[Phronetix]

Originally Posted by Jason Dunn

Where did you even see Pioneer plasmas? Neither Visions, nor Best Buy, nor Future Shop carry them in Calgary.

Soundsaround.

;-) Drop your wife off at the scrapbooking store, then go there, and meet halfway for sushi afterward.

Okay, not quite halfway, but you'll need the extra time in the store.

[Phronetix]

Originally Posted by Jason Dunn

Where did you even see Pioneer plasmas? Neither Visions, nor Best Buy, nor Future Shop carry them in Calgary.

Soundsaround.

;-) Drop your wife off at the scrapbooking store, then go there, and meet halfway for sushi afterward.

Okay, not quite halfway, but you'll need the extra time in the store.

[ptyork]

Originally Posted by Jason Dunn

Well, unfortunately because of the way the wiring was done in that room, I have power + coaxial cable on the left side of the fireplace, and power + Ethernet on the right side of the fireplace. So we have to rip up both sides of the drywall to get everything run into the center.

We're going to run power from the left side of the wall, but on the right side I still need the conduit for HDMI + whatever other cables I want to run...so I think we need to rip up the drywall for that. Or are you suggesting something different?

Gotcha. Sounds like both sides are getting ripped up regardless. I didn't know the existing coax was on that side. One word of advice would be not to "couple" another coax cable onto the existing one to make it that last few feet to the back of the TV. Make a new "home run" if possible. It may be that your existing run is long enough to reach the TV once re-routed. If not, though, definitely consider running some fresh quad-shield RG6 from the main cable box rather than simply coupling on to the existing one. This can introduce interference due to lack of shielding at the junction and signal loss just due to the coupling. Shouldn't be all that hard to do since you can do any required "pulling" using the existing run.

Originally Posted by Jason Dunn

I did a poor job explaining what was going to happen, but yes, that's exactly what we're doing - on the right side of that photo, we're going to run vaccu-flo pipes to create a conduit that will allow me to run future cables if I want from the box behind the TV (the mounting bracket essentially) down to the vaccu-flo port that will be down and hidden by the couch. On the left side, there won't be a conduit, we're just pulling the power + cable (coax) up and over - but that will require ripping up the drywall as well.

Okay, I see. You leave both ends of the conduit open. Ultimate in flexibility. My anal retentive nature always made me do things the hard way with junction boxes and custom covers. Your way is better in the long run so long as you can hide the open conduit.

BTW, the other benefit of LCD's is high ambient light viewing. I'm not sure what your living room situation is, but if your viewing in daylight (not even direct), plasma tends to get drowned out. That, and of course the ever dreaded burn-in for plasmas. Their picture is better under optimal conditions, but rarely are you achieving optimal conditions in a public space like a living room.

[EscapePod]

Originally Posted by Jason Dunn

Where did you even see Pioneer plasmas? Neither Visions, nor Best Buy, nor Future Shop carry them in Calgary.

Best Buy (in the U.S.) has one of several Pioneer Plasmas on sale this week. Maybe not available in Canada???

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1210290068342

(50" even has 10/100BaseT connector. 60" is also available)

[Gordo]

I always wondered about the heat from a fire causing problems with the TV. One web site I found mentioned that if the temperature above the mantel gets above 90F you can have problems. Might want to consider test this before proceeding.

[ptyork]

Originally Posted by EscapePod

Best Buy (in the U.S.) has one of several Pioneer Plasmas on sale this week. Maybe not available in Canada???

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1210290068342

(50" even has 10/100BaseT connector. 60" is also available)

I know you were just passing on info here, but my word! You'd have to LOVE watching TV or just have money to burn to spend this kind of dough on a 50 inch TV. $3600 on sale is quite amazing. I'm sure its great and wonderful and all, but us married folk, we'd get quite deaded buyin' som'in' like dis.

Though still resulting in the same state of dead for me, the Panasonic does seem much the better deal...if a $2700 TV could ever be considered a deal.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=12-57002234-2

...and "better" at...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...nic-_-89187091

[wesk]

Jason,

The LCD to get is the 46" Samsung (Model LN46A650). My son and I researched alot of LCD's before deciding on this one. Both my son and I have one now. The price has come down about $1000usd since it was released on 03/08.

A great site to get inexpensive HDMI and other cables is: monoprice.com

Plan your wiring for now and for the future. You can never have enough AC outlets. Plan on running cat5e to the LCD. (The LN46A650 has a LAN port) And most important: What ever size of conduit your electrician says you need, go at least one size bigger. You may need it in the future and it's better to have the capacity available than to wish you had put in bigger conduit.

Good luck on build.

Wes

[stlbud]

I'm assuming the fireplace works. How will you divert heat from the fireplace away from the LCD? The room seems small enough that you could run a fairly massive mantle from one wall to the other. Finish the space below the mantle differently from above. You could still use the serpentine shelves above the mantle. Keep them symmetrical so they frame the LCD.

You already have a big box on the floor in the form of a subwoofer, why not another big box on the floor in the form of a more manageable HTPC? Put a side table over each or both and no one will even know they are there. The side table serves 2 purposes. It keeps guests from using your expensive equipment as a drink coaster and hides the equipment.

[mrozema]

I just saw this Acer Aspire PC with HDMI out. Looks kinda slick, being and black and all.
http://gizmodo.com/398056/acer-aspir...n-a-tiny-space

If you do pull a new run of RG6 (which isn't a bad idea at all), you might want to check if you can pull it to the right side of the mantle. Figure out which way your floor joists run. If they run parallel to the wall you're working on, it wouldn't be much more work to poke a hole on the right side of the fireplace and fish the cable up through.

[OKCrew]

Just a couple of thoughts...

Sound, the hard surface floor will cause some problems but strategic area rugs/carpets can take care of that. Also, home made sound panels at reflection points on your walls would assist in tuning the sound envrironment. They could fit into your "modern" asthetic tastes also.

Video, I would go with a nice 42" 1080P LCD for daily HTPC and TV viewing but would supplement it with front projection. You can have an electric screen that would decend in front of the LCD. The screen could be hidden in a valence or recessed in the ceiling (kits for this are getting very reasonable). Without knowing the dimensions of the room, I think a nice 101" or at least 92" could be achieved. The main factors would be the viewing distance of the seating and the possible throw distance.

In any case with whatever you do, you should visit the home theater building forums at the AVScience forums. Just like when you research any of you other "toys" you will get caught up in the debates and discussions and get a thousand ideas for your room. Have fun and show us progress pictures and explain your building and equipment choice decisions for us.

[Jason Dunn]

Originally Posted by Phronetix

Soundsaround.

Uh-oh. I was afraid you were going to say that. Soundaround is a den of thieves as far as I'm concerned...I hate going in there and avoid the store whenever possible. But that doesn't matter as much as the price - since this is a secondary TV, I care less about the sheer quality of the picture - and a quick call to Soundaround confirmed what I was thinking: they don't have anything smaller than a 50", and the 720p model is $2498 while the 1080p model is $3998. I won't be using this TV enough to justify paying more than 2x over what I can get the 46" Sharp LCD TV for...so there's why I'm saying no to this brand of plasma TV.