Home entertainment systems are more than just your average TV and Blu Ray player plugged in and set on default. They involve multiple components and aim to provide the ultimate media experience in your living room, whether you are looking to bring the magic of the cinema to your own home or to get right next to the action at the next big sports match without forking out for a ticket. As such setting up a home entertainment system can be tricky, but this brief guide should give you enough information to help you get started.
First you will need to appreciate the kind of space you are working with and base your choice of entertainment technology on these immutable parameters. If you are starting from scratch and buying an HDTV along with an audio system, media player and DVD/Blu Ray device then you can be much more exacting in your choices. For example, it makes no sense to slap a 50 inch TV set in a room where you will be sitting just five feet away from the screen because all that display real estate will overwhelm the space and have a negative impact on your viewing experience.
It is also advisable to pick a consistent selection of components which are ideally made by the same manufacturer. So if you have a Sony TV it will work at the top of its game when paired with a Sony Blu Ray player and Sony brand surround sound with a compatible amplifier. Of course this kind of perfectionism is not essential because most devices should be cross-compatible on a basic level, but since most home entertainment devices from individual manufacturers are designed to interface with one another and provide inter-device control from a single remote, you may want to make the investment upfront to ensure smooth operation at a later date.
Positioning your TV so that it can be viewed comfortably is relatively simple, but setting up surround sound speakers can be a little more taxing. The satellite speakers at the rear may typically operate using long wires running from the amplifier by your TV, although some models have wireless rear speakers to reduce clutter, but be prepared to pay more for this convenience. Pay close attention to the manufacturer`s instructions when it comes to angling your surround sound speakers to ensure that the full effect of the advanced audio is experienced by the viewer.
If you want a truly flexible home entertainment system setup then you might consider buying a flat TV wall mount so that your television can twist, rotate and hang remote from the rest of the gadgets. Wall mounts can offer varying degrees of articulation, with the more complex setups typically costing extra but letting you swivel and pan the screen precisely. This may be of particular interest to anyone who has a 3D TV that requires the viewer to be seated within a particular viewing angle to enjoy the latest effects without any blurring or image disruption.
This guest post was provided by http://www.3wisemonkeys.co.uk
Most people are familiar with screen savers in Windows. When your computer has been idle for a certain period of time, the screen will go blank or animate in some way to keep the screen you left up from burning into your monitor. Over the years, screen savers evolved to entertain. Chances are pretty good that you or someone you know has had a virtual fish tank as a screen saver at some point. The problem is that you’re usually not around to enjoy your screen saver when it’s activated. In this article, I’m going to show you an easy way to animate your desktop while you’re using the computer. The video below has a few examples from my own setup.
In the video, I just demonstrated a few of my favorites, but you can also use it as an example of how to set a video as your background once you have Dreamscene installed. You might have also noticed that I’ve removed any junk icons from my desktop and set my program dock and task bar both to auto-hide. The less you have in the way of your background, the more you’ll enjoy it.
What You Need To Get Started
- Dreamscene: The Windows 7 Dreamscene patch is here (32 bit). 64 bit is here.
- Video loops: The ones I’m using are a bunch from dreamscene.org and the aquarium I found on YouTube.
That’s it. Just grab a video or two and the patch and get started below.
How To Install Dreamscene
Installing Dreamscene is pretty quick and easy to accomplish, but you will need to reboot. Bookmark this page so you can come back to it and wrap up anything else you have open. When you’re ready, just follow these steps:
1. Open the Dreamscene patch you downloaded
2: Copy and Paste DreamScene.dll to %windir%\system32\
3: Copy and Paste DreamScene.dll.mui to %windir%\system32\en-US\
4: Run Dscene.reg
5: Reboot
(%windir% is the path to your windows directory, generally C:\Windows. Instructions may vary with an OS other than Windows 7 64 bit)
After installation and rebooting, you can set any .WMV or .MPG video as your desktop background. To do this, just find a video on your computer, right-click on it and click “Set as Desktop Background.
Find More Dreamscene Videos
Finding a bunch of videos on sites like dreamscene.org is great, but remember, you can use any wmv or mpg video, so there’s a whole lot of possible Dreamscenes all over the web for you. If it loops, that’s best, but a longer video will work, too. Sites like YouTube have an abundance of videos, but you might try just searching Google for free video loops.
Comment below and link to any video loops you find that you really like.
Yesterday, I posted about how to jailbreak your iPhone running firmware 3.1.3 in 60 seconds. After jailbreaking, I tried playing with ScreenSplitr and saw other apps that let you see your iPhone screen on your computer. The problem is that most require you to be tethered to a computer or have both your iPhone and the computer on a wifi network. I found something much easier for creating videos of your iPhone screen.
After jailbreaking, I installed Backgrounder on my iPhone. It lets you run things in the background, which the iPhone still doesn’t do (until 4.0). What I found was that some video recording programs will still record in the background and others will not. Of those that will, a couple will record everything displayed on your screen. Below is a video I made showing regular video, then my screen, then back to regular video. The whole thing was recorded using a iVideoRecorder ($0.99 in the app store) and Backgrounder. It was not edited at all and was uploaded to YouTube right from the phone.
As you can see, it was pretty simple to share my iPhone screen activity with you without the need for a computer. This is great if you want to, for example, show people how to take and edit iPhone photos on the beach or how well a navigation program works with a live demonstration. Give it a try and let me know what you think.
Having a computer dedicated to your entertainment center is fine, but what if you don’t want to dedicate a computer just to that? That’s how I had things set up for a long time. I used the computer less and less after we got a new cable box that included a DVR. With HULU, I contemplated setting it all back up, but then I came across a device that promised to save me all the trouble.
The device pictured above is a USB PC to TV audio and video adapter from a company called Warpia and it’s designed to transmit the audio and video signal from your computer to a receiving unit attached to your PC.
Setting It All Up
The setup for this device really couldn’t have been much easier. Following some simple instructions, I installed the software from the included CD and then plugged in the USB PC adapter. After looking over the settings, I plugged in the A/V base adapter and hooked it up to the HDMI cable I borrowed from my DVD player (will connect via VGA, too). After a couple seconds, everything on my laptop screen was being displayed on my 42 inch TV as well. Check out the video of everything in action:
The refresh rate for video was pretty good, but could be a little better. Other than that, HD video came across as true HD and looked really good. All my applications refreshed seamlessly and I had a very clear picture.
Features and Flaws
One of the things I liked about this was that it’s treated as an additional display, so I can tell Windows to either Duplicate the display or Extend it. When I extend it, I get to keep my normal laptop screen just on my laptop, and a second desktop for the TV. A great example of how that’s beneficial presented itself the other night. I purchased a movie online for direct download and watched it on the TV over my wireless A/V connection. At the same time, I was able to tweet, read and respond to email, etc. from my original desktop. Pretty cool.
The SWP100A also comes with mounting screw slots on the bottom of the TV adapter and that end’s USB stick can plug in horizontally or vertically in case you want to wall mount it and keep it as flush as possible.
The only real concern this device presented was the heat it generated. The USB adapter can get pretty warm and the TV adapter gets downright hot. I’d have loved to see an on/off switch on the TV end of the setup. Not only would this help with the heat problem, but it would be a lot easier than having to unplug it and plug it back in every time I want to use it.
Conclusions
At $179.99, it’s not my cheapest device, but it’s cheaper than setting up another computer just for the TV and a lot, I mean a LOT easier. I went from sealed box to completed and in use in about 5-7 minutes. If you can handle the price, it’s a decent solution to get your audio and video from PC to TV in a snap.
