[mcgsxr]

I have a history of posting blog type threads around my system evolution - read on if you want to hear about the transition!  As Bob in St Louis says - if there are no pics, it did not happen!

I have owned a Sony 32 Vega for 8 years now.
I have had it running my 2.1 HT on the main floor.

This am I went out and bought a Panny 42 inch X1 Plasma - 720p, but that is all I need for this room.  I also bought an upconverting Pioneer DVD player (with HDMI), some cables, and a newer HD satellite receiver for my service from Bell.  Hooked up the TV, along with the DVD player just as a short term solution - have 15 guests coming tomorrow, so I won't have time to do it right until next week.

Below is a before pic of the room, and a current pic of the ridiculous setup, while I wait to fish wires, and hang this properly over the fireplace.  The entire TV unit will go, replaced by an end table with the requisite gear in the corner.  Where the TV unit is, a loveseat will go.

Here is the box I opened - sorry, no pics of my van with it in it!



Here is a shot of where it will go - the plasma will replace the mirror I put up there last Xmas, as a device to show what a screen would eventually look like, for my wife.



Next up, the supremely ghetto shot of BOTH my TV's in place - the old Sony destined for the bedroom (not with the stand), and the new TV, perched up on top.



Last one shows the back of both my daughter's heads, as they are mesmerized by the new screen showing Santa Buddies - love using a new screen for their stuff!

Later tonight, I will play some of my flicks - perhaps Pitch Black.

[Mag]

I think Panasonic Viera was a good choice.

Are you happy with your decision? What does your family think of the new HDTV? 

[mcgsxr]

All my girls are happy - the small ones (4 and 6) love the bigger TV.  The older one (wife) likes that it is not a 50, and it can be hung over the fireplace.

The owner (Daddy) is very happy with the picture - variable outputs would have been the icing on the audio cake, but I can work around it.

I have guests coming tomorrow, so it will be Monday before I can tackle mounting it.

Very happy with the Viera.

[eg1]

Good to hear it, Mark! I wondered what you would end up going with. I am still futzing with "infrastructure" issues over here before I take the plunge.

[Bob in St. Louis]

Very cool Mark. Nice choice.  aa

Bob

[mcgsxr]

It was a relatively long process, hard to do work with power tools with my girls 4 and 6 "helping".

Removed drywall horizontally over the fireplace, to get to a stud I could snake down.  I have an unfinished basement, but the previous owner finished one wall down there, to use with his PJ.  Of course that ONE wall was the one in my way...  So I borrowed a Sawsall off my neighbor (my second favourite tool after the gas powered concrete saw!), and had at it.  I drilled up through the floor and baseplate from below, and snaked away.  I then repeated the process (less the sawsall and drywall destruction) over where the small a/v unit will live.  I then drilled through all the studs upstairs, and pulled the 2 HDMI, 1 Toslink, and 3 speaker cables where they all needed to be.  Later I repaired the drywall, and painted quickly.  Up went the mount, and then called a neighbor to assist with the actual lifting of the TV into place.

Then on went the kids movies!

Pics below.













Here is the final one, showing the unit up where it belongs.  Now on to the speaker building - this IS Audiocircle after all!



More pics in time my friends, but this proves to Bob that it did happen!

The local Satellite company is coming Saturday to install a second LNB on my dish, so I will then have HD broadcast finally!

[ctviggen]

Nice patch job on the drywall, too.  Normally, I don't like TVs over fireplaces, but that looks pretty good.

[eg1]

Looks good -- inspiration to get the infrastructure work done sooner rather than later!

[srb]

When using quotes, please do it for a reason, to reference a particular phrase or particular picture.  No need to quote mcgsxr's entire post with all of the photos repeated just to say "looks good".
 
It makes the topic long and cumbersome, and if each poster did that, Holy Cow!
 
Steve

[Bob in St. Louis]

More pics in time my friends, but this proves to Bob that it did happen!

Thanks Mark. Yea, it looks like it did indeed happen after all. That's undeniable.
As Bob (viggen) mentioned, that it a very nice patch job.
Based on the size of the mantle and the TV, it looks like a 55" would have fit quite nicely.  aa

Bob

[jqp]

First, TV is a great choice. No need in your situation to get 1080p on a 42". In a few years you will get a nice 55 to hang in the same location. My friend has 2 Panasonics now, one is the previous generation of that one.

I was going to ask how you moved the hole in the wall to the center over the fireplace. Patch looks good at least in the pics. i will be doing this in the future for some media room rewiring!

[eg1]

When using quotes, please do it for a reason, to reference a particular phrase or particular picture.  No need to quote mcgsxr's entire post with all of the photos repeated just to say "looks good".
 
It makes the topic long and cumbersome, and if each poster did that, Holy Cow!
 
Steve

Oops -- edited previous post as per above.

[srb]

When using quotes, please do it for a reason, to reference a particular phrase or particular picture.  No need to quote mcgsxr's entire post with all of the photos repeated just to say "looks good".  It makes the topic long and cumbersome, and if each poster did that, Holy Cow!

Oops -- edited previous post as per above.

eg1, I wasn't necessarily singling you out!  There was another topic I was reading, and half a dozen people in a row quoted a long series of photos!  Thanks for your understanding and not getting annoyed with me.
 

It was a relatively long process, hard to do work with power tools with my girls 4 and 6 "helping".

mcgsxr, nice work.  It demonstrates how if you roll up your sleves and attack a project, you can have a really nice installation and make everyone happy!
 
