I am almost done with my new home theater. This thing is great. A 57" Sony TV, 5.1 surround sound speakers from Cambridge SoundWorks, all the components (DVD, receiver/amp, TiVo, VCR, PS2, laptop/MP3 player, tape deck, etc.) in a closet next to the family room, and Logitech 2.4GHz PS2 controllers and Xantech IR receiver/emitters so I can control it all through the walls.
The speaker wire is all in-wall (the only part I didn't do myself, along with some additional electrical outlets), going into wall plates with screw-in terminals. One of the wall plates I got with three holes in it though, with the bottom hole housing not a speaker terminal, but an IR receiver. Slick!
And since the master bedroom is just behind that same closet, I can also watch/control most of the components from there, too. Multiroom TiVo! And PS2!
The receiver is multi-room, which means I have L/R RCA out that can take any analog signal (so doesn't work with digital out from DVD player) and output that to another set of speakers, either outputting the same thing that is going through the main speakers, or one of the audio-only inputs (CD, tape, tuner). So we got a Sony 900 MHz speaker system, and Jennifer can listen to the MP3 player in the kitchen while I watch the Bruins, all from the same receiver.
And, of course, we can also put on some music or TV program and have the audio in basically every room, which is pretty cool, except I kinda feel like I'm in a department store.
The one thing I decided to get to pull it all together is the Harmomy Remote SST-768. It is a remote control that can handle anything you throw at it: it's fully customizable, including macros; it learns; and it is configured online.
You go to the web site and tell it the make and model of every component you have, then you configured the activities. Say, to watch a DVD, I tell it that my TV needs to be on Video 6, and my receiver on DVD, and that audio will be going through the amplifier. Then I select "Watch a DVD" on the remote, and it configures all my components to watch a DVD. It is updated (and powered, when connected) via USB. Very slick.
They even added Mac OS X compatibility in July.
And I got it in red, which makes Jennifer happy.
However, I've hit a snag. It was shipped to me from Ontario on July 31, and I still don't have it. I found out this morning why: it was held up at the border until August 11! Maybe they thought it was a missile control system. I can't say I would blame them.
