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Well over this Christmas I set out to build a HT for the bedroom. My wife wanted to watch some of her DVD's and VCD's in the comforts of the bedroom, well so did I. The problem was our existing TV did not have any inputs of any kind. So what we needed was a small TV with video and audio inputs and a dvd player. That's all I started looking for, oh and it had to be cheap. I have my main HT gear and that is where we watch all our main movies, but we wanted something that would just do for the bedroom.
Well we settled on a 20" tube size, as that would nicely replace our existing 20" tube. We found a flat screen model at Costco. What really caught my eye was the component in's, wow I don't even have those on my main monitor. (Yeah I have an an old TV.)
Apex PF-2025
20" Screen
Pure flat Picture Tube
Universal Remote Control
Velocity Scan Modulation
MTS Stereo Sound (5W+5W)
3 Line Comb Filter
Component Video input - YCbCr (1)
S Video Input (1)
Rear AV Input (1)
Side AV Input (1)
Rear AV Output (1)
3 Picture Modes (Normal, Theater, Personal)
4 Sound Modes ( Speech, Music, Theater, Personal)
181 Channel Tuner
Trilingual OSD (English, Spanish, French)
Closed Caption Display
V-Chip
Sleep Timer
Auto Off
Recall
Channel Scan
Parental Control
Now the cool thing is you can manually turn off Velocity Scan Modulation. The picture is very nice, and for the price, CDN$169, it just can't be beat.
So I've got the display. Now which DVD player should I get? Well I looked at a lot of C$100-$200 units, and all would work great, then I saw a lot of low end HT box sets that included speakers and DVD players for a bit more money. So off I went exploring. Most of what I saw had passive subs, and cheap plastic speakers, so I wasn't too impressed. Well until I saw the following.
VIVI HTB3000
Vivid 85 Watt/Ch. Home Theatre System
Includes DVD player, two main speakers, center speaker, two surround speakers and a subwoofer
Compatible with DVD/CD/MP3/CD-R/CD-RW
85 RMS and 210 total (peak)
Component video output and S-video output
DTS, AC-3 dual decoder system
Coaxial/Optical digital audio output
2-Band radio receiver (AM/FM)
10-10 AM/FM staion memory
5.1 Channel hi-power output
Built-in digital decoder/Dolby pro logic decoder
Four kinds of sound effects: POP, ROCK, JAZZ and FLAT
Treble/Bass
Five kinds of surround mode: PHANTOM, 3 STEREO, DISCO, HALL, CLUB
Color VFD
I saw this unit at The Brick. Those in Canada know that this is a large chain furniture store, that also sells some eletronics and TVs. The infamous, don't pay till 2006.
Anyway, what really impressed me, as I examined this system on the showroom floor, was that all the speakers were made out of wood! As you can see, the main speakers are actually bigger in size than the surrounds and it had a powered sub! The sub woofer was also made of the same material, and was pretyy hefty, relatively speaking. There's a seperate level adjustment for sub output as well. The main unit itself also had a substantial heft. For those that have looked at the cheaper DVD players and all-in-one units know what I mean, some of these weigh next to nothing. From the spec sheet you can see it's got enough outputs, component, S-Video, composite, as well as the all important sub-out, and coax out.
So for CDN$198, I snapped it up!
I've hooked it up, using S-video and some cheap speaker wire. One feature that is not listed is that this is a region selectable DVD player. So if you have DVD's from another region that you received as a gift, you can now play them. Also, if you hae a different TV system, like PAL, you can select the video output to sync with your PAL TV.
This things plays MP3's and it does DTS as well, which even my older A/V receiver doesn't do.
How does it sound?
For the price it sounds great! I'm amazed at it's stereo performance. The two main bookshelf speakers are pretty good. In surround mode, I'd say it is adequate. The small centre is a liability, but then again, what do you expect for C$200! The sub it self does a pretty good job, and is a bit boomy, it also trails off at around 50Hz, and is practically nonexistant by 40Hz.
How does it look?
Great! DVD's, VCD's all work perfictly. I'm tempted to try the component outs just for fun. But it's hard to justify spending half of what I paid for the whole unit on a set of component cables.
Nit picks?
Because of the compact nature of the unit, there is a built in fan. After about 30 minutes of use, it kicks in. Normally this is not a big deal, but because of its location, just off to the side of the bed, the fan is audible. It must be temperature controlled as it will shut off during the course of a movie.
For people that don't like a lot of light coming from there unit, this unit has a bluish light ring around the volume nob, as well as those little equalizer bars that jump up and down to the frequency response. It doesn't bother me, but I thought I'd mention it.
