This is what I am trying to do. It may seem funny but, I saw it in a Bose display once and trying to get the same effect. I want to turn my plasma into a living fish tank when I am listening to music.

I am using a Denon 3805, Denon 2220 DVD, Gateway 46 inch plasma. When listening to music it is usually through the DVD player. I could add another DVD if a disc is available for a fish tank scene. I could also use a laptop to connect to 3805, but that ties up a laptop. I was wondering if anyone has any ideas, or could point me in the right direction.

BTW I just got the entire system calibrated and installed. I am running 60's, 150, QS8's and a SVS pb2plus sub. All I have to say is Holy [censored]. The sub was a bit of overkill and was a concern when I dished out the $1300.00 US. I have NEVER been in the middle of this type of sound wave onslaught in my life. Remember in the movie "Scanners" when the guys head blew up. I am sure I could get the same results with a few taps of the remote. It is just amazing how well it all blends at both low and high volumes. My 14 year old daughter has claimed HT room for all friday nights for her friends. She said, "Dad I never thought you'd be so pimpin". I think thats a good thing... especially since not so long ago she said, "Dad, Your so yesterday". Thanks for helping a Dad be cool again.
Njoyment
Pictures to follow...

go buy a fishtank.. might be your cheapest route.

sounds like you got one killer set up. pics would be awesome.

bigjohn

Hilarious post. You're lucky. I hope my daughter is still talking to me when she reaches "that age". Great to have the kids doing whatever at YOUR house instead of somewhere else.

I'd look for a DVD of the material you want. There has got to be one. If you don't want the soundtrack of the DVD, add a second player so that you can "watch" the DVD and "listen" to CD's on the other player. Your Denon will let you do that. Great idea. Seems cheaper and easier than trying to tie into your home computer network if all you want is some nifty wallpaper. I like the idea of those network boxes we were talking about on some other thread, but it's not yet worth $250 (plus cabling hassle or wireless adapter cost) for me to pipe content from my computer to my TV.

But, go easy on the B*se references, willya?

ON TOPIC: Cheap DVD player with the tropical fish DVD in the Special Interests section. Could be less than $100 depending on which player you get...

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My 14 year old daughter has claimed HT room for all friday nights for her friends. She said, "Dad I never thought you'd be so pimpin". I think thats a good thing... especially since not so long ago she said, "Dad, Your so yesterday". Thanks for helping a Dad be cool again.

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Like Tom said, its great to have them wanting to be there at YOUR house instead of elsewhere doing who knows what.

Take it from a Dad who has been down that "other" path...You don't want to go there...

Hopefully you are controlling the equipment as well as the content...

Chaperones for that age ARE a good thing...

From one Dad to another...

WhatFurrer

I know Finding Nemo DVD does have that aquarium screensaver in the extras, you could rent it and see if that's what you're looking for.

LOL! I'm childless which meants that I'm kinda outa the vernacular loop. So, I hope you'll understand that, when I hear a 14 year old girl refer to her Dad as "pimpin'," it conjures up all kinds of "CALL CHILD SERVICES" imagery. The language is a slippery thing. What once meant "bad," is now "good," and vice versa. Oy! It's hard to keep up with it.

Glad you're so happy with your system. It's pretty wonderful what having great sound can do for your entertainment "njoyment."

Oh...great idea on the Finding Nemo ...Ill check it out

One note on the Finding Nemo aquarium screensavers...they are just animated backgrounds...

No Fish...

FYI,

WhatFurrer

Nice comment Ajax.

steve-

i must have let that thing play for 5 minutes just waiting for a fish to swim by. it was mesmerizing!

i found i prefered the jellyfish.

bigjohn

Sounds like you need this:

Roku Labs

Lookie what I found...http://store.yahoo.com/dvdinternational/plasma-art-under-water.html...Btw how do I do I link with a click ..Like the Roku labs link above

Like this:

{url}http://store.yahoo.com/dvdinternational/plasma-art-under-water.html{/url}

Replace the curly brackets {} with square brackets [].

http://store.yahoo.com/dvdinternational/plasma-art-under-water.html

OR

{url=http://store.yahoo.com/dvdinternational/plasma-art-under-water.html}Plasma Art Under Water{/url}

Plasma Art Under Water

WhatFurrer

http://store.yahoo.com/dvdinternational/plasma-art-under-water.html

just testing

Why not go the other direction and build a Macquarium?

Bren R.

because the 512 x 384 resolution of the 9" screen is just too small.

Thanks for the idea and the link. I just ordered the Classic Aquarium DVD, figured it's worth a shot at $10, including shipping.

It sounds like njoyment has struck gold with his teen. That's cool - makes me feel good - I teach HS and see teens all day long with such shi!!y attitudes. The sweet ones will really bring a tear to your eye when you think about it.

I'd just get a 30 gallon aquarium and fill it with African cichlids. That would be far less expensive than replacing your burned out plasma a couple years down the road.

Also OT, the jellyfish exhibits at the Monterey aquarium are worth the price of admission!

Did they make those permanent? I saw them several years ago, but I got the impression that they were a temporary exhibit. I hope they're permanent. Really, really cool stuff.

I was at Radio Shack a couple of months ago and they have a small silver progressive scan DVD player for under $50. Now it may not compare to the Denon 5900, but hey - we're talking fish here. Or in bigjohn's case, no fish, which is apparently a virtual fish thing.

Anyhow, couple of cheap cables and you are out the door for $50 bucks. I don't remember the model, but I googled it and the reviews were surprisingly not bad.

