It has been a busy couple of months for me. Busy with work of course, but still got time to get into my hobbies. As promise, will be writing about my newly installed "power" inside my HT Room. The Onkyo 806 is indeed a great piece of equipment. I will also touch on my newly renewed hobby of photography, having recently acquired my first Canon DSLR, the Rebel XS or 1000D for people from Asia. Also got a couple of cheap ass lenses to pair with this camera, and I can say things are indeed looking up. Lastly, I will also write on my family's first trip abroad together to Hong Kong, it was indeed an adventure, was really glad my two boys and wife enjoyed the trip immensely as I did myself.
Of course, all of this will take sometime to write. I am lazy as hell, but hopefully it will be done within the month of May, articles and pictures hopefully. Watch out for it.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
The "NEW" Power!
I am in a writing mood right now, two articles in a day!
Anyway, I know I said a while back that my HT journey has ended in terms of hardware acquisitions. But sad to say its not, after a few weeks of thinking, and with my wife's blessing (very important point here!), I decided to change the heart of my HT Room, the Audio Video Receiver, what does this equipment do? It actually does pretty much everything for your HT Room to work effectively. It does video / audio switching, meaning all your sources like DVD players, CD players, Cable TV and some old equipments like Tape deck or even Turntable can be run through this machine. It also has a tuner wherein you can use the machine as your radio whether AM or FM listening and lastly, and the most important, it powers the sources' audio signal for it to output out of the speakers connected to it. That's why when I say heart of an HT Room, it really is!
I currently am using the Onkyo 604. Its basically a 2006 model but I bought it as a NOS (New Old Stock) in February of 2008. When I bought it, Onkyo just launched their 605 and in late 2008 launched their new 606, which were both award winners and at the same time best sellers for them having great value / feature for the money they are asking from consumers.
I don't want to upgrade to a 606 since doing so might not be a revolutionary change for me. I look at other brands too, and the Harman Kardon, Yamaha and Denon caught my eye. unfortunately the Harman has issues with its firmware with various user complaints all over the internet. The Denon was very good but pretty much out of my budget.
The Yamaha 663 model really got me thinking for a long time, its got hi-def audio decoding, its got pre-outs for added external amplifier for future upgrade, its hdmi 1.3a compliant, more than average amplification power and price very competitively. All these features are not present in my Onkyo 604, and also are the features I am looking for as an upgrade. BUT..... sadly in the end, I decided and went back to get an ONKYO. An Onkyo 806 specifically.
Front Panel
Anyway, I know I said a while back that my HT journey has ended in terms of hardware acquisitions. But sad to say its not, after a few weeks of thinking, and with my wife's blessing (very important point here!), I decided to change the heart of my HT Room, the Audio Video Receiver, what does this equipment do? It actually does pretty much everything for your HT Room to work effectively. It does video / audio switching, meaning all your sources like DVD players, CD players, Cable TV and some old equipments like Tape deck or even Turntable can be run through this machine. It also has a tuner wherein you can use the machine as your radio whether AM or FM listening and lastly, and the most important, it powers the sources' audio signal for it to output out of the speakers connected to it. That's why when I say heart of an HT Room, it really is!
I currently am using the Onkyo 604. Its basically a 2006 model but I bought it as a NOS (New Old Stock) in February of 2008. When I bought it, Onkyo just launched their 605 and in late 2008 launched their new 606, which were both award winners and at the same time best sellers for them having great value / feature for the money they are asking from consumers.
I don't want to upgrade to a 606 since doing so might not be a revolutionary change for me. I look at other brands too, and the Harman Kardon, Yamaha and Denon caught my eye. unfortunately the Harman has issues with its firmware with various user complaints all over the internet. The Denon was very good but pretty much out of my budget.
The Yamaha 663 model really got me thinking for a long time, its got hi-def audio decoding, its got pre-outs for added external amplifier for future upgrade, its hdmi 1.3a compliant, more than average amplification power and price very competitively. All these features are not present in my Onkyo 604, and also are the features I am looking for as an upgrade. BUT..... sadly in the end, I decided and went back to get an ONKYO. An Onkyo 806 specifically.
