Help in choosing a home theatre system. (1 Viewer)

[RajPrabhu]

Namaste everybody,

I am currently in Ottawa and would return to India in a few months. I would like to take back a decent hometheater system (speakers, recievers, players, etc) that i should be able to hook up to the 30 inch TV I have back home.

I am also thinking of buying a gaming console, maybe the XBox, but am not sure about its DVD capabilities and any additional stuff I may require for using it as a DVD player. Don`t know whether the effect would be comparable to that of any regular DVD player.

I know very little about these AV equipments, did try and get fundas abt DVD players, Dolby/DTS decoders/recievers, etc on the net, just got me a lot more confused.

Any pointers on what I should be buying (or looking at) would help a lot.

TIA,

Raj

 

[Marc Rochkind]

Even if you did buy a home THEATER system, when you got it home it would operate as a home THEATRE just fine!
There are a bunch of threads that talk about the XBOX as a DVD player, such as this one:
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...light=xbox+dvd
Use the search feature to find more. As for general advice, there is a primer at the top of the Basic forum page with TONS of stuff in it.
Or, my book which you can read for free. See link below.

 

[Mark Larson]

Raj, in rupee terms, practically anything you buy would be overkill - i'm sure you know what i mean!

Just stay away from two things:

BOSE.

Heavy stuff (you would be surprised how heavy even a good 5ch receiver can get!)

What's your price range?

 

[Mark Larson]

Oh, and i'd recommend you buy a separate DVD player. They'll both last longer, plus you'll have better picture quality.

Does the TV have S-video ? Component is too far-fetched to even ask about.

 

[Bill Cheng]

Totally agreed with what's Mark said, but the size of the theater room beside your budget also affecting your choice.

 

[Yee-Ming]

Does the TV have S-video ? Component is too far-fetched to even ask about.

why is it far-fetched? if you're talking about TV size, I have a 29 inch Sony Wega with component inputs, which I use with my Pioneer DV535, which isn't exactly top-of-the-line either; heck, the new entry level Pioneer DV233 has component outputs as well.

 

[Thomas_Jespersen]

Rember that dvds are region locked. If you get a player in USA it will only play Region 1 (USA) titles unless it is 'hacked' (region unlocked). In other words: you will not be able to play back DVDs released in India. (unless india is also region 1).

I do not know if the protection system on XBox is hacked yet.

 

[Mark Larson]

Yee-ming, we're talking about India here. Even 29" TV's are out of reach of most of the population.

 

[RajPrabhu]

Hi,
I forgot to mention my budget is around USD $750-1000.
Its a 30" TV, Samsung, it has S-Video, not sure about component inputs. I`ll try and find out, but is that important? am anyway not gonna get these high-end features with my kinda budget :frowning:
Mark, it would help if you could mention the cost of the equipment u suggested.
Thomas, i heard that there are a few MultiZone DVD players in the markets, though they maybe a little more expensive.
Marc, the primer does have tons of stuff, and so does your book - i guess, I did try and go thru some of the stuff, but its a too heavy for someone who doesn`t know a thing abt electronics. I just want to buy the best that i can afford and i think u guys wud surely be able to help.
thanks,
Shantiraj.

 

[Yee-Ming]

we're talking about India here. Even 29" TV's are out of reach of most of the population

as you can see in his latest post, Raj DOES in fact have a 30" TV. he said so in his initial post as well. and his budget isn't exactly scraping the bottom of the barrel...
FYI, IIRC India is said to have a "middle class" larger than the entire population of USA, making it potentially a very lucrative market. true, possibly an even larger number of people in India live in poverty that those of us fortunate enough to indulge in HT have no clue about, but let's not assume nor generalise here.
Raj, actually as my earlier post noted, the entry level Pioneer DVD player, the 233, DOES have component outputs, and it costs (here in Singapore) about S$300 (about US$170). so that's a very nice feature to have (better video than S-video), provided your TV does have component inputs, otherwise it's academic. and Pioneers in Singapore are all modified to be multi-region. perhaps you should stop over on the way home?

 

[Michael Mathius]

There was a post not too long ago about hometheaters in a box. Do a search.
Here are some links to checkout.
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...eater+in+a+box
Get yourself the Energy Take 5.2 system with subwoofer 8.2 for around $600
Get a Denon 1602 about $300
Get a Toshiba DVD Player SD2800 about $130 or look into the follow links.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...gion+free+hack http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...gion+free+hack

 

[RajPrabhu]

Thanx Michael, i will check them out at one of the stores here. Just wondering, any reason for not picking the XBox (costs CND $299 i.e. < USD$200) instead of the Toshiba DVD Player? I am not really into gaming, but for just $70 more, why not?

BTW, will all this equipment work with any standard 30" TV with S-video, or is there something else that i should verify?

Any other suggestions on what i should buy would be very helpful. Thanks for all the replies.

Raj

 

[Yee-Ming]

Raj:

as Thomas noted earlier, the XBox might not be "region-hacked" yet, which means you'd be limited to R1 discs only. India is not R1, so you wouldn't be able to play your own "home" discs bought locally. a dedicated DVD player probably provides better picture quality, and if you're not really into gaming, even if it's just $70, that's $70 on something you don't really want.

also, chances are your TV can handle both PAL & NTSC, since it seems most TVs sold in Asia are multi-system, but it's best to double-check this, otherwise if you get an NTSC player and NTSC R1 discs, these won't play on a PAL-only TV.

 

[Garrett Lundy]

Will the household current in India be able to handle Canadian/USA electronics? Here I believe we use a weasily 120v current, Isn't most of the world using the more powerful 220v current? wouldn't this cause havok with your eqipment?

 

[RajPrabhu]

Yee, my TV is multi-system supports PAL, NTSC and SECAM. And abt XBox vs dedicated players, I had read somewhere that the XBox gives better picture quality than some dedicated DVD players, a few people had even written about replacing their old (and perhaps low end) DVD players with the XBox, now i am not so sure.

Garrett, yes we do use 220V current, but I guess one can get around it by using an adapter.

Another thing guys, I looked up some integrated home theater systems, was quite happy with the Sony DAV-C900, it costs only $750. Any reason why such systems are not prefered? Would like to know of any other such systems that you prefer. Any pointers towards this would be a big help.

Regs,

Raj

 

[Yee-Ming]

Raj:

I've never seen the XBox and therefore can't really offer an informed opinion, so go with your eyes and gut, if you're happy with the results you get, that's the important thing.

as for the Sony, that gives nice results, but two cautions: you can't upgrade anything in the future, since it's a complete system that realistically only works with its own components, and I believe that even if you get it hacked to be multi-region, it still won't handle RCE discs (although at the moment, RCE is not a huge problem, but who knows if in future more R1 discs will be RCE coded).

 

[Frank Zimkas]

Raj,

Will the equipment that you purchase here work over there?

Is the electrical supply 115 volts @ 60hz, or is it 220 volts @ 50hz as is the case in Europe. Better find out before you buy anything.

 

[Neal Siva]

Raj, since you mentioned your interest in the Sony DAV-C900, there is also another cinema system known as the JBL Cinema Propack 600. Here's a review done by cnet:
Link Removed
You could also get the NSP1, which has gotten excellent reviews by almost everyone, but that is only a speaker set, not a home theater in a box. Neal...