will be titled ‘The Basement 2 – hello Roach’s favourite room’.
Not only am I surrounded by cement and small windows (this fares well when there are unusual events going on in the neighbourhood), but the basement is now finished and has been since June.
But now, those loose electronic wires that were laid through the studding are coming into play. On the wall now sits a 46″ Panasonic Viera G15 Plasma. Attached is the HD PVR and a Sony Blu-Ray (no, not a PS3). I got a great deal on the package where the Blu-Ray was essentially thrown in. So was the installation. Plus a calibration service to make full use of the THX software in the TV.
The installation service paid off. They guys came out mainly to mount the TV onto the wall. But they are tech savvy and showed me how to get the most out of the Blu-Ray and upscaling capabilities to maximize the 1080p of the TV.
The picture is unbelievable. I repeat, unbelievable. Even the old DVDs look outstanding.
Right now, the PVR and Blu-Ray are sitting under the TV. But with the pre-wiring I had done, they will soon be under the stairs in a cubby. There’s a 100ft HDMI that tunnels through the ceiling connecting them to the TV. Yes, that was fairly pricey. There’s also speaker wire to cover the front sides and centre, subwoofer and two wires dangling from the ceiling near the back of the room. There’s even flexibility to go 7.1 if I so desire (which I’m thinking is going to happen).
To enable this, I have an outstanding RF/IR Universal remote that is industrial strength. Can’t remember the model offhand….(I’ll post it later in this thread). It comes with an RF receiver that has about 12 IR outs that you can tape to your devices. Very, very slick. The slickest of all is that it can be programmed for well over 20 devices. And it’s simple and intuitive interface. The clincher is that there are macros and ‘push-through’ capabilities that tightly integrate all your devices. E.g., turn them all off with the same power button. Or, if the remote is currently controlling the cable box, still have the volume button control the TV. Saves having to flip the function on the remote from cable to TV and then back to cable. Can program other buttons to have same thing. So, ‘Guide’ for example, brings up the Roger’s guide regardless of whether I’m on ‘TV’ mode or ‘DVD’ mode or whatever. Unbelievable flexibility. It kicks the Harmony’s butt. Plus the RF is going to come in handy since I also rewired the outside for more speakers. Can control my music from the deck! (See the Media Centre blurb below to get my drift).
The final piece(s) I need to complete the haven:
– Receiver with multiple HDMI switching (with only 1 HDMI to the stairs, I can’t put more than one device there until I get this)
– speakers
– HP Media Server (a glorified RAID storage device up to 4TB)
– a homemade Media Center under the stairs. Oh yeah, forgot to mention I hardwired ethernet to every TV location in the house (and under the stairs) plus am WiFi’d. The goal is to centralize my movies, photos, music onto the Server for sharing and backup. The media center will serve up this stuff to the TV and speakers.