My Media Room!

After our house renovation ended a couple of months ago. My guess is my wife's centerpiece would definitely hands down the kitchen and our master's bedroom, but for me, it's definitely our MEDIA ROOM! It really took some convincing for my wife to agree in giving me a standalone room just for my toys. After a compromise (room can be used as a guest room), I got my own MEDIA ROOM!

It will take a long piece to write and tell the story about the room's evolution, so I decided to just post pictures upon pictures of it, as they say "a picture's worth a thousand words".

The Renovation

The room still needing a coat of paint! Old stuff still cluttered all over.

The old parquet floor also got a much needed rehab!

The Furnitures

The Molave Daybed, handcrafted from Nueva Vizcaya.
The old Tangile bookshelves from my parents, repainted to be used as a dvd rack!

The La-Z-Boy, no Media Room should be missing one!

Sabre TV Rack, got this pre-owned! looks like new.

Sigma Rack, for my AV eqipments!

The EQUIPMENTS

The centerpiece of the room, my new Toshiba 37" LCD TV!

The speakers, Wharfedale Atlantics, also pre-owned, bought it for a song,
not seen in the picture are two surround speakers to complete the set.

Toshiba HD DVD Player HD-A3, although the loser in the hidef contest,
I got it cheap, HD DVD are cheap too!

Pioneer DV-600AV, an uspcaling DVD player, upscales
standard 480i DVDs to hidef resolution of
720p/1080i/1080p through interpolation.

Popcorn Hour A-100 Network Media Tank, a harddisk based media player,
plays all sorts of video & audio files including MKVs (for hidef content!).
All I need now are hidef MKVs!

Hyundai Premiere 98+ Karaoke Player, for those singing moments!

Onkyo TX-604G, a 7.1 HDMI based AV receiver, the power plant
that make everything works!

These two US Audio subwoofers, an 8 incher and a 12 incher provides
the oomph factor in movies and music! there are better ones,
but these babies will do fine..... for now!

The Nintendo Wii, need I say more.

No Media Room is complete without these networking stuff!

The universal remote to control them all! The Logitech Harmony One!

The Almost Finished Product (90%)

Front part of the Media Room.

The viewing area, back part of the Media Room.

The DVD cabinet, now full! Look at Stitch.

The customary movie posters for effect.

Well, that is all for now, I hope some of you can find inspiration from this place, I know some of you might have bigger or better place, then good for you. The most important thing is to enjoy all the hardwork and money put into projects like this. I know I do! Ciao!

My Birthday GIFT!

Its my birthday yesterday, yep, just turned 38! And I am feeling good about myself. And I owe it to myself to get me one mean gift, something I have been longing to have and the best thing is my wife agreed I could have one! (believe me that's IMPORTANT)

Hehehe, still don't know what I am talking about... it's definitely not a tattoo or body piercing for I am not a self-mutilating type of person. What I got is something more techie, something that will give me ends of fun... it's an LCD TV!

I went to Shangrila mall and went to Listening In Style, its a home theater audio and video shop where you can buy all your home entertainment device and gadgets from. Its got branches in Alabang (D-Cinema), SM Megamall (Listening Room), Trinoma (Theater Works) and Gadgets In Style also in Shangrila mall. Its got the lowest price on LCD TVs as far as I know, and I think that's saying a lot, I researched and researched before I decided on the brand and the price point which I think that is both acceptable to me and my wife. And this place supplied my LCD TV at 10 grand less than any other appliance store in the whole city. So if you are in the market for an LCD TV, just go to any of their shops in the Metro, or you can go to their website http://www.listeninginstyle.com.ph you can't go wrong!

Back to my gift. What I decided to get was a Toshiba Regza C3500E LCD TV, I got myself a 37 incher, just right for my planned media room. I got myself an LCD because me and my kids are into video gaming, me and my wife also plan to use the set as a HUGE computer screen for those net surfing moments and still sneak in those movies and cable tv shows on the side hence the reason we passed over the plasma tv option (although if you are really into movies and cable TV, I would suggest to get a plasma instead).

Why the Tosh, well its got great specs, its got a pair of 1.3a HDMI (the latest), its 1080p capable, its got the famous Meta Brain Pro chip for those image processing chore, its got a newly designed jet slit speakers were Tosh and Onkyo developed together, elegant piano-black finish and a hosts of standard features like multi system, lots of inputs and stuff. So overall its a great set. I know, the Sony Bravia line is the way to go, but sorry, I don't have enough moolah to buy those, my family's got to eat. And besides, there was this article that did a face-off between a Sony Bravia U, Samsung R8 and this Tosh, and the Tosh blew the reviewers away with its performance and price point. What I saw in the shop was a great machine and showed great pictures (BTW, beware of showroom screen pictures, they look great, right? That is because those sets are hooked up either through Blu-Ray or HD-DVD players or they are directly hooked up to a hard drive showing off high definition material). That is why I still can't get you my personal opinion about DVD movie, HD movie, cable tv, computer and video game image just yet, I will be writing that in the near future for you guys who are interested.

But for now, I am in tech heaven. A great gift to myself for my birthday... But come to think of it, the only thing missing now is my PLAYSTATION 3!