I wanted this process to be as simple and affordable as possible, yet not sacrifice any of my goals. I’ve outlined a few of the purchases that I’ve made and still have to make and items that need to be completed, in chronological order, to finish this project. Below are the goals with ones I’ve completed highlighted in green:
- Determine rough budget for project based on initial research.
- Research and purchase necessary wires and cables for the project.
- Research and purchase A/V receiver that provides good sound and digital connectivity.
- Purchased the Pioneer VSX-1020. CNET pointed me in the right direction with this writeup, and a friend who purchased a very similar receiver confirmed the good reviews.
- Purchase a 5.1 speaker system that is not too expensive or very large but packs a nice sound.
- I relied on Amazon.com’s selection and reviews and settled on these speakers.
- Determine placement of speakers and connect surround sound speakers to receiver.
- Research and purchase computer.
- After lots of research, I settled on a refurbished Hewlett Packard HPE 270F from tigerdirect.com. It’s been great thus far and interacts well with my receiver and HDTV via HDMI cable.
- Connect computer to receiver.
- Purchase a set of two bookshelf speakers for the receiver’s “second zone” functionality…to listen to music in the second room.
- Yet to purchase bookshelf speakers. Suggestions are welcome!
- Connect “second zone” speakers to receiver.
- I’m not totally sure on this process yet as I have some concerns as to whether my HDMI connection from my PC will feed the second zone speakers in addition to my surround sound speakers like it is now.
- Purchase wireless webcam for viewing Skype video calls on the HDTV.
- There doesn’t seem to be too many options for wireless webcams. Perhaps because the transfer of video and sound via wireless/bluetooth may be cost-prohibitive? I’d love to hear suggestions.