Inside the store was a whole different story. 60" TV's were set up on flatbeds like jets on an aircraft carrier waiting to take off. Tons of them. Maybe people were too scared to grab them at $838. Maybe the crowd was all spent out by the end of the month. Not me. Using a safe and prudent speed, I nabbed a flatbed and started piling it up to the ceiling. Note: the ceiling at Sam's is pretty high. The Discover card was maxed at the checkout line, and our Honda soon looked like the Grinch's sled from the Dr. Seuss Christmas special. My family was about to enter the world of HD video, but not on the first try.
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| Yes, that's a 60" Vizio TV, and this post was way too long to explain the ordeal of replacing the basement TV. Maybe next time... |
After reading the books and a few posts on the internet, several problems started to materialize. You've got to remember, that the TV's at Big B's house are behind the times. My best TV was the 55" rear projection Mitsubishi in the basement that runs a lame 1080i picture only with the Blue Ray. Please don't ask about the others. The first roadblock was Time Warner Cable.
My ancient TV sets all have cable mini-boxes that cost $1.50 a month. The new TV set has a digital tuner built in, so it was time to go boxless! After several tries, the only channels that would tune in were basic cable, shopping channels, and others that needed to be programmed out. At that, they all had goofy numbers like 21.1, 21.2, and 80.12. A 45 minute call to the helpdesk got me a link to a PDF file converting the goofy channel number to the network and verification that my premium channels should be coming in. A local dispatch was scheduled for the next day. Chris basically followed the same steps as me to no avail, and then escalated my ticket. The L2 tech verified that the premium channels are all scrambled. Wait, that's not fair! The digital tuner was receiving local channels over cable in HD. The $1.50 cable box turn everything into crummy low def. Renting the HD box was $10 a month, and two were needed. The situation seemed lost until I looked at the back of the Roku box.
For those who have never seen one, a Roku is a little wifi enabled box that streams content to your TV set. If you don't have a "smart" TV or blue ray player, one of these can be used to stream Netflix and Amazon video. My family is a long time Netflix subscriber, and the Roku box got us in the world of streaming video. My son can watch an entire season of Justice League in one sitting and even pause the show to go to the potty or eat supper. The back of the Roku player had an HDMI input! HDMI is a transport mechanism for full HD video and surround sound audio. A few clicks in the settings, and the player was spitting out 720P video and surround sound from Amazon Prime!
For those who have never seen one, a Roku is a little wifi enabled box that streams content to your TV set. If you don't have a "smart" TV or blue ray player, one of these can be used to stream Netflix and Amazon video. My family is a long time Netflix subscriber, and the Roku box got us in the world of streaming video. My son can watch an entire season of Justice League in one sitting and even pause the show to go to the potty or eat supper. The back of the Roku player had an HDMI input! HDMI is a transport mechanism for full HD video and surround sound audio. A few clicks in the settings, and the player was spitting out 720P video and surround sound from Amazon Prime!
A little surfing revealed that Time Warner has a Roku app that streams all the premium channels in full HD. Did my first generation Roku support the Time Warner app? Of course not. A little more surfing, and a Roku 2 XD was headed to my house with 2 day free shipping courtesy of Amazon Prime. I also clicked on a couple of 15 foot HDMI cables made by Twisted Veins. The cables were to rig up the soundbar, but that part of the story comes a little later. If you don't have a prime subscription, they're very handy. Not only are many items available with free two day shipping, but you get a ton of streaming content that is also free. Full details are here.
After 2 long, long, long days of waiting, the Roku arrived. The 2XD is the minimum model needed to get a 1080p picture. Now for all you hi-fi geeks out there, my $188 Magnavox TV's maximum resolution is 720p. Well in the IT world, we always say that you might want to upgrade later. Within minutes, the Roku was hooked up, and my entertainment center looked like a scene from a Frankenstein movie. Wires, power plugs, and speakers were going everywhere. The next hour was spent searching the Roku channels and punching in passwords for Roku, Netflix, Amazon, and Time Warner Cable (TWC). Wow. The TWC app works like a charm. It's like having a set-top box in HD for $60 (and no monthly fee). TWC's HD box is $10 a month, so the payback was going to be fast. I couldn't believe how great the HD picture looked, and all the premium channels were there with program information and schedules. My not-so-smart TV just got smart! With the cable TV issue solved, it was time to tackle the music.
