Wow... way more Visalians here than I ever would have thought. Cool to see us featured nationally, but I'll still never own an Onstar equipped vehicle.

Our home theater is pretty much set. As it stands we've got a Pioneer 5020FD Plasma, Pioneer VSX-1019AH-K Receiver, Elemental Design and Polk Speakers, Elemental Design A2-300 sub, XBox 360, PS3 and U-Verse in our living room. Very happy with the setup for the budget we had.

We are considering upgrading our old 27" Panasonic tube TV in the bedroom to a 32" flat panel. I really wish you could still get a 32" plasma, but I don't know of a single model available in the US. So we'll probably just go with a sub-$400 LCD. We'd also get a new Blu-Ray player for the bedroom at the same time. Having a Netflix, etc. enabled player would be nice, but not a necessity. We're also considering a sounbar for the bedroom as well. Though, that may be overkill.

Your situation sounds nearly identical to mine. We have a TV "cubby" with a fireplace directly to the left at a 45* angle and it is open on the right to the room beyond. I agonized over how to tackle the problem myself.

In the end I decided to go with ceiling mounted speakers for my surround. On the left wall of the "cubby" (shared with fireplace) I cut a 3 gang hole and used an 7.1 surround sound wall plate with binding posts and RCAs for the sub. Then I used in-wall speaker wire up to the location of the surround speakers. I also ran in-wall rated coax for the sub through the walls/ceiling as well. I did not connect the left right or center speakers this way, as they are located within the cubby space.

It was quite intimidating when I started, but once I had cut the first hole in the wall (single gang for the RCA plate at the subwoofer location) I wasn't intimidated at all any more. When all was said and done I had a great sounding system and even better, it was wife approved. To look at the installation now, you wouldn't be able to tell it was not done professionally. This is definitely something that added value to our new home, rather than detract from it.

Not that it really makes a difference for me, but I was an early adopter (1019). I am curious if this is a spec bump, or if it is just a press release after the fact. Might have to go digging for the box/manual to find out.

You and me both brother. I bought my 5020FD from Costco shortly after the announcement as well. When I told my father, he bought the same TV. And he hadn't even been looking to buy a TV.

Kuro to the end. Pioneer's plasma line will be greatly missed. At least I have the satisfaction of knowing that by the time I am looking to buy a TV, technology and the rest of the industry should have caught up with my Kuro.

I could use these.

This would go really well with the Kuro 1050 I got a couple months ago.

Fix the economy? OK...

Strip unions of their power.
Reduce taxes and institute a flat tax.
Do away with the IRS.
Stricter term limits for congress.
No "bonuses" for government (Local, State and Federal) employees without strict voter approved guidelines.

Bottom line, somehow stop the government from trying to "fix" everything.

Can I have my Razer kit now?

Please build. But out a half way decent suspension under the thing. I'd actually consider using something like that for urban commuting if it could handle a decent drop/jump.

Kind of sad that they got an app out before AT&T got an app done for their own U-Verse service. (Happy U-Verse customer otherwise.)