Steve
 

[eg1]

What are you planning to do for sound with this set-up?

[mcgsxr]

eg1 - good question, this IS Audiocircles after all!

I think I have a 2 part answer for that valid questions, as there is short and long term to consider.

Short term - re-use my existing A/V receiver, a non HDMI Panasonic SAXR-15 (Canadian version of the SAXR-25).  This is why I ran 2xHDMI, and 1xOptical cable, and 3 sets of speaker wires when I ran all the cables.  Short term the 2xHDMI are one per source (one satellite receiver, one upconverting DVD player), and the optical cable returns the sound to the Panasonic receiver.  I am using my TV as the preamp in my case - all sources connect to it with audio and video, and the audio returns via the optical cable.  I intend to setup 5.1 in this room, and use the old Panasonic for now.  I will be building 5 speakers in the coming months, that will be used both short and long term.

Long term - I will buy an HDMI capable receiver.  I don't expect it will need to be capable of converting analog to HDMI, as I don't use my system on this floor for anything other than new sources, each with HDMI - including PC when that eventually happens.  Then one of the HDMI will be the direct source to the TV, and the other one my spare in case anything "funny" happens over the years - not looking to rerun cable for a long time.  The optical cable will be no longer in use at that time.  I will use the 5 speakers I built, and the sub too.

I am expecting to use single drivers in my HT for the speakers, likely CSS FR125SR (http://creativesound.ca/details.php?model=FR125SR as I already own a pair of them, and will buy one more to build the front 3 speakers.  I will reuse my CSS WR125ST http://creativesound.ca/details.php?model=WR125ST as the rears.

I have yet to completely land on a design for the speakers, but expect to go with a small sealed style, and let the Panasonic SAXR-15 clip out the bass and route to the sub.  I figure the 100-125Hz setting will work with speakers roughly 0.25ft in size.  I have in the past built both sealed and ported speakers with these drivers, and find that for HT use, the sealed are better, as the cone is better controlled at higher volumes.   I would expect the front speakers to be roughly 5-6 inches wide, similar in depth, and around 12+ inches long, to give a rectangular shape, that should match well with being close to the rectangular TV - the front 3 speakers will be close to the display - L and R to the sides, and C underneath the plasma.

There is way more treble with the FR version, but I want to reuse the WR versions I have, so they will end up in the surrounds.  I may also consider using car audio speakers for the rears, as I have done this in the past too.  I have some nice 6.5 components in my old Accord right now, and will pull them before I sell the car.  Those Zapco's are decent, and I could install them as in-wall, vs the on wall style that the WR's will have to be.

That is my approach so far.

We have swung the loveseat into position, where the old TV unit was, and are actively looking for a good (affordable) A/V unit that will act as an end table for the loveseat.

More as it develops.

[eg1]

A very detailed response -- I should expect no less! 

I was in particular curious about the location of the center channel speaker. When you say "under" the plasma, do you mean on the wall or on the fireplace mantel?

As you know, I am planning a not too dissimilar set-up over here. Right now my main puzzle is center channel speaker placement. I would like to keep the hdtv panel as low as possible to avoid craning our necks upward from the seats. I expect the hdtv panel is going to be very thin, so placing the center channel speaker on top of it might be problematic -- on the other hand, placing it below the tv will require installing the whole thing higher. Are there brackets that will facilitate mounting the speaker to the bottom of the tv, or even better, near the bottom so that it covers (or partly covers) the "dead space" along the bottom of the tv (many tv models seem to have more plastic in the frame at the bottom than around the rest of the perimeter)? I have also noted these so-called "sound bars", and it would appear that most of them attempt to replicate the sound of multiple speakers -- could one be wired so that it just acted as a center channel?

The most dreadful option from my perspective is sticking something on the flooor  in front of the fireplace that I have to drag out and put away  -- ick.

One final possibility -- just use a phantom center channel?

Anybody's insights most welcome!

[Bob in St. Louis]

I'm not too familiar with it, but I hear Yamaha make a pretty fancy sound bar. If memory serves, it has some of that fancy stuff to "phantomize" a surround illusion. It could be set directly on top of the mantle. The TV could be placed to give the illusion it's setting on top of the sound bar but essentially would be hovering millimeters over the top. Might look pretty slick.
I certainly hope the HT purists don't flame me over that one. 

Bob

[srb]

I'm not too familiar with it, but I hear Yamaha make a pretty fancy sound bar. ... I certainly hope the HT purists don't flame me over that one. 

I have a 2-channel "purist" friend (he has a pair of custom Cary 88's, hand signed by Dennis Had, configured for vertical bi-amping with bass channel having twice the wattage of the treble channel) driving some Vandersteens.
 
For his HT, he has one of the Yamaha sound bars and thinks it is pretty darn good.  Of course his is the model just south of $2K, and as would be expected, requires a subwoofer.
 
Steve

[mcgsxr]

I have heard a couple of the Yamaha soundbars, and thought about using one in my own main floor HT.  The lower end ones didn't do as well as the more expensive units, which I thought were decent for the dough, assuming you add a sub, as noted.

I would not spend that type of dough though, unless you intend to use it as the sound solution for that room - would have high wife acceptance factor, and will trump your current setup nicely. 

I think the high end ones replace the receiver too, not sure if they upconvert to hdmi sources that are not though.

I will place a center on the mantle, under the plasma, but folks do mount them up above eg1, it can be done no problem.

[eg1]

My first choice would be to mount it atop the tv -- not sure how that will be accomplished given how these panels are becoming, however.