I always get me with “why do we need this again?” or “what more speakers?” or “you dont even watch movies!” type responses when I want to add to or expand things on the HT setup.
As the facilitator in the house for all AV stuff (well anything that is powered) I like to try and keep up but also enjoy the journey and ability to be able to have something special when the want is there to enjoy a classic or new release.
I’m more of an audio guy (as many will know) but my wife is the video expert (media production side of things - HEAD OF FILMS in her current job) so I want to be able to give her the best experience if she wants it - but often she is just happy with the 1080P 65" plasma monitor and its 2 Polk Audio car speakers attached (pretty good sound surprisingly) and can’t be bothered with the 96" 4K PJ option with the XMC-2 and 7.1.6 Atmos sound. But I hear her on the phone sometimes telling friends we have a great movie setup and I cant get why there is this disconnect on not wanting to use the big rig more often.
Perhaps its too fiddly. The TV, she just presses one button and it turns on, whereas the projector needs several buttons. If you automate your PJ setup, it may make it more attractive. Remote control light control, screen, AV etc. All via Harmony Hub and Alexa or Google Home. Give one command. “Watch CNN on projector”
Happens all the time… you are not alone . Over time, they will get used to it. Once they know which buttons to press.
Trigger cables is your friend, I use trigger with one button from Pj, everything turns on and once u off the PJ, everything turns off.
With PJ in living room you will need light control, no choice, unless u use ALR type of screen . Some compromises along the way. Otherwise automated black out curtains etc helps
When it comes to these type of stuff, they are often simple minded… but… becareful , here are some tips…
1 room for AV and I’m the master on what goes in there and how things are setup.
She gets the rest of the house
Over the years, I may have spent more (accumulatively) in that 1 room then the whole house renovation combined
When I was working, work took up much of my time , thus wife’s comment is typically why get the stuff when she dont see me spending much time at home to enjoy it. But she has never stop me or question me on my purchases.
When I retired, she gave 100% support but she will only enjoy the setup if we watched together. As we move from landed to condo, she has no qualms on making “sacrifices” for my AV enjoyment, culminating in my current setup, which use the MBR as dedicated AV room and we have a simple bed/table in our study for sleep. All along, I dont have a dedicated AV area even when we are staying in landed property.
Still she will only use the AV room if we are both watching or listening music together.
I actually have a spare common room that I wanted to convert to a theatre room. The Mrs told me, No! Her answer was, I don’t want you locked in that room the whole day !
That was way back some years ago. That is why i have the set up in the living room
I’m glad I didn’t do that, because fast forward to today, I will need the common rooms for the children.
The wives are usually supportive when they realised that we are spending more time at home with this hobby. Also, the money we spent on HT equipment is better than spending on “vices”.
well the fiddly she is ok with I think…always been like this and AVP is the switch for all the inputs, so StarHub, ATV, Amazon are the main 3 and remote options are plenty but mainly its Amazon in use and that remote can do the TV On/Off and also select the 3 input options plus TV volume.
Automating more will come in time (HomeBridge with HomeKit automations) but the PJ setup is not that hard (put down the screen, on the PJ and Off the TV and maybe some lights automation)
