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RE: Can I add video? ( long)

Posted by David Aiken (A) on June 8, 2008 at 16:17:35

In Reply to: Can I add video? ( long) posted by PAR on June 8, 2008 at 07:22:53:

"My room is not too large and my speakers are across the short wall. However I have to walk between the speakers to access the open plan staircase at the left hand side of the room. This means that although I have space between the speakers (which are about 5 feet from the front wall) it's not too much. "

So you have a wall 5' behind the speakers and a stairway to the left side. To access the stairway you need to walk between the speakers. I assume there is an unbroken wall behind the speakers. Did I get that right? Is there anything on the wall or are there windows there?

Yes you can get reflections from a screen but the big question is what sort of screen are you considering. Are you considering a flat screen such as an LCD or plasma, a front projection screen, a rear projection screen or a CRT? If you want the maximum space for access to the stairway you limit yourself to the LCD, plasma, or front projection options. The CRT and rear projection displays can be quite deep which will eat into your access space.

Normal recommendations for viewing distance from a high definition screen suggest that the screen to viewer distance should be between 1.5 to 2.5 times the screen diagonal depending on who you rely on for this ratio. I sit at 2.5 times the screen diagonal. Applying those guides to your 11'5" viewing distance (let's round it to 12') you're talking about a screen diagonal of 8' if you sit 1.5 times that away down to 58" or so if you sit 2.5 times that distance away. That also eliminates the CRT simply due to size. I'd suggest a plasma or LCD. Plasma would be cheaper and has advantages in picture quality provided you darken the room when viewing, If you do a lot of viewing with ambient light in the room, then I'd suggest an LCD. Front projection also requires low ambient light levels.

Assuming a plasma or LCD there will be some reflection off the screen but there's already reflection off the wall if you haven't got it acoustically treated. The glass screen will be quite reflective at high frequencies, more than a normal wall but similarly reflective to glass windows or framed pictures under glass so it may or may not be more reflective than your existing room depending on what's in/on the wall at present. You can always put a heavy draw curtain or sound absorbing panel in front of the screen when not viewing but simply listening to music. When viewing you don't have that option but you can use tone or other controls in order to tame any brightness in sound from those reflections.

If you want surround sound, the side surrounds of a 5.1 system can go to the sides level with or slightly behind the listening/viewing position. If you can't manage that, there's in-ceiling speakers in a similar positioning. If none of those placement options works in your room, forget surround but a centre channel down the track would probably help. It can be added later but it should tonally match your L and R front speakers so if there is a matching centre speaker available now and you're going to add a centre you should do so before the current line gets discontinued. That places a time restriction on the purchase which may not work out well for you. You can certainly run with a stereo setup quite happily, especially if your viewing tends to be TV and music video fare rather than movies. Even with movies a good stereo setup can be quite successful and enjoyable but surround is certainly fun if you like action movies which it sounds as if you don't. With an L shaped room and an asymmetrical area behind you I'd forget 6.1 or 7.1 surround systems.

You can hook the video connection straight from the player to display and a separate audio connection from the player to your existing pre-amp/amp while you're running stereo. You can take an audio out connection from the display to an unused input on the pre-amp/amp. If you want surround sound I'd suggest using an AV receiver or pre-processor with HDMI connections carrying both audio and video from player to receiver/processor and HDMI from there to the display for video. You would still run audio from the TV to the receiver/processor in that setup.

You can buy players which decode video soundtracks and do the digital to analog conversion so you don't need to buy a separate decoding unit as well as a player if you continue in stereo. If you go surround the wiring connections are drastically simplified with HDMI provided you use an AV receiver or pre/processor with all of the decoding and D/A conversion options you need.

If you run stereo with your current pre-amp/amp you may run into lip/sync problems. There's a thread below about that. Some people are more sensitive to this than others. AV receivers/processors can correct for lip/sync and many have room equalisation features that can help with room acoustic problems such as overly bright reflections from a plasma or LCD screen but there are also add on solutions to these issues which you could use with your current setup. There's a thread on lip/sync issues below you may wish to skim.

That's the basics and it should give you enough info to think about. You'll probably have more questions if you decide to go ahead but I'd start by looking at things like the prices of 60-80 inch screens and working out just how far I wanted to go with this idea first since the display is going to be the most expensive part of the process if you start out with your existing stereo setup. If you can't afford a 60" screen as a minimum, then I'd start looking at smaller screens and seeing just how I felt about the picture at a 12' viewing distance because if you use too small a screen you are unlikely to be happy with the results.



David Aiken

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