Agreed Chris.

TV sound is rather poor.
OK for just watching TV shows News and stuff.
A soundbar is a cheap addition to a great TV.
Eventough i`m using THX 5.1 on a daily basis.

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With each crime and every kindness we birth our future.

We have three Samsung flat screen TVs in the house. The 65" 3D HD TV connected to the U-verse wireless box and an OLD Bose DVD and sound system. The sound system is 2.1, (two stereo speakers, and a sub-woofer), but the DVD is S-Video. Since the Bose DVD cannot be used with the 65" TV; we purchased a Sony Blu-ray player. Though OLD, the Bose sound system still sounds AWESOME! The TV and the Blu-ray are SMART and have Wi-Fi.

Next we have my parents' 40" Samsung HD TV, in their bedroom. To that we added a Visio sound bar. The sound bar truly completes the TV. The TV's sound is flat without it.

Then we have my 32" Samsung HD TV in my bedroom. I also have a Super-VHS, a Panasonic Blu-ray, and a Toshiba DVD-Recorder. To connect all this; I have a four position AV Switch Box. U-verse box connects to the first switch, Blu-ray to the second switch, and DVD-Recorder to the third switch. (HDMI of U-verse to Input 1 on TV and HDMI of Blu-ray to Input 2 on TV.) (Auxiliary ports on U-verse box connect to input of DVD-Recorder.) The output of the Switch Box goes to the Super-VHS; and, the audio output of the Super-VHS goes to a set of Altec Lansing ACS-44, 2.1 Computer Speakers. (This concoction of electronics allows me to record from DVR to DVD.) The OLD computer speakers still sound GREAT! (Hey, if they worked on the computer for StarCraft...)

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TimeLord04
Have TARDIS, will travel...
Come along K-9!
Join Calm Chaos

We run the sound from our flat screen
TV in to my sound card on the Media
computer, then it goes put to a 5.1
sound system. Very good sound......

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A good all round compromise.

Plus you have better programing than us!




Edit:
Your news programs are still news programs....

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A good all round compromise.

Plus you have better programing than us!

Speak for yourself, CT... We have EXCELLENT programming through U-verse. Starz, Showtime, Encore, BBC-America, TNT, FX, CW; all in HD. Plus regular local channels, and more. U-verse U-300 package is all we need. :-)

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TimeLord04
Have TARDIS, will travel...
Come along K-9!
Join Calm Chaos

Speak for yourself, CT... We have EXCELLENT programming through U-verse. Starz, Showtime, Encore, BBC-America, TNT, FX, CW; all in HD. Plus regular local channels, and more. U-verse U-300 package is all we need. :-)

Wow! You gotta' be very wealthy!

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Speak for yourself, CT... We have EXCELLENT programming through U-verse. Starz, Showtime, Encore, BBC-America, TNT, FX, CW; all in HD. Plus regular local channels, and more. U-verse U-300 package is all we need. :-)

Wow! You gotta' be very wealthy!

Our U-verse bill is $148 a month; and $61 of that is our 45 Mb Internet Package. So, we're paying $87 a month for HD TV services with the U-300 Package. (Taxes and Fees included.)

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TimeLord04
Have TARDIS, will travel...
Come along K-9!
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Our U-verse bill is $148 a month

Holy smokes, you are wealthy!

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Our U-verse bill is $148 a month

Holy smokes, you are wealthy!

I pay about $83 a month for HD cable tv w/a DVR and 15/1 internet. Any problems happen here get fixed quickly...

Do you get the movie channels that we get on U-300??? For what Comcast charges up here; we're paying less and getting more for the $$$. If the merger of Comcast/Time Warner goes through; I hope they give you better service, better packaging, and better prices... However, be prepared for fee increases - Comcast is FAMOUS for this. That's why we left for U-verse. We didn't even have any movie channels with Comcast; and we were paying more than our current U-300 Package.

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TimeLord04
Have TARDIS, will travel...
Come along K-9!
Join Calm Chaos

Okay, I'm getting ripped off by AT&T. I think the internet part of my bill is $50. The whole bill is about $153, for U-Verse 200 non-HD and no premium channels. DVR and one extra box.

In the living room, I have a Sharp 27" CRT TV. The DVR sits on top of a VCR/DVD recorder on top of the TV. The DVR is wired into one set of inputs on the TV and the combo into the other.

The second set of outputs from the DVR runs to the kitchen where I have an Emerson 22" HDTV. That also has a cheap Blu-Ray connected by HDMI. The BR is smart and wireless.

The other box is in my bedroom with a 24" (I think) HDTV, but it only gets used while I'm getting dressed in the morning.

If either of the HDs goes out, I have my grandmother's 19" or so gathering dust in the study. If the Sharp quits, I have my father's in the basement.

The stereo with its 5-disc CD player and turntable probably haven't been used since Christmas 2009.

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David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

Okay, I'm getting ripped off by AT&T. I think the internet part of my bill is $50. The whole bill is about $153, for U-Verse 200 non-HD and no premium channels. DVR and one extra box.

In the living room, I have a Sharp 27" CRT TV. The DVR sits on top of a VCR/DVD recorder on top of the TV. The DVR is wired into one set of inputs on the TV and the combo into the other.

The second set of outputs from the DVR runs to the kitchen where I have an Emerson 22" HDTV. That also has a cheap Blu-Ray connected by HDMI. The BR is smart and wireless.

The other box is in my bedroom with a 24" (I think) HDTV, but it only gets used while I'm getting dressed in the morning.

If either of the HDs goes out, I have my grandmother's 19" or so gathering dust in the study. If the Sharp quits, I have my father's in the basement.

The stereo with its 5-disc CD player and turntable probably haven't been used since Christmas 2009.

