blu ray player big lots image
Joe.R
If this includes a Blu-Ray player, or has one built in, I will go up to $700.
Bonus question: What is the new standard for surround sound? When I stopped following this stuff in the early 2000's it was 5.1 channels. That's what most DVDs supported, and that is the amount of speakers most home theater systems had. Is it now 7.1 speakers or more?
Answer
All-in-one kits with a built-in DVD or BD player are not good. You do seem to get a lot of toys, but the basics are missing: Quality amplification = No. Variety of inputs = No. Upgradeable components = No. You'd be far better off looking at a Blu-ray player + AV Receiver + 5.1 speaker package (satellites & active sub).
Firstly the Blu-ray player. You've allocated up to $200 for this. For under $150 you can have a Panasonic or Sony 3D Blu-ray player with wireless networking. If you are not bothered about 3D and have no plans to change your TV for a 3D capable one in the near future then save some bucks here and just go for a basic one, but the price difference is shrinking all the time so the saving might be less than $20 so why not have the 3D player anyway. There's no issue mixing brands either between the BD player and the audio gear.
As for home cinema kits, Onkyo and Denon and Yamaha all make packages with decent AV Receivers and speaker kits as a bundle. Most are 3D capable, and a few are 7.1. My view on 5.1 vs 7.1 is go for it if you have an unlimited budget and a really big room. However, if you're working to a strict budget then it's better to do 5.1 well than stretch things and do 7.1 badly.
New sound formats - The important ones for performance are DTS-Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD for Blu-ray audio, and Dolby ProLogicII (DPLII) for any stereo sources you want to have in surround. All of the kits I'll recommend do these formats.
ARC - Audio Return Channel. This is new feature added in the latest version of HDMI - the 1.4 version. If your TV and AV Receiver have the ARC feature then you no longer need an optical connection to get sound from the TV back to the surround kit. The HDMI cable will carry sound back.
Other things to consider... Blu-ray players often have streaming features (YouTube etc) and also require periodic firmware updates to cope with new encoding and features on discs. This is done via the net. A wired network connection is best but wireless will do too. There's also a good chance that the receiver you get might have internet radio or AirPlay. Once again a wired network connection back to your wireless router will allow you to access thousands of internet radio stations and enable you to stream music from your WiFi connected smartphone or tablet to the receiver.
Traps to avoid: "Super performance" HDMI cables. The HDMI connections from your Blu-ray player to the AV Receiver, and from the Receiver to the TV don't need $50 cables. As long as the cable is rated High Speed and meets the HDMI 1.4 spec and is of decent construction then all will be well. Avoid the cheapest the Ebay or the web has to offer. Those really tend to be crappy. $10 is a reasonable amount for a 3-5 ft cable.
All the following have HD audio decoding, DPLII
Yamaha YHT397BL - simple 5.1 surround system sold via the electrical barns. 3D and with ARC. $449
Yamaha YHT497BL - alternative to 397 - sold via specialist dealers. $430-£479. The 397 has the same basic spec but better speakers.
Yamaha YHT597BL - step-up model with net radio, AirPlay, Yamaha SmartPhone app (Android & Apple) which works remarkably well. $549
Onkyo HTS3500 - simple 5.1 surround system sold via the electrical barns. 3D and with ARC. Passive sub to keep costs down. $399
Onkyo HTS5500 - step-up model - 7.1 surround system, more power, better speakers, smarter auto set-up system (Audyssey 2). $599
Denon DHT-1513BA - pitched at the upgrader market - Better amp (discrete channels) and packaged with a 3rd party speaker kit from specialist manufacturer Boston Acoustics. The spec won't look as impressive but trust me, this kit is all about performance rather than bling. $599
Hope this helps :-)
All-in-one kits with a built-in DVD or BD player are not good. You do seem to get a lot of toys, but the basics are missing: Quality amplification = No. Variety of inputs = No. Upgradeable components = No. You'd be far better off looking at a Blu-ray player + AV Receiver + 5.1 speaker package (satellites & active sub).
Firstly the Blu-ray player. You've allocated up to $200 for this. For under $150 you can have a Panasonic or Sony 3D Blu-ray player with wireless networking. If you are not bothered about 3D and have no plans to change your TV for a 3D capable one in the near future then save some bucks here and just go for a basic one, but the price difference is shrinking all the time so the saving might be less than $20 so why not have the 3D player anyway. There's no issue mixing brands either between the BD player and the audio gear.
As for home cinema kits, Onkyo and Denon and Yamaha all make packages with decent AV Receivers and speaker kits as a bundle. Most are 3D capable, and a few are 7.1. My view on 5.1 vs 7.1 is go for it if you have an unlimited budget and a really big room. However, if you're working to a strict budget then it's better to do 5.1 well than stretch things and do 7.1 badly.
