Good list here of Good movies To Watch On Your Home Theater- Movies With Good 5.1 Sound
Related Posts
Posted by Linda- Home and Garden Ideas as Home Theater at 2:19 PM EST
December 31st, 2007
Movies To Watch On Your Home Theater- Movies With Good 5.1 Sound
Hanging Something Other Than Pictures On the Wall
I am in a bit of a rut.. Taking down the Christmas stuff has left some empty spaces on my walls. I am quite particular about the art work we put up - I tend to like Classical Realism i.e Titian, Vermeer, Leighton and getting posters framed and matted coast a fortune. i do have some nice ink drawings and etching but I am bit board. Tons of black and white photos of kids and family in an “arty” way… I used to own and interior design store and HATE paying full price for stuff after knowing what things really cost.
I have been looking for some architectural type pieces and found some nice ones in metal and plaster at metal wall art site- they also have some unusual designs that I haven’t seen before- like some interesting resin wall shelves with decorative edging. Was a bit reluctant to order something heavy like that because of high shipping cost- but most places- including this one offer free shipping.
Related Posts
Posted by Linda- Home and Garden Ideas as Home Improvements, Painting and Wall Coverings at 12:34 PM EST
December 30th, 2007
Building Your Own Home Theater
My husband is an audiophile- as in collects vinyl LP’s and constantly building tube amps, pre-amps and buying/trading phonostages. Whole lot of tweaking and not a lot of listening IMHO. We have a really nice TV- one of the first 1080p capable televisions on the market- an HP 5880. He wont; hook up home theater sound and receiver CHEAPLY because it will sound awful. I just can;t see spending 5,000 on a system- then I am a girl 
This week he gave in and is putting it together. We all ready have decent speaker and sub-woofer for it. I spent hours finding deal on receivers. I have ordered two different ones to try- a Yamaha 6025 5.1 and a Sony STRG510. Both were under 200.00.
This one I chose:
and this one he chose:
So we will check out both. The Yamaha he is convinced will have better sound- but it does not have HDMI(!)
He bought a used center channel speaker- which he says is the most important speaker. I will get name of the make later.
For rear channel speakers, I saw a pair of Braxton Bookshelf speakers for 30.00 at XS-Cargo.. How bad could they be? I picked them up yesterday and husband was okay with them- he was actually surprised at the quality.
Our TV has a Faroudja processor in it- and I have been doing some reading that an up- converting DVD is not necessary with an HDTV UNLESS the dvd player has a better one than the one in TV. At any rate- I also got aPHILIPS upconverting dvd playeryesterday. It was floor model, didn;t have remote and they made mistake on pricing and cost me 30.00, they are usually about 70.00-80.00. Costco has them for 68.00 CAD and they go on sale ocassionally at other box stores. I wanted it more for the USB port. I was able to play divx/avi files on a flash thumb drive from it no- problem. This will be great! Oddly the player does not have DTS or optical audio.
I am going to test it later and see if I can play off flash Zune player husband has and I have a Creative ZEN and will check out. Futureshop had 4 gig thumb drives for 14.99 this week and I am KILLING myself that I didn’t grab one the other day. I was a nut and tried to surprise husband boxing day and went down at 4 am to pick up Toshiba HD DVD (A3 model) player for 99.00 No dice :(.
The yards of speaker cable came from Home Depot. You can get for cents a foot and not dollars a foot at Radio Shack, etc. He got about 30 feet for 10.00.
Cheap HDMI cable? Some nice ones at Monoprices.com for 5.24, HDMI 1.3a Category 2 Certified Cable 28AWG - 6ft w/Ferrite Cores (Gold Plated) - BLACK is in stock and shipped for under 10,00 total.
So hooked that up- and I can see a difference- maybe about a 10% difference- especially when playing divx/xvid files.
The receivers aren’t coming until this week so no chance to try the system out yet. Will update. Not sure what would be good movies to try and new 5.1 sound? Was thinking of Master and Commander or Jurassic Park? Any thoughts welcome!
Related Posts
Posted by Linda- Home and Garden Ideas as Electronics, Home Theater at 10:25 AM EST
Stop Slush Build-up on Your Snow blower
We have been having a terrible year for snow- and not the fluffy white kind- but the heavy back breaking wet slush. When using your snowblower on slushy snow you can get quite a build-up on your snow blower. Try spraying Pam cooking spray ( or similar) or WD-40 on the snow blower’s output chute and you will stop any build up. Good luck!
Related Posts
Posted by Linda- Home and Garden Ideas as General Home and Garden at 9:55 AM EST
December 26th, 2007
Animal Sounds- What Kind of Animal is In Your Attic, Under your Deck or Crawl Space?
Yikes. There was a HORRIBLE growling sound coming from under the addition of our home. The family room addition also has a vent going from the addition into our “home theater” room in basement and the sound was just awful -A loud growling. My computer is downstairs and I hear it late as night. No one else heard it until today. My husband was trying to convince me it was a squirrel- not a chance!!
Sound of a MAD Raccoon!
After some investigating- it is a raccoon. I found a site, http://terrierman.com/soundspage.htm that helped me figure out what is was- it was invaluable in fact. The site had sounds of different animals- skunks, angry fox, mad raccoon and VERY mad raccoon. Our raccoon was the VERY MAD type. Our kids are PERTRIFIED. Now that I know what it is I am fine. It is very distinct. We are in the middle of figuring out how to get rid of it. Most sites owned by professionals say to NOT try and get rid of it yourself. I am calling some one in the morning to find out what to do.
