Some equipment questions...

[ZackL]

My mother has a very decent dedicated home theatre in her basement. It's set up with 7.1 Paradigms, RX V1700 receiver, a 720p Panasonic projector. She knows NOTHING about what she owns and listens to the advice of her ridiculous friend who helped her set it all up and thinks the guy is always right. In truth, when I asked him why he didn't set her up with BD or a 1080p projector ( she had a $25,000 budget and could easily have gotten one) he didn't know what I was talking about. So I just have a few Qs:

1. Will the RX V1700 offer her HD sound if she purchases a Playstation 3. From what I understand the PS3 will do the HD codecs and simply send them to the receiver instead of the receiver doing it?

2. Should she be getting a screen for her projector? Currently she projects onto a white wall. I assume that a screen would benefit her.

3. She likes to use the " Enhance " button on the receiver, which essentially takes the speakers that should be used as background noise as main speakers. Does this not drown out the proper use of the speakers? Should she avoid doing so with her new HD setup.

4. Could you recommend a projector within the $5000 range @ 1080p.

[crackinhedz]

Originally Posted by ZackL

1. Will the RX V1700 offer her HD sound if she purchases a Playstation 3. From what I understand the PS3 will do the HD codecs and simply send them to the receiver instead of the receiver doing it?

downloading the manual now, looking to see if it accepts multichannel pcm over hdmi.

2. Should she be getting a screen for her projector? Currently she projects onto a white wall. I assume that a screen would benefit her.

projectors not my specialty, but I asume so.

3. She likes to use the " Enhance " button on the receiver, which essentially takes the speakers that should be used as background noise as main speakers. Does this not drown out the proper use of the speakers? Should she avoid doing so with her new HD setup.

definitely do not use this kind of feature...unless its for music.

4. Could you recommend a projector within the $5000 range @ 1080p.

again, projectors not my area.

[crackinhedz]

Pg. 19 user manual states its 7.1 PCM capable, so yes the PS3 would be perfect!

[Woody]

YES, get her a screen.

There are about a billion projectors at or around 5k that do 1080p, I would look for a local HT shop that has a few on display.

Sony, Epson, JVC, BenQ, InFocus, Optoma, Sanyo, and more offer proj in that range.

The 3 technologies in projectors are DLP, LCD, and DILA. Try and find a couple shops where you can view them all, and pick what she likes best.

[hagar852]

Originally Posted by ZackL

My mother has a very decent dedicated home theatre in her basement. It's set up with 7.1 Paradigms, RX V1700 receiver, a 720p Panasonic projector. She knows NOTHING about what she owns and listens to the advice of her ridiculous friend who helped her set it all up and thinks the guy is always right. In truth, when I asked him why he didn't set her up with BD or a 1080p projector ( she had a $25,000 budget and could easily have gotten one) he didn't know what I was talking about. So I just have a few Qs:

1. Will the RX V1700 offer her HD sound if she purchases a Playstation 3. From what I understand the PS3 will do the HD codecs and simply send them to the receiver instead of the receiver doing it?

2. Should she be getting a screen for her projector? Currently she projects onto a white wall. I assume that a screen would benefit her.

3. She likes to use the " Enhance " button on the receiver, which essentially takes the speakers that should be used as background noise as main speakers. Does this not drown out the proper use of the speakers? Should she avoid doing so with her new HD setup.

4. Could you recommend a projector within the $5000 range @ 1080p.

Make sure the v1700 has the newest firmware... Some people report handshaking issues over hdmi with the PS3..