CocheseUGA

I've been pretty spartan in my A/V setup to this point. I'll list the rundown in a minute. Our living room is fairly small and with an odd layout, so positioning things has been difficult. There's really only one way to arrange things, and it's not that conductive to watching tv or having conversations. The furniture is a bunch of hand-me-downs, Target and Ikea. I'll be building all of the hardscapes myself, and at least one seating arrangement. This is a long-term plan.

My equipment is as follows:

• 42" Panny plasma
• Denon AVR-589
• Samsung DVD
• Comcast basic converter box
• Roku 3
• PS3
• Xbox 360 w/ HD-DVD
• Wii U
• Dreamcast and Saturn, both may move
• JVC very basic 5.1

The plan in my mind is to move the TV to the bedroom and get something in the 55-60" range. The DVD will move to the play room where it is more needed, and the PS3 will retire from the Blu-Ray game. I like my receiver, but it only has two HDMI inputs and doesn't handle audio from them anyway. The new TV will go up on the wall, so I need to simplify the connections. I have the tiniest little speakers with this set, and a large amount of sound isn't a requirement. I do still want the surround treatment.

This thread is for me to ask questions about the electrical side and ask questions and show off the results from me building the other components. I don't expect completion of all the aspects for a couple of years at best.

CocheseUGA

The two pieces of furniture that handle entertainment duties were part of the Ikea Magiker line. There is the TV stand that the Panny sits on and holds all of the equipment, and one of the two bookcases sits next to it. This holds various 'wife' things on the top three open shelves, and all of the games and movies behind the closed doors. One of the problems with using a bookcase as game and movie storage is that it is ill-equipped to deal with a large amount of cases. You have to double stack and double row to fit them all in, and it becomes a pain to get to things.

I am finally giving in and moving all the movies and games to binders. Note, that I didn't even include the couple hundred DVDs in this, the movies in this bookcase are just BR and HD-DVD. The DVDs I have been transitioning to digital delivery, but it's a slow and tedious process and hard drives fail. The DVDs will still probably go in binders if there is room, but choosing what I like through Plex is faster and more fun. I really can't go to a streaming or cloud service because Comcast has reintroduced their data caps. Between my work needs, and getting most of our TV shows through the Roku channels, we bumped up against it last month.

The TV stand will be scrapped, and the bookcase moved to a different room for actual books. I will be building a new stand, one that is a bit thinner but will still be deep enough to hold what I need it to. Wife doesn't want a deep horizontal surface to accumulate crap since the TV is going on the wall.

I haven't quite decided on the style of furniture I will build. I have always liked Mission, Arts & Crafts and Greene & Greene. I am building a Stickley-inspired Morris Chair later this year, which the design of more closely resembles A&C. The other furniture will follow this same design principle. The wood will be cherry.

The other furniture in the room consists of a plaid sleeper sofa, a big Lazy Boy, two green high-back chairs that have a hidden reclining feature, and a coffee table and console table that are in the Mission style. I'll know more about exactly what pieces I'm making once I get the layout figured. I will be using Sketchup extensively to design the layout and each piece of furniture.

That does it for now about the furniture aspect until I get a few other things figured out first. Time for components.

CocheseUGA

Components - the general requirements

I require a TV that's a bit bigger than we have now - 42". I know my wife doesn't want something that completely dwarfs the room, so probably capping the size at 60" would be a good start. I would certainly like something with a thinner bezel, as this one has about a 2" one all around. Any other needs will be dictated by what is hooked up to it.

If I get a Smart TV that has Plex or other local streaming options I could conceivably move the Roku 3 to the bedroom and free up both a HDMI connection and an electrical outlet. Both are appealing. (I am also aware of the various streaming options through the consoles) Then I need a solution that offers the following connection options:

• PS3 - HDMI
• 360 - HDMI
• BR - HDMI
• Cable - Coax (but the option to go back to a box w/ HDMI)
• Wii U - HDMI

Five inputs minimum on the receiver, but seven would be best to add a PS4 and One and keep all my backward compatibility. I would like the audio and video through HDMI to pass through to the TV when the receiver isn't on. Is that possible, and still be able to select the source (or have it automatically detected)? I'd like to make this as easy as possible for the wife and kids to select a DVD or game. My Harmony 700 would take care of a lot of that, but I don't necessarily want the receiver to be on all the time.

CocheseUGA

I'll add that I will have some sort of network switch or switch/wireless bridge plugged in as well.

CocheseUGA

OK, here's where I need to start having suggestions made or comments about potential equipment. I have some ideas about what I like and what looks like it would fit the budget, but need opinions.

Receiver - Denon AVR-X2000. I've enjoyed my demo 589, so I'm sticking with Denon again. This has 7 HDMI inputs, HDMI Standby Passthrough, and upconverts legacy equipment so perhaps my Dreamcast will look awesome.

TV - Samsung UN55H6350AFXZA - Smart TV, should allow me to move the Roku to another room. Plenty of inputs, thin bezel, lightweight. Liked the Vizio, however their apps aren't as strong. May have to modify this selection if I go past the model year. It's not 3D, but it seems like that is dying anyway.

Speakers - no real idea here. The JVC system I have actually does fine for what I need it to do, I just need to run the wires under the house for a clean look. May stick with what I have and do piecemeal upgrades as there's nothing proprietary about it.

TV mount - going with one from Monoprice

Cables - I should have most of what I need, but anything else is coming from them as well

BR Player - If my TV and other platforms have streaming capability, I don't know if I need anything special from this. Just a regular BR player is fine. Whatever fits well aesthetically.

SamDoe1

What's your budget for each of these? More specifically the speakers. A lot of the time, you get what you pay for but there are some really good "economy" options out there too.

CocheseUGA

I wouldn't say I had specific budgets for anything. I like the $400 price point of the Denon, I'd like to spend around $1000-$1250 on the TV. The speakers I'm not really worried too much about because as I said the tiny little things I have now meet my needs. I don't have a ton of room to put in huge floor-standers, but otherwise I'm wide open.

The cheaper things are the sooner I can buy them, but my current setup has lasted me five years and I'm looking for at least the same going forward.

SamDoe1

I'd recommend Polk speakers, they are decent and don't cost a ton. They have a refurb store on ebay that has really good deals and you can usually find sales on Crutchfield, Newegg, Amazon, etc too.

Polk isn't going to sound like a high end B+W system but it'll sound worlds better than the JVC's you have now.

CocheseUGA

Went ahead and ordered the X2000 before it ran out of stock. There wasn't much compelling for me to hold off to the X2100, as I doubt I would use the full capacity in the next 3-5 years. Should be here Saturday, and I'll have to decide if I want to try and sell the 589 or store it. No place for it in the bedroom for the time being.

CocheseUGA

The X2000 is really nice, a big upgrade from what I had. Still getting the inputs and settings figured out. I'm off to Ikea to get ideas for a console unit.

CocheseUGA

Wiring - I'm getting my order together for the remaining cables I need, and here's a question:

My JVC 5.1 system has the option to route a set of speakers through the sub, which looks like it's not an uncommon option. Is that really the preferred method? Should I run the speaker wire straight to the rears instead? I want to have minimal fuss when I go and upgrade.