JPegs don't do justice to the gorgeous picture I get from DVDs. Nonetheless, here is a picture of The Matrix running on the HT.
This is a view of the front of my setup up. The TV is a Mitsubishi VS-50603. The speakers are part of the Energy Take 5 package. The Left and right speakers are Energy Take 2s. The middle speaker is an Energy Take 1. To the right you see the Energy ES-8 subwoofer and my livingroom computer, to the left the media rack.
On top of the TV to the right of the center speaker are two DirectTV receivers/descramblers (I'll explain why two below). I used to have digital cable. If you live in my neck of the woods (SF Bay Area, South bay) and have a TV larger than about 27 inches, you may want to rethink getting AT&T digital cable (Changing to Comcast as I write this). The picture is a blurry pixilated mess.
To the left of the center speaker is my ReplayTV box (despite the little TiVo guy, the box IS a ReplayTV box). I will never be without a PVR again, plain and simple. I love the ability to create my own channels, timeshift easily, and have the ReplayTV find and record my favorite shows no matter when or where they are on. It is an older model ReplayTV, but I replaced the hard drive with an 80 gigger some time ago to allow for 80 hours of recording time. Follow the link to do it yourself: ReplayTV Hard Drive Update.
On top of the ReplayTV box is my Wireless router. It allows me to share my Internet bandwidth with all the computers in the house (4 altogether). Don't worry, it's not blocking the ventilation slots.
It is because of my ReplayTV box, that I have two DirectTV descramblers. One is dedicated to the PVR. This is so I can watch one show while recording another. While I have three standard TV tuners between the ReplayTV and my TV (one in the PVR, two in the TV), none of them are capable of accepting a DTV dignal without a descrambler. So if I had but one DTV descrabmler, all my TV viewing would have to go through it, and I would have to watch while I record. With the second DTV descrambler hooked to my second TV antenna, I can switch to the second TV antenna and continue to watch whatever I want while the PVR records.
Here are a couple pics of my surrounds. I've replaced the Energy surrounds with Cambridge Soundworks Newton S300s. They offer dipole, bipole, or monopole operation via a toggle switch on their undersides. I was hoping to get a more diffuse rear sound field than the Energies could muster, but I've had only limited success. At some point I'll try mount them mounted sideways running in dipole mode, but right now I'd have to say that the S300s represent a $450 experiment that hasn't quite worked.:-( Don't get me wrong, the speakers themselves are just fine, and the toggle switch is pretty cool, I just think that my room/configuration is such that they cannot perform optimally
These are the A/V receiver, DVD player, Cable Modem, Playstation, and VCR.
The receiver is an Outlaw Audio 1050.It's rated at 65 Watts (20hz-20Khz, all channels driven), supports DD 5.1, DTS 5.1, DPL I, and proprietory 6.1 playback modes. I chose is for two reasons. First, it has enough bass management options to mate well with my little Energies, and second, it offered great bang for the buck when I bought it. Most folks find it ugly, but it sounds better than it looks. I promise.
The DVD player is a Sony 360S.It acts as both my DVD and CD player. It's been reliable, if unspectacular. I have nothing really bad to say about it except that it plays neither CD-Rs nor MP3s. True, I rarely have need to playback either of these file types, but the mere fact that is can't bothers me. :-)
On the next shelf is an RCA cable modem and my Sony Playstation.
The modem hooks me up to the "I" (a new term for the "Internet" that I am single handedly trying to introduce into the vernacular). It's here because - and this is really complex, so pay close attention - that's where my cable comes out of the wall. My whole house is wired for "I" access and it all starts at this little white box.
Sony Playstation. They say playing Video games on an RPTV can damage it (image burn-in). I've had no problems, but then I don't play with it much. Best game in my rack: Grand Theft Auto III.
Next shelf; $50 Emerson VCR. I use it to dump shows off of my ReplayTV. It's cheap, but it does the job that I ask of it with no difficulty. Maybe next time I'll splurge and spend $75...
On the floor is my livingroom computer. It is an AMD 800 running Gentoo Linux. The TV is its monitor. It manages 800x600 clearly enough, but I cannot wait until I can get a HDTV in here (BTW, anybody have any work for an out of work computer programmer?). There is no reason that I HAVE to be able to browse the web from my couch on the big screen, but it sure is cool.