Some sites say to try playing radio with voices and may go away. This raccoon sounds REALLY MAD and not sure why it won’t leave. Maybe there are two of them?
How To Get Rid of Raccoon In House?
We did call around and it will be about 300.00 per animal to remove. One exterminator/pest control guy said to try putting mothballs in area where raccoon(s) are. We did this… no sign of them today- so far. But house smells AWFUL. Many websites say that using mothballs to get rid of raccoons will not work- but this guy- an old timer- said that people do scoff at it but he has found ti to work. Everyone warned us that if there are babies than removing the raccoon and blocking up entrance hole will be a disaster- the mother will do anything to get back in and do a lot of destruction.
This guy is bit of a character- we have used him before when dealing with VOLES … which almost caused me to move out of the house. will update. So far so good with the mothballs!
Related Posts
Posted by Linda- Home and Garden Ideas as Pest Control at 7:46 PM EST
December 22nd, 2007
Amazon Boxing Week Deals- Deals on Video Games
Some GREAT prices this week with Amzaon Boxing Week Sales
Will try and compile a better list.. stock does keep changing, though.
Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror Sony Computer Entertainment Platform: PlayStation2 Our Price: CDN$ 12.99
Kane & Lynch Dead Men Eidos Platform: PLAYSTATION 3 Our Price: CDN$ 39.99 You Save: CDN$ 20.00 (33%)
Halo 3 Limited Edition Microsoft Platform: Xbox 360 Our Price: CDN$ 44.99 You Save: CDN$ 35.00 (44%)
In Stock Avatar The Last Airbender THQ (Video Games) Platform: Xbox Our Price: CDN$ 14.99
In Stock
The Sims 2: Castaway Electronic Arts Platform: Nintendo Wii Our Price: CDN$ 39.99
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Double Agent UBI Soft Platform: GameCube Our Price: CDN$ 19.99
The Settlers 6 UBI Soft Platform: Windows Our Price: CDN$ 39.99 You Save: CDN$ 10.00 (20%)
HB Powerpuff Girls 2 Princess Snorebucks (PC and Mac) Riverdeep - Learning company Platform: Windows 2000 / XP / 98, Mac OS 9 and below Our Price: CDN$ 2.99 You Save: CDN$ 2.00 (40%)
Game Boy Wireless Adapter Nintendo of America Platform: Game Boy Advance Our Price: CDN$ 7.99 You Save: CDN$ 17.00 (68%)
Flash Focus: Vision Training in Minutes a Day (vf) Nintendo Platform: Nintendo DS Our Price: CDN$ 14.99 You Save: CDN$ 5.00 (25%)
In Stock Castlevania Dracula X Chronicles Konami Platform: Sony PSP Our Price: CDN$ 29.99
The Sims 2: Castaway Electronic Arts Platform: PlayStation2 Our Price: CDN$ 29.99 You Save: CDN$ 10.00 (25%)
Lair Sony Computer Entertainment Platform: PLAYSTATION 3 Our Price: CDN$ 34.99 You Save: CDN$ 25.00 (42%)
Halo 3 Limited Edition French (vf) Microsoft Platform: Xbox 360 Our Price: CDN$ 29.99 You Save: CDN$ 50.00 (63%)
Mortal Kombat Armageddon Midway Platform: Xbox Our Price: CDN$ 19.99 You Save: CDN$ 5.00 (20%) 6 used & new from CDN$ 18.99 In Stock Donkey Kong Barrel Blast Nintendo Platform: Nintendo Wii Our Price: CDN$ 29.99 You Save: CDN$ 20.00 (40%)
Happy Feet Midway Platform: GameCube Our Price: CDN$ 19.99 You Save: CDN$ 15.00 (43%) 7 used & new from CDN$ 19.99 In Stock Heroes of Might & Magic 5 Tribes of the East UBI Soft Platform: Windows Our Price: CDN$ 24.99 You Save: CDN$ 5.00 (17%)
Virtual Villagers Aspyr Media Platform: Macintosh Our Price: CDN$ 9.99 You Save: CDN$ 20.00 (67%)
Naruto Ninja Council 2 D3 Publisher Platform: Game Boy Advance Our Price: CDN$ 7.99 You Save: CDN$ 17.00 (68%)
Related Posts
Posted by Linda- Home and Garden Ideas as Deals-Coupons-Freebies, General Home and Garden at 9:10 PM EST
December 7th, 2007
Free Bon Appétit, Gourmet, or Domino Magazine Subscription from Amazon
Get Free Bon Appétit, Gourmet, or Domino Magazine Subscription from Amazon when you spend 25.00.
Special Magazine Offer with $25 Order
If you have any kind of a cook on your list- I recommend both Bon Appetit and Gourmet. Gourmet magazine is more mainstream and Bon Appetit is bit over the top.
Related Posts
Posted by Linda- Home and Garden Ideas as Freebies and Coupons, General Home and Garden at 10:05 AM EST
December 4th, 2007
Woot Member’s Special December
Microsoft Xbox 360 Pro Console Holiday Bundle
it’s the Xbox 360 Pro, the Marvel Ultimate Alliance game, and the 300-car Forza Motorsport 2. $349.94 and — with free shipping Limited quantities available.
Microsoft Xbox 360 HD DVD Player
Best price on Xbox 360 HD DVD player? Watch movie after movie after movie $156.99— with free shipping*
Above woot sidedeals here
Related Posts
Posted by Linda- Home and Garden Ideas as Deals-Coupons-Freebies, Electronics, General Home and Garden at 12:49 PM EST