The secret to U-verse is Promotions, David. Every year when the promotions lapse, my dad calls in to U-verse billing and complains about the high fees. Every year, they extend Promotion Packages to him.

Call them up and say you're not happy with what you're having to pay. See what promotions they'll extend to you. See if you can get upgraded to U-300 with a Promotion Package. See what Internet Packages are available. Perhaps you can get a better bundle with U-300 and a faster Internet Package.

Never hurts to try... :-)

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TimeLord04
Have TARDIS, will travel...
Come along K-9!
Join Calm Chaos

Being old school I have a pair of B&W 2 way monitors driven by a classic Advent 300 receiver and a small M&K powered subwoofer coming out of the Advents preamp. It is larger than a soundbar and is hard wired but it sounds pretty good vs any soundbar I have heard. I guess it it all comes down to your expectations. And yes the speakers in 50" Panasonic plasma are horrible.

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U-verse finally has run a wire to my neighborhood. Back last summer in 2014 sometime ago. Cable TV? Live to far away for that. Antenna? Live in a low spot. I could count all the channels on my fingers. Don't know if any more or less come in now that it has gone digital. Do have Directv and all the goodies it has to offer. All channels except pay per view and seasonal packs. The bill is not a problem. Just equipment rentals. My dad works for a directv call center. Free programming is one of the perks. If I want to keep a program I recorded on the DVR. I just play it back and port the sound and video to my computer hard drive. Then I usually go back and edit out the commercial.
I'm using a Samsung 26" HD Plus TV for a monitor. It has 1200 lines instead of the usual 1080. If is slightly future proof. It has vga, dvi, hdmi, hd cable component and coax hook ups. That's about it now for this post.

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I have mixed emotions on sound bars. I have a 47inch VIZIO tv connected to a VIZIO 5.1 sound bar. I already had a sound system tune up disk so I added a Radio Shack sound meter. My first complaint was that the center speaker was so hot that I couldn't balance it out. I called the factory and got the response "there is no problem and that's how it should work. It sounds better that the speakers that came in the TV so I am living with it for now. One of these days I may try to crack it open and see if I can alter it and turn the volume on the one speaker.

The other issue is much of what I watch isn't mixed to use the rear speaker. This can be shocking because when you watch something like Back to the Future III, you are surprised by sounds that come from off the screen that come out of the rear speakers. Maybe more movies will be mixed to use all the speakers in the future.

The reason I bough the sound system is because the house is very hot sound wise. The walls are mostly dry wall and the floor is tile. It had such a bad echo before the furniture was moved in that you had to speak in a muted voice to be understood. The sound bar helps this problem by allowing for stronger base. Without the sound bar, the best solution was to turn the volume down as low a you could to reduce the echo.

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If I ever win the lottery then I'll buy a bigger house and get a 72" curved screen set

If that happens here, we will get more staff!

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Scott, I haggle with AT and T every March and get the lowest advertised rate for my internet. I feel, I pay a bit much for my landline, but I have to have for friends and relatives to stay in touch.
Plus I had the same number for almost 35 years.
As to cable, we do nicely without it.

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Pluto will always be a planet to me.

Seti Ambassador
Not to late to order an Anni Shirt

Scott, I haggle with AT and T every March and get the lowest advertised rate for my internet. I feel, I pay a bit much for my landline, but I have to have for friends and relatives to stay in touch.
Plus I had the same number for almost 35 years.
As to cable, we do nicely without it.

A way I deal with it is I discontinued long distance service on my land line, all can call in, I can call 800 numbers and retain 911 and directory listing. For long distance I use Magic Jack.

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Plus I had the same number for almost 35 years.

The same landline number that was assigned to my parents when they got married in 1962 now rings on my cell.

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David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

Definitely don't need a 'sound bar' here, or back in Devon. Good old CRT TVs still in use and to be honest, I prefer them, as per my monitors (LaCie Electron Blue 22 IV).

The TVs...well, last one we had here was a Toshiba 3787DB 37" (yep, the really big 4:3 format TV) and we've been using a 36" Toshiba Widescreen with all the standard Dolby Surround satellite speakers, for about 18 months. That sounds pretty damned good, but then in the older sets, there was room to put decent sized speakers in them. On my last trip down to Devon, I took down with me a 32" Philips Match-line (the one with the beautiful cabinet and stand) and yes, it did all go in my car, but it is quite a large car. I figured that it was about time Mum had something a bit better than the 27" Panasonic that my sister gave her last year. I got it for a silly price and it was in perfect condition. Crazy to think that when it was new, it was apparently around £1400! There again, this monitor was an obscene price when it was new and I can remember paying around £600 for a Samsung SyncMaster 17 GLSI 17" monitor in about 1997, so maybe not so bad for 2005 or so.

As one might imagine, I did struggle at the other end, to get the beast out of the car, but ingenuity won the day, thanks to a sack-truck that was there, some plastic conduit, some garden ties and some excellent Devon beer, before and after! I got it all connected to the new Freeview HD Box, the new DVD player and switched it on and in spite of having travelled 300 miles in the car (long story), it worked brilliantly on the Freeview. I stuck a Harry Potter DVD into the player and then the music started....I've never heard such a rich, full sound come out of anything with a screen attached to it, in my entire life. I was absolutely astonished; it sounded like the full orchestra was in the room and in the audio options, was a 5 band equaliser amongst many other things. I thought my Toshiba was good, but that Philips made it sound asthmatic! Of course, it does lots of other tricks, but a lady of 81, isn't one "for fiddling with things".

Plenty of life left in the old stuff, which applies to many of us here!

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Don't take life too seriously, as you'll never come out of it alive!

I currently have a iLo 32" TV, one of my computers has a TV tuner card installed and that allows it to do DVR duty.

Sound output is through a optical connection to a Sony 7.1 receiver.

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