Newbie questions
Posted by: GarryM on 11 January 2007
I am an HT newbie and would appreciate some advice. I have in mind buying a plasma screen, an n-Vi and some means of recording DVDs (my existing hi-fi will stay in another room away from my children!) I have a few questions and hope it’s OK to ask them all in this thread.
1. What is the picture/sound quality like on TV programs/films recorded on a PVR and then transferred to DVD using a bog standard PC?
2. Thinking about the future - can you connect an HD-DVD and/or a Blu-Ray player to the n-Vi so that the picture goes straight to the screen and the sound goes to speakers via the n-Vi?
3. I’ve read on this forum that you should aim to have the same front and rear speakers. The n-system looks great but doesn’t meet approval with my wife (surrounds too big). I’ve seen (not heard) tiny Monitor Audio Radius 45 speakers which she likes. Is buying an n-Vi a waste of money if forced to use very small or even in-ceiling rear speakers?
Any comments very welcome. Thanks.
Garry
1. What is the picture/sound quality like on TV programs/films recorded on a PVR and then transferred to DVD using a bog standard PC?
2. Thinking about the future - can you connect an HD-DVD and/or a Blu-Ray player to the n-Vi so that the picture goes straight to the screen and the sound goes to speakers via the n-Vi?
3. I’ve read on this forum that you should aim to have the same front and rear speakers. The n-system looks great but doesn’t meet approval with my wife (surrounds too big). I’ve seen (not heard) tiny Monitor Audio Radius 45 speakers which she likes. Is buying an n-Vi a waste of money if forced to use very small or even in-ceiling rear speakers?
Any comments very welcome. Thanks.
Garry
Posted on: 12 January 2007 by GarryM
Thanks munch!
My starting position is a 25" CRT with a VCR and a £35 DVD player! I have a lot to learn!
I asked about recording onto a PC as if that's OK it's easier to justify the n-Vi. If I have to buy a decent DVD recorder anyway then I'd look for a processor instead of the n-Vi.
Thanks for the speaker info'.
My starting position is a 25" CRT with a VCR and a £35 DVD player! I have a lot to learn!
I asked about recording onto a PC as if that's OK it's easier to justify the n-Vi. If I have to buy a decent DVD recorder anyway then I'd look for a processor instead of the n-Vi.
Thanks for the speaker info'.
Posted on: 12 January 2007 by Gary S.
Garry
Regaring the speakers. I use the MA Radius range. My central speaker being a Radius 225, front sats being Radius 180 and rear sats being Radius 45. Overall, I'm very pleased with the sound, which is prety impresive given the size of the speakers. I originally bought a set of the Keff eggs which were dire by comparisson, very stril and awful on music.
I note you are south west based - you would be welcome to hear them if you're local, I'm near Taunton.
Regards
Gary
Regaring the speakers. I use the MA Radius range. My central speaker being a Radius 225, front sats being Radius 180 and rear sats being Radius 45. Overall, I'm very pleased with the sound, which is prety impresive given the size of the speakers. I originally bought a set of the Keff eggs which were dire by comparisson, very stril and awful on music.
I note you are south west based - you would be welcome to hear them if you're local, I'm near Taunton.
Regards
Gary
Posted on: 12 January 2007 by GarryM
That's a very kind offer, thank you. Hmm... both surveyors, "naimees", live nearby and both called Gar(r)y! That's a bit spooky!
Have you ever tried connecting the Radius speakers to your Naim system? I've always thought MA made excellent speakers but the Radius ones look so small. I can't see email addresses on this forum otherwise I'd drop you a line.
Have you ever tried connecting the Radius speakers to your Naim system? I've always thought MA made excellent speakers but the Radius ones look so small. I can't see email addresses on this forum otherwise I'd drop you a line.
Posted on: 12 January 2007 by Gary S.
Garry
Feel free to do so:- gary at sladeparry dot co dot uk.
What flavour of surveyor? I'm a QS for my sins!
Gary
Feel free to do so:- gary at sladeparry dot co dot uk.
