Apple TV gets 100x better with AirPlay

simple setup, network connection wifi or wired and an HDMI cable - done

[Centric]

I need some assistance. I bought a LG 5.1 Home Theatre System on Monday. Everything works fine except one thing. It doesn't play burn DVDs. Is that a manufacturer problem or something? It plays original DVDs fine, but not burn ones at all.

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

HDMI has DRM built-in so you will find that burned discs may not play. Also not all players support playing copied discs.

That's one of the values in buying original bluray discs if you want to watch HD

if it's not a licensing issue then the player may not support it - you may have to stream the movie from a USB device or otherwise use another player or source.

[Soundstream_626]

I found out what my problem was. I had to set the dns addresses on the player as well as the router . It works great now.

[Humes]

As a follow-up to my issue higher up on this page: I solved the problem with a DVI-to-HDMI cable off Amazon.

It carries both video and sound. It's unfortunate that I seem to have lost an HDMI port on the rx and htpc, but the important thing is that the system is complete again.

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

As a follow-up to my issue higher up on this page: I solved the problem with a DVI-to-HDMI cable off Amazon.

It carries both video and sound. It's unfortunate that I seem to have lost an HDMI port on the rx and htpc, but the important thing is that the system is complete again.

how does a DVI cable carry audio?

[ru$$ell]

As a follow-up to my issue higher up on this page: I solved the problem with a DVI-to-HDMI cable off Amazon.

It carries both video and sound. It's unfortunate that I seem to have lost an HDMI port on the rx and htpc, but the important thing is that the system is complete again.

how does a DVI cable carry audio?

x2,DVI is just hdmi minus audio basically.


On a side note,been paying for unblock.us account as well as netflix for the past 2 months,i hardly ever use it,but it's totally worth it compared to the basic crap netflix was giving me.Gonna get a Apple TV and throw it in the HT room sometime in the future.

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

^ unblock-us.com really shines when you use it with Pandora, Vudu, hulu+ etc
even Amazon Prime video on demand, ABC.com, CBS.com

basically everything that blocks outsiders from US content