About two weeks ago my three and a half year old InFocus X1 projector's bulb burned out. Since the cost of replacing the bulb for this 480p resolution projector I'd been using in the home theater was substantial, I'd made the decision a long time ago to use it as an excuse to upgrade the home theater to HD quality, and fix some problems with the study A/V setup at the same time.
Home Theater
Briefly, my home theater is a small room over the garage with only one tiny window which was designed from the ground up as a home theater. It was wired for a 6.1 speaker system, including conduit for subwoofer cabling, as well as cabling to a ceiling mounted projector or a wall-hung TV. I made a screen out of screen fabric and 1x2's that's approximately six feet wide, and have six speakers I'm very happy with. The subwoofer, however, has always had a hum. I got a bottom of the line Sony receiver and DVD/VCR and ran sixteen feet of component cabling to the ceiling projector, and that's been a really great setup for the past three years, although I was never able to consolidate the remotes into one (the biggest reason being that the IR signal had to go one way for the projector and another for the components, which are in a glass-fronted cabinet built into the wall).
First new purchase was a new Sony projector to replace the InFocus. Since my budget didn't allow $3,000 minimum for a 1080p projector, I satisfied myself with 720p. I then ran a 16 foot HDMI from the new projector to the cabinet, where I replaced the old receiver with a slightly higher-end Sony that could handle a HDMI cable. The decision then was what to do about the DVD player. Had to get a new one since I wanted to take advantage of HDMI, but which: existing DVD, upconverted DVD or Blue-Ray or HD DVD - or both. Initially I got a Sony Blu-Ray and a Philips upconverter DVD. Both would upconvert my existing DVDs to 720p. The Sonmy, unfortunately, was unbelievably slow and froze repeatedly on both standard DVDs and Blu-Ray, so I returned it, and replaced it temporarily with the Philips, which was intended as a DVD player for the 1080p set in the family room (but where I could not get the audio to work). (I was really impressed with the quality of the Blu-Ray picture, as well as what the new projector and upconversion did for standard DVDs - Lord of the Rings looked beyond spectacular).
A week and a half later (Saturday) I got a chance to finish the redo. I replaced the Philips with the LG dual DVD player, which plays both DVDs and HD DVDs, and reprogrammed my Logitech remote (which I normally use in the study) to - with a little help from a IR extender - actually run everything using one remote pointing at the screen. The key was that for some bizarre reason the new projector can get its commands when you're pointing at the screen - exactly the opposite of where it is. So I could focus on using the extender to take the remote's signal pointing at the screen and relay it to the extender inside the component cabinet. It took a little rearranging of the components, but now I have a backlit remote (a necessity in a pitch-black room) that will turn all the components on or of with one button. The piece de resistance was a new subwoofer - I finally found one that was about the right size and the right price and subbed it in for Buzz. Now, for the first time, I have good speakers, screen, picture, and sound. And a remote that works.
The boys and I celebrated last night by watching most of Apollo 13, then Flyboys, then part of Batman Begins. We watched part of Apollo 13 again this morning, which, including watching parts a week ago, means we've watched most of the movie three times in the last two weeks. And it just gets better and better - and looks absolutely spectacular.
Study
There's always a trickle-down effect when you start modernizing one room's AV - in this case the old receiver went into the family room to replace the law-school era Pioneer unit, and the Sony DVD/VCR went into Grayson's room, where it replaced a unit whose DVD had quit working.
The Philips upconversion DVD went into the study to take the place of the Sony SACD that I had been using for CD, SACD and DVDs. The allowed the video signal to the TV to be upgraded from 480p via component to 720p via HDMI, and the audio goes straight to the old Sony receiver (a twin of the old home theater receiver), where it gets the benefit of the subwoofer. Currently the SACD outputs five channels, but that doesn't include the subwoofer. The Philips is using RCA jacks right now but I'll be replacing that shortly with a digital coax.
New speakers were also in order since I'd blown one of my old (1994) Boston Acoustics watching ... you guessed it, Apollo 13, earlier this year. I got a pair of BA CR67 bookshelf speakers and moved the old BAs to back surround, where they replaced some really old Pioneers. Potentially the un-blown will move to center rear eventually and some smaller BAs will replace them as satellite, but that really depends on how much of a load the blown speaker gets. As long as it doesn't get asked for a lot of bass, it actually does pretty well, so I may not replace it. This alos gives me a chance to use the new subwoofer I got for the study earlier this year. It took me three years to find a subwoofer that would fit on a 12" deep bookcase, but I finally did, and I now have a set of speakers that, while perhaps a bit weak in the center channel, are pretty good for audio listening.
I finished the installation by reprogramming (successfully) my Logitech Harmony 670 remote to select (using just one button) watching TV (which means listening to XM via the satellite receiver) , listerning to CDs on the SACD (which, as I mentioned, means no subwoofer, so I need to work on that), or watching movies on the Philips upconversion DVD. The twins and I finished watching Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow on it last night, and thoroughly enjoyed it, so I may have a pretty good deal here.
Where do I go from here? Well, for the study, still need a new center speaker and maybe new satellites, and eventually a new receiver so I can get HDMI to the receiver, but that's not a high priority. The real priority is getting a reliable enough remote that I can move the receiver to the electronics closet (which is immediately behind the TV) since the bookcase is not deep enough for it. What's stopping me is that the audio settings on the receiver are so complex that I really need to be able to see it. What's probably sooner is moving the TV to a wall-mount position over the fireplace. What's stopping me is that I would want some type of frame so it doesn't look quite so modern, and I haven't exactly figured that out yet.
For the home theater, eventually it needs a 1080p source, but the difference between 720 and 1080 is realistically not something I am sure I could distinguish anyway. What it needs right away is a remote for the light switch!