Front Panel
Back Panel with Audyssey MIC and Remote
Its $150 more expensive than the Yamaha 663, but I chose it over the Yamaha because mainly of several factors:
- Audyssey Multi EQ -
- THX Ultra 2 Plus Certification -
- Faroudja DCDi Cinema Video Processing -
- More Amplification Power -
- Five (5) HDMI 1.3a Inputs -
- THX Ultra 2 Plus Certification -
- Faroudja DCDi Cinema Video Processing -
- More Amplification Power -
- Five (5) HDMI 1.3a Inputs -
And all the features that the Yamaha 663 has, the Onkyo 806 have too. So, for a $150 premium, I felt like I am getting more value for money. So in the end, I think with this acquisition, my "NEW" power will last me atleast 5 years before I even think of changing to a newer model.
I am now waiting for my unit, it will take around a month before it arrives from the USA. Will post some actual pictures of unboxing and setting it up. So the waiting game starts....
I am now waiting for my unit, it will take around a month before it arrives from the USA. Will post some actual pictures of unboxing and setting it up. So the waiting game starts....
Acoustic Treatment
This is a topic I am not very confident to talk about. I simply don't know enough, even after researching through the internet left more questions than answers. But at any rate, I started to acoustically treat my HT Room so as to maximize my equipment's capabilities.
The above photo shows the two acoustic panels I placed behind the two floorstanders. By putting these two panels, imaging vastly improved for both stereo music and home theater movies soundtrack. I could not believe the difference only two panels do! UNBELIEVABLE!
Next, I bought a pair of 5 foot triangular bass traps from the same supplier to be placed on my back room's corner, and what these two monsters do is to trap the bass and make it sound and "feel" better. What I can tell you is before these two, my bass was all over, and my room has some modal ringing wherein when there are explosions in the soundtrack, I can actually feel my windows and "kisame" shake and bake so to speak, which is not cool. Now, after the placement, bass is tight, no more ringing, and I feel the bass! And I am loving it! its like getting a new subwoofer!
Overall, I am very satisfied with these new acquisitions. Its less than the cost of a good pair of bookshelf speakers but the effect is huge! I have plans of getting two more acoustic panels on the back sides of the room and I feel that my HT Room is set.
The above photo shows the two acoustic panels I placed behind the two floorstanders. By putting these two panels, imaging vastly improved for both stereo music and home theater movies soundtrack. I could not believe the difference only two panels do! UNBELIEVABLE!
Next, I bought a pair of 5 foot triangular bass traps from the same supplier to be placed on my back room's corner, and what these two monsters do is to trap the bass and make it sound and "feel" better. What I can tell you is before these two, my bass was all over, and my room has some modal ringing wherein when there are explosions in the soundtrack, I can actually feel my windows and "kisame" shake and bake so to speak, which is not cool. Now, after the placement, bass is tight, no more ringing, and I feel the bass! And I am loving it! its like getting a new subwoofer!
Overall, I am very satisfied with these new acquisitions. Its less than the cost of a good pair of bookshelf speakers but the effect is huge! I have plans of getting two more acoustic panels on the back sides of the room and I feel that my HT Room is set.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
The PJ Set-up!
Well, finally settled with the Benq W500 projector. Now setting it up right will be the key to a blissful and satisfying home theater experience. I will post the pictures to show you guys how the room transformed. Nothing revolutionary but i am happy with the results.
This is the old set-up, note that my main viewing panel is my 37" toshiba regza lcd, its a native 720p panel that accepts 1080p signals.
This is the old back part of the room, that is my youngest son lounging away on a custom made hardwood daybed with uniform upholstery even with the La-Z-Boy recliner.
Here are three pictures of the new front part of the room. First one with the lcd panel wall-mounted. The second picture shows when the projector screen is fully deployed, hiding the lcd panel behind it, ready for projector action. Its a 92" (diagonal) 16:9 wide screen projector screen, its glass beaded and has a gain of 2.0; meaning it will make a projected image brighter! The last pictures shows what the set-up looks like when the screen is fully retracted. I have no choice but to have the wires exposed as this is a motorized screen, hopefully I can find a cable manager to hide it and paint the cable manager with the same paint as the wall.
The next two pictures are the new back part of the room. Nothing has change except for the projector mounting that has been added. As you can see on the second picture the mounting I have chosen is actually a wall mount but when mounted looks like a ceiling mount! The main difference is I don't have to mount the thing on the ceiling which is more cumbersome and flimsy. I like the result, since this mount was custom made.
