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I have never had a big screen or a sound system so I don't know anything about what is good or not.

Looking for 55" for the LR and between 35" to 40" for the bedroom. I want HD, but after that I am clueless. Not for gaming but it could have a system hooked up from time to time. I am putting 4 speakers in the wall and a sub beside the TV. What brand components and what capabilities I don't know.

Price does matter, I repeat price does matter.

I personally recommend Samsung LCD's.  I also own a Onkyo 7.1 surround sytem and love it.

Let me ask, is space a limitation as far as the living room tv goes? (depth)

I think Samsung TVs are the best out there. LG is almost as good for less money. I have a 60" LG plasma in the man cave, a 55" Vizio LCD in the living room, and a 42" Westinghouse LED in the bedroom.

Plasmas give more bang for the buck than LCDs but give off a lot more heat.

If you want the best, by a Samsung 1080p LED. Always go bigger than you think because nobody ever thinks "Man I wish this TV was smaller."

I always buy Onkyo receivers. We have an Onkyo Home theater in a box 5.1 system in my wife's living room and I have a Onkyo 7.1 receiver with Polk speakers and subs downstairs. Yamaha also makes good stuff.

I'm sure not an electrical wizard but I can tell you this: There is A LOT of info to learn about the different types of systems, so read as much as you can on the 'net about them. Asking here is a good place to start.



BG

Idk if you can even find them anymore.. But I always tell people if you're buying 40" or less then go 720p instead of 1080p.  You cannot discern the difference between these resolutions on screens 40" or less, and 720p is obvioysly cheaper.  Our Sammy in the bedroom is 37" and it's 720p.. And it looks just as good to me (pic quality wise) as my 67" 1080p Sammy LED DLP in the living room.

The reason I ask about depth, you can get more screen real estate for your dollar with a DLP set. Sammy is out of the DLP market I think, but Mitsubishi is pushing even bigger DLP screens out, the likes of 92", 82", and 73". 

What is DLP?  How much depth are we talking about?

The only time 1080p matters is BluRay or if you have any over the air programming that is in 1080p (DirecTV has some PPV in 1080p). However, more programming should become available in 1080p in the near future and then there will be a difference.

I'm not sure that it's accurate to say that 720p is cheaper than 1080p anymore. When I went shopping for my bedroom TV, the price difference seemed negligible although that's been a few months so I might not be remembering correctly.

OK looking at the receivers and I need to know what wattage is good? The living room area is not large but it is part of a larger space.

Wattage is one of the most overrated things when it comes to a receiver. The only thing that matters on wattage is RMS which is continuous wattage... most manufacturers give you peak wattage which is meaningless unless you are only hooking up one speaker.

You generally cannot go wrong with a midrange Onkyo receiver. You want one that does HDMI switching with as many HDMIs as possible. Also you can hook up a 7.1 channel amp or higher to a 5.1 system.

Also, and I cannot stress this enough, no home theater system is complete without a good Logitech Harmony remote. Trust me on that one.

IMO, the components that offer the most bang for the buck right now are the Samsung PND7000 series plasma TVs, the Denon AVR-1912 receiver, and the Energy Take Classic 5.1 speaker system.

Here's Cnet's reviews of the former two:
http://reviews.cnet.com/flat-panel-tvs/samsung-pn59d7000/4505-6482_7-34468714.html?autoplay=true&tag=contentMain;contentBody;2n

http://reviews.cnet.com/av-receivers/denon-avr-1912/4505-6466_7-34647681.html?tag=mncol;lst;1

It aint a requirment to have the slickest remote what is a requirment is a kick ass sound with some sub woofer for the bass and two speakers at minimum but surround sound does not buy oyu much in the long run other than it provides a depth of field when you are watching a movie.  Minimum is two speakers and a really kick ass sound system with lots of watts and a large screen 16 X 9 system with plasma being the high end and LCD the low and LED somewhere in between.  

I suggest anythng above 50 inches and plasma as the main system unless he is going to have lots of sun then I suggest LCD/LED

How about my speakers? What size? type? brand? etc? 

They will be in the wall other than the sub.

Like I said, no home theater system is complete without a good Logitech Harmony remote. It's not about slick, it's about the part that brings the whole experience together. I have two of the midline ones and I will never be without one again, ever.

Obviously the components of the system make the quality of the system. That goes without saying.

Nice call on the Denon.

OK found these speakers, what do you think?

http://www.inwallstore.com/InwallTech_HD_650W_Wall_Speakers_p/hd650w.htm#ReviewHeader (http://www.inwallstore.com/InwallTech_HD_650W_Wall_Speakers_p/hd650w.htm#ReviewHeader)

I have a 55" Sammy LCD in the LR and am extremely pleased with it. I have a 32" LG in the bedroom that doubles as monitor for gaming which has a fantastic picture as well, but I had to make a warranty claim to replace the power control board.

I like my Samsungs.  The only thing is the sound quality is not the greatest (but this may be true of other flat panel TV's).  If you are adding a sound system then that does not matter.  If you have potential for some glare from windows or lights, I'd recommend looking at LCD's as they do not produce much glare.  Otherwise a plasma or LED may be better.  Below 40", I would say that you would not see the difference between 720p and 1080p unless you are using a cable box/DVR.  I'm not sure how this works for all cable boxes and DVR's etc., but I have a 720p 32" LCD connected to my Knology/Scientific Atlanta DVR.  On at least some if not all of the channels, some of the screen is cutoff.  It is as if you are seeing the center 720p part of the 1080p image.  It can be annoying when watching sports as some of the score box may be cut off.  I did not notice this when I had this TV hooked straight to cable, but I only got 5 HD channels like that.  I plan to upgrade to a bigger 1080p TV to go with my DVR at some point so it won't matter then.

That sounds weird. I wonder if that is a setting on your cable box to change it to autodetect the capabilities of the TV. DirecTV's DVR's have similar settings.

I want to say that a TV that isn't capable of 1080p wouldn't seen anything if it were getting a 1080p signal but since they are both progressive scan and the difference between them is only one of resolution your scenario sounds plausible.

You make a good point about sound quality. The speakers on all three (four if you count my kid's 27" Symphonic pink TV) flat panels in my house are horrid. That's a function of cabinet space.

Stands for Digital Light Processing.. and we're talking about a depth of a foot or less.  Granted this usually means there will be periodic bulb replacement involved (my model is an LED DLP which is supposed to not need bulb replacement), but to me it's worth it for the size of a tv you can get for the price.  And the new Mitz tv's are supposed to make it really easy to change a bulb oneself.
 
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