What flavour of surveyor? I'm a QS for my sins!
Gary
Posted on: 12 January 2007 by Gary S.
quote:Originally posted by GarryM:
Have you ever tried connecting the Radius speakers to your Naim system? I've always thought MA made excellent speakers but the Radius ones look so small.
Garry
No, I've never tried this and unlikely to do so since my speaker cables are partly chased in and part in mini trunking. I did however, try some MA floorstanders last year during my search for some new speakers, I can't remember the model, but they didn't seem a good match for Naim.
PS the Radius 45's make ideal rear sats, but yes I think they are too small to act as fronts.
Regards
Gary
Posted on: 12 January 2007 by GarryM
quote:Originally posted by Gazzer:
Garry
What flavour of surveyor? I'm a QS for my sins!
Gary
I'm a GP for mine! I'll drop you a mail.
Posted on: 12 January 2007 by Stuart M
If you want the real home cinema experience, and your room can handle it get a projector rather than a plasma/large LCD you can keep your TV for daytime (and cost would around the same as a good plasma) or get a smaller flat screen.
Most important is to use the same speakers for front, left and centre (or specifically designed to match rhe left/right speakers) the rears are a lot less important but if these are from the same family there is some benefit.
If you do get a plasma/LCD don't skimp on quality, some of the cheaper ones can have some nasty image artifacts that you don't notice in the shop - if you could get it on sale or return even better. Good types of video to watch to spot these:-
1. Dark scene with a pin point source (a candle) casting a fading glow of light - is the transition from light to dark smooth or can you see bands (solarisation)
2. A fast moving sport (Football, racing etc) can you see blurring or the motion does the motion look smooth.
If you go for a projector if what you need to look for are:-
3. If LCD can you see obvious squares from the viewing position where the cells are also look for 1 & 2 above - known as the screen door effect.
4. If DLP find a high contrast scene. E.g. a black bar on a white background. The move your head from left to right and back quickly - do you see rainbows. If you see them then try this on other scenes, slower moves of you head - some people see others see nothing some it depends on the projector.
Hope that helped
Most important is to use the same speakers for front, left and centre (or specifically designed to match rhe left/right speakers) the rears are a lot less important but if these are from the same family there is some benefit.
If you do get a plasma/LCD don't skimp on quality, some of the cheaper ones can have some nasty image artifacts that you don't notice in the shop - if you could get it on sale or return even better. Good types of video to watch to spot these:-
1. Dark scene with a pin point source (a candle) casting a fading glow of light - is the transition from light to dark smooth or can you see bands (solarisation)
2. A fast moving sport (Football, racing etc) can you see blurring or the motion does the motion look smooth.
If you go for a projector if what you need to look for are:-
3. If LCD can you see obvious squares from the viewing position where the cells are also look for 1 & 2 above - known as the screen door effect.
4. If DLP find a high contrast scene. E.g. a black bar on a white background. The move your head from left to right and back quickly - do you see rainbows. If you see them then try this on other scenes, slower moves of you head - some people see others see nothing some it depends on the projector.
Hope that helped
Posted on: 18 January 2007 by GarryM
Thank you Stuart. More food for thought!
Posted on: 18 January 2007 by Frank Abela
Garry,
1. Depends on the quality of reception and the quality at which you record. PVRs usually allow you to select varying degrees (e.g Low/Medium/High) of quality. Top quality is usually pretty good, although this does depend on the model of PVR too.
2. As mentioned elsewhere, the picture would be connected directly to the screen and the sound would be sent through the n-Vi. However, if you do this, you will only get standard DTS or Dolby Digital. Other A/V processors can take multi-channel input (literally 7 sockets). The audio specifications for HD-DVD and BluRay include the 'usual' DVD specifications (meaning lossy compression in the form of DTS and Dolby Digital) but also higher defnition uncompressed (I believe) mutli-channel audio. It is not allowed to transmit these digitally so the connection would have to be analogue via multi-channel input and the n-Vi does not have this facility. That said, nobody really knows how good the higher definition audio tracks will be at this stage (they'll be good, just not sure how big a step).
