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It took me far too long to finish it all, but I finally figured out the final piece of the home theatre puzzle. A few weeks ago, I finally took the time to wire all the surround speakers in the basement and now we can enjoy the sounds of full surround sound. My motivation? Watching my beloved Denver Broncos in the playoffs (and presumably in the Super Bowl) on the big screen in high definition. Since I went to the game against the Patriots and witnessed, in person, their bid to win a never-before-done third straight Super Bowl come to a crashing halt, I was able to watch the AFC Championship Game at home in full surround. The sounds of the game in surround were awesome, with crowd sounds in the rear speakers as if you were sitting in the stands. Alas, the Broncos got embarrassed by a very good, very confident Steelers team.
So, this past weekend K and I were looking forward to watching War of the Worlds on DVD in 5.1 surround. But to our dismay, it was only blasting in 2 channels! The next day, I wanted to watch Finding Nemo with my 2 year old but I knew I had to figure out why the DVDs were not broadcasting in 5.1 glory. I finally RTFM (ReadTheF*n'Manual) and after an hour, adjusted the setup on the DVD player to correctly do what it was supposed to do. Turns out that the Finding Nemo DVD has a complete THX audio and video setup tests to make sure your theatre is set up for maximum viewing! Configured all that and voilá! the final piece of the puzzle for the home theatre is now complete!
The sound of 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound in our own home is simply amazing. So good, in fact, that when cool underwater sounds were going on behind us, W would always look behind him! The cat, when snoozing, would also dart her head up quickly towards the back of the room to see what was back there! Very cool.
Not really sure how theatres can stay in business charging upwards of $10.00 a head when home theatre systems are so intimate and effective. With Netflix being so darned convenient and TiVo as well, staying at home when you have a family is not so bad!
2 comments:
Nice to see you are writing again. Glad to read you got the speakers wired. Movies are great in 5.1, but I don't like sports. Perhaps it is because of the signal not being digital, but the crowd is mixed too high on my sports setting. (Now I was just about to e-mail this comment when I figured it logically goes here. So, this is my first comment on someone's blog! I am spending some time tomorrow setting up a BK blog I can link from the website.)
Thanks for not emailing your comment, that would take the air out of having a blog! Also, part of participating in blogs is coming back and seeing comments to your comments, etc.
The Super Bowl was fun in 5.1 with a little crowd 'behind' us, etc. I imagine it's hard to do live TV in 5.1, where movies can have specific sounds go specific places for optimum effect.
Having a hard time maximizing the large subwoofer... the cable system is not grounded correctly so I get a loud hum when I use it. Am calling Comcast to fix it.
Interesting comparison: Watched Independence Day on DVD and the 5.1 surround was awesome. HBO happened to be showing it also, and watching 5.1 via the TV is nothing compared to a DVD... pretty flat. They don't pump bass in at all via TV.
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