Your current gaming/media setup?

[Sigma]

My living room setup is pretty basic. I just have a TV, a WDTV media player and my Virgin Media TiVo box there.

In my spare bedroom, I have my main gaming/media/DJ setup: -

Yamaha MCR-N560DB



This is a pretty cool networked amp/media player. It connects to your home network, then you can stream media to it from your PC. There's also a smartphone app, so you can not only control it from your phone, you can stream music that's stored on your phone to it too. It supports Airplay, DAB+ and Spotify, you can plug in a USB stick/drive and play music off that, plus it has a regular CD player. It supports common codecs like MP3, but it also supports FLAC at up to 192 KHz/24 bit. I've got it hooked up to my PC and Xbox One.

Q Acoustics Concept 20 speakers



These are great sounding speakers for the price (about £350 a pair in the UK). They're small, but they're quite deep and they offer a really nice, neutral sound.

Custom built PC

I won't list all of the specs, but the basics are a Core i7 3770k, MSI 780 Ti GAMING overclocked GPU, 16 GB of RAM, an RME HDSPe AIO sound card, a small SSD, then a pair of 4TB HDDs for storage. It's all packed into a fairly small case, so it's built around a mATX motherboard.

My monitor is a Dell UltraSharp U2713HM 27" with a 2,560 x 1,440 resolution mounted on an Ergotron LX monitor arm. The monitor arm is fairly expensive (about £120), but it's really sturdy and offers loads of adjustment options as you can basically grab the monitor and move it around wherever you like. It frees up a lot of desk space.

I use a Logitech K800 backlit wireless keyboard and a Logitech M570 wireless trackball. The trackball is not great for gaming, but I switched to it because of RSI and hand/wrist pain.

Consoles

I only have an Xbox One at the moment (I've got other older consoles, but they're not hooked up). I've got a bunch of accessories for it, including the TV tuner, backlit media remote, MS stereo headset and a Turtle Beach Ear Force Stealth 500X wireless headset. I've expanded the storage with a Seagate Digital Backup Fast Plus 4TB 2.5" drive (actually 2 x 2.5" drives in RAID 0 in a single case).

DJ gear

I've got a pair of Stanton STR8-150s with Shure M44-7s and a Native Instruments Z2 mixer that has a Traktor sound card built into it.

Headphones

For DJing I use AIAIAI TMA-1s, although I think they're a little too bassy. For general use I've got a pair of wireless Sennheiser RS130s, which is an old model, but they sound OK for wireless headphones.

Software

For media stuff, I use 4 pieces of software: -

MusicBee - I started a thread about this, as I think it's arguably the best music manager/player available.

XBMC - I don't have a dedicated PC for this, but I like it mostly because it pulls in a bunch of data and ratings about the movies I've got stored on my hard drives. It makes it easier to choose what to watch and it has a decent bunch of add-ons for it too.

Miro - This is good for podcasts, particularly video podcasts. You can subscribe to feeds and it'll pull in the latest episodes for you - typical stuff. It has a built in video player, so it's a good standalone program.

Media Player Classic Home Cinema - If I just want to play a video that's stored on my PC quickly, rather than firing up XBMC, I use this. It supports pretty much any video format you can throw at it without you having to install codecs and it has some nice options, such as being able to adjust the audio sync on the fly if you download a video that's out of sync.


What have you guys got?

[jredd109]

samsung 42" plasma - need a new one. lost a column of red pixels a few weeks ago, so i get a black bar down the centre of the screen whenever there's red there.
samsung surround system - probably the cheapest surround system available. but it's not too bad.
ps3 - ps4 is pretty far down the priority list at this point
headphones - 13 year old sony mdr v500 - still sound decent

[ChaMerZ]

headphones - 13 year old sony mdr v500 - still sound decent

Impressive. Either you are really good at maintaining your stuff or those are bomb ass headphones. All the headphones I've gotten have either stopped working or gotten stolen. The last headphones I had, were actually decent (sennheisers), but they got stolen. I'm still a bit pissed off about that.

[jredd109]

headphones - 13 year old sony mdr v500 - still sound decent

Impressive. Either you are really good at maintaining your stuff or those are bomb ass headphones. All the headphones I've gotten have either stopped working or gotten stolen. The last headphones I had, were actually decent (sennheisers), but they got stolen. I'm still a bit pissed off about that.

i've always been pretty good at taking care of my stuff for the most part. i had a table hockey game for 30 years that still worked. until i let my son play with it last year. if only i would have kept my transformers and gi joes in such good shape...

[Hush]

That Yamaha receiver looks cool, nice and compact.