This also brings me to picture quality. BluRay and HD-DVD have a higher definition picture than HD Ready allows for in the form of 1080p. Standard High Definition is 720p or 1080i. FullHD as it's being referred to now, is 1080p and requires about 4 times the bandwidth of HD. There are only very few screens that can do FullHD at this point. Plasmas are very expensive (£6000 for a 50" Pioneer). LCD is much cheaper (the new Sharp 46" job is £1700, down from £2400 just 3 months ago). Either way, this is new technology and we have yet to know what the glitches are, if any.
3. Ideally, the speakers should be the same all around, equidistant from the ideal seating position, at 30 degrees to that osition from the front and 110 degrees for the surrounds. In real life this is pretty difficult to achieve and it leads to difficulties when more than one person wants a listen! Therefore, people go for different solutions. If the main complaint is the surround speakers (as I surmise from your post), then you could do worse than a small but high quality pairt of surround speakers designed specifically for the task. I'm thinking in particular of M&K's Surround 26 which is dinky, polished black, smart and effective. Add that to n-SATS, n-CENT, n-SUB and you'll have a good - if not perfect surround system. You mention that your main HiFi is in another room. If this system is purely about Home Theatre, then you could do a lot worse than a complete M&K Xenon speaker system. The satellites are very high quality and very small, the subs are similarly capable without being too big.
1. Depends on the quality of reception and the quality at which you record. PVRs usually allow you to select varying degrees (e.g Low/Medium/High) of quality. Top quality is usually pretty good, although this does depend on the model of PVR too.
2. As mentioned elsewhere, the picture would be connected directly to the screen and the sound would be sent through the n-Vi. However, if you do this, you will only get standard DTS or Dolby Digital. Other A/V processors can take multi-channel input (literally 7 sockets). The audio specifications for HD-DVD and BluRay include the 'usual' DVD specifications (meaning lossy compression in the form of DTS and Dolby Digital) but also higher defnition uncompressed (I believe) mutli-channel audio. It is not allowed to transmit these digitally so the connection would have to be analogue via multi-channel input and the n-Vi does not have this facility. That said, nobody really knows how good the higher definition audio tracks will be at this stage (they'll be good, just not sure how big a step).
This also brings me to picture quality. BluRay and HD-DVD have a higher definition picture than HD Ready allows for in the form of 1080p. Standard High Definition is 720p or 1080i. FullHD as it's being referred to now, is 1080p and requires about 4 times the bandwidth of HD. There are only very few screens that can do FullHD at this point. Plasmas are very expensive (£6000 for a 50" Pioneer). LCD is much cheaper (the new Sharp 46" job is £1700, down from £2400 just 3 months ago). Either way, this is new technology and we have yet to know what the glitches are, if any.
3. Ideally, the speakers should be the same all around, equidistant from the ideal seating position, at 30 degrees to that osition from the front and 110 degrees for the surrounds. In real life this is pretty difficult to achieve and it leads to difficulties when more than one person wants a listen! Therefore, people go for different solutions. If the main complaint is the surround speakers (as I surmise from your post), then you could do worse than a small but high quality pairt of surround speakers designed specifically for the task. I'm thinking in particular of M&K's Surround 26 which is dinky, polished black, smart and effective. Add that to n-SATS, n-CENT, n-SUB and you'll have a good - if not perfect surround system. You mention that your main HiFi is in another room. If this system is purely about Home Theatre, then you could do a lot worse than a complete M&K Xenon speaker system. The satellites are very high quality and very small, the subs are similarly capable without being too big.
Posted on: 18 January 2007 by john R1
panasonic th50 pf9 is supposed to be full 1080p
seen it for £4357 still expensive not sure if its any good ?
seen it for £4357 still expensive not sure if its any good ?
Posted on: 19 January 2007 by GarryM
Wow! Thank you Frank. I now have a better understanding of what's involved so will go and listen/look at some systems. Thank you all for your help.