Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Watching tv with receiver/speakers...good idea?

Full system all the time here. It's amazing how many programs are available in DD now.

Hi all,

My aging DLP rear-projection set has quite large internal speakers and decent sound quality---certainly good enough to watch TV news. And they aren't shooting war coverage in DD 5.1 surround so far, though I'm sure that will come.

So I have the system set up so I can casually turn on the DLP with its own speakers or use the whole AV receiver/amp/5.1 system for appropriate material.

Contrary to some others here, I do not want 5.1 on to watch college basketball or baseball, tennis, etc. I find all the crowd noise distracting and the inane "commentary" by sports "analysts", who don't seem to realize we're watching television (duh. . .) and not every on-screen action needs elaborate description in near hysterical tones. As it is, I turn the TV volume down really low so it's barely audible on sports events. (End of rant.)

On the other hand, I watched an HD documentary that did have stereo sound, on a unit's advance in Afghanistan, and I put that through DPLII and it was impressive.

Regards,
Alan

I know what you mean, Alan. Back when I had the set up for it, I used to do a lot of music listening while watching baseball games. I muted the TV sound and would have a good 3 hours or so of listening to whatever I wanted.

St. Pat,

Good idea! Must try that. I hope I didn't deeply offend those who like sports commentators. I have a friend in Queens who loves watching the NCAA half-time analysis by Gumble (spelling?) and friends. .

Cheers,
Alan

Alan, I don't know if you remember or not, but we have the same Samsung DLP. And mine is finally dying on me. It just randomly shuts itself off two or three times a night.

It's just pushing me to a 55" LCD or Plasma, I think!

Hi Mark,

Yes, I'm quite aware we have the same set, even the same "generation," I believe.

I've had the random shut-off very occasionally, maybe once every six months or so. I'm amazed I'm still on the original bulb, but I use the Cinema mode almost all the time, which is the least brightest, so that may have prolonged the bulb life. I think our generation of Samsung DLPs have quite long expected bulb life--from 5000 to 8000 hours, if memory serves, way longer than front projectors.

Yes, when mine eventually dies, I think I'll opt for a slightly larger plasma 1080p, maybe as big as 60 inch.

Back up in ol' Canada visiting friends, then I'm heading up to the Axiom plant for a few days. I left Manhattan without gloves--it was 60F the day I left, really mild--and it's cold up here in the mornings (Toronto and London).

Cheers,
Alan

I believe the correct spelling is Ghumzble. The z is silent.

LOL! Love it.

Alan

I almost universally hate sports announcers, but I do enjoy the surround effects with the crowd. And of course plenty of movies and shows on TV are sent with a good soundtrack now.

I switched from Comcast to DirecTV last week and my old Naks have started to give me a new issue to deal with. They make this awful chopping noise if an AC3 signal is sent to any setting on the Processor other than AC3. And the DirecTV box only sends AC3 with HD channels. The non HD channels send ProLogic or none... meaning I have to switch it to those to get sound on those channels (DIY network is really the only non HD channel I watch, unless it's a random secondary movie channel).

So now I'm forced to just turn Dolby to off on the DTV box and ProLogic on the receiver. And now the volume is all off and the 4 channels of ProLogic are mostly inadequate. It really sucks. Most of my viewing, even movies, is via the cable/satellite (OnDemand is quite nice), so I'm kind of screwed. My surrounds are basically ornaments now, unless I go in and change the setting on both the box and the processor... and then remember to change it back.

It's the one drawback so far from switching to DirecTV.