Last Sunday, I went down to the Novotel in Hammersmith with a friend to poke around the What HiFi Show. We spent the afternoon wandering around three floors of A/V toys.
The big theme was HDTV. It was my first look at HDTV and it's brain-dead obvious that any future purchase of a TV or projector will have to be HDTV ready. Sharp was showing off a 65" LCD HDTV that was jaw dropping gorgeous. I asked about their dead pixel policy and didn't get a very satisfactory answer.
What I'd like in my living room is a modest HDTV LCD display that has both HDMI and SVGA connections. It would be something for watching the news or the kids to watch their shows. It would be a good monitor for a Media PC. It needs to be small enough that it doesn't dominate the living room. Then what I really want is an HDTV projector for watching films. And surround sound of course!
Right now I just have a big telly and a nice stereo. Haven't figured out how I could install a projector yet. It's also awkward installing six speakers. The BenQ PE 7700 projector seems like great value. It offers HDTV and DLP for under £1700. I heard a demo of theYamaha Digital Sound Projector at the show. For £600, it's a cheap and easy way to get some decent sound.
If money wasn't an issue, then it would probably be the Sim2 HT300 E and a B&W 805S speaker package all driven by some ridiculously expensive processor and amp. Yeah, it's very easy to get carried away and would cost more than going down to the cinema 2000 times!