My set up:

In the living room I have a Sony 46" Google TV (NSX-46GT1, early adopter). This TV has a pretty significant input delay so I don't game on it at all. I'm running the Plex app for Android on it and that is fed by a dedicated low-power PC I have elsewhere in the house that is running the Plex server and has all of my movies and TV shows. I also have that PC set up to automatically download new TV episodes as they become available. The house has surround speakers built in (I have no idea what brand/quality they are). I bought an old JVC receiver and sub from a friend for $50 just to have something to hook those up to. I rarely watch movies with surround sound enabled though and typically only use it for listening to music in the living room/kitchen area. I have an Airplay app on the TV (Airtight) so I just stream Spotify or whatever from my iPhone or iPad through that to the surround system. Airtight displays the artist/title and album artwork on the TV of whatever is playing so that is a nice touch. I also have a basic Blu-ray player hooked up for the rare occasion I do need to play a DVD/BR disc.

Similar to Sigma, my gaming stuff is in a spare room. In there I have a 47" Westinghouse LCD that is a few years old. I don't recommend Westinghouse now, but this was a decent deal at the time and it was my first flat panel TV. The picture quality is solid, so I don't see any need to upgrade until this thing dies. For audio I have a Boston Acoustics 2.1 system which is just 2 small speakers mounted near the TV and a separate sub-woofer with optical going from the TV output. Not the greatest ever but it sounds much better than the TV speakers and the price was right (and I didn't want to spend hundreds on a sound system/bar). Hooked up to that is the Xbox One (which can also stream from the Plex server), Wii U, and most recently, a PC for gaming. I also have Xbox 360, PS3 and the original Wii but those have been boxed up and put away for now.

[Y@k Bollocks]

I'm running the Plex app for Android on it and that is fed by a dedicated low-power PC I have elsewhere in the house that is running the Plex server and has all of my movies and TV shows.

Nice. Am considering doing this myself, but I'm holding out for a cheap Mac Mini (I know, I know - it's just that I've been a Mac user for 20 years or something now, and am set in my ways). Plex runs really nicely on the Chromecast too.

[Y@k Bollocks]

TV
We have a one TV rule in the house. I'd quite like one in the bedroom but my wife ain't having it. We have a Samsung UE32H5500 LED HD, with an AppleTV and a Chromecast attached. The 'Smart' feature is 99% redundant. We only got it 'cos that was the only way to get 4OD and my Mrs is addicted to Made In Chelsea. Great TV, and yes, I'm a fan of smaller sets.


Movies/TV shows
Everything is stored on a WD NAS drive.


I bought a brilliant app called Infuse which I use to watch everything. You point the app at your folder of movies and it grabs metadata from the web, in a similar way to Plex. The movie plays on the iPad/iPhone and you can then AirPlay it to the AppleTV. Works really well and supports pretty much every format you can think of, but would like to get either a high end NAS (a Synology one) or a Mac Mini and cut the iPad out of the equation as it'd allow me to install Plex Connect on the AppleTV.


The AppleTV is brilliant though. A really underrated gadget. We use it with Infuse for watching torrented stuff, iTunes for legit stuff, and (weirdly) Flickr to look at photos. The Chromecast is pretty limited, but we use that for YouTube and BBC iPlayer. Could happily live without it though.

I have a PS3 which gets switched on once in a blue moon for Street Fighter, and to play DVDs/BRs, but I've pretty much gotten rid of all physical movies now.

Everything sits in a box under a shelf, with a cable tidy keeping everything neat on some OCD level shit.


Music
Sonos 1, 3 and 5. Have these dotted around the house. Just had a loft extension built, so thinking of getting another Play:1 for there too. They're great. I'm not an audiophile by any stretch, but love how easy they are to use and that they're still evolving with new apps and hacks and whatnot. It's connected to Spotify, SoundCloud, TuneIn (for radio and podcasts) and the NAS to play all my MP3s. I'm on the Sonos Beta testing thing, and the app is really good nowadays. Was shit a couple of years ago. I still maintain my iTunes library. I know iTunes isn't great, but I don't mind it and can't be bothered changing it now.



Headphones
I always use in ear ones. Usually get Etymotic Research ones. I really should invest in some proper headphones, but in ear ones are better for listening on the move IMO.


Misc

This thing is amazing. WIFI didn't reach the loft, so got this range extender. £30 and works a treat.

Also have various external harddrives and do regular backups of music, films and my photos.

[Y@k Bollocks]

My living room setup is pretty basic. I just have a TV, a WDTV media player and my Virgin Media TiVo box there.