On the Dad thing, I totally agree. Be involved. My daughters are 24 and 27 and they turned out great, although they never accused me of pimpin'. They did broach the subject of my being a tad too involved, so I relented and stopped going with them on their dates when they each passed their 23rd birthdays. They seemed to like that. It was tremendous sport (I couldn't help myself) when they brought the boyfriends around. I would just suddenly appear around a corner and say in a deep, semi-loud voice, WHO ARE YOU? Since the boys never even approached being my size, the voice and the looming apparition pretty much guaranteed testoterone withdrawal for the evening. Too much fun to have for free.

When they were older, the girls asked me once why I treated their boyfriends like that. I told them that they thought they were bringing boys home for me to meet, but they were wrong. What I actually saw was an erection in a pair of shoes. HA ha ha, that was too much fun.
Well, I must return control of this thread to audio. Pardon the side trip; just a little nostalgia.

I went to a conference in Monterey for work last November and we had a social event in the aquarium one night. Those jelly fish are awesome. (But not as awesome as a week in Monterey, on work's dime, in November when you would otherwise be in Boston.)

I'm going to be going to JavaOne at the end of June, so all you San Francisco types will have to, at the very least, recommend some places to check out near union square (and local brews to drink). I will post something OT before then though so don't feel the need to tell me now. (I will forget!)

Wow, who do you work for that will put you in a hotel near union square!? And can I work there too?


jr

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I was at Radio Shack a couple of months ago and they have a small silver progressive scan DVD player for under $50.

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I can recommend the Daytek one (maybe the P871?) - in that price range, little silver thing... bought one for Lisa's mom for Christmas and it's done some serious duty cycle.

Bren R.

Ah, well, I hate to contribute to the hijacking of a thread, but ever since BigJohn came here (something about his genuine compassion for other people and their lives) I've gotten to know a whole lot of people here personally.

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I would just suddenly appear around a corner and say in a deep, semi-loud voice, WHO ARE YOU?

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Having been on the other side of a very protective father, Ray... let me tell you just how effective that is. My first puppy love (still friends 18 years later, her husband is my chiropractor) was away from school one day so I rode 2 hours round trip on the bus to bring her her homework, he was downstairs and heard the door and her talking and yelled up in his thick German accent "CHRISSY, WHO IS DERE?"... I panicked and yelled back in a falsetto voice "It's Veronica!" He and I have since had a good laugh about it.

Bren R.

Bren
that's a positively hillarious story, reminds me of Meet the Parents. I just cringed through so much of that movie, it was sooooo true.

You're sure burning the candle @ both ends, up watching the end of the hockey game were you? Too bad about the outcome.

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You're sure burning the candle @ both ends, up watching the end of the hockey game were you? Too bad about the outcome.

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Actually working late... summer's my busy time... honestly most days it's sun up to sun down or close to it... I'll be up for a few more hours yet, crawl into bed at 3:00 and be up at 10 to do it all over again.

Actually, I don't watch many sports (save for soccer) on TV anymore - only ones I watch now are one's I'm getting paid to work... sorry to hear the Calgary loss though... when they make it through, think I'll throw a watching party here, not so much for my benefit, but for the amusement of watching a buddy (Cosmo from 92) go wild with every goal or missed scoring chance.

Bren R.

Bren, I too am at work. Will be till 2am then home and in bed around 3 then my sons get me up around 8am and I start all over. Those 2 extra hours sound pretty nice.

The game was exciting on the radio.

Bren... What brought about the specific name "Veronica"... There has got to be a story there.

BTW My 14 year old girl has been offered positions in modeling and is a straight A student. All her beauty is a constant battle. I never thought I would prefer a chubby ugly child ; ). I also have a 13 year old boy, who has a field day with his sisters friends. Thankfully he would rather race his motorcycle than waste his time on the girls. Add to the list a 12year old daughter, a 11 year old stepdaughter,a 5 year old step son, and a 4 year old son. Now you see why we stay at home and watch movies. Try paying for six kids at the movie theater. My HT will pay for itself in no time ; ).

Denver post a review once you have tried it out.. I am curious.

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Bren... What brought about the specific name "Veronica"... There has got to be a story there.

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Just one of our female friends - nothing to do with the Elvis Costello song.

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14 year old girl(...)13 year old boy(...)12year old daughter(...)11 year old stepdaughter(...)5 year old step son(...)4 year old son

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Would have been cheaper to have gotten the HT 15 years ago!

Bren R.

OK, I just received the Classic Aquarium DVD from the company linked above. The filming is sharp and well-lit, the fish are colorful, the aquarium is attractive.

It has two music tracks (Meditation and Relaxation) in 5.1 Dolby or DTS. Both are the dreamy sound you would expect, but the sound quality is good. It also has a surf track and a bubbles track (which quickly becomes annoying) in Dolby stereo.

For video you can select full aquarium, where the camera holds steady on the full tank, or closeup mode, where the camera focuses on one or a few fish at a time, close up, panning to follow the fish. The closeup track really shows the brilliant colors of the fish well. Either track can be set to repeat. The full aquarium track is about 40 minutes, and the closeup track is not quite 8 minutes. The DVD case says "Hours of Unique Programming." I count about 48 minutes. I guess you would get hours in repeat mode, but they wouldn't be "unique," IMO. The fishography track is just a series of slides on each fish that you click through manually, with a small photo and a text description for each fish.

I would not play this for hours on end on a plasma. First, it would use up the limited life of the plasma. Second, the full tank view has a sharp contrast between a black background and two large white coral objects, and I would guess that could lead to image retention if left playing for hours in repeat mode. (My plasma is pretty new, but I've been careful to avoid stationary images that could lead to image retention or burnin.) I could see playing it during a party or a card game, though, as it is attractive and doesn't require attention.

It also apparently includes computer screesavers, and I may install one of those at work.

All in all, I think it was worth $10. I don't expect to play it a lot, but it is well done and enjoyable if you want to experience a virtual aquarium.