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Comments: 107 +-   What an $18,000 Home Theater Looks Like on Friday April 11 2008, @04:51PM

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Friday April 11 2008, @04:51PM
from the i'll-take-two dept.
media
hardware
technology
kgagne writes "Computerworld has a blog with video about an $18,000 home theater system that Intel set up at Storage Networking World in order to promote their new home server system. But what's really cool about this set up is that the server was connected to a 24" iMac, an Apple TV, an Xbox 360, a Wii, an iPod Touch, a Nokia N810 mobile Internet tablet, various cameras and a 15" wireless digital picture frame. The server was streaming all the various feeds to a top-of-the-line Pioneer Elite 50" plasma TV. The Intel reps said the high-definition movie downloads, which could be browsed through a menu, were as high quality as those from a Pioneer Elite Blu-ray player they had set up."
story

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News: Batcave Home Theater 100 comments
Submission: The Highest-Tech Home Theater You'll Ever See by kgagne (983841)
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What an $18,000 Home Theater Looks Like 50 Comments More /

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  • A 103+ inch plasma, not that 50 inch. Honestly, after seeing a 103 inch plasma regularly, a 50 inch plasma seems tiny. :p

    Other than that, I approve, nice setup.

    • Other than that, I approve, nice setup.

      How about a subwoofer? Or surround sound? Seriously, that setup and only stereo speakers. I can barely tell the difference between 720p and 1080p, but I sure as hell can tell the difference between 2.0 and 5.1

      • Good point, I didn't notice that. Also, the 100+ inch plasma would knock the price up to around $100,000 or so instead of $18,000.

        • Re:All they need is... (Score:4, Insightful)

          by Jeff DeMaagd (2015) on Friday April 11 2008, @05:24PM (#23041938) Homepage Journal
          The large plasma may get the best picture quality possible, the 50" is probably an incredibly fine unit too. One can get big picture on a lower budget with a projector. It's not for everyone, but a projector that's half the cost of that Kuro can throw a 150" image in full 1080p, with a picture quality that's good enough that I really don't care that I don't have a plasma.

          I'd do away with the Monster products (speakers and "voltage stabilizers") in that list too. I just don't like seeing money spent on snake oil manufacturers.

          • Re:All they need is... (Score:5, Insightful)

            by Thalagyrt (851883) on Friday April 11 2008, @05:31PM (#23042002)
            I've got a 50" in my apartment, parents own one of the 103" Panasonic units... It's fairly insane and in my opinion a total waste of money, but then again, he can afford it.

            Also, the Monster power filters are actually very good units, I've taken a multimeter to them and done some tests. However, everything else that comes out of that company is total snake oil.

            Anyone who buys a $150 AES/ABU cable when any $5 XLR cable will do the job perfectly fine is an idiot. Gold plated connectors? Sorry bud, but your connectors on your gear are most likely tin or copper, and the gold plating actually decreases conductivity... Gotta love the things "audiophiles" do that electrical/audio engineers laugh at. :p

            Side note, since I'm a guitarist, I also think tube amps are entirely overrated, I can do just about anything with my Vetta that someone can do with (x brand here) tube amp.

            Also, good point on the projector, the only problem is during daytime if you have windows open you can't really see much, but aside from that it is a cheaper alternative that's equally good.
            • "and the gold plating actually decreases conductivity" no it doesn't. It doesn't add any either.
              IN order to lower it, it would have to be worse then the actual connection loss.

              Projectors are not as good. I was looking at the difference just last weak end. The plasma was crisper, and the details were sharper.

              "the Monster power filters are actually very good units, "
              that may be true, I;ll take your word for it, but are they better then other companies products? Personally, because of there snake oil marketing

              • "and the gold plating actually decreases conductivity" no it doesn't. It doesn't add any either.

                The point of gold plating is mostly corrosion. In most cases it's a non-issue.

                Projectors are not as good. I was looking at the difference just last weak end. The plasma was crisper, and the details were sharper.

                I saw one of those 100" plasma units, and while it's an impressive display, I thought a projector image was close enough in favourable lighting conditions. Also the 90.000 price tag scared me off.

                the

              • I personally prefer plasmas for the exact reason you specified. And yea, a scope would be better. Once I can afford a good one I'll give it a go. :p

                My reason for using the power filter is for guitar equipment and studio monitoring/recording, it does a great job of killing out any 60 Hz hum that becomes pretty apparent with high gain circuits. For a home theater, meh.

            • Also, the Monster power filters are actually very good units, I've taken a multimeter to them and done some tests. However, everything else that comes out of that company is total snake oil.

              What qualities of a power filter can be assessed with a multimeter?

              A scope, maybe. But a multimeter?

              • Not just a scope but a way to inject noise and spikes into either side of the filter to see how it does at filtering what's coming in as well as what's leaking out.

                With a multimeter, I think about all you can say is that input is connected to output by measuring continuity. Regular needle movements have a fair amount of damping just by inertia of the needle and digital meters have damping by the nature of how they do the measurements.