The surround mode is set for all types of inputs. So if you're listening to a CD, in stero mode, you have to make sure you switch the mode to Surround, when you pop in a movie. Also to switch modes you have to cycle through all the modes, PHANTOM, 3 STEREO, DISCO, HALL, CLUB, to get to straight Dolby Digital or DTS.
I wish there was a way to user select the speaker size, I think the default is the mains are set at large and the center and surrounds are set to small. I think they should all be set to small since it comes with a powered sub.
The final nit pick is still to be diagnosed. On some dvd's I see some kind of colour seperation, almost like a rainbow effect on my display. This happened with The Matrix. But when watching Finding Nemo, I had no problems. I've tried a couple of different S-Video cable, and that didn't make a difference, so I don't know if it's the player or the TV. I may return/exchange the TV and see if that makes a differnce, or find some cheap component cables.
What's Great!
Quailty of the materials. This setup is amazing! Of all the low priced all-in-one box sets on the market I've seen, this thing puts them all to shame. There is virtually no plastic! The main unit is mostly metal, with a top plastic lid to load your DVD's.
Region Selectable. Wow. Everybody's going gaga over hackable dvd players that can be region free. Well why go through the trouble when you can just select it from your menu!
Aux input. I have it setup so that the audio out from my TV is input to the Aux line in. This thing blows away the speakers in the TV.
Timer. This may be lame for some, but I love it! I can set the unit to turn on at a specific time and turn off at a specific time. I can also set this up for my TV. So I've been waking up to the morning news through my system.
Sub out and Coax out. So picture this. I was happy with the included sub, but I also had another sub that I wasn't using as much, it was part of my computer sound system. So first thing I did was to replace the sub. Now I'm running an Energy xL-S8 sub, that's an 8" sub that puts out a peak of 400 Watts. It is good down to about 30Hz and is still audible to 25Hz. I believe I paid about the same for my sub as I did for the whole package. Oh and the Coax out, is cool cause I can use the player as a plain DVD player and eventually use my old AV receiver to do the amplification.
Trim. This allows the user to adjust each speaker level +-7db as well as the sub output. Amazing.
Conclusion:
TV: $169
HTB: $198
S-Video Cable: $9
L/R Audio OUt: $4
Subtotal: $380
Taxes: $55.10 (PST+GST)
Total: $435.10 (That's all in Canadian dollars)
So for a total of $435.10 I've now got a little HT system for the bedroom, that almost rivals my main system.
I'm now tempted to try my pair of my B&W 301's and the B&W center that I have just to see how well it works.
Paul
There are three kinds of people in this world; those that can count, and those that can't.
Well we settled on a 20" tube size, as that would nicely replace our existing 20" tube. We found a flat screen model at Costco. What really caught my eye was the component in's, wow I don't even have those on my main monitor. (Yeah I have an an old TV.)
Apex PF-2025
20" Screen
Pure flat Picture Tube
Universal Remote Control
Velocity Scan Modulation
MTS Stereo Sound (5W+5W)
3 Line Comb Filter
Component Video input - YCbCr (1)
S Video Input (1)
Rear AV Input (1)
Side AV Input (1)
Rear AV Output (1)
3 Picture Modes (Normal, Theater, Personal)
4 Sound Modes ( Speech, Music, Theater, Personal)
181 Channel Tuner
Trilingual OSD (English, Spanish, French)
Closed Caption Display
V-Chip
Sleep Timer
Auto Off
Recall
Channel Scan
Parental Control
Now the cool thing is you can manually turn off Velocity Scan Modulation. The picture is very nice, and for the price, CDN$169, it just can't be beat.
So I've got the display. Now which DVD player should I get? Well I looked at a lot of C$100-$200 units, and all would work great, then I saw a lot of low end HT box sets that included speakers and DVD players for a bit more money. So off I went exploring. Most of what I saw had passive subs, and cheap plastic speakers, so I wasn't too impressed. Well until I saw the following.
VIVI HTB3000
Vivid 85 Watt/Ch. Home Theatre System
Includes DVD player, two main speakers, center speaker, two surround speakers and a subwoofer
Compatible with DVD/CD/MP3/CD-R/CD-RW
85 RMS and 210 total (peak)
Component video output and S-video output
DTS, AC-3 dual decoder system
Coaxial/Optical digital audio output
2-Band radio receiver (AM/FM)
10-10 AM/FM staion memory
5.1 Channel hi-power output
Built-in digital decoder/Dolby pro logic decoder
Four kinds of sound effects: POP, ROCK, JAZZ and FLAT
Treble/Bass
Five kinds of surround mode: PHANTOM, 3 STEREO, DISCO, HALL, CLUB
Color VFD
I saw this unit at The Brick. Those in Canada know that this is a large chain furniture store, that also sells some eletronics and TVs. The infamous, don't pay till 2006.
