My first and only HT set up that I bought about 15-20 years ago was a 27" Panasonic Gaoo CRT TV, Denon Dolby surround receiver (not sure of the model), PSB speakers (C1 ? (center), PSB-400 (fronts) and PSB-100 (rears), and a huge variety of VHS and DVD players. It all was okay and I was happy. The Denon and PSB's (and Dolby surround) really made movies great. Then the wide screen, big screen thing started. Luckily I had always bought my movies in wide screen when ever possible. Then the whole Plasma/LCD/DLP took off. I was way, way, behind, things were not looking good anymore and I wasn't happy. A couple of years ago I did pick up a mysterious 12" sub (I say mysterious because I can only find one reference to it on the entire www, and that person was looking for info also).
Then a couple of months ago, a friend told me they could get me a deal on a 32" LG plasma that was coming out. I really wasn't planning on up-grading till I had the money (and my 1/4 finished basement HT room finished) to go big. But the Plasma deal was good and I knew the Gaoo wasn't doing it for me anymore. So I committed myself to the 32" plasma deal, which was going to take two months before it would happen. So in the mean time I saw a Sony DG 510 receiver on sale, and it did Dolby Digital (I had seen this DTS thing on DVD's but of course it wouldn't work on the Denon), plus the Denon remotes didn't work. I say remotes as the original remote crapped out after a year, then the next four crapped out quickly there after. Oh, some of the functions still worked, one would pwr on and do vol, another would switch inputs etc. But still wouldn't work all the functions. The speakers I had no issue with and still don't. Sure they're old (me to), and I imagine could stand up-grading but they still look almost new, and if the sound quality has changed I can't tell. Well the new Sony SSR- with Dolby-freakin-digital sure woke them up. I know the Sony isn't the top (or middle) of the line but for the price and performance I couldn't be happier. The PSB's and sub were boomin like they never have before.
As I knew I was getting a new TV I decided the time to stop buying discount DVD players was now. By discount I mean $20-$30! So I picked up a LG up-converting DVD, nice it was, it even made DVD's look better on my Gaoo CRT!
Then found out (at the time) no one made a 32" plasma and the only info my brother and I could find on it was in Chinese (neither of us can read or speak it), but what little info I could glean from these pages didn't look so good. Had a low resolution, wouldn't be "full HD", it was ED. Oh well the price was right and it couldn't be worse than the old CRT and it was wide screen.
Well got the Lg plasma (about two weeks ago), and let me tell you, "un-freakin-believeable", the colour, picture quality, wide screen, it was all just amazing. DVD's looked better than I would have thought possible and sound (DTS rocks!!!!) was incredible. I couldn't be happier for what this all cost. I know it isn't the most over the top or cutting edge system but for the size of the room (converted bedroom, viewing distance of about 6' ) , this set up was just outstanding.
The one component I wasn't happy with was my digital cable box,SD-PVR. The reason was because it only had RCA hook ups and that bugged me. So figured I would up-grade to the HD-PVR. To make a short story shorter I ended up getting the very last HD-PVR in town (big promotion going on?). What a lucky break that was , what a world of difference it made, component hook ups, channels are displayed properly, up converts SD channels, and HD picture….UN-FREAKIN-BELIEVEABLE!!! I am just so amazed at how good this picture is. The PDP was said to only be EDTV (480p) but from what I can see it does up to 1080i. When installing the HD-PVR it goes through a screen resolution test and it had no problem displaying the various formats up to 1080i. My Up converting DVD will do up to 1080p, the PDP will display 1080i but not 1080p, so does this make any sense. The HD picture is incredible.
PS Also quite glad I found this site, from the little posting and lots of reading I've been doing, there seems to be a great group of people on here!!
