Drucker Has a Blog????

Drucker Has a Blog?

New House:
One of the primary reasons for the complete lack of a blog for the past several months is because of the fact that we bought and sold homes and are planning a move.  So that being said, on with the show.

AV Equipment:
In my last blog I had reported what equipment I was planning on buying.  Well of courts that all changed once I priced things and came down to earth.  The story begins with my figuring that I would get a TV that would require running proprietary cables through the wall, but this TV would allow me to just put the hook-ups for each device in the cabinet and only run one cable to the TV.  All-in-all a great idea until I talked to the previous owner of the house that set up the existing equipment.  He placed the existing Tv on a wall that is a dry-wall layer directly on top of cinderblock.  They grooved out an area for the cable to go, then ran the existing cable into the mantle making it next to impossible to run a new cable.  Thankfully the newer AV receivers have high definition video switching capabilities allowing me the single cable option, keeping the existing cable as the single cable and maintaining a media receiver.  So here is the equipment that I decided to get:

• Receiver:  Denon AVR 2807


• TV: Fujitsu P50XTA51US


• Power Conditioner: Monster HTS MKII


• DVD Player: Sony Progressive Scan player


• Game System: Brand new Xbox 360


• Media Streamer: Slingbox (duh)

So there we go.  All this is being installed and set up on the 4th.  Stay tuned.

Exercise:
Thanks to a herniated disc in my neck I am just starting my push-up and sit-up routine.  Again, stay tuned.

TV:
Gotta save something for tomorrow.

Liar liar...

Sex, Lies and Audio Equipment:
So late last week I said that the Harman Kardon AVR140 was the receiver/amp I was going to get for my new spiffy home theatre at the new pad. Well I totally lied. While this is an extremely well reviewed receiver it really lacks any true muscle/power at 40W per channel output (thanks for the heads up Lee). So I am actually going to be getting the Denon AVR-3805 receiver/amp. 100W/channel, 4 optical audio inputs, HDMI switching (not that I would use it) and all the necessary surround features including DTS (nice, eh Dan).

House Stuff:
Ok so the process of finding a new house was a pain, as it took us 18 months. But really that is NOTHING compared to the process of selling, and getting a house ready to sell-
- Tuesday: home inspection (thankfully came out scot free)
- Thursday: termite inspection AND the stagers are doing a preliminary review
- Friday: door to door storage is coming to drop off a unit so we can load all the crap that needs to be out before the listing. I will be busting my tail loading it up this weekend.
- Next Tuesday: painters are coming to give a preliminary estimate
- THEN: painting, actual staging, moving out of the house for a week during the listing, and then taking offers
PHEW.... But I am crossing fingers that we will hit our #.

Sports:
Ok the Pac10 sucks, what more can be said. A shockingly mediocre conference. Right now there are 2 locks with UW and UCLA being them. After that I would say Cal is a soft-lock (really needing to go 3-2 in the next 5) but really close. AZ is the team that would be the 4th from the conference and Stanford is on the outside looking in. This being said the Big East might get 9 teams in. That is insane.

New to you...

New Stuff:

House:
Many/some of you know that we just bought a new pad. One of the cool things, which helps considering how many daunting things there are with regards to buying a new house and selling an old one, is that I get to buy a new TV. Also, because there is 6.1 surround sound in the ceiling of this house I need a new receiver to work that center rear speaker (for those of you that don’t know here is a break down of the different types of surround sound:

• 5.1 – 1 center speaker, 2 front speakers, 2 surround speakers – totaling 5 speakers and the .1 is the subwoofer.
• 6.1 – same as above but a center rear surround speaker
• 7.1 – same as above but with a left rear and a right rear
• 8.1 – same as above but with a left center and a right center

Receiver Specifics:
So this being said here is the receiver I will be getting from Harman Kardon. It is great since it is a) cheap, b) great reviews, and c) has multiple optical audio ins and the necessary surround abilities.

TV Time:
So we currently have a 57” rear projection HD Television which is in a word, great (anyone know someone that wants to buy it). Since this house will require us to place a TV on the wall above the fireplace we are going to have to get a plasma (or other flat panel) TV. Here is my rant on people buying plasma or other TVs in this day and age…. If you buy a TV that only displays 720p you are wasting your money, if you buy a TV that displays 1080p at this point you are wasting your money. Here is why… While many consider EDTV (720p) to be close enough to HD that you shouldn’t be able to tell the difference (and I am sure I cannot) it still seems like a waste when spending $1500 plus on a set not to throw another 10% or so into the TV to get the full HD output. This being said I am a hypocrite because for a premium of about 20-30% one can buy a TV that will output in 1080p which is the highest output available. The thing about 1080p is that there is a grand total of ZERO output in 1080p today. Blu-ray DVD will be 1080p and some TV stuff in 6 months will be but otherwise there isn’t any.

Okay that is it for my soapbox. Here is the TV I am getting from Pioneer. I have calls into all the Magnolia Hi/Fi stores in the area so that when an open box comes in they will call me and I will get my TV (they of course will also do the install). Pioneer has done something really quite brilliant where they have a receiver box that sits in the case with all the AV equipment and has 2 HDMI inputs, 2 coax inputs, 2 component inputs, 2 firewire inputs and other standard video inputs allowing you to not have to run tons of cables through the wall. It also manages the PIP for you even with HD feeds. Just seems like good tech to me is all.

So there you go. Drucker’s new stuff, well it will be new when I actually am allowed to buy it.