Frukathka said:
I am going to be upgrading my thome theter stuff in my room no later than January of next year and I have some questions.
1) Does the speaker system need an HDMI input jack (to get sound from cable/tv) ?
By "speaker system", I'm assuming you are referring to the audio receiver. The answer is no, not necessarily. Many HDTVs with HDMI-in include an optical-out that can go to the receiver. The receiver does not need HDMI.
5) Do plasma HDTVs still have the 'image burn in' defect?
Old ones absolutely do, but newer ones (supposedly) don't. In any case, it is ludicrously difficult to get burn-in on any newer HDTV (plasma, LCD, or otherwise), unless you're actively trying.
I'm not commenting in detail on the rest, as tastes vary. Wildly. I'm a particularly in a poor position to comment since - while I have a rather ample home theatre set-up - I am not a video snob (and not
quite an audio snob) so I have a hard time telling the difference.
I have had very good experiences with Hitachi and Sony TVs, so take that FWIW. I have heard nothing but good things regarding Sony's 1080p SXRD series [not plasma, though], and they are quite cheap (relatively speaking) - though maybe more knowledgable ENWorlders will chime in on that one. On the receiver side of things, I have had very good experiences with anything JVC, as well as Yamaha, Denon, and Harmon Kardon. Ensure that it has (at minimum) DD-EX and DTS-ES. There's also some sort of TrueHD or something sound if you're going the blu-ray route, but I'm not sure how prevalent that is yet.
I'm curious about the DVD-recorder/DVRs myself. I do know that having 250 GB and S-video-in is an absolute minimum level of features for such a piece of equipment for me.
Edit: Oh yeah, and the forums that GlassJaw posted.
