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Home Theater Upgrade

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HA Dave:
OK... to be honest I am posting partly because I am a little nostalgic for the threads... like the old days. But also because I found/bought something that I found helpful.

Like many of us I was early into creating a home theater. Whereas HDMI and HD standards seem like they've always been here. A decade ago most of what is standard with HD today was still a little up in the air. I have been wondering what to do to upgrade my home theater to HD. My projector is capable of HD but only has a VGA input. I used a component adapter cable to get component signals from the DVD player to the projector.

After doing a little searching on Amazon I found several devices that will convert and scale an HDMI to component and/or VGA. I'd seen them before... but the prices are now greatly lowered. For less than a $50 converter... I was able to switch to a BlueRay player with a 1080i image. DVD's are slightly improved too. I know... I could have done the same thing using a computer configured for entertainment.

Now.... will I buy pricey Blue Ray movies? Well sure... some! And I will still enjoy a fairly sizable DVD collection too.

But... I've been playing around with an Roku and I am thinking I will stream content. I can "join" [pronounced: pay monthly fees] Netflix and/or other "content providers". And the service will also be available on my TV/laptop/tablet/and phone (as I understand it). And I can stopped adding more DVD shelves.

Some day my projector will fail and I will once again have choices to make. But for now this should bring me pretty much up-to-date. Then... on to my automation setup! (I thinking an electromagnetic Sensor Wand buried next to my driveway).

Tuicemen:
I've streamed movies a few times and not always with a friendly experience.
It is sad days of DVD rentals are quickly coming to an end.
I still prefer watching a movie from a DVD then streaming. ::) :'

dhouston:

--- Quote from: Tuicemen on January 17, 2015, 09:17:31 AM ---I've streamed movies a few times and not always with a friendly experience.

--- End quote ---
Then you ain't doing it right.  B:(

Streaming via a Smart TV or using many of the external devices (e.g. Roku) with services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc. is smooth and seamless (aside from Amazon's neolithic GUI) although trying it with an underpowered miniPC is more problematic. I haven't tried things like Roku via a composite interface but suspect it might be less than optimal.

I've found getting DVDs to display properly on a recent flatscreen to be far more of a headache than streaming.

Yesterday, I received a Lenova Q190 with Windows 8.1 that I plan to try with one of the HDMI inputs on my Vizio 50" Smart TV. I opted for a $200 model that has an internal 500GB HDD in case I decide it would be better employed as a desktop PC, but there are other less costly, similar PCs w/o the HDD available. 

I'll post here as things progress.

dave w:
Dave,
Did the new Lenovo come with a program called "Voxox" installed on drive?

JeffVolp:

--- Quote from: Tuicemen on January 17, 2015, 09:17:31 AM ---It is sad days of DVD rentals are quickly coming to an end.
I still prefer watching a movie from a DVD then streaming. ::) :'
--- End quote ---

Ditto.  Years ago we often stopped by Hollywood Video both for rentals and to pick up used copies of our favorites.  Recently we "joined" Netflix - just the DVD rental, not streaming.  I understand they are downplaying that option, so it is anyone's guess how long it will remain available.  But it gives us two movies a week at $10 per month.  Then I use eBay to pick up copies of the ones we would like to add to our DVD library.

Dave, our Oppo DVD/BD player works flawlessly.  It even plays most heavily scratched Netflix discs without a problem.  And HD on the projector is perfect.

Jeff

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