I want to get an HD DVD player and have a surround sound home theater w/ wireless speakers. What do I need?

Question

Any tips? Thanks.

Answer 1

I won't comment on your decision re HD DVD other than to suggest you consider it not as an HD DVD player, but as an upscaling DVD player that will play HD DVDs, and that you buy a basic model (e.g the Venture (rebranded Toshiba HD-A3) @ Walmart (US only) for $197 or an actual Toshiba HD-A3 (a bit more, but qualifies for the free disk offer)).

As an aside, I have a Toshiba HD-A2 and use it as an upscaling DVD player for DVDs on my 110" screen HD projection system.

Regarding what you need and hints ... I assume you have an HDTV or other HD display device (e.g. projector). Also, to take advantage of an HD DVD player you will need HDMI (or DVI) connections to your HDTV (and on the A/V receiver if you want to use it for switching).

Depending on the size and the resolution of the HDTV you will get differing degrees of benefit from HD DVD (or Blu-ray). If it is smaller than about 40" or a 720p model improvements to picture sharpness will be minor (relative to a DVD on a good upscaling player). Colour saturation and depth will probably improve somewhat though. On a 40"+ 1080p HDTV improvements will be more significant.

An often overlooked area of difference beteen HD DVD (or Blu-ray) and DVD is in the audio. The more advanced audio formats (which not all disks support however) can give a noticeably improved sound ... but your audio system must be capable of reproducing the sound. Unfortunately, wireless speakers are (usually) less capable than wired speakers so you may not get the full benefit.

The single most significant change you can probably make to ensure maximum benefit from HD DVD disks and HDTV from, for example, HD cable or HD satellite (with your existing equipment) is to ensure optimum viewing distance. Basically this comes down to not sitting so close you see the individual pixels on the screen, but as little further back than that as possible without feeling overwhelmed by the screen. Guidelines vary, but 3-5X screen height or 1.5-2X screen (diagonal) size are useful approximations, with the closer dimension being more appropriate for 1080 HDTVs and the longer being more for 720p screens. These distances will seem short, and may not be acceptable to you given furniture and other room constraints, but they are the point where you will be able to most appreciate both the higher resolution and a movie theatre-like viewing angle (See the article at the link for an explanation and a useful viewing distance calculator).

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

Generally wireless solutions do not work well. Nobody that I know of makes a receiver with wireless speaker terminals. It has to be a third-party add on.

A spool of good 12 ga and some throw rugs to hide the wires is a lot cheaper and better.

You need a good AV receiver. While you can run HDMI straight to the TV and audio to the receiver, many receivers have HDMI switching built in.

You need 5 nearly identical speakers. Small monitor style is fine, but they need to all be the same make & model designed to tone-match.

You need a good external subwoofer. This does NOT have to be the same make as the 5 speakers.

There are some good Home Theaters in a Box systems from Denon, Yamaha, Onkyo - but there are a lot of bad ones. If you go this route (which is a good idea if you dont want to research the separate parts) make sure the parts in the box look like they could be sold stand alone.

Avoid any HTIB that builds the DVD player into the receiver.

Answer 3

like another experts of their solutions, stay a manner from Bose, particular i try this for a residing too. i'm no longer likely to specify a brad cuz i do no longer know your funds. So with no funds my advice is to spend the comparable quantity on audio gadget which you spent on your DVD, CD, and Receiver mixed. So in case you have a $2 hundred DVD + $a hundred CD + $seven hundred receiver then spend $one thousand on the audio gadget or greater in case you have the money. audio gadget make the main important distinction! additionally for music and action pictures, if your funds facilitates, get something with greater front audio gadget which could represent bass. Subs are high quality if this is the gadget you are able to discover the money for, in spite of the undeniable fact that bass is oftentimes non-directional, even i'm able to tell the place a 30Hz tone is coming from so frontal bass is greater pleasurable. And by using all ability in case you are able to discover the money for greater front and a sub then do the two. Listening tip, people tend to purchase overly incredible or bass sounding audio gadget (Bose) because of the fact section by using section to a "delicate" pair they provide the impression of being to sound greater desirable. this is till you get fatigued from listening to them. So think of once you're listening "wow that treble is crisp and loud, sounds good"...... think of approximately it, is it over the staggering, is that going to malicious program me while i'm staring at a movie? wish this permits

Answer 4

you will need what you just listed and MONEY...