This is my rig so far.

I love movies.  And I love video games.  And what better way to experience both in glorious high definition and 5.1 surround sound. 

It's taken me a while to piece together a great theater setup for my media room.  With all factors considered including what television to use (the only one I own) and what sound system to purchase (a reasonably affordable system) that accommodates all the input devices I have.

For the television, I used my existing 42" Phillips Plasma with ambilight.  Since Plasmas produce some of the best color quality, I found this flat panel to be a good fit to hang on the wall.  Sunlight does hit it directly in the morning from the hours of 7 am to 1:30 pm but has little to no effect on picture quality.  With the lights off and a movie or video game playing, the ambilight helps reduce eyestrain and reduces headaches.  I was skeptical about the Ambilight technology at first but then after a couple hours of Gears of War with it turned off and then the next day with Ambilight activated, I could instantly tell the difference.  I experienced little to no eyestrain.

Probably the next most important component to a theater system is having a good sound system.  I was shopping with a budget around $600 and came across the perfect solution-a theater in a box.  Theater in a box solutions aren't usually known to pack a punch but as time passes and new technology emerges, system prices go down and therefore become more affordable to the average consumer.  The system I chose was the Samsung HT-Q80.  It has a 5-disc DVD changer that upscale's to 1080i, an HDMI input and output, and most importantly a digital input for 5.1 surround sound.  Also one extra feature that caught my eye was the fact that the HT-Q80 supports USB host play.  Since I watch a good helping of video podcasts I can now download them directly to my 2GB USB thumbdrive and then plug the drive into the receiver and finally output to the TV. 

Did I mention the Samsung HT-Q80 packs a whopping 1000 watts of power?  That's 145 watts per channel and the rest for the wall shaking subwoofer.  Just don't turn it up too loud or the bass can get muddy.  But to achieve that level of sound requires some guts and ear drums of steel.

Last, but certainly not least, is the component that ties the whole theater together.  The Xbox 360 and HD-DVD add-on.  There's nothing like playing the latest HD video games in Dolby 5.1 and watching movies with the clearest picture quality and sound.

Overall I'm happy with how my theater is turning out.  And eventually with a Windows Vista Media Center PC and Windows Home Server to back it up and replace the Media Center notebook I currently am running, I think I will be fine.