Do you have the wireless enabled version of that? I used to have a WDTV - they're brilliant. Played absolutely everything. Pretty ropey interface though.

[zappy]

i've got an LED projector in the livingroom that ends up being a little over 90 inches on the wall, hooked up to a chromecast.

my laptop is nothing special. i got it on craigslist for $50 because it was "broken" put a 120GB ssd in it and threw ubuntu on it. runs fine, but like i said, nothing special.

my PC has an i5 haswell, GTX 660 and 8GB of RAM. just a regular hard drive because it doesnt really matter. also ubuntu.

headphones are sony mdr 7506.

[Sigma]

My living room setup is pretty basic. I just have a TV, a WDTV media player and my Virgin Media TiVo box there.

Do you have the wireless enabled version of that? I used to have a WDTV - they're brilliant. Played absolutely everything. Pretty ropey interface though.

Mine is the original version, so it doesn't even have ethernet. All it has are a couple of USB ports, but it does the job for watching stuff I've downloaded from the web.

[Hush]

That Yamaha receiver looks cool, nice and compact.

My set up:

In the living room I have a Sony 46" Google TV (NSX-46GT1, early adopter). This TV has a pretty significant input delay so I don't game on it at all. I'm running the Plex app for Android on it and that is fed by a dedicated low-power PC I have elsewhere in the house that is running the Plex server and has all of my movies and TV shows. I also have that PC set up to automatically download new TV episodes as they become available. The house has surround speakers built in (I have no idea what brand/quality they are). I bought an old JVC receiver and sub from a friend for $50 just to have something to hook those up to. I rarely watch movies with surround sound enabled though and typically only use it for listening to music in the living room/kitchen area. I have an Airplay app on the TV (Airtight) so I just stream Spotify or whatever from my iPhone or iPad through that to the surround system. Airtight displays the artist/title and album artwork on the TV of whatever is playing so that is a nice touch. I also have a basic Blu-ray player hooked up for the rare occasion I do need to play a DVD/BR disc.

Similar to Sigma, my gaming stuff is in a spare room. In there I have a 48" Westinghouse LCD that is a few years old. I don't recommend Westinghouse now, but this was a decent deal at the time and it was my first flat panel TV. The picture quality is solid, so I don't see any need to upgrade until this thing dies. For audio I have a Boston Acoustics 2.1 system which is just 2 small speakers mounted near the TV and a separate sub-woofer with optical going from the TV output. Not the greatest ever but it sounds much better than the TV speakers and the price was right (and I didn't want to spend hundreds on a sound system/bar). Hooked up to that is the Xbox One (which can also stream from the Plex server), Wii U, and most recently, a PC for gaming. I also have Xbox 360, PS3 and the original Wii but those have been boxed up and put away for now.

Update: The Google TV 'smart' interface has become increasingly slow over the few years I've owned it. Updates to the OS (it's Android based) and apps and such only seem to make them run slower. I'm assuming this is due to the limited/aging hardware in the TV. There is also no native support for Amazon Prime instant video (you literally have to browse to Amazon.com in Chrome and play videos from there, which is annoying). To remedy this I've ordered an Amazon Fire stick and am planning to use this to bypass the 'smart' stuff on the TV altogether.

[Y@k Bollocks]

Update: The Google TV 'smart' interface has become increasingly slow over the few years I've owned it. Updates to the OS (it's Android based) and apps and such only seem to make them run slower. I'm assuming this is due to the limited/aging hardware in the TV. There is also no native support for Amazon Prime instant video (you literally have to browse to Amazon.com in Chrome and play videos from there, which is annoying). To remedy this I've ordered an Amazon Fire stick and am planning to use this to bypass the 'smart' stuff on the TV altogether.

Check out Plex for the Amazon Fire stick. Meant to be great.

[Hush]

Update: The Google TV 'smart' interface has become increasingly slow over the few years I've owned it. Updates to the OS (it's Android based) and apps and such only seem to make them run slower. I'm assuming this is due to the limited/aging hardware in the TV. There is also no native support for Amazon Prime instant video (you literally have to browse to Amazon.com in Chrome and play videos from there, which is annoying). To remedy this I've ordered an Amazon Fire stick and am planning to use this to bypass the 'smart' stuff on the TV altogether.

Check out Plex for the Amazon Fire stick. Meant to be great.

Just did this, it works great! It looks identical to the Plex app I was running on the TV (Plex for Android) but is much snappier. I'm assuming that is because of the faster processing power of the Fire Stick vs. whatever's in the TV. And obviously browsing/playing videos from Amazon is much better/easier on the stick.

