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[Calina]

Going to be quitting FFXI when XIV comes out and needed something new to occupy my free time so de-sided to build a new home theater.

First thing I am planing on getting is a panasonic VT25 50".Wondering if anyone has one or have used 1 just wanna get an idea of how it is. Bestbuy i went to dident have any on the floor to check out when i went nor would i trust them to give me any usefull info on it anyway lol

Its been a few years since ive really looked into plasmas and iam wondering is burn-in still as big of an issue giving that iam planing to use this to double as a monitor.Have Hundreds of HD/SD movies and TV shows backed up onto my PC so ill be using it often.Also looking forward to running games in 3D. So need to know if i should find a 3D lcd instead?

As for receiver looking at this:

ONKYO TX-SR608 7.2-Channel Home Theater Receiver

Also noticed found the TX-SR508 which seems to be identical just only 7.1 and 200$ less.Am i missing something or should i just go with the TX-SR508?

ONKYO TX-SR508 7.1-Channel Home Theater Receiver

As for speakers iam not really sure whats good but i was looking at these:

Polk Audio Monitor 50 Black Two-way Floorstanding Loudspeaker Each

But am new to all this so got a few prolly very dumb questions.first off front and rear L/R I can basically just buy 4 of those and ill be set? And in the pic I of the back I noticed their where 2 sets of +/-. just curious as to why theirs 2 sets? And finally prolly the dumbest question of them all what type of Wire do i need to get?

As for sub and center was looking at these:

Polk Audio PSW Series PSW10 Black 10-inch Powered Subwoofer Each

Polk Audio CS2 Series II Center Channel Speaker (Black) Each

Was also thinking of just building my own like mini did since am comfortable building with wood but Ive never been very good with wiring on a scale of 1-10 how hard is it to wire your own speakers?

Any info/comments would be much appreciated thank you^^

[kareface]

Going to be quitting FFXI when XIV comes out and needed something new to occupy my free time so de-sided to build a new home theater.

First thing I am planing on getting is a panasonic VT25 50".Wondering if anyone has one or have used 1 just wanna get an idea of how it is. Bestbuy i went to dident have any on the floor to check out when i went nor would i trust them to give me any usefull info on it anyway lol

Panie makes great TV's, expecially plasmas. You'll be more than satisfied.

Its been a few years since ive really looked into plasmas and iam wondering is burn-in still as big of an issue giving that iam planing to use this to double as a monitor.Have Hundreds of HD/SD movies and TV shows backed up onto my PC so ill be using it often.Also looking forward to running games in 3D. So need to know if i should find a 3D lcd instead?

Stick with the plasma. I'd take a few trips to the store and really check out 3D before I spent the money on it atm. It's new, so you're paying a premium for it and most of the people I know who setup 3DTV's hardly use the feature, if at all. What little content it currently has you can't use for more than a couple hours before getting a headache. However, if you like it a lot there's no reason not to get it. Just remember, it doesn't have the same depth as the movies you see in the theaters.

ONKYO TX-SR608 7.2-Channel Home Theater Receiver

Also noticed found the TX-SR508 which seems to be identical just only 7.1 and 200$ less.Am i missing something or should i just go with the TX-SR508?

ONKYO TX-SR508 7.1-Channel Home Theater Receiver

Onkyo has groups of receivers based on common archetypes. The 508 isn't just a model down, but a lot of the internals are different. The big differences that matter to you, 4 HDMI inputs vs. 6 and a lot less watts per channel, among other things. The 608 is worth the difference.

But am new to all this so got a few prolly very dumb questions.first off front and rear L/R I can basically just buy 4 of those and ill be set? And in the pic I of the back I noticed their where 2 sets of +/-. just curious as to why theirs 2 sets? And finally prolly the dumbest question of them all what type of Wire do i need to get?
As for sub and center was looking at these:

Polk Audio PSW Series PSW10 Black 10-inch Powered Subwoofer Each

Polk Audio CS2 Series II Center Channel Speaker (Black) Each

Was also thinking of just building my own like mini did since am comfortable building with wood but Ive never been very good with wiring on a scale of 1-10 how hard is it to wire your own speakers?

Any info/comments would be much appreciated thank you^^

Polk isn't great. They aren't terrible, but they aren't great. Their subs are crap tho. What I would suggest if you are doing this as a hobby, for the love of Christ don't start with polk, you'll end up reselling them. In your price range I think a used pair of Monitor Audio speakers would be great. You also don't need full tower speakers, you could get a pair in your price range, but a couple smaller ones would work just as well. The only difference is the full towers will go lower, which is worthless to you if you plan to pick up a sub. It would be like buying a car that can do 200mph and limiting it to 80, you might as well save the money and get a car that does 80. The order for buying the speakers should be R&L main speakers -> center channel -> sub -> surrounds. The surrounds are worthless most of the time where the center channel will produce 80%+ of the sound. Getting a nice center is great if you watch a lot of movies. Also, don't get a cheap sub. Save if you have to and get one later, you'll regret it if you settle on something for now.

