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A word about DVI - HDMI adapters. This is from my own personal experience with these. Be careful using a DVI to HDMI adapter. The problem with HDMI is that it is a small light plug with no retainers of any kind. If you adapt DVI to HDMI you can have problems with the physical plugs. The DVI plug...

My gut feeling on question one is that you killed the amp by overloading it. How were the speakers wirde to the amp? Series, parallel or a combination. Did you carefully planthe connections in a combination of series and parallel to match the amp's impedance? If you answer no or have no idea...

I was lucky enough to have found this thread and read it before I started designing my theater. Many thanks for allowing me to learn from other's mistakes. I do have one to add. If buying a projector and it will be fairly normally cieling mounted buy the factory cieling mount if they offer...

I'd second what Bob said. It doesn't matter as much as people think. With HTIB all that really matters is does it sound good to you? Does it play loud enough for you? The problem with wattage is that there is no single industry standard by which to measure them. The manufacturers of low end...

Chuck is right about he series parallel thing. I would add that if the area is quite large (I'm assuming it is) that you don't wire half the room on one channel and the other half on the other channel (channel being left or right). This could mean that people will only hear one channel. If...

S video is analog video only. If instead of putting the S-video signal to your TV you sent it to a scope you would see a waveform that represents the video signal. Digital is a numerical representation of a waveform. Slice the video signal into pieces at regular intervals and just write down the...

Solder and heat shrink. Use this page and look part way down for butt soldering.

Both of those packages are really decent packages. They aren't a typical HTIB with a main all in one unit and are actually seperate components. Upgrading should be easy and either would probably satisfy you. Check carefully though as it appears that the Onkyo package doesn't include a DVD...

I determined the max screen size I could get on my wall and then used this calculator to determine viewing distances. I find that the distance it recommended for my target screen size has worked out near perfect. I'm hitting a white wall until I'm satisfied with final size and location and had a...

Yes. If you have a projection system, which also includes rear projection TVs, that rely on a bulb, such as DLP or LCD projection then it is nice to have a UPS in case of power failure. You can then run a normal shutdown which includes running the fan to cool the bulb. Any equipment that runs...

It would help to know what your whole system is as a wiring change in one area can effect others. Do you utilize the component switching on your amp? Does it switch to the dvd player for example? I take it that your TV has two component inputs? If that is the case I would just unplug the...

1) That's a tough one to answer. I've seen regular SDTV look fine and I've seen it look horrible. I've seen a 50" Samsung DLP projo look horrible on analogue cable yet my 30" Toshiba CRT HD set looks great. My projector looks better than most 4:3 CRT projos I've seen. From a digital box SD...

Having your amp switch and upconvert is convenient and can simplify wiring (especially a long run to a projector) but you lose nothing by not doing it. So, go ahead and use the setup you suggested it will actually be cheaper because it takes one less wire. The convenient switching an amp...

Thanks man. Personally, once I encounter text shorthand anywhere but a cell phone text message, I stop reading. No one, and I mean no one, who writes like that ever has anything intelligent to say. (If they did they would say it intelligently.) The guys are right about the power thing. There...

I hate to say it but your three questions are very, very basic electrical things. If you don't know the answers I recommend you hire a pro. 1. One hot comes from power the other goes to the light. The 'negative' or common doesn't need in and out as it isn't switched. The dimmer should also...

The headphone jack will work. Go to Radio Shack and get an adpater, probably 1/8" mini stereo to RCA and patch it to the amp (you'll need an RCA audio cable). It might look ugly but it'll work. Start with the volume on the TV low and your amp at a normal volume then bring up the TV volume until...

I don't suppose there is a headphone jack on that TV? You could always hack your TV. Sometimes you can pull a line level signal from the volume control. Sometimes you can use a speaker to line level converter at the speakers. Sometimes you can let the magic smoke out in which case you will...

Two quick observations. Take 'em or leave 'em. Square rooms can be problematic for sound. I can't post links so google for modecalc a program that can calculate your room modes. You may need to consider this. When it comes to speakers buy from a speaker company. I just bought the Paradigm...

1) I think the answer to this question is to imagine that the cable you want run to your display hasn't been invented yet. Put in conduit or at least make it so that cabling to the display can be easily changed. Just a few years ago you might have wondered should you run component or S-video...

Whether intended or not a stage would raise your tweeters higher. This can be good. Tweeters should around ear level.

Check your vehicle's main ground. Sometimes whine is because of poor grounds. The battery's negative terminal will have a cable running to a ground on the chassis and / or engine. Sometimes this cable is insulated sometimes it looks like wooven metal. Basically remove it and clean all the...

Which head unit do you have? Many Alpines have a line in that you can use with almost any device. You just need to buy the appropriate adapter cable. As pointed out many Alpines can be plugged directly to an iPod. Considering that you say yours is XM ready you probably have lots of options...

Black bars will be normal if the movie isn't in 1.78:1 aspect ratio. Many movies are 1.85:1 or even 2.39:1 this means they are smaller top to bottom than your screen. The black bars are normal just like if you watch a movie in 1.33:1 you will have black bars on the sides. Make sense?

I would run conduit (the PVC stuff for electrical) so that any wire run isn't permanent. If you set it up so that it is easy to make changes then you can't go wrong. If you make it permanent then you will be messed up when something else comes along. Murphy's law. What about the TVs power...

From a quick look at the Bose site I think that the sub in your system actually contains the crossover for the speakers. Does each of your speakers connect to the sub woofer? If that is the case then you really can't mix these up with other speakers. When compared to a subwoofer that can...