Several years ago, I bought my wife an XM radio. My box of choice is a Roady 2 hooked to an FM transmitter. Any FM radio in the house, yard, and probably my close-by neighbors can pick up whatever XM channel that is playing on 103.0. The entertainment center had an ancient DVD player + surround sound combo that wasn't compatible with the new gear. With Amazon and Netflix, the DVD player wasn't going to be missed. We'd just head to the basement to watch a Blue Ray or DVD. The lack of music, however, was going to be a problem.
Time for a Pandora account. Pandora has an app for just about any device. The basic service is free, and you can pay a small monthly fee for additional features and no ads. Pandora has some built-in channels by genre, or channels can be created by typing in the name your favorite artist. The service is interactive, so you hit the thumbs up if you like the song that's playing and thumbs down if you don't. Pandora will play other songs that are similar to the ones you like, and skip songs similar to the ones you don't like. You can even hit the "I'm tired of this song" button, and Pandora will give it a break. One time on our boat, I almost walked over to the XM radio and hunted for the thumbs down button after "Radioactive" had played what seemed like 10 times in a row. Man, it would be nice if XM could do that too. Within a few minutes, Jimmy Buffett, Chris Brown, Lady Gaga, and a couple of pop stations were added. My wife likes Sade, so that one was programmed in just for her. Music was blasting out the sound bar, and we were all jamming until "Thrift Shop" started playing. As the kids were sitting on the couch and singing, F-bombs started dropping like a B-52 Stratofortress at war. After what seemed like an eternity, one of us dove for the remote and powered off the system. Note: Pandora has an explicit content filter that can be activated to weed out the dirty words. One last great feature of Pandora is that your channels will also follow you around on iPads, Androids, Smart TV's, and PC's.
With all the technical details worked out, it was time to clean up the mess. My wife didn't want me drilling holes in the shelves of the entertainment center, so a trip to Lowe's was in order. I settled on a nice 2" piece of light colored wood for the sound bar to hang on. We darkened the wood a bit with a stain marker, drilled a couple of small holes, and installed the new board with a couple of L- brackets. Height for the sound bar is just above the TV, so the tweeters are somewhat close to ear level. Cabling and fitting everything in was the hard part.
The sound bar has multiple ways to input sound. The best way is to use HDMI or fiber optic cable. I decided to run HDMI from the Roku, into the sound bar, and another HDMI cable from the sound bar to the TV. That means that anything coming from the Roku gets great sound. The problem is that the TWC Roku app doesn't stream local channels. The cable input and built-in tuner are needed for the locals, but the TV has no way to get sound to the soundbar. If you're buying a TV that's more that $188, look for either a model that will match up with your soundbar via Bluetooth or 2-way HDMI signal (ex: Samsung TV + Samsung Soundbar) or get a TV with a fiber optic sound output. If you go this route, the TV feeds the soundbar 100% of the time, which is much easier to deal with.
How does it sound? Let me just that the quality of this Samsung unit is incredible. The bar has 6 drivers plus a wireless subwoofer. I've never heard speakers that could extend sound past the point of the tweeters. Seriously, if a car drives by on the TV, the sound goes from one end of the living room to the other. Movies have a full range of sound with good vocals. Music is about as loud as you want your living room to be, without waking up the neighbors.
Interested in the totals? This one was a little embarrassing. Fabricating the mount, installing the sound bar, and cleaning up the cabling was a 4 hour job. Configuring the Roku, troubleshooting the cable TV, and other miscellaneous research easily extended this out to a full day's work. Yes, to cleanly rip and replace an old school TV and sound system is more like a weekend job. Add up the soundbar, Roku, cabling, and wood, and $188 TV is more like $500. Worth it? Absolutely. You should have seen the kids grinning from ear to ear last weekend when we were watching "LEGO Batman: DC Super Heroes Unite." Daddy was grinning, too.
If you like hi-fi, this article may also interest you: Basement Hi-Fi upgrade
After 2 long, long, long days of waiting, the Roku arrived. The 2XD is the minimum model needed to get a 1080p picture. Now for all you hi-fi geeks out there, my $188 Magnavox TV's maximum resolution is 720p. Well in the IT world, we always say that you might want to upgrade later. Within minutes, the Roku was hooked up, and my entertainment center looked like a scene from a Frankenstein movie. Wires, power plugs, and speakers were going everywhere. The next hour was spent searching the Roku channels and punching in passwords for Roku, Netflix, Amazon, and Time Warner Cable (TWC). Wow. The TWC app works like a charm. It's like having a set-top box in HD for $60 (and no monthly fee). TWC's HD box is $10 a month, so the payback was going to be fast. I couldn't believe how great the HD picture looked, and all the premium channels were there with program information and schedules. My not-so-smart TV just got smart! With the cable TV issue solved, it was time to tackle the music.