I don't have enough time to really respond the way I would care. I'll check in later tonight maybe.

[Calina]

Panie makes great TV's, expecially plasmas. You'll be more than satisfied.

Stick with the plasma. I'd take a few trips to the store and really check out 3D before I spent the money on it atm. It's new, so you're paying a premium for it and most of the people I know who setup 3DTV's hardly use the feature, if at all. What little content it currently has you can't use for more than a couple hours before getting a headache. However, if you like it a lot there's no reason not to get it. Just remember, it doesn't have the same depth as the movies you see in the theaters.

Onkyo has groups of receivers based on common archetypes. The 508 isn't just a model down, but a lot of the internals are different. The big differences that matter to you, 4 HDMI inputs vs. 6 and a lot less watts per channel, among other things. The 608 is worth the difference.

Polk isn't great. They aren't terrible, but they aren't great. Their subs are crap tho. What I would suggest if you are doing this as a hobby, for the love of Christ don't start with polk, you'll end up reselling them. In your price range I think a used pair of Monitor Audio speakers would be great. You also don't need full tower speakers, you could get a pair in your price range, but a couple smaller ones would work just as well. The only difference is the full towers will go lower, which is worthless to you if you plan to pick up a sub. It would be like buying a car that can do 200mph and limiting it to 80, you might as well save the money and get a car that does 80. The order for buying the speakers should be R&L main speakers -> center channel -> sub -> surrounds. The surrounds are worthless most of the time where the center channel will produce 80%+ of the sound. Getting a nice center is great if you watch a lot of movies. Also, don't get a cheap sub. Save if you have to and get one later, you'll regret it if you settle on something for now.

I don't have enough time to really respond the way I would care. I'll check in later tonight maybe.

Thanks for the info

gonna buy the system piece by piece starting with the receiver(decided on the 608 thz^^) and the front L/R.Then the center and rears after that.Want to wait on sub for now apartment am in atm rarely going to be able to use it cause of the ppl downstairs bang up whenever i turn 1 on regardless how low it is and threaten to call the cops. Going to be moving in like 6months so going to wait till then to get sub.When i move if neighbors aren't a problem am gonna go for 2 nice subs since the 608 can do it.

as for the TV decided to wait till i move to get a new 1 and stick with my 40" HDTV for now.hopefully buy the time i move prices will come down more.And only reasons i wanted to upgrade to a 3d tv was mainly cause extra processing g power added in to drive the 3d also improves 2d performance a bit and to try out FFXIV/other games in 3d(Ive never really enjoyed 3d movies in the past i doubt that's going to change always seemed like a gimmick to me).

And am fairly sure i got all the wiring figured out after looking at a few guides it seems pretty simple.

[zoobernut]

Not sure what Kareface's opinions of them are or what your budget are (I completely agree with Kare about the Polks) but I really like Paradigm speakers.

http://www.paradigm.com/

And for electronics I like Rotel or Anthem. This is purely based on personal experience. I had quite a bit of experience in the past with Rotel, Anthem, Denon, Yamaha. Though I haven't dealt with home theater electronics since the days of 6.1 surround so my information on this front is outdated. But I don't see why the quality level would change that much for Rotel and they always were very well built electronics.

http://www.rotel.com/na/

http://www.anthemav.com/?gclid=CPH4s...FRecnAodHg_L6A

But it really depends on your budget and what your personal preference in sound is. All speakers have unique sounds so I recommend listening to any speaker you plan on buying before you purchase them.

[Furtwangler]

Paradigm center channels are worth their weight in gold as far as I'm concerned. I've had one for 3 years and it's taken all kind of shit, sounds great, and is affordable.

[Tagus]

Stick with the plasma.

I got a new Samsung 52 inch HD plasma at circuit city's closing days sale last year, and my lovely ffxi hp, name, map, and chat lines are burned right in that motherfucker from playing on a 360 for a couple of months before switching to PC for good.

Food for thought I guess. The thing that I don't really understand is that I had my chat lines setup to gradually vanish as time passed after the log info came through for each line, and the burn is still clear as day... meaning I didn't get the burn from a week's worth of WG idle or something. My wife has really bad vision and can't even see it, which is kind of a godsend because she'd no doubt rip me a new one if it bothered her... but I see it every time the screen goes white. It's VERY frustrating how often I see that shit. It's ironic and makes me rage even thinking about it, but watching things in HD actually makes it more noticeable because there's less static in the part of the picture where there isn't any burn.