The last set of pictures are some screen shots of the projector in action. And all I can say is . . . . WOW! Its really different, watching anything smaller just won't be the same again. First picture is an angle shot of the whole system in play, second shot is the same screen shot taken in front, its Norah Jones! Last three pictures are screen shots of I.Robot, Star Wars - Clone Wars and Transformers the movie.
That's all for now, and I can say my HT journey is more or less done. Any upgrades or changes will now be minor, its now time to enjoy the room!
BTW! Last day of the year! Happy New Year to all! Have a great 2009!
This is the old set-up, note that my main viewing panel is my 37" toshiba regza lcd, its a native 720p panel that accepts 1080p signals.
This is the old back part of the room, that is my youngest son lounging away on a custom made hardwood daybed with uniform upholstery even with the La-Z-Boy recliner.
Here are three pictures of the new front part of the room. First one with the lcd panel wall-mounted. The second picture shows when the projector screen is fully deployed, hiding the lcd panel behind it, ready for projector action. Its a 92" (diagonal) 16:9 wide screen projector screen, its glass beaded and has a gain of 2.0; meaning it will make a projected image brighter! The last pictures shows what the set-up looks like when the screen is fully retracted. I have no choice but to have the wires exposed as this is a motorized screen, hopefully I can find a cable manager to hide it and paint the cable manager with the same paint as the wall.
The next two pictures are the new back part of the room. Nothing has change except for the projector mounting that has been added. As you can see on the second picture the mounting I have chosen is actually a wall mount but when mounted looks like a ceiling mount! The main difference is I don't have to mount the thing on the ceiling which is more cumbersome and flimsy. I like the result, since this mount was custom made.
The last set of pictures are some screen shots of the projector in action. And all I can say is . . . . WOW! Its really different, watching anything smaller just won't be the same again. First picture is an angle shot of the whole system in play, second shot is the same screen shot taken in front, its Norah Jones! Last three pictures are screen shots of I.Robot, Star Wars - Clone Wars and Transformers the movie.
That's all for now, and I can say my HT journey is more or less done. Any upgrades or changes will now be minor, its now time to enjoy the room!
BTW! Last day of the year! Happy New Year to all! Have a great 2009!
Monday, December 1, 2008
The PJ Route!
Wow, its been a while since I wrote something on my blog. But it has been a very busy few months with both work and play. As my last article said, I am now enjoying my media room to the fullest, but the buying bug hit me again. Joining the forum Pinoy DVD has got something to do with it. Seeing all those members upgrading their gears was just too much for me to ignore. So the next upgrade path for me was to go the PJ route.
What is a PJ? In Pinoy DVD speak, its a projector, whether its a 3LCD or DLP kind, as long as it projects into a screen then its a PJ. For the HT enthusiasts, a PJ is the ultimate set-up, imagine watching movies on a 90" to 133" big screen, that is humongous! LCD TVs and Plasma's just can't compare, if you can buy a 80" panel, the price is just ridiculously expensive, you might as well just invest on a PJ. And the PJ I am talking about is not the everyday projector we use in the office, those are data projectors that projects low resolution images, in 4:3 (square) aspect ratio and does not have HD inputs like DVI or HDMI. The PJ HT enthusiasts wants are those that at least are 720p capable, has HDMI inputs, and projects a 16:9 (widescreen) aspect ratio. So what did I got myself?
The BENQ W500 720p 3LCD PJ! That's what. There are of course others, the Panasonics, Epsons, Sanyos and Optomas. But I chose the Benq because of its price, warranty and the inclusion of the HQV (Hollywood Quality Video) Reon VX video processor chip, that would make any standard definition (DVD) and even high definition (HD) movies come into life with better colors, contrast and 3D like image!
I will write another article when everything is set-up. Right now, I had to have the PJ mounting customized, just acquired a 90" motorized glass beaded PJ screen, am so lucky I got it for a song! and of course got those standard brackets to hang the PJ screen and to wall mount our nearly a year old 37" Toshiba LCD TV, for those karaoke and cable viewing moments.
Till the next update!