New sound formats - The important ones for performance are DTS-Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD for Blu-ray audio, and Dolby ProLogicII (DPLII) for any stereo sources you want to have in surround. All of the kits I'll recommend do these formats.
ARC - Audio Return Channel. This is new feature added in the latest version of HDMI - the 1.4 version. If your TV and AV Receiver have the ARC feature then you no longer need an optical connection to get sound from the TV back to the surround kit. The HDMI cable will carry sound back.
Other things to consider... Blu-ray players often have streaming features (YouTube etc) and also require periodic firmware updates to cope with new encoding and features on discs. This is done via the net. A wired network connection is best but wireless will do too. There's also a good chance that the receiver you get might have internet radio or AirPlay. Once again a wired network connection back to your wireless router will allow you to access thousands of internet radio stations and enable you to stream music from your WiFi connected smartphone or tablet to the receiver.
Traps to avoid: "Super performance" HDMI cables. The HDMI connections from your Blu-ray player to the AV Receiver, and from the Receiver to the TV don't need $50 cables. As long as the cable is rated High Speed and meets the HDMI 1.4 spec and is of decent construction then all will be well. Avoid the cheapest the Ebay or the web has to offer. Those really tend to be crappy. $10 is a reasonable amount for a 3-5 ft cable.
All the following have HD audio decoding, DPLII
Yamaha YHT397BL - simple 5.1 surround system sold via the electrical barns. 3D and with ARC. $449
Yamaha YHT497BL - alternative to 397 - sold via specialist dealers. $430-£479. The 397 has the same basic spec but better speakers.
Yamaha YHT597BL - step-up model with net radio, AirPlay, Yamaha SmartPhone app (Android & Apple) which works remarkably well. $549
Onkyo HTS3500 - simple 5.1 surround system sold via the electrical barns. 3D and with ARC. Passive sub to keep costs down. $399
Onkyo HTS5500 - step-up model - 7.1 surround system, more power, better speakers, smarter auto set-up system (Audyssey 2). $599
Denon DHT-1513BA - pitched at the upgrader market - Better amp (discrete channels) and packaged with a 3rd party speaker kit from specialist manufacturer Boston Acoustics. The spec won't look as impressive but trust me, this kit is all about performance rather than bling. $599
Hope this helps :-)
What size battery back-ups would I need for my electronic equipment?
PA Fish Ma
Hello, I have an Integra amplifier, a blu ray dvd player, cable box and an Epson 1080p pro-cinema projector. I want to put my equipment on two battery back ups. I just want to be able to run everything long enough to have time to shut it down safely if the power goes out. I have a generator and this is the second reason why I want the battery back ups. If the power goes out and I have to run my generator I want to use the back ups to keep the power clean to my equipment. The projector is plugged into the ceiling so I would like to put it on it's own back up. What kind of battery back up would I need to run it for lets say 5 minutes without power? I want to put the Amp, DVD player and cable box on another back up. What kind of battery back up would I need to run it for the same? I am sure I would not have the volume all the way up during a power outage and I can keep it down low during generator use. My generator is plugged into my breaker box to run the entire house. The Integra specs are AV Receiver DTR-30.4, 8 speaker, Rated output power all channels 100 watts minimum continuous power per channel, 8 ohm loads, 2 channels driven from 20 Hz to 20 kHz, with a maximum total harmonic distortion of 0.08% (FTC). 7 ch x 160 W at 6 ohms, 1 kHz, 1 ch driven of 1% (IEC) Maximum effective output power 7ch x 175 W at 6 ohms, 1 kHz, 1 ch driven (JETTA) Dynamic Power IEC60268 short term maximum output power 240 W (3 ohm Front), 210 W (4 ohm Front), 120 W (8 ohm Front). Thanks in advance for helping me.
One Battery Back up is for The Amp, DVD player and Cable box. The other Battery Back up is for the Epson 1080p pro-cinema projector alone.
Answer
The specifications you gave were for the audio portions of the equipment and there is no direct correlation between those values and actual power drawn.
Each piece of equipment will have a plate or label indicating the power requirements of that device. Realize that they are maximum power ratings and not necessarily the actual power they draw in normal use. (I doubt you are cranking your amp at 7 x 175 watts in your living room)
Anyway, once you have those ratings, then us them to determine the size UPS you need.
I'll assume you're in the US and your power is 120 volts.
Let's say your DVD player says it takes 2 Amps. (that's high, but I'm using easy numbers)
That's 240 watts since power equals voltage times current.
It's likely that your DVD player is actually rated in Watts, and that's even easier since they did the math for you. The DVD player will actually be closer to 8 Watt, so you know.
I'll make up a number and say all your equipment power added up is 500 Watts.
You will need a UPS rated to handle that, so let's say you get a 800VA UPS.
(for simplicity and practicality, 1 VA = .7 Watt, even though it's not... close enough. This can't become and engineering lesson on power factor.)
