IÂm designing my new entertainment center and looking for feedback and critique. I want it all feature wise and I donÂt want complexity or it will fail the "wife test." Currently I have a run-of-the-mill Philips 20 inch or so tube TV, cable box, 3 tivoÂs, a DVD player, and an "obsolete but you still occasionally need it" VCR. The "house" stereo is a completely separate system using a Linux based web interfaced mp3 server. Way too many wires, too many remotes, too difficult to explain to any body else J I want to move to a 60" or so LCD/DLP/Plasma, integrate the house stereo and make the whole thing easy to use. IÂve always been pleased with Sony TVÂs in the past and will be looking at their product line. Sharp and Samsung are also supposed to make good LCDÂs. IÂm thinking of a MythTV (http://www.mythtv.org) based PC as the brains and the content server. Sage, Beyond, and Windows MCE are also a possibility in descending order. This will let me to put multiple Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-500 MCE tuner cards (http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/products/data_pvr500mce.html) in to replace the TivoÂs and their monthly service fees. It will also let me play DVDÂs and CDÂs as well as any random video downloaded from the Net. I can also set up a MythTV front end for each of the other TVÂs so all content will be available in all rooms. The "rear" speakers will be wireless because the room has vaulted ceilings. IÂm very happy with my Hot Link Pro IR extender (http://www.hot-link.com/) and will probably use it in the new system so everything that can be hidden will be. The computer will connect to the "almost released" Apple iTV (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITV_(Apple)) via Ethernet and on to the TV via HDMI. The cable box will be upgraded to HD and connect to an HD tuner card so it feeds into the PC. The other tuner cards will be for basic cable, which does not need a cable box, and the lowly VCR. The TV will be mounted in custom cabinetry with the bottom edge of the screen approximately 20 inches above the floor for a comfortable viewing position while seated. The PC will be mounted sideways in the cabinet above the TV because the cabinet will only be about 20 inches deep. The "rear" speakers will be a pair of wireless speakers mounted on top of the kitchen cabinets behind the entertainment area. I havenÂt decided on an amplifier or main speakers yet. The amp will also be above the TV and the main speakers will be mounted in the cabinetry on each side of the TV so I have about 12 inches on each side to play with. For a remote, IÂm thinking of one of the Harmony USB programmables (http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products/features/harmony/us/en,CRID=2078) so I can program it from a PC to do exactly what I want. I really like the Sonos (http://www.sonos.com) zone system for a whole house stereo, but $500 for each zone (not including speakers) starts to sound expensive. Any comments, questions, opinions or critiques?

