Advice offered

Cinemaworks

i cannot sell anything on this site (haven't checked but most forums don't allow it)

now thats out of the way, If anyone is interested i would be willing to offer any advice on their home cinema builds. i can help with plans, layouts and pretty much anything you can think of bar getting your girlfriend to like rectangular shaped boxes.

This would be on an advice only basis and i will try to answer as many as work/ commitments will allow.

Moderators please delete if any rules have been breached.

Look forward to any help i can give anyone.

Kind Regards

Adam

FrankGrimes

Hey Cinemaworks,

I assume this isn't your website? http://www.cinemaworks.ie/ - if it is I've some free advice for you: never use a serif font (e.g. Times New Roman) for a website, or any text that is read on screen for that matter. Serif font is designed for print - use a sans-serif font like Arial or Verdana for websites and it will look a whole lot better. If you don't know how to change it just let me know and I can point you in the right direction.

As for home cinema stuff: I've got an NTL Digital Pace set-top box and I need to connect it to my Windows Media Center PC. I have a Hauppuage PVR 500 MCE dual TV tuner card and it takes in s-video or composite. The NTL box outputs only scart. How do I connect the NTL box to the TV card?

Is s-video going to give a much better, or only slightly better, picture than the composite connection? If its only slightly better would I be better off using the composite cable as I've read much about problems with s-video coming out in black and white?

Another one for ya: I'm installing some surround sound speaker cables in my living room behind the skirting boards before they go on. Its a rectangular shaped room with a bay window and TV in corner near bay window with a 3 seater diagonally opposite and a 2 seater perpendicular to that. Both sofas are up against walls as its not a massive room (I'm guessing 15ft by 10ft). Whereabouts should I put my cables and does it make that much of a difference?

Oh, and can you recommend a good amp and surround sound system as I'm in the market

Thanks

Cinemaworks

it is mine but im having it done by a professional now as i dont get time to do anything on it..

Svideo is far better than composite as regards to quality as the signal is broken down into two colour and brightness... you can pick up a scart to svideo adapter from most local hifi/tv shops that should sort you out. If you have any problems with the feed i.e it is showing black and white just let me know, i will help as much as i can.

As for your room, it makes it a little trickier when the Tv is in the corner.. You could email adam@cinemaworks.ie with a drawing or post it on here so everyone can follow the progress...

Amp wise it all depends on budget... if your looking at the €3000+ budget then a Marantz SR9600 or a Denon AX1 for the AMP

As for speakers MS Genie speaker packs are pretty amazing (cant go wrong with them)

DVD... it all depends on whether you want HDMI (High Def) outputs or not.. we tend to sell a lot of Marantz DV6500, 7500 and 9500 as they are lovely players..

hope that helps and do post your drawing as id love to run from start to finish on the forum...

branners69

I have pm'd you looking for your opinion on a full Pioneer system..

slavetothegrind

A question regarding cable runs.
My sitting room is a typical semi d style. Box window, fireplace in middle on party wall double doors through to dining/kitchen.
I am mounting a projector on a shelf above the doors pointing at a drop down screen in front of the window.
At the moment the TV and digibox dvd amp etc. are in the corner btween party wall and window so my question is..
If i run component cable to my projector from the dvd it will be about 10m long will this be a problem?
Does HDMI/ dvi cabling offer less signal loss over distance?
Also will my digibox output suffer over such a run?

Any advice greatly appreciated!

The Troll

I need some advice on a home projector. I want one that is extremely good for playing games and movies. My friend has one that has 1200 Ansi-lumens and a contrast ratio of 300:1.

It is good, but in dark movies and games it becomes quite hard to see in places. It was €2000 when he bought it last Xmas so im a bit apprehensive abotu buying one if the quality will be that bad(Its a Sony)

As well as this he bought an RGB to Scart lead that he uses from Xbox to VGA adaptor(i think) and then to the projector. Quality is slightly better than before but nothing amazing.

