Home Cinema Product of the Decade

[FunkyMonkey]

As the 2000's come to an end (I'm loathed to use "noughties"!), my thoughts turn to what an amazing decade it has been for AV.

Between 2000 and 2001, I bought a 32in widescreen CRT, a Sony amp capable of DTS decoding, a set of tannoy budget speakers, a Velodyne subwoofer and a Toshiba DVD player, and I thought it was the canine's gonads.

Then just 7 (long) years later, I got a PS3, an Onkyo 805 receiver, Tannoy DC speakers, and a 46in 1080p24Hz LCD TV, and reached what, for me, was the ultimate home cinema system.

So to celebrate this amazing AV decade, I would liek to put forward a piece of kit that I feel has taken hoem cinema forward like no other product. I can only think of one item. It arguably popularised Blu Ray, it could play almost any musical disc and musical digital format, it could record TV, it could play high def games, and it could 1080p24Hz and high def sound formats almost before any other hardware (like TV's or amps) could support those audio and visual formats. Even to its own detrement, it would seem at times, it was BEFORE ITS TIME. Obviously, my nomination goes to....da da dahhhhh....

THE SONY PLAYSTATION 3

 

[Anonymous]

+1 for the PS3.

Media streaming Blu-ray and great upscaling, does pretty much anything, and now BBC Iplayer and soon facebook, its just getting better.

2nd I would say Flat screen tv's plasma and lcd

3rd, Sky+ As puts an end to dvd recorders and vcr, I dont know what I did without it.

 

[Anonymous]

1) PS3 - I don't think Blu-ray would have taken off without it

2) Sky + HD

3) HDMI? is that less than 10 years old?

 

[Gerrardasnails]

Superted1974:
1) PS3 - I don't think Blu-ray would have taken off without it

2) Sky + HD

3) HDMI? is that less than 10 years old?

hdmi cable by far.

 

[Vimeous]

Flatscreen TV's how can it be anything else?
They killed CRT's and eventually 'every' home will have one.

No idea which one of course but it has to be the device that finally showed flat-screen could perform better blacks/colours than a CRT.
Of course some would argue this still hasn't happened ....

 

[Big Chris]

1. Plasma/LCD TVs

2. HDMI cables

 

[Anonymous]

i would go with flatscreen tv's i think they have been the bigggest step up over the last 10 years

 

[d4v3pum4]

I think my vote would go to the PS3 or my Logitech Harmony One remote. I would be lost without both of them.

I can't believe people are voting or even mentioning HDMI cables. HDMI has to be the most poorly implemented and flawed design ever. We're now on v1.4 of HDMI specs, which sees the first change in design to the cable albeit just introducing a few more wires for audio and ethernet. HDMI is utterly hopeless. Even the connector design is rubbish. There are issues with HDCP, compatibility between equipment and it's utterly useless over long lengths (just ask any pro installer what they think...)... need I go on?

 

[lobby]

For me it has to be Plasma / Lcd and then Hd source, but why Hdmi cables lots, of problems ive found, like losse fittings, they seem to work loose and then i get pixelation problems also tv sometimes comes up with won't support that mode. Why can't they use similar construction to vga cables and have screws to keep them firmly connected.Then Blu-ray players not just improved picture but sound is stunning, surely it will soon catch up dvds, this years big Xmas present, followed by jack of all trades PS3, but still prefer Xbox 360.

 

[simonlewis]

The PS3 has been mentioned, but i'm surprised nobody has metioned blu-ray so i'll put that down on my list.

1) flatscreen tv's

2) blu-ray

3) 1080p (tv's, projectors, blu-ray, etc.)

 

[daveh75]

d4v3pum4:I can't believe people are voting or even mentioning HDMI cables. HDMI has to be the most poorly implemented and flawed design ever. We're now on v1.4 of HDMI specs, which sees the first change in design to the cable albeit just introducing a few more wires for audio and ethernet. HDMI is utterly hopeless. Even the connector design is rubbish. There are issues with HDCP, compatibility between equipment and it's utterly useless over long lengths (just ask any pro installer what they think...)... need I go on?

So it's not just me that thinks HDMI is poorly implemented then!

 

[Anonymous]

d4v3pum4:

I think my vote would go to the PS3 or my Logitech Harmony One remote. I would be lost without both of them.

I can't believe people are voting or even mentioning HDMI cables. HDMI has to be the most poorly implemented and flawed design ever. We're now on v1.4 of HDMI specs, which sees the first change in design to the cable albeit just introducing a few more wires for audio and ethernet. HDMI is utterly hopeless. Even the connector design is rubbish. There are issues with HDCP, compatibility between equipment and it's utterly useless over long lengths (just ask any pro installer what they think...)... need I go on?