EDIT - Another nice bonus/touch: The Google TV remote works to control the Fire Stick, so I don't even need the remote that came with it!

[ChaMerZ]

thread kinda sucks without actual pics.

make it happen brehs

[Sigma]

This is my spare bedroom setup: -

[ChaMerZ]

so the PC stays in the bedroom all the time right? & XBOX 1 in the living room. is that how it goes in the Sigma household?

respect for sharing

[Sigma]

The Xbox is in there as well at the moment. In the living room I have a TV, a Virgin Media TiVo, a Wii (which hasn't been turned on in forever) and a first gen WDTV. If I could afford it, I'd get another Xbox and build another PC that's just for gaming and media and put them in the living room.

[Hush]

That Yamaha receiver looks cool, nice and compact.

My set up:

In the living room I have a Sony 46" Google TV (NSX-46GT1, early adopter). This TV has a pretty significant input delay so I don't game on it at all. I'm running the Plex app for Android on it and that is fed by a dedicated low-power PC I have elsewhere in the house that is running the Plex server and has all of my movies and TV shows. I also have that PC set up to automatically download new TV episodes as they become available. The house has surround speakers built in (I have no idea what brand/quality they are). I bought an old JVC receiver and sub from a friend for $50 just to have something to hook those up to. I rarely watch movies with surround sound enabled though and typically only use it for listening to music in the living room/kitchen area. I have an Airplay app on the TV (Airtight) so I just stream Spotify or whatever from my iPhone or iPad through that to the surround system. Airtight displays the artist/title and album artwork on the TV of whatever is playing so that is a nice touch. I also have a basic Blu-ray player hooked up for the rare occasion I do need to play a DVD/BR disc.

Similar to Sigma, my gaming stuff is in a spare room. In there I have a 47" Westinghouse LCD that is a few years old. I don't recommend Westinghouse now, but this was a decent deal at the time and it was my first flat panel TV. The picture quality is solid, so I don't see any need to upgrade until this thing dies. For audio I have a Boston Acoustics 2.1 system which is just 2 small speakers mounted near the TV and a separate sub-woofer with optical going from the TV output. Not the greatest ever but it sounds much better than the TV speakers and the price was right (and I didn't want to spend hundreds on a sound system/bar). Hooked up to that is the Xbox One (which can also stream from the Plex server), Wii U, and most recently, a PC for gaming. I also have Xbox 360, PS3 and the original Wii but those have been boxed up and put away for now.

I've changed my set up since this post. We converted the 'spare room' where my gaming stuff was into an office w/ computer desk, printer, etc. I'm leaving the gaming PC in there to be used for gaming as well as our primary computer for general use (web surfing, paying bills, etc). I moved the 46" Sony to our bedroom since it can't be used for gaming (too much input delay as I mentioned before). That also has the Fire TV stick which allows us to watch TV and stream Plex/Amazon Prime in the bedroom if needed. The 47" inch Westy is in the main living room now, with the Xbox One and surround sound. I bought a TV tuner for the Xbox One (we only have over the air TV) and a low-end Harmony remote which controls the TV, Xbox, and Tuner. The remote is nice because makes it easy for someone other than myself to turn on the TV/Xbox and change channels, etc. without using the Xbox controller. I haven't bothered hooking up the Wii U yet. I'm enjoying having the Xbox in the living room now because I like the ease of jumping between TV, Youtube, Games, Plex, etc. without needing to change inputs on the TV or change remotes (other than picking up a controller to play a game).

[Y@k Bollocks]

New addition to media set up...



Installed Plex Media Server on it, and have run a hack to run Plex on the Apple TV 3 (without jailbreaking).

https://blog.plex.tv/2013/06/04/introdu ... different/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The drive is pretty big but have it tucked away under a shelf.

[Hush]

How much did the Synology NAS run you? I picked up a 2-bay QNAP TS-251 for ~$250 but I haven't set it up yet.

[Vlad Analogue]

Eh, Akai plasma, hooked up to the PS3. PS4 hooked up to Evo monitor. Onkyo receiver, Klipsch floor joints (3.5'). Not hooked up are various Phase tech and Bose series 9. Still somewhat analog, but liking the look of that Plex setup

[Y@k Bollocks]

How much did the Synology NAS run you? I picked up a 2-bay QNAP TS-251 for ~$250 but I haven't set it up yet.