                I've also seen far too many head to head reviews that show most hous
                • There's only one place I use more expensive (Planet Waves) cables is from my guitar to my guitar amp.

                  Also see above post about me having a retard moment with the whole multimeter thing. ;P
              • Yea, retard moment on my part. Already been pointed out. :p

            • Re:All they need is... (Score:4, Interesting)

              by Thalagyrt (851883) on Friday April 11 2008, @06:21PM (#23042422)
              I think one of the coolest voltage stabilization/emergency power backup systems I've seen is at the Terremark building in downtown Miami.

              Part 1: Excessively huge electric motor attached to power grid.
              Part 2: 5 ton concrete disc attached to motor spinning at exactly 60 rotations/second.
              Part 3: Generator attached to 5 ton concrete disc that powers the building.

              There are 8 generators around it, uniformly spaced. At any given time two of them are operating in sync with the commercial grid and also powering the electric motor. If the power goes out, the rest of the generators kick on and take over the electric motor within minutes, long before the disc loses any momentum. As soon as power comes back on, all of the generators are cut from the motor and two new standby generators are picked and synced up with the grid.

              Granted, almost all of the traffic to South America is routed through this building, so it's gotta be pretty resilient. It also has if I recall a 20 ton concrete roof to prevent any hurricane problems.
        • Meh... go for a 1080p projector. 10 times cheaper with better display.
      • I have a 42" 1080p that I watch from about 3m away, (LG 42LB5D) and I can tell you that there's a pretty big difference between 720p and 1080p images. Very noticeable.

        There's two main factors in that, though... the size of the screen, and how far away I am. The subjective picture quality boils down to the relative size of the pixels on screen, and there's exactly two solutions: sit further away from the TV, or get a higher resolution display.

        I'm not saying that a decent sound setup is a waste of money. I've
    • There's a local custom home theater company that *starts* at $25,000, anything less isn't worth their time.
      • We've got one of those around here... They managed to use all of the HDMI ports on the 103 incher, and wanted $1000 to hook up a friggin Wii. That was a "No thanks, we'll just play on a different TV" moment.

  • Selfish bastard (Score:5, Funny)

    by eln (21727) on Friday April 11 2008, @05:07PM (#23041768) Homepage
    These sorts of stories make me so mad. Why can't people spend this money on the starving people of Africa instead of blowing it on this nonsense?

    Seriously folks, you could buy decent home theatre systems for lots of poor starving African children for the cost of this one system. Won't somebody think of the children?

  • $20k (Score:5, Funny)

    by JBHarris (890771) <bharris@@@isf...com> on Friday April 11 2008, @05:15PM (#23041846)
    The tabulation comes up closer to $20k. From the article:

    Here's a tabulation of the equipment:
    (1) Pioneer 50" 1080p KURO Flat Panel HDTV: $5,000
    (2) Series Pro Power AVS 2000 Automatic Voltage Stabilizers: $4,400
    (2) Intel Entry Storage System SS4200-E home NAS servers: $700 (without disk drives)
    (1) Pioneer BDP-95FD Blu-ray Disc player: $999
    (1) 24" iMac: $2,249
    (1) Apple TV: $329
    (1) Xbox 360 console: $349
    (1) Nintendo Wii console: $250
    (1) Apple iPod Touch: $399
    (1) Nokia N810 Mobile Internet Tablet: $500
    (1) Spectrum Digital 15" wireless photo frame: $357
    (1) Pioneer Elite VSX 94TXH AV Receiver: $1,800
    (2) Monster THX Tower Speakers 200: $1,600
    Total price: $18,932
    That is without drives in the server, and without any games or movies or anything else that makes the home theater worth something.

    Personally, I'd rather have the $400 Home Theater in a Box from Circuit City and $17,600 in cash in a briefcase sitting in front of it...That will certainly impress your friends.

    Brad

  • hmmm... $18k isn't that much for a Home Theater... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Fallen Kell (165468) on Friday April 11 2008, @05:18PM (#23041890)
    I mean, I have $8k in speakers/subs alone and that doesn't include the $2500 in amps.

    Heck, I think I have over $21k in my setup, and that is just on the speakers, TV, stand, audio rack, DVD player, audio/video pre-processor, amplifiers, HTPC/DVR, and data server. Now grant it I have something like 7TB of storage now in that setup, and over 3000W of speaker/subs, but I don't even have close to my dream theater, which includes at least 2 rows of seating, and room audio treatments...

  • Just the theater? (Score:4, Funny)

    by SparkleMotion88 (1013083) on Friday April 11 2008, @05:19PM (#23041896)
    Ripoff. These days you can get an entire home for $18,000.