What is a PJ? In Pinoy DVD speak, its a projector, whether its a 3LCD or DLP kind, as long as it projects into a screen then its a PJ. For the HT enthusiasts, a PJ is the ultimate set-up, imagine watching movies on a 90" to 133" big screen, that is humongous! LCD TVs and Plasma's just can't compare, if you can buy a 80" panel, the price is just ridiculously expensive, you might as well just invest on a PJ. And the PJ I am talking about is not the everyday projector we use in the office, those are data projectors that projects low resolution images, in 4:3 (square) aspect ratio and does not have HD inputs like DVI or HDMI. The PJ HT enthusiasts wants are those that at least are 720p capable, has HDMI inputs, and projects a 16:9 (widescreen) aspect ratio. So what did I got myself?
The BENQ W500 720p 3LCD PJ! That's what. There are of course others, the Panasonics, Epsons, Sanyos and Optomas. But I chose the Benq because of its price, warranty and the inclusion of the HQV (Hollywood Quality Video) Reon VX video processor chip, that would make any standard definition (DVD) and even high definition (HD) movies come into life with better colors, contrast and 3D like image!
I will write another article when everything is set-up. Right now, I had to have the PJ mounting customized, just acquired a 90" motorized glass beaded PJ screen, am so lucky I got it for a song! and of course got those standard brackets to hang the PJ screen and to wall mount our nearly a year old 37" Toshiba LCD TV, for those karaoke and cable viewing moments.
Till the next update!
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
My Media Players!
I am now enjoying my media room! And my wife is both happy and unhappy, she is happy because I always want to be at home, unhappy because I could lock myself inside the room for hours just being a couch potato (my wife can only withstand 2 movies in a row). Anyway, I have been revisiting my old DVD collection and boy-oh-boy does my collection look much better now when I play them on my Pioneer DV-600AV, its an upscaling DVD player, which turns your old DVD (480 line resolution) to 720p or even 1080p resolution making it very close to HiDef, it does it by upconverting the dvd standard image thru interpolation. Its a very nice player.
The funny thing is out of the three media players I have, the Popcorn Hour A-100 is the most often use device in my media room right now. You can get it locally from http://myhdworld.mutiply.com/ you can talk to the guys there and they are very accomodating and their service is fantastic! I will try to post some screen shots as my next article to show you the difference in Picture Quality among the different media players I have. As a fellow Pinoy DVD member says "I am now in HD Nirvana!"
But of course, the purpose of me wanting my very own media room is to take the HiDef plunge and I willingly did so by choosing HDDVD, as I mentioned a few articles back, its a dead format but its damn cheap right now, so Bluray has to wait. My player is the Toshiba HD-A3 player which I got from a Pinoy DVD member for a song! And I am very happy with it, bought a lot of HDDVDs from Amazon (its always on sale) and sometimes from the pre-owned market here in the Philippines, would you believe I got the KingKong HDDVD for only 300 pesos! That's what you call a bargain, and the PQ (picture quality) and SQ (sound quality) is just awesome compared to your standard definition DVDs (upscaled or not).
And to round up my stable of players is the Popcorn Hour A-100 Network Media Tank. Its categorized as a media player, but its basically a computer hardware that plays all kinds of video and audio files straight from a hard disk, or even a usb flash drive. Its an awesome piece of equipment. For its small form factor, you could never thought that it can do all the stuff it was advertised to do. One of the "in" thing now is to turn all HiDef materials into HiDef files and they put all this content into an AV container, and the most popular today is the Matroska container or .mkv behind the AV files they are containing. And these HiDef .mkv files plays flawlessly from my Popcorn Hour A-100. The PQ is excellent, the SQ is still the same as old DVDs with its Dolby and DTS sound, but in general its acceptable.
The funny thing is out of the three media players I have, the Popcorn Hour A-100 is the most often use device in my media room right now. You can get it locally from http://myhdworld.mutiply.com/ you can talk to the guys there and they are very accomodating and their service is fantastic! I will try to post some screen shots as my next article to show you the difference in Picture Quality among the different media players I have. As a fellow Pinoy DVD member says "I am now in HD Nirvana!"
Saturday, July 12, 2008
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 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.
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 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.
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, upscalesstandard 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 plantthat make everything works!
These two US Audio subwoofers, an 8 incher and a 12 incher providesthe 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!
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