It was really expensive. It's got 2 x 3TB WD Red drives in it and was just under £500. I don't really know a lot about this kind of thing, but that seems like a lot, but I can put it through as a business expense. I could have bought a dedicated PC I suppose but I just like how simple the Synology NAS drives are. Super quiet, very low powered etc. There is also a pretty good community of users making apps for it too - so I have a torrent client, Plex, iTunes etc. I think its a device targeted at people who are less tech savvy and want a neat solution. hence the price. A bit like Apple I suppose.

That QNAP looks dope. HDMI out is a nice feature.

[Y@k Bollocks]

Eh, Akai plasma, hooked up to the PS3. PS4 hooked up to Evo monitor. Onkyo receiver, Klipsch floor joints (3.5'). Not hooked up are various Phase tech and Bose series 9. Still somewhat analog, but liking the look of that Plex setup

https://plex.tv/playstation" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

You can run Plex on a PlayStation but you need another machine to run the server on - so either a PC or a powerful NAS. Seems weird, I would have thought a PS3 would have been powerful enough to transcode video and stuff? Clearly not.

[zappy]

yeah dude that seems like a lot for a two bay nas.

that said, at least it has WD drives.

never, ever, ever buy 3 TB Seagate drives.

in case you need a second source:

https://www.backblaze.com/blog/best-hard-drive/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[drobizhek]

PS4/PS3 on monitor with crappy picture and sound but lagless, which is important to me.

Linux laptop also on that monitor if I wanna play games on Steam, which i rarely do.

Popcorn time on the laptop, which streams to 50 inch Panasonic TV.

Panasonic Smart TV with media streaming capabilites, thinking about apple box or android box or whatever it's called so I can geek out on twitch.tv.

All time wishlist:
Arcade cabinet with MAME emulator/playstation.

[Y@k Bollocks]

All time wishlist:
Arcade cabinet with MAME emulator/playstation.

Hell yes. I want vintage a tabletop one.

[Y@k Bollocks]

yeah dude that seems like a lot for a two bay nas.

that said, at least it has WD drives.

never, ever, ever buy 3 TB Seagate drives.

in case you need a second source:

https://www.backblaze.com/blog/best-hard-drive/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Yeah, it is expensive but they're a bit more than just a NAS, as they're almost like a mini PC with a browser based UI and all that shit which is just streets ahead of the last NAS I had. Plus the processor is powerful enough to transcode HD video.

[Pronay]

So this is my setup.

Samsung UN65H7150 65" 240Hz 3D Smart LED TV (on sale $1497.99)
Sonax B-051-LMT Milan 60-Inch Quick Click TV/Component Bench (on sale $306)
Onkyo HT-S8400 Home Theater System (on sale $550 from Newegg years ago, retail $900)
Wii U, PS4, PS3, Apple TV

Linon Carmen Grey Storage Ottoman, eBay, $129
Black Media Cabinet, eBay, ~$150 (annoying assembly but I'm happy with it)

AT&T U-verse High Speed Internet (Hsia45), no cable TV other than the basic channels.



The only poster I have up right now, 1947 Re-Release of the 1940 The Thief of Bagdad. Have a few more planned to go up



Got the Book-ends on eBay, ~$50.

Planning on putting some black floating shelves up on the left to do more of these on display.



This is my collection of the worst villains of all time



Really like the twisty surge protector for plugging everything in



When AT&T was setting up my internet the guy wired and set up all of my speakers for free, these are the two at the back of the room



I bought a little display thing on eBay so that I could show whichever disc (movie or game) is playing



Couldn't quite fit all of my discs in the media cabinet, so I have more in the storage ottoman.

And the two games I've been playing the most right now, Mario Kart 8 & SNES Zelda (via Wii U). I had no idea that Wii U sells a lot of the classic Nintendo/SNES/N64/etc. games, I'm really hoping for Super Mario RPG

[Pronay]

the media bench is awesome. the back is metal mesh and it's super breathable, and has three holes on each level to bundle the cords out of. also it fits the TV perfectly, wasn't quite sure it'd work when I got it (after the TV). Also I got one of those AT&T Cisco Microcell signal boosters b/c the apartment I'm at didn't get any phone reception, and now I have 5 bars (dots?) throughout the whole unit

There is one thing though and I'm a bit of an a/v novice, but I have 4 HDMI's on the back of my TV, which are used by the Apple TV, PS4, Wii U, and the TV. But I don't want to have to swap between one of those and the PS3, and I noticed the PS3 has the old red/yellow/white cable. So should I be plugging those into the back of the TV, or the Onkyo receiver? I've tried both and then scrolled through the Samsung display options but I haven't had any luck in getting it to come up.

[Vlad Analogue]

ps-->onkyo "in"-->onkyo "out"-->samsung composite "in" should work, methinks.