  • I guess $18k still doesn't buy (Score:3, Funny)

    by joeflies (529536) on Friday April 11 2008, @05:21PM (#23041910)
    "taste". Maybe geeking out is great fun for personal use, but the family probably doesn't want the front room looking like a NASA control center.
    • Get a new family!
      My family would totally dig the front room looking like a NASA control center.
      Unfortunately They would expect it to actually control spaceship, and it wouldn't do that..well wait a minute, if I just ...

  • PS3? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by HalAtWork (926717) on Friday April 11 2008, @05:37PM (#23042050)
    So where's the PlayStation 3? It's even better than the Blu-Ray player they have listed, and besides that, why include the other consoles but leave out the PS3?

  • Bah (Score:3, Interesting)

    by JMZero (449047) on Friday April 11 2008, @05:50PM (#23042140) Homepage
    I wouldn't call this a home theater - and I don't think it's intended to be one. It's a technology showcase / bunch of useless crap. Besides that, how could you call it a "theater" with such a tiny screen?

    Here's how I'd spend $18000:

    1. Epson Powerlite 1080UB (projector) = $3000
    2. Pair of Martin Logan Quest front speakers = $10000
    3. Decent amp = $2000
    4. Random center/rear channel speakers = $800
    5. PS3 = $400
    6. Decent 100" 16:9 screen = $500
    7. Random subwoofer = $400

    Now you're set up to watch movies, play games, listen to music, whatever - and your friends won't laugh at your pitiful 50" plasma.

    And if you don't have $18000, substitute in a few cheaper alternatives and you can do a very decent theater for $3000 and still have a setup people will like more than the one in this article.

    • 2. Pair of Martin Logan Quest front speakers = $10000
      3. Decent amp = $2000
      4. Random center/rear channel speakers = $800

      As long as your center and surrounds don't match your mains, your movie listening experience is going to be sub-par. Any sound that pans from one speaker to another is going to sound weird because of the difference in timbre between the originating speaker and the destination speaker. For example, when a tank rolls across the screen it will sound like a real tank when it enters stage right, then turn into a little toy, mickey-mouse tank, as it traverses the screen and then exits stage left again as a rea

    • Here's how I'd spend $18000:

      1. Epson Powerlite 1080UB (projector) = $3000
      2. Pair of Martin Logan Quest front speakers = $10000
      3. Decent amp = $2000
      4. Random center/rear channel speakers = $800
      5. PS3 = $400
      6. Decent 100" 16:9 screen = $500
      7. Random subwoofer = $400

      Overall not bad, but the front speakers are by any reasonable measure stupid overkill, IMO.

      I'd cut the speakers down by half or even more, and free up at least $5-6000. And then use the funds to add a Wii, upgrade the PS3, and get accessories for b

  • Funny error in video (Score:3, Informative)

    by Technician (215283) on Friday April 11 2008, @05:58PM (#23042222)
    I just watched the video and laughed. The presenter needs to understand RAID before explaining how it works. Do you see the problem with the following points?

    System will hold up to 4 1 Tetrabyte drive in a RAID array.
    With 4 1 Tetra byte SATA drives it will store 4 Tetra bytes of data.
    If a drive fails, it can be replaced without losing data as it will rebuild the lost drive automatically.

    Hats of to Intel for that one. I wish my RAID could do that.

  • $18,000? (Score:5, Funny)

    by hee gozer (1261036) on Friday April 11 2008, @05:59PM (#23042232)
    Pfft, only 12 Euros, that's pocket money!

  • This is going to sound like flamebait, but from that video it looks kinda like someone at Intel's consumer division saw one of the NAS devices in their server room.

  • Wii? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by aarku (151823) on Friday April 11 2008, @06:36PM (#23042552) Journal
    Did I miss it, but how exactly is the Wii connecting to the server? I never saw any ability like that in my Wii, unless it's just going through the web browser.
  • Why on earth would you spend 3x as much on power conditioning than you do on speakers? They made some very odd decisions; 1/3rd this much money will get you a home theater that trumps it in terms of quality (though not features).

    • (I'd eBay the iMac and use the cash to buy something cooler too.)
      Impossible, because there is NOTHING cooler.

      Did you see the new commercial with the PC doing yoga, his urdhva mukha svanasana was total rubbish! Mac wins again.
    • Its made by montster. So its a premium UPS, with about a 80% markup in price (or 800%). But if you ask someone at best buy, they'll insist it will make everything sound "high def" And it probably doesn't include the Monster premium titanium power cables to plug into the equipment.
      • I was just about to comment on that too. Anything Monster makes is likely to be found much cheaper and of comparable quality through another manufacturer, if it's even worth purchasing in the first place. Just because the rig cost $18,000 doesn't mean it's worth $18,000.

        • I was just about to comment on that too. Anything Monster makes is likely to be found much cheaper and of comparable quality through another manufacturer, if it's even worth purchasing in the first place

          Monster has become the Bose of the 21st century. They sell decent gear but it is way overpriced... and Monster went one smarter by selling cables. The margins on those so-called high end power cables or their speaker cables must be unbelievable.

          before this idiotic "if it costs less than $1000 it must

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