So, now you know you need a 800VA UPS, but that's just the maximum amount of power it can provide, it doesn't tell you for how long. Power over time is energy, so now you want to know the energy capacity of the UPS since you know it's big enough to handle the load.
Remember the actual load is likely smaller than the maximum possible load in things like amplifiers. TVs pretty much draw constant power, as do DVD players when they're running, etc.
Unfortunately, manufacturers don't often come right out and say what you want to know and that the Wh rating. Watt-Hours are how many Watts can be provided in one hour.
If you found an 800Wh UPS, it could provide 400Watts for two hours. This is a large amount of energy for a battery and that battery would weigh about 100 lbs. +
That same UPS could provide enough energy to run the 8W DVD player for 100 hours, or close to 4 days.
Here's an example of how the manufacturer tells you how long you can run at particular power levels:
https://www.apc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=BR1300LCD
According to their chart... their 1300VA/780W UPS can supply 300 Watts for just over 20 minutes.
Or matrix like this where you select the wattage on the left and it calculates the run time for you.
http://www.apc.com/products/family/index.cfm?id=29&tab=models
Select 400W and see how many choices are eliminated. They're saying they can't supply 400W for any duration... they are undersized for the load.
You might find a 1500VA UPS that does half that because the 1500 rating is just for maximum load, not for how long it can supply that load. It's a numbers game and they're banking on the fact that the stupid consumers will just buy a 1500VA over a 1300VA since it's "bigger". It could actually have 1/2 the energy of the 1300VA... you can't know unless they tell you.
All things held equal (battery size in the UPS, mostly)... the more power you draw, the shorter the run time. And it is NOT linear, as you can see by the run-time curve from APC.
It's a lot of information... but if you want to properly size your UPS, you can't just guess.
Personally, I don't buy integrated units since you're stuck using their batteries and are limited to their energy capacities.
The specifications you gave were for the audio portions of the equipment and there is no direct correlation between those values and actual power drawn.
Each piece of equipment will have a plate or label indicating the power requirements of that device. Realize that they are maximum power ratings and not necessarily the actual power they draw in normal use. (I doubt you are cranking your amp at 7 x 175 watts in your living room)
Anyway, once you have those ratings, then us them to determine the size UPS you need.
I'll assume you're in the US and your power is 120 volts.
Let's say your DVD player says it takes 2 Amps. (that's high, but I'm using easy numbers)
That's 240 watts since power equals voltage times current.
It's likely that your DVD player is actually rated in Watts, and that's even easier since they did the math for you. The DVD player will actually be closer to 8 Watt, so you know.
I'll make up a number and say all your equipment power added up is 500 Watts.
You will need a UPS rated to handle that, so let's say you get a 800VA UPS.
(for simplicity and practicality, 1 VA = .7 Watt, even though it's not... close enough. This can't become and engineering lesson on power factor.)
So, now you know you need a 800VA UPS, but that's just the maximum amount of power it can provide, it doesn't tell you for how long. Power over time is energy, so now you want to know the energy capacity of the UPS since you know it's big enough to handle the load.
Remember the actual load is likely smaller than the maximum possible load in things like amplifiers. TVs pretty much draw constant power, as do DVD players when they're running, etc.
Unfortunately, manufacturers don't often come right out and say what you want to know and that the Wh rating. Watt-Hours are how many Watts can be provided in one hour.
If you found an 800Wh UPS, it could provide 400Watts for two hours. This is a large amount of energy for a battery and that battery would weigh about 100 lbs. +
That same UPS could provide enough energy to run the 8W DVD player for 100 hours, or close to 4 days.
Here's an example of how the manufacturer tells you how long you can run at particular power levels:
https://www.apc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=BR1300LCD
According to their chart... their 1300VA/780W UPS can supply 300 Watts for just over 20 minutes.
Or matrix like this where you select the wattage on the left and it calculates the run time for you.
http://www.apc.com/products/family/index.cfm?id=29&tab=models
Select 400W and see how many choices are eliminated. They're saying they can't supply 400W for any duration... they are undersized for the load.
You might find a 1500VA UPS that does half that because the 1500 rating is just for maximum load, not for how long it can supply that load. It's a numbers game and they're banking on the fact that the stupid consumers will just buy a 1500VA over a 1300VA since it's "bigger". It could actually have 1/2 the energy of the 1300VA... you can't know unless they tell you.
All things held equal (battery size in the UPS, mostly)... the more power you draw, the shorter the run time. And it is NOT linear, as you can see by the run-time curve from APC.
It's a lot of information... but if you want to properly size your UPS, you can't just guess.
Personally, I don't buy integrated units since you're stuck using their batteries and are limited to their energy capacities.
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Title Post: What is the best home theater in-a-box for under $500?
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Author: Yukie
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Rating: 100% based on 998 ratings. 5 user reviews.
Author: Yukie
Thanks For Coming To My Blog
Nice Blog
ReplyDeleteWireless Blu Ray Player with Surround Sound India