Home theater (A/V) setup - esp streaming photos to TV (Cary: house, purchasing)

[nrmanby]

Can anyone suggest a company or individual who will set up and optimize a home theater / audio/video system? I'm looking for someone knowledgable enough to recommend and configure the myriad of media hardware available.

Everything is currently working, but I'd love a professional to optimize the sound for the room, ensure it's configured properly, etc. Equally important, I'd love a way to play our photos and home videos on our television.

To give you an idea of what I'm looking for, I currently have:
- LCD tv
- TiVo box
- Kennon receiver w/ 5.1 surround sound w Apple's Airplay
- we love being able to stream our music wirelessly
- it's networked, so we have access to our Pandora and other internet accounts
- DVD player (not blueray)
- Slingbox
- NAS drive which stores our photos and home videos.

We have netflix and Amazon prime for videos. I'm thinking of purchasing a Roku or Apple TV, with Roku holding the early lead. We don't have a game-console and probably won't be getting one.


Thanks in advance for any help!

[j-mart77]

you might want to take a look at googleTV. I have a NAS UPnP drive that holds my pics and mp3s and my googleTV box picks-up all of them automatically. It also works well with Netflix and I would guess AIV too. Setup is easy and it walks you through adding your surround sound setup too.

[darrix]

I use a PS3 for streaming content(photos, music, movies) from my mac to my TV, might be an option too for you (though you mentioned you're not getting a gaming console)

[nrmanby]

Thanks guys, I appreciate both these ideas! j-mart, thanks for pointing me to googleTV - I wasn't considering it but from what I've now read it looks pretty cool. darrix - thanks also for your recommendation for the PS3. I know people who got one because they wanted a blue-ray player and might as well get it in the PS3. I think this might be a similar situation - from a pricepoint I might as well get a game console and blue-ray player if I'm going to pick up something to help me stream content anyways.

I'm still looking for someone who can optimize my system. I know I should get off my lazy-butt and do it myself (and it is something I'd enjoy), but I also appreciate learning from people who have more knowledge and experience.

[static_g]

You might want to look into XBMC. I run XBMC and MythTV on every TV in the house with $200 HTPCs. XBMC does pictures, NAS-stored movies/TV shows/music, etc. It's more involved than Apple TV or Google TV, but also more rewarding There's also the XBMC fork called Boxee. Boxee integrates nicely with Netflix, Hulu, etc. although I think XBMC will also. I rip all music and Bluerays and store them on the NAS so we don't have to mess with discs.

I know of no company that will do what you're looking for. I think your best bet would be hiring a computer nerd at an hourly rate or something.

[hc130radio]

You can stream music and pictures to your TV via your Tivo if you have it networked (wired or wirelessly).

[Supernc42]

Originally Posted by nrmanby

Can anyone suggest a company or individual who will set up and optimize a home theater / audio/video system? I'm looking for someone knowledgable enough to recommend and configure the myriad of media hardware available.

Everything is currently working, but I'd love a professional to optimize the sound for the room, ensure it's configured properly, etc. Equally important, I'd love a way to play our photos and home videos on our television.

To give you an idea of what I'm looking for, I currently have:
- LCD tv
- TiVo box
- Kennon receiver w/ 5.1 surround sound w Apple's Airplay
- we love being able to stream our music wirelessly
- it's networked, so we have access to our Pandora and other internet accounts
- DVD player (not blueray)
- Slingbox
- NAS drive which stores our photos and home videos.

We have netflix and Amazon prime for videos. I'm thinking of purchasing a Roku or Apple TV, with Roku holding the early lead. We don't have a game-console and probably won't be getting one.


Thanks in advance for any help!

Call this local company and see what they can do for you:

AVCON - Audio Visual Concepts - Cary, NC - Sound systems, Audio video lighting, Audio visual, Teleconference, Project system

[nrmanby]

Thanks hc130radio! I didn't know about the Tivo desktop software and I'll definitely give it a shot.

And Supernc42, great call on Avcon! I had forgotten about them. They're a very good, very respected company.

[benthephysicist]

Got the new Roku HD for Christmas, its the size of a hockey puck. Super easy to use, didnt realize it even had a Nintendo Wii style video game controller and the girl plays angry birds a lot. Hulu, Netflix, Prime, member of all three. No cable TV, just the Roku and Torrents.....

[X-Ravin]

I use full but small PCs for our TVs. With the all-in-one boxes it always seems like there's one thing you really want that it won't do. My primary server has 6 hot swap bays for 2TB HDDs. I rip all my Blu Rays into it (no compression, the whole 40-50gb movie) and stream it over WiFi N to the other HTPCs (full quality including HD audio codecs). In addition, the server stores TV shows, pics and music which can be streamed to all the HTPCs as well. Since they are full computers you can also run slingbox, Netflix, Hulu, Youtube, and any streaming video on sites like CBS. And you won't have to worry about making sure every video is encoded just right to work, it's a PC, everything will work.

Now the downside is the interface. The AIOs usually have a nice remote and there's no need for a keyboard and mouse. The way I get around this is I got this from logitech:

Logitech - diNovo Mini Keyboard

Mouse and KB in one small package. This is just my 2 cents, I've helped several people setup home theaters, some like the AIOs, others have issues.