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| Roku main screen |
Several years ago, I bought my wife an XM radio. My box of choice is a Roady 2 hooked to an FM transmitter. Any FM radio in the house, yard, and probably my close-by neighbors can pick up whatever XM channel that is playing on 103.0. The entertainment center had an ancient DVD player + surround sound combo that wasn't compatible with the new gear. With Amazon and Netflix, the DVD player wasn't going to be missed. We'd just head to the basement to watch a Blue Ray or DVD. The lack of music, however, was going to be a problem.
Time for a Pandora account. Pandora has an app for just about any device. The basic service is free, and you can pay a small monthly fee for additional features and no ads. Pandora has some built-in channels by genre, or channels can be created by typing in the name your favorite artist. The service is interactive, so you hit the thumbs up if you like the song that's playing and thumbs down if you don't. Pandora will play other songs that are similar to the ones you like, and skip songs similar to the ones you don't like. You can even hit the "I'm tired of this song" button, and Pandora will give it a break. One time on our boat, I almost walked over to the XM radio and hunted for the thumbs down button after "Radioactive" had played what seemed like 10 times in a row. Man, it would be nice if XM could do that too. Within a few minutes, Jimmy Buffett, Chris Brown, Lady Gaga, and a couple of pop stations were added. My wife likes Sade, so that one was programmed in just for her. Music was blasting out the sound bar, and we were all jamming until "Thrift Shop" started playing. As the kids were sitting on the couch and singing, F-bombs started dropping like a B-52 Stratofortress at war. After what seemed like an eternity, one of us dove for the remote and powered off the system. Note: Pandora has an explicit content filter that can be activated to weed out the dirty words. One last great feature of Pandora is that your channels will also follow you around on iPads, Androids, Smart TV's, and PC's.
With all the technical details worked out, it was time to clean up the mess. My wife didn't want me drilling holes in the shelves of the entertainment center, so a trip to Lowe's was in order. I settled on a nice 2" piece of light colored wood for the sound bar to hang on. We darkened the wood a bit with a stain marker, drilled a couple of small holes, and installed the new board with a couple of L- brackets. Height for the sound bar is just above the TV, so the tweeters are somewhat close to ear level. Cabling and fitting everything in was the hard part.
The sound bar has multiple ways to input sound. The best way is to use HDMI or fiber optic cable. I decided to run HDMI from the Roku, into the sound bar, and another HDMI cable from the sound bar to the TV. That means that anything coming from the Roku gets great sound. The problem is that the TWC Roku app doesn't stream local channels. The cable input and built-in tuner are needed for the locals, but the TV has no way to get sound to the soundbar. If you're buying a TV that's more that $188, look for either a model that will match up with your soundbar via Bluetooth or 2-way HDMI signal (ex: Samsung TV + Samsung Soundbar) or get a TV with a fiber optic sound output. If you go this route, the TV feeds the soundbar 100% of the time, which is much easier to deal with.
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| Coax Staples for cable management |
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| Back of the sound bar |
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| Roku attached to entertainment center with 3M Command Strip. More coax staples to run HDMI and power. |
How does it sound? Let me just that the quality of this Samsung unit is incredible. The bar has 6 drivers plus a wireless subwoofer. I've never heard speakers that could extend sound past the point of the tweeters. Seriously, if a car drives by on the TV, the sound goes from one end of the living room to the other. Movies have a full range of sound with good vocals. Music is about as loud as you want your living room to be, without waking up the neighbors.
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| Wireless Subwoofer |
Interested in the totals? This one was a little embarrassing. Fabricating the mount, installing the sound bar, and cleaning up the cabling was a 4 hour job. Configuring the Roku, troubleshooting the cable TV, and other miscellaneous research easily extended this out to a full day's work. Yes, to cleanly rip and replace an old school TV and sound system is more like a weekend job. Add up the soundbar, Roku, cabling, and wood, and $188 TV is more like $500. Worth it? Absolutely. You should have seen the kids grinning from ear to ear last weekend when we were watching "LEGO Batman: DC Super Heroes Unite." Daddy was grinning, too.
If you like hi-fi, this article may also interest you: Basement Hi-Fi upgrade
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