[kareface]

Not sure what Kareface's opinions of them are or what your budget are (I completely agree with Kare about the Polks) but I really like Paradigm speakers.

Their high end can be harsh at times, but on the whole I really like their products. I have their surrounds and they sound great. I wouldn't get their subs, for the price I think there are better options out there.

And for electronics I like Rotel or Anthem. This is purely based on personal experience. I had quite a bit of experience in the past with Rotel, Anthem, Denon, Yamaha. Though I haven't dealt with home theater electronics since the days of 6.1 surround so my information on this front is outdated. But I don't see why the quality level would change that much for Rotel and they always were very well built electronics.

I'm not the biggest fan of Yamaha, but the other manufactures all make great products. I rarely find myself amazed with Yamaha, but I also haven't worked with them as much as other brands.

I got a new Samsung 52 inch HD plasma at circuit city's closing days sale last year, and my lovely ffxi hp, name, map, and chat lines are burned right in that motherfucker from playing on a 360 for a couple of months before switching to PC for good.

Food for thought I guess. The thing that I don't really understand is that I had my chat lines setup to gradually vanish as time passed after the log info came through for each line, and the burn is still clear as day... meaning I didn't get the burn from a week's worth of WG idle or something. My wife has really bad vision and can't even see it, which is kind of a godsend because she'd no doubt rip me a new one if it bothered her... but I see it every time the screen goes white. It's VERY frustrating how often I see that shit. It's ironic and makes me rage even thinking about it, but watching things in HD actually makes it more noticeable because there's less static in the part of the picture where there isn't any burn.

There are things you can do to help reduce existing burn-in, even just running a blank white screen can help. I've noticed that most of the instances you see burn in from a video game is when the owner cranked up the contrast and brightness to see the game better. Some TV's out of box levels are set too high as well, and any game mode settings will likely have them up high enough you might give it a break periodically. If your TV has anti-burn-in options, make sure to enable them and read up on their settings. You can set how the pixels are shifted to help reduce burn-in depending on your specific situation. If you get a plasma again in the future, have it calibrated. A properly calibrated screen will produce a clear image with out the need for huge contrast or brightness settings. Plasmas can burn in, so can LCD's if you really try. However, I can't think of someone who's done everything right and still ended up with burn-in.

[zoobernut]

Their high end can be harsh at times, but on the whole I really like their products. I have their surrounds and they sound great. I wouldn't get their subs, for the price I think there are better options out there.

I'm not the biggest fan of Yamaha, but the other manufactures all make great products. I rarely find myself amazed with Yamaha, but I also haven't worked with them as much as other brands.

I completely agree with you on Yamaha. I just listed that as a product that I sold in the past and had experience with. I consistently was more impressed with Denon at the same price range. My opinions on electronics are outdated though as I haven't worked in the home theater industry for about 5 years now and a lot has changed. Rotel is still my favorite though because I know their build quality is very high and they use really well made torus shaped power supplies which reduces noise in high voltage circuits.

As for Paradigm I have Studio 20's and I love them I have never heard the harshness that you are speaking of in fact my experience has been the exact opposite that they tend to sound more soft and natural to me. But again my speakers are the versions from quite a few years ago so their newer Studio series might be a little bit harsh or you might be referring to their new line that comes in above the Studio series.

As for their subs I also agree, I was never really impressed with the Paradigm subs. I am totally drawing a blank right now on the name (EDIT: Sunfire is the name of the company) but there was one other company we sold sun-something that made amazing subs but they were again on the pricey side. Kareface do you know what brand I am talking about?


I would HIGHLY recommend you make sure that you get a center channel and fronts that are acoustically matched. Mismatching your fronts and centers creates a really weird sound when something moves across the screen and its pitch or sound quality changes. The rears are slightly less important like Kareface said they are not dominate in your surround sound system and aren't used as often.

[Tagus]

There are things you can do to help reduce existing burn-in, even just running a blank white screen can help. I've noticed that most of the instances you see burn in from a video game is when the owner cranked up the contrast and brightness to see the game better. Some TV's out of box levels are set too high as well, and any game mode settings will likely have them up high enough you might give it a break periodically. If your TV has anti-burn-in options, make sure to enable them and read up on their settings. You can set how the pixels are shifted to help reduce burn-in depending on your specific situation. If you get a plasma again in the future, have it calibrated. A properly calibrated screen will produce a clear image with out the need for huge contrast or brightness settings. Plasmas can burn in, so can LCD's if you really try. However, I can't think of someone who's done everything right and still ended up with burn-in.

Thanks for the advice! I'm gonna try this the first chance I get. I'd definitely agree with the fact that I didn't do something right. I should have avoided playing ffxi on a plasma with a 360, but the new TV was like a siren song.