Anyway, what really impressed me, as I examined this system on the showroom floor, was that all the speakers were made out of wood! As you can see, the main speakers are actually bigger in size than the surrounds and it had a powered sub! The sub woofer was also made of the same material, and was pretyy hefty, relatively speaking. There's a seperate level adjustment for sub output as well. The main unit itself also had a substantial heft. For those that have looked at the cheaper DVD players and all-in-one units know what I mean, some of these weigh next to nothing. From the spec sheet you can see it's got enough outputs, component, S-Video, composite, as well as the all important sub-out, and coax out. So for CDN$198, I snapped it up!
I've hooked it up, using S-video and some cheap speaker wire. One feature that is not listed is that this is a region selectable DVD player. So if you have DVD's from another region that you received as a gift, you can now play them. Also, if you hae a different TV system, like PAL, you can select the video output to sync with your PAL TV.
This things plays MP3's and it does DTS as well, which even my older A/V receiver doesn't do.
How does it sound?
For the price it sounds great! I'm amazed at it's stereo performance. The two main bookshelf speakers are pretty good. In surround mode, I'd say it is adequate. The small centre is a liability, but then again, what do you expect for C$200! The sub it self does a pretty good job, and is a bit boomy, it also trails off at around 50Hz, and is practically nonexistant by 40Hz.
How does it look?
Great! DVD's, VCD's all work perfictly. I'm tempted to try the component outs just for fun.
But it's hard to justify spending half of what I paid for the whole unit on a set of component cables. Nit picks?
Because of the compact nature of the unit, there is a built in fan. After about 30 minutes of use, it kicks in. Normally this is not a big deal, but because of its location, just off to the side of the bed, the fan is audible. It must be temperature controlled as it will shut off during the course of a movie.
For people that don't like a lot of light coming from there unit, this unit has a bluish light ring around the volume nob, as well as those little equalizer bars that jump up and down to the frequency response. It doesn't bother me, but I thought I'd mention it.
The surround mode is set for all types of inputs. So if you're listening to a CD, in stero mode, you have to make sure you switch the mode to Surround, when you pop in a movie. Also to switch modes you have to cycle through all the modes, PHANTOM, 3 STEREO, DISCO, HALL, CLUB, to get to straight Dolby Digital or DTS.
I wish there was a way to user select the speaker size, I think the default is the mains are set at large and the center and surrounds are set to small. I think they should all be set to small since it comes with a powered sub.
The final nit pick is still to be diagnosed. On some dvd's I see some kind of colour seperation, almost like a rainbow effect on my display. This happened with The Matrix. But when watching Finding Nemo, I had no problems. I've tried a couple of different S-Video cable, and that didn't make a difference, so I don't know if it's the player or the TV. I may return/exchange the TV and see if that makes a differnce, or find some cheap component cables.
What's Great!
Quailty of the materials. This setup is amazing! Of all the low priced all-in-one box sets on the market I've seen, this thing puts them all to shame. There is virtually no plastic! The main unit is mostly metal, with a top plastic lid to load your DVD's.
Region Selectable. Wow. Everybody's going gaga over hackable dvd players that can be region free. Well why go through the trouble when you can just select it from your menu!
Aux input. I have it setup so that the audio out from my TV is input to the Aux line in. This thing blows away the speakers in the TV.
Timer. This may be lame for some, but I love it! I can set the unit to turn on at a specific time and turn off at a specific time. I can also set this up for my TV. So I've been waking up to the morning news through my system.
Sub out and Coax out. So picture this. I was happy with the included sub, but I also had another sub that I wasn't using as much, it was part of my computer sound system. So first thing I did was to replace the sub. Now I'm running an Energy xL-S8 sub, that's an 8" sub that puts out a peak of 400 Watts. It is good down to about 30Hz and is still audible to 25Hz. I believe I paid about the same for my sub as I did for the whole package. Oh and the Coax out, is cool cause I can use the player as a plain DVD player and eventually use my old AV receiver to do the amplification.
Trim. This allows the user to adjust each speaker level +-7db as well as the sub output. Amazing.
Conclusion:
TV: $169
HTB: $198
S-Video Cable: $9
L/R Audio OUt: $4
Subtotal: $380
Taxes: $55.10 (PST+GST)
Total: $435.10 (That's all in Canadian dollars)
So for a total of $435.10 I've now got a little HT system for the bedroom, that almost rivals my main system.
I'm now tempted to try my pair of my B&W 301's and the B&W center that I have just to see how well it works.
Paul
There are three kinds of people in this world; those that can count, and those that can't.
Luke: "Hey, I'm not such a bad pilot myself, you know"
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