Cinemaworks

joeclif wrote:

If i run component cable to my projector from the dvd it will be about 10m long will this be a problem?
Does HDMI/ dvi cabling offer less signal loss over distance?
Also will my digibox output suffer over such a run?

Any advice greatly appreciated!

You wont have any problem running a component cable over that distance the only thing i can think of is lipsync issues but hopefully you can adjust that with your amp..

HDMI/DVI would be the preferred method as you can now run HDMI up to 15m

your digibox will take a slight loss over the 10m run using composite but shouldnt be noticable over svideo you can buy RGB to component convertors from places like Keene electronics www.keene.co.uk but saying that does your amp upconvert to component?

Cinemaworks

The Troll wrote:

I need some advice on a home projector. I want one that is extremely good for playing games and movies. My friend has one that has 1200 Ansi-lumens and a contrast ratio of 300:1.

It is good, but in dark movies and games it becomes quite hard to see in places. It was €2000 when he bought it last Xmas so im a bit apprehensive abotu buying one if the quality will be that bad(Its a Sony)

As well as this he bought an RGB to Scart lead that he uses from Xbox to VGA adaptor(i think) and then to the projector. Quality is slightly better than before but nothing amazing.

Home Projectors are normally low lumens projectors as contrast for movies require little or low light levels. if you are looking for something you can use in the day aswel then i would look at something like the Hitachi CP-X1250 it has a ansi lumens rating of 4500 more than enough for day time viewing.

the reason why you are noticing problems with black levels in games is because of the contrast ratio. blacks and shades of blacks are what most pj manufacturers are trying master. DLP chip pj's offer the best black levels and would look at Sim2 or infocus if they are in your price bracket.

The Troll

I'm considering the Sanyo Z3 or the Panasonic A900/A700. You familar with these PJs?

Cinemaworks

The Troll wrote:

I'm considering the Sanyo Z3 or the Panasonic A900/A700. You familar with these PJs?

yep, definately the Panny double the contrast ratio and better performance when ambient light is a factor. Sanyo Z4 is a better option, it comes close to single chip DLP models but Sanyo need total darkness to offer better value.

1st choice Panny A900
2nd Sanyo Z4
3rd Panny A700
4th SAnyo Z3

Idleater

Hello.

I was wondering if you could help me out with a selection choice.
I am looking into upgrading my current Amp to a newer one with HD Compatability.
I have two lines of thought on this:
1) buy a new AV Receiver such as the Yamaha RXV2600
or
2) buy a dedicated AV Preprocessor such as the Rotel RSP-1068 or NAD T-163 and use my current amp to drive the speakers until I choose to upgrade it to a dedicated power amplifier.
Both solutions come in at in or around the same price but the latter two do not have HDMI inputs, just component.
My current amp is capable of 100W x 6 all channels driven @6ohm and has dedicated 5.1 input channels.
My only requirements are that the processor is capable of upconverting signals to Component (at the very least) and that there is a audio delay feature to lip sync with video.

Any advice/comments on either solution would be greatly appreciated,

L.

Cinemaworks

Amps that can upscale to HD are very few and far between and normally carry a hefty price tag. most HD switching amps/receivers offer video and audio through the one cable (HDMI)

Looking at the three your choosing i would go for the Yamaha. Pre/ Power is great but not really necessary unless your spending a fortune and want seperate power amps for each pair of speakers. Intergrated amps offer great value and at 130w per channel you should have plenty of power in reserve from the yamaha.

Headshot

hello cinema

i need ure expert advice im looking to buy a lcd tv a 27 inch one

i prefere not to pay over 800 euro

and it has to be hd compatabile

its to watch sky digital and play xbox 360 on it

please can you help

is it possible to get one for the price

looking forward to ure reply thank you

Sualtam

Hi,

I currently have a Denon 6.1 amp that's great but am thinking of getting an S301 to get rid of a lot of the clutter.
I was wondering if you had any experience with the likes of Denon's S101 or S301 or the Sony DAV X1.
How do these systems compare with standard 5.1 speaker systems?

Thanks