Home theaters in a box ???

[pevodog]

I am wanting surround sound in my living room and hoping to get some expert advice. The main question is most home theaters in a box are upconvert dvd, and I was wondering how many years is it going to be before everthing is blu ray? Does anybody have any expierence with the SOny Bravia 1000 watt? And finally, I am in the middle of remodeling, and am wondering if I decided to just wire everything for surround sound and postpone buying a system, are most stereo system speaker wires universal and what is a good brand? Thanks

 

[Ignatius]

1. If you're asking whether or not the upconverter is worthless because in a few years you'd have to pitch it to get a Blu-Ray, then I guess the answer depends on whether or not you want to start watching BR discs now. If the answer is yes, then just get a BR player now which will upconvert, and you've got both covered. If the answer is no, or if you just want to keep the price down, then I wouldn't worry about it; incrementally, with HTIB (Home Theater In a Box), you're probably only paying about $50 for the DVD anyway...

2. No, but for my money (I guess technically it's your money), you can generally put together a better setup for the same/not a lot more than HTIB...

3. Definitely, definitely, definitely do as much wiring as humanly possible during your remodel; the speaker wires will work with whatever speakers you choose. Just make sure you get wire-rated (CL2) wire, regardless of whether its speaker wire, HDMI cable, etc. As far as speaker wire, I would recommend no higher than 16AWG, though you can go up to 18AWG. As many people on this site will attest, buy your speaker wire from Monoprice.com (or a like site), and do not under any circumstances at all waste your money on Monster Cable...

As far as postponing the purchase you don't need to because of the wiring, but one thing to consider is that if the remodel starts soon, do you really want to just box everything back up and stick it in a close for awhile, or just wait to get it until it's ready to move into the finished room? Electronics will always get cheaper...