What an $18,000 Home Theater Looks Like

kgagne writes "Computerworld has a blog with video about an $18,000 home theater system that Intel set up at Storage Networking World in order to promote their new home server system. But what's really cool about this set up is that the server was connected to a 24" iMac, an Apple TV, an Xbox 360, a Wii, an iPod Touch, a Nokia N810 mobile Internet tablet, various cameras and a 15" wireless digital picture frame. The server was streaming all the various feeds to a top-of-the-line Pioneer Elite 50" plasma TV. The Intel reps said the high-definition movie downloads, which could be browsed through a menu, were as high quality as those from a Pioneer Elite Blu-ray player they had set up."

Comments

Selfish bastard

[eln]

These sorts of stories make me so mad. Why can't people spend this money on the starving people of Africa instead of blowing it on this nonsense?

Seriously folks, you could buy decent home theatre systems for lots of poor starving African children for the cost of this one system. Won't somebody think of the children?

$20k

[JBHarris]

The tabulation comes up closer to $20k. From the article:

Here's a tabulation of the equipment:
(1) Pioneer 50" 1080p KURO Flat Panel HDTV: $5,000
(2) Series Pro Power AVS 2000 Automatic Voltage Stabilizers: $4,400
(2) Intel Entry Storage System SS4200-E home NAS servers: $700 (without disk drives)
(1) Pioneer BDP-95FD Blu-ray Disc player: $999
(1) 24" iMac: $2,249
(1) Apple TV: $329
(1) Xbox 360 console: $349
(1) Nintendo Wii console: $250
(1) Apple iPod Touch: $399
(1) Nokia N810 Mobile Internet Tablet: $500
(1) Spectrum Digital 15" wireless photo frame: $357
(1) Pioneer Elite VSX 94TXH AV Receiver: $1,800
(2) Monster THX Tower Speakers 200: $1,600
Total price: $18,932

That is without drives in the server, and without any games or movies or anything else that makes the home theater worth something.

Personally, I'd rather have the $400 Home Theater in a Box from Circuit City and $17,600 in cash in a briefcase sitting in front of it...That will certainly impress your friends.

Brad

hmmm... $18k isn't that much for a Home Theater...

[Fallen Kell]

I mean, I have $8k in speakers/subs alone and that doesn't include the $2500 in amps.

Heck, I think I have over $21k in my setup, and that is just on the speakers, TV, stand, audio rack, DVD player, audio/video pre-processor, amplifiers, HTPC/DVR, and data server. Now grant it I have something like 7TB of storage now in that setup, and over 3000W of speaker/subs, but I don't even have close to my dream theater, which includes at least 2 rows of seating, and room audio treatments...

Just the theater?

[SparkleMotion88]

Ripoff. These days you can get an entire home for $18,000.

I guess $18k still doesn't buy

[joeflies]

"taste". Maybe geeking out is great fun for personal use, but the family probably doesn't want the front room looking like a NASA control center.

Re:I guess $18k still doesn't buy

[geekoid]

Get a new family!
My family would totally dig the front room looking like a NASA control center.
Unfortunately They would expect it to actually control spaceship, and it wouldn't do that..well wait a minute, if I just ...

Re:All they need is...

[Jeff DeMaagd]

The large plasma may get the best picture quality possible, the 50" is probably an incredibly fine unit too. One can get big picture on a lower budget with a projector. It's not for everyone, but a projector that's half the cost of that Kuro can throw a 150" image in full 1080p, with a picture quality that's good enough that I really don't care that I don't have a plasma.

I'd do away with the Monster products (speakers and "voltage stabilizers") in that list too. I just don't like seeing money spent on snake oil manufacturers.

Re:Uh...can I get it without the "AppleTV", please

[Sciros]

Macs aren't just for blue-haired old ladies. Or for floating boats. They are also for a subset of things that PCs do!

Sadly, as my car only gets 15 mpg, I am not allowed by law to own a Mac. Oh well.

Re:All they need is...

[Thalagyrt]

I've got a 50" in my apartment, parents own one of the 103" Panasonic units... It's fairly insane and in my opinion a total waste of money, but then again, he can afford it.

Also, the Monster power filters are actually very good units, I've taken a multimeter to them and done some tests. However, everything else that comes out of that company is total snake oil.

