I come to you all with a few questions hopeing for a little advise. This winter i will be remodaling our den. Plans are for a 42" pioneer plasma over the fire place, with in wall speakers and a 7.1 surround system. So far i have 3 Triad silver Satellites from a friend. is it ok to use the trird as a center channel or should i get a real inwall Triad center?? I plan on buying a pair of Triad surrounds for left and right on the side walls. And i am not sure of the speakers to place in the ceiling for the surround sound. I was thinking of the Russound ceiling speakers. Right now i have a Yamaha A/V receiver but plan on getting either a Pioneer or a Denon receiver. Any thought's?? The other components are dvd, a pioneer 100 disc cd changer, and a hdtv direct tv reciver. Can i just run a DVi as the only cable to the plasma for the video to it?? Also all componets will be in a cabinet behind the bar, so i will be using a Phillips pronto pro 6000. I know i am all over the map here but i think i have some good ideas i just need to tie them all together.. Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

John

I think with Pioneer you will need to order a long cable with which you will hook their media box/tuner to the panel.

I'm not sure as to whether this will carry IR or not. Ask the salesman.
If it does, make sure it will repeat remote signals to your other components.
If you're still unsure, go ahead and pull a cat5 in addition to the proprietary Pioneer media cable. Why chance it?

Make sure to run the Cat5. The Pioneer models with the media boxes do not carry IR that can be distributed to other components. The Pronto TSU6000 can be used weith an optional RF base station but the TSU7000 is a better remote. In that range I would also look at the HTM MX3000. You are getting very nice speakers. Make sure you get them a receiver(or seperates) with good sound quality. Good luck.

I have a similar setup running with an IR repeater. I have the IR receptor mounted under the TV and it looks OK. I would rather run RF because of delays programmed into the TSU7000, but I really don't want an ugly emittor pasted over the IR receptor on the front of the TV. The TV has a "remote in" socket but I have no confidence that it would accept a signal from a RF emmitter. Am I being sensible about this?

The Pioneer extended cable is about $1,300 bucks. It looks like a standard DVI, plus (2) bi directions pairs of fiber, plus an audio cable. I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND a piece or 2 of 2" Carlon pipe for the future. Those propritary cables will be worthless when you replace set in 10 years. I'd go for a set without those media boxes. I hate 'em.

Alright thank you so far for the info. a coduit sounds like a good idea for future connectors. I have question though i was under the impression that if i ran a DVI cable from a HDTV DSS receiver to the video card in the plasma that that would be all i would need as the video feed into the plasma. is this correct?? I dont want to use a media box.

Thanks Again

You may not have a choice if you really want the Pioneer. We all hate 'em here too but still love the way the Pioneers look.

Suppose the DVI from the SAT box to the plasma works (Not thinking so but it might) Will you not having any other video inputs? Get a Pioneer pro 1000 - no box. Or a Fujitsu or NEC. All very capable sets without the box.