Well put on HDMI , could not agree with you more was going to post this myself but could not think how to put it across, the connection is pure rubbish considering cables that have been designed before.

The work group implementing it should be ashamed ,now on v 1.4 never had this with any other cable , utterly disgraceful

 

[Anonymous]

Forgot my vote during my rant

1) DTS Master Audio and Dolby HD which have rekindled my interest in Home cinema

2) 1080P Which can give aw some visuals if properly implemented by the industry

3) PS3 responsible for making all the above available to the mass market in an affordable multimedia package

 

[Anonymous]

Good thread

1) PS3

2) HDTV (720p-1080p). Don't really care about screens being flat. It's the HD part that counts, for projectors as well.

Totally agreed that HDMI is rubbish.

 

[if...]

OPPO BD83

 

[Anonymous]

if...:OPPO BD83

quick , run for the bunker ...

no 1. has to be a hdtv ..

no 2. a ps3..

no 3. freesat hd..

i cant believe anyone would put sky in this list , in any shape or form

 

[Anonymous]

It's also the PS3 for me. It was the first bit of kit that I've ever owned which made me want to upgrade my other components to get the best from it. Sometime I forget its a games machine, Uncharted 2 is worth buying the console for alone.

 

[Anonymous]

well if it just the hd part of lcd & plasma & not how compact they are now in over all size, how much would it weight or how deep would it be if you had a 50in or 60in crt tv, with the cost of a house in the uk being not so cheap a large space can be to much money for many people, i am thinking of getting at least a 50in flatscreen next but 36in was the biggest crt i had in the past & it was way to deep for my room, & you should of seen me when it had to be moved.
i think it as a lot to do with the size of the average screen people have in there homes now what is showing the need for the likes of blu-ray & sky hd

 

[Anonymous]

darren123:
well if it just the hd part of lcd & plasma & not how compact they are now in over all size, how much would it weight or how deep would it be if you had a 50in or 60in crt tv, with the cost of a house in the uk being not so cheap a large space can be to much money for many people, i am thinking of getting at least a 50in flatscreen next but 36in was the biggest crt i had in the past & it was way to deep for my room, & you should of seen me when it had to be moved.
i think it as a lot to do with the size of the average screen people have in there homes now what is showing the need for the likes of blu-ray & sky hd

The main reason I said that HD is the important part is that LCD's and Plasma's as such weren't the first HDTV's, it all started with HD CRT's and after that the existing flat tv's were upgraded to HD spec as well. At the start of the past decade there were some pretty dismal LCD's and plasma's that were lowres and a big step down from the CRT's of the time. Plus, by focussing on flat tv's, you're not taking into account what HD did to projectors as well.

 

[professorhat]

Not really a product but High Definition Audio for films for me. So in that case, when I got my Onkyo 905 amp.

 

[Deleted member 2457]

I would have to say my amp the pioneer sc-lx81 for £1,500 when it came out.

Previously a pioneer amp with thx ultra 2 plus cost £3,000 and did not even decode the hd soundtacks.

I also think my pioneer bdp-lx71 blu ray/dvd player for sound and build and picture and that price and still to be beaten, pioneer send it would be ground breaking when it was realised and I think it was.

 

[Deleted member 2457]

Even the pioneer plasma looking back.

 

[Deleted member 2457]

gel:Even the pioneer plasma looking back.

At the time of realise the pioneer plasma was definetely groundbreaking.

 

[Anonymous]

i know what you mean about older plasma screens i remember a friend spent around 4k on a sony plasma years ago, the picture was shocking i thought. plus i think projectors are not really main stream i have one but i don't feel i could live with just that and not my lcd day to day, i don't think we really got many hd crt's in this country i think i read about a samsung 1 once. i just think slimmer tv's have done a lot to push home cinema forward for me, i could live with sound from my last crt but the sound is the weak link with most flatscreens so made me want to build my home cinema. i should think that a great deal of people with hd flatscreens still don't have a native 720p+ source. to me i think more people liked the idea of lcd or plasma because of the overall compact size, but i'm with you the 1st thing that people would ask about a lcd/plasma screen is if it was hd ready. but we all have how own view on this debate don't we people
only gave my last crt away about a month ago to the inlaw's, a panasonic 36in i still loved the picture on it & it cost me more than i have ever paid for any of my later tv's

 

[Deleted member 2457]

home cinema product of the decade is hardly the playstation 3 a cheap not very good blu ray player other than that it is a games console not exactly home cinema.