Home Theater or PC upgrade...or both simultaneously

syvmn · Apr 20, 2013

I love Movies....but then again I love my PC gaming....

PC Specs:
i5-3570k @ 4.4ghz CPU w/ 212 evo cooler
ASRock Z77 Extreem4 MB
Powercolor 7870 myst edition GPU
Crucial Ballistix 8GB RAM
Samsung 840 pro 128 GB SDD
Corsair TX750W PSU
Thermaltake v3 Black Edition Case

Theater Specs:
Crappy old Pioneer VSX-D810S receiver
Center, Front Tower R&L, Surround Bookshelf R&L Sony speakers
Crappy old Blu ray player (1st Gen, can't play avatar)
Optoma HD20 1080p Projector
120" Screen

Where would a $3-400 upgrade be best applied? Upgrade Receiver to modern technology? Buy a $40 refurb bluray player thats 100x better than mine? Put in a BD drive into my computer and use that for playing movies? Would I get the same audio/video quality from the computer as I would a Bluray player/receiver?

I'm open to thoughts and discussion.

ksham · Apr 20, 2013

For your gaming build:
- If you're overclocking, you may want to consider a CPU Cooler. A very good budget one is the Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO for $30.
- And maybe a decent HDD.

For the theater build:
- First and foremost, and I must say this: HOLY CRAP!! 120" Screen. Are you serious?
- And do you play movies on DVD? Or just via streaming / downloading?

arson94 · Apr 20, 2013

Is there not a firmware upgrade available for your Blu-Ray player? Even if it doesn't have Ethernet or wifi, most are still upgradeable via USB or a disc.

Either way, my vote would be for a better stand-alone Blu-ray player over Blu-ray drive for your computer. I made the same decision a couple of years ago. I think the cheapest I've ever seen a Blu-ray drive so far was about $50 on sale. Normal price usually stays a little higher. But then you still need to purchase software to watch blu-rays. At least I'm not aware of any freeware Blu-ray playing software as I haven't had to care since I got my stand-alone player a couple of years ago.

The Blu-ray player would be the quickest, easiest and cheapest to get so I would just get that first. But then I'd definitely upgrade your receiver. I'd imagine you'd love an HDMI receiver, consolidate quite a few cables if you have a setup similar to mine. I have my xbox 360, Blu-ray player, cable box and computer hooked up to my receiver. Only audio from my computer is connected to the receiver though. Video still runs DVI to my dual monitors.

I think upgrading your computer would be wasted money right now.

syvmn · Apr 20, 2013

No firmware. Bluray is a Memorex MVBD2510

Yeah I just spend $100 on MONOPRICE with the intent to consolidate the ridiculous amount of cables I have running everywhere.

It just seems that a good bluray + reciever will trump a computer setup.

My initial thoughts are a cheap referb bluray player ~$50
and an inexpensive receiver such as :
http://www.accessories4less.com/make-a-store/item/DENAVR1612/DENON-AVR-1612-5.1-Channel-A/V-Home-Theater-Receiver/1.html# or
http://www.accessories4less.com/make-a-store/item/DENAVR1712/DENON-AVR-1712-7.1-A/V-Surround-Receiver/1.html

And yes 124" screen to be exact. Still need to figure out how to play PC games on it ;o)

arson94 · Apr 20, 2013

syvmn :

I believe your computer just doesn't need upgrading, it'll play whatever you want it to play right now.

And if you have decent speakers, I'd get the $300 receiver. I believe you'll like the extra 15W being pushed to all of your speakers. The Blu-ray player I bought a couple of years ago was a refurbed Insignia NS-BRDVD3 for $30 from cowboom.com. I caught a sale in time from slickdeals.net. If you're not a slickdealer yet, I think you'd like it. You'll catch a good deal on a new receiver in no time.

I also have a projector w/ a 120" screen

It's only an Optoma HD65 though so only 720p

I don't have the room for the screen right now so it's in the box. But I hope here in a few months I can unleash her again.

techguy911 · Apr 20, 2013

Physical media is going the way of the dinosaur what i would do is spend money on a very large hard drive or more hard drives hook your video card via hdmi to projector and install XBMC.
If you want to play a game and watch movie at same time i would invest in a roku 3 forget blu-ray.
And yes using your pc to play movies you can go beyond 1080p with right video card any video card can play 1080p.
Look on youtube on how to setup xbmc would be useful to have high speed internet.
Also you can get a blu-ray on your pc for cheap now so you can play blu-ray also.
Also you may want to look into Plex as well best to have video library that is digital rip your dvd/blu-ray movies to digital.

Wolfshadw · Apr 21, 2013

I have a very similar set up. I have a Blu-Ray drive in my HTPC. The HTPC (see system spec below) is connected to both my HDTV (Olevia 232T) and my projector (Optoma HD20) via the HD4670 graphics card. Audio is handled via the output from my motherboard to my Onkyo HT-S3200 when watching movies on the projector and via HDMI when watching normal TV.

If your gaming PC is in the same room as your projector, I'd probably just add a blu-ray drive (and the playback software) to your PC and replace the old receiver with one that accepts your PC's S/PDIF output from your motherboard.

-Wolf sends

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Home Theater or PC upgrade...or both simultaneously

syvmn

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ksham

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arson94

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syvmn

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techguy911

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Wolfshadw

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