Anyone who buys a $150 AES/ABU cable when any $5 XLR cable will do the job perfectly fine is an idiot. Gold plated connectors? Sorry bud, but your connectors on your gear are most likely tin or copper, and the gold plating actually decreases conductivity... Gotta love the things "audiophiles" do that electrical/audio engineers laugh at. :p

Side note, since I'm a guitarist, I also think tube amps are entirely overrated, I can do just about anything with my Vetta that someone can do with (x brand here) tube amp.

Also, good point on the projector, the only problem is during daytime if you have windows open you can't really see much, but aside from that it is a cheaper alternative that's equally good.

Re:hmmm... $18k isn't that much for a Home Theater

[Sciros]

Pshh what a hobo. I have over $300,000,000 in MY setup, and that's just on the speakers, amplifiers, and TV stand made entirely out of platinum and marble-sized black diamonds. Now granTED I have someting like 25 Exabytes of storage now in that setup, and my speakers are powered by the spinning of the Milky Way's central black hole, I don't even have close to MY dream theater, which includes 3 dungeon floors guarded by dragons and ninjas, chests that appear out of thin air containing a map and a compass, a roller coaster built entirely out of carbon fiber Legos, a girlfriend, and a Maybach Exelero to drive around the spaces between my 3000 rows of seats....

PS3?

[HalAtWork]

So where's the PlayStation 3? It's even better than the Blu-Ray player they have listed, and besides that, why include the other consoles but leave out the PS3?

Bah

[JMZero]

I wouldn't call this a home theater - and I don't think it's intended to be one. It's a technology showcase / bunch of useless crap. Besides that, how could you call it a "theater" with such a tiny screen?

Here's how I'd spend $18000:

1. Epson Powerlite 1080UB (projector) = $3000
2. Pair of Martin Logan Quest front speakers = $10000
3. Decent amp = $2000
4. Random center/rear channel speakers = $800
5. PS3 = $400
6. Decent 100" 16:9 screen = $500
7. Random subwoofer = $400

Now you're set up to watch movies, play games, listen to music, whatever - and your friends won't laugh at your pitiful 50" plasma.

And if you don't have $18000, substitute in a few cheaper alternatives and you can do a very decent theater for $3000 and still have a setup people will like more than the one in this article.

Re:Bah

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

2. Pair of Martin Logan Quest front speakers = $10000
3. Decent amp = $2000
4. Random center/rear channel speakers = $800 As long as your center and surrounds don't match your mains, your movie listening experience is going to be sub-par. Any sound that pans from one speaker to another is going to sound weird because of the difference in timbre between the originating speaker and the destination speaker. For example, when a tank rolls across the screen it will sound like a real tank when it enters stage right, then turn into a little toy, mickey-mouse tank, as it traverses the screen and then exits stage left again as a real tank should. By the time it makes it around the room to the surround speakers, it might as well be a ricer car with a fartbox on the exhaust.

Funny error in video

[Technician]

I just watched the video and laughed. The presenter needs to understand RAID before explaining how it works. Do you see the problem with the following points?

System will hold up to 4 1 Tetrabyte drive in a RAID array.
With 4 1 Tetra byte SATA drives it will store 4 Tetra bytes of data.
If a drive fails, it can be replaced without losing data as it will rebuild the lost drive automatically.

Hats of to Intel for that one. I wish my RAID could do that.

$18,000?

[hee gozer]

Pfft, only 12 Euros, that's pocket money!

Re:All they need is...

[Thalagyrt]

I think one of the coolest voltage stabilization/emergency power backup systems I've seen is at the Terremark building in downtown Miami.

Part 1: Excessively huge electric motor attached to power grid.
Part 2: 5 ton concrete disc attached to motor spinning at exactly 60 rotations/second.
Part 3: Generator attached to 5 ton concrete disc that powers the building.

There are 8 generators around it, uniformly spaced. At any given time two of them are operating in sync with the commercial grid and also powering the electric motor. If the power goes out, the rest of the generators kick on and take over the electric motor within minutes, long before the disc loses any momentum. As soon as power comes back on, all of the generators are cut from the motor and two new standby generators are picked and synced up with the grid.

Granted, almost all of the traffic to South America is routed through this building, so it's gotta be pretty resilient. It also has if I recall a 20 ton concrete roof to prevent any hurricane problems.

Wii?

[aarku]

Did I miss it, but how exactly is the Wii connecting to the server? I never saw any ability like that in my Wii, unless it's just going through the web browser.

Re:Uh...can I get it without the "AppleTV", please

[geekoid]

also: PC's do a subset of things that macs do.

I hope you weren't trying to make some point.