please help clueless woman with equipment

[bigtrain333]

I am building a lake house for retirement and I am trying to figure out what all I need to buy for audio visual. I will want outside sound on the porch and at dock and hdtv in lr and mbr. It will have a walkout basement. While it won't be completely dark I want to put in a home theatre for my husband. I will have to purchase the projector and screen but we have alot of older equipment that is not being used and I would like to utilize as much of it as possible to cut down on costs. I made an inventory of what we have. Can you tell me if this equipment is still good enough to use for a home theatre setup or how I could use it? What else do I need? What should I trash? Thanks
Denon avr 683, Yamaha avr rx-v793, Kenwood avr 105vr
Klipsch- 2 floorspeakers epic cf-3, subwoofer ksw 200, pair surround speakers ksf s-f, ksf c5 center channel.
Energy Take 5 system with es8 sub
Bose environmental speakers
Sony cd/dvd dvp c600d, Yamaha cdc-765, Yamaha casette kx-w392, Samsung bluray bd1500, Samsung dvd hd850
tvs: pioneer 5080, samsung lnt 3753h, samsung hl-p4674w, sony kdl19m400

 

[dfergie]

Just glancing you have a pretty good start on equipment...

 

[bigtrain333]

I do have alot of stuff but it's old and I don't know if it is what I need now. For instance, the avr s don't seem to have video capability? Or at least they don't have hdmi?

 

[jayn_j]

I do have alot of stuff but it's old and I don't know if it is what I need now. For instance, the avr s don't seem to have video capability? Or at least they don't have hdmi?

That becomes a question on how badly you want the latest uncompressed audio formats, and how convenient you want the switching to be.

For example, you can use an older receiver by switching the video HDMI at the TV, and running digital optical cables into the receiver for the audio. It's more wires. You would need to switch both the receiver for the audio and the TV to switch the video. Someone is sure to point out that your DVD player won't decode the latest audio formats internally, and that the receiver doesn't handle that as well. But it will handle DTS and Dolby Digital. That may be good enough for you.

If I were to upgrade one component though, it would probably be the receiver. There are several good choices that are affordable and will provide what you need. I would personally recommend you look at the Onkyo 600 or 800 series, or the Denon 2800 or 3800 series. Look around on the receiver area of theis site for discussion on these receivers. I would definitely look for something that handled at least 4 HDMI inputs because everybody seems to run out of inputs eventually.

You might want to consider is separating the audio system from the home theater. Go ahead and get the new receiver for the HT, but use the older receivers to provide zone access to the patio and dock areas.

If you want to watch DVDs in the MBR, you might want to consider trading up to another Blu-Ray player. Otherwise, you will find yourself limited in the titles that will play in the bedroom. If you are like me, I have started buying mostly Blu-Ray titles now.

The Pioneer is a great living room set and the Samsung LCDis good for the bedroom. If you are serious about the home theater, you really want to look toward setting up for front projection. You might want to take a look at rockymtnhigh's thread in the TV forum here on setting up his home theater.
http://www.satelliteguys.us/television-sets-projectors/128742-opportunity-design-home-theater.html
He did it very cost effectively and came up with something that really works. Elwaylite and HD-MM also recently described some nice HT systems in limited space in this thread: http://www.satelliteguys.us/v-recei...tem-after-adding-sub-12-denon-avr-1909-a.html
Look on page 1 for Elway's and on page 6 for HD-MM. The later is interesting because he pulled off something nice in a very small space.