Wow I LOVE all these perspectives! My DH just wants 1 - keep it for a Long Time, 2 - must hold ALL components with plenty of air circulations and no glass, 3 - I do not complain once we have whatever solution we decide ;-) As much as I like the IDEA of upcycling/re-purposing some cool item from CL -- and I do love much of what I see people create -- my DH is not really interested and I do not have the stick-with-it-ness to do the work in a timely manner (we have a 5 and 9 yo, very busy boys) OR the VISION to hone in on exactly the right item and create the perfect solution. The red wicker dresser we currently use WAS an attempt at re-purposing a CL item. I painted the dresser and bought a custom glass top. I thought a dresser would be great because of all the storage. I thought red would be great to add fun color/eclectic-ness to the room It just really isn't working (for me, DH doesn't love it but it generally meets his criteria). And before that, we had bought a CL oak stereo component cabinet that I tried to stain (fail), then paint (better) but then it had smoked glass doors and DH didn't want to use the doors...and, honestly, it was fugly and unbalanced since we only had the one. In fact, the only CL furniture I've been truly happy with are our bed, my kids' beds, and a very small buffet that is perfect for our small house. BUT -- the buffet was a project piece that I never even started, just use it as-is. I bet I bought it about 10 years ago now. I even posted about it here on the Decorating Forum and got some amazing ideas for how to fix it up! I love it because the back is finished so it doesn't have to sit against a wall (though right now it is). We started to take off the door hinges, and that's it. I believe one door has only one, instead of two, hinges. It's so crazy...I couldn't get started on the project and then decided we needed the storage so put things into it "temporarily" but never did anything beyond clean it. I just start more and more and more and more...anyway I digress (oh I hope my DH doesn't tell me I have to do that buffet project before we can do the living room, but he might!!!) Tibbrix -- Built-ins would be cool, but we've poured too much money into permanent things for this house when I really hope to move. I do not see this place as a forever-home. I just want the room to feel a bit more spacious, look more balanced, and have less clutter and less in-your-face components. mtnrdredux -- I do see them on CL -- a LOT -- but generally they look like they would be kind of dominating. After looking more carefully at the examples I've seen on Houzz that I like...I do not think they are standard entertainment centers. The space for tv is large. Here are some examples of what I thought looked nice: [[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/ocean-club-sliding-door-point-break-entertainment-chest-contemporary-living-room-miami-phvw-vp~21520095) [Contemporary Living Room[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/contemporary-living-room-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_718~s_2103) by Pompano Beach Furniture & Accessories Baer's Furniture [[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/entertainment-paint-grade-traditional-family-room-dc-metro-phvw-vp~448127) [Traditional Family Room[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/traditional-family-room-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_720~s_2107) by Church Hill Cabinets & Cabinetry Kent Cabinetry and Millwork Inc I suspect these are all either custom and/or built-in. tinam61 -- In comparison to the rest of the room, the wall that I'd want to put an entertainment center or media console IS a big space...it's the largest open wall space in our house. But the room is pretty narrow, so I worry that a large unit will just make the room feel even narrower. We're planning to remove the carpet and install wood or bamboo flooring, and I want the direction to be oriented to make the room feel a little wider :-) (this will all be part of re-doing the whole room). robin_dc -- the open shelf space is tall enough for everything (assuming the Wii can lay on it's side, maybe it can't). I think DH wants to replace the Wii with something else in the future, guess we'll have to make sure it can also lay on it's side! I love your suggestion of a mock-up...I'm going to start hanging onto boxes to make a mock-up. I've made so many poor furniture choices for that room (the dresser, the couch and chair that are too big for the space...other things that aren't in there any more). The coffee table DH hates, says it's a piece of trash (it was sort of trash)...not sure if it's going to stay or go, but right now it's taken the place of the piano because it needs to hold some of the electronics :-P I'm the kind of person who can't really know if something works or not unless it's actually in the space. That's pretty much a detriment to interior decorating! Do you have any advice on how I can decide if the scale is okay? AnnieDeighnaugh -- That's a pretty nice guest room! I do feel like the EC dominates the wall, though, and I could see that being an issue if we go that route. I'm definitely leaning toward a console type solution at this point (since I'm ruling out built-in/custom). arcy -- sounds like a really nice piece! I started a s/o thread, really leaning toward the long/low media console idea and now I want to be sure I get the correctly proportioned piece :-) Here is a link that might be useful: s/o thread This post was edited by melle_sacto on Wed, Feb 4, 15 at 13:25

these "entertainment centers" don't seem to be that much different from the older "out of date" ones except they are more open or a very light wood. Based on recommendations to give away my entertainment center to help it not be a large dark hole, I have moved two of the ends of my entertainment center to the back bedroom we use for our exercise room. The remaining entertainment part I am still trying to work with. I have appreciated and moved toward the suggestions that the houzz people have suggested. Excellent forum to get help.

We are for sure doing away with the black trim! Lightening everything up! This house was added on to several times, which is why the layout isn’t what one would consider ideal. The wall with the large opening/thick black trim was actually an exterior wall at one point (the room in question didn’t exist then). At a point after that, the wall that will have the entertainment center was an exterior wall. Then they added the master suite onto that which is the doorway to the right of the entertainment center. I like the “open” concept with the large opening, but I also realize that comes to the detriment of easy furniture placement decisions. Only 2 doorways into the living room. One from the dining room, one from the master bedroom.