I am planning on building an "epic" home theater/entertainment system later this year when the room is finished (it will be more or less soundproof), and I plan on using professional-grade equipment. The "brain" of the system will be a Windows-based PC hooked up to a TV.
Seeing that I will already have pro-quality amplifiers and speakers, how feasible would it be to add in "studio" functionality such as a mixing board and effects? (It would end up considerably cheaper than a dedicated studio.) This would be used for recording and generally "messing around", seeing that about half the family is into music.
No-brainer, right? Not so fast. The issue is that movies generally have surround sound audio information, while the studio side of things will be stereo. How can I hook these things up and not cause problems, i.e. loss of multichannel audio on the TV side or loss of speakers on the studio side? More importantly, how can I seamlessly transition between the two -- ideally with no human involvement, though I'll settle for a single switch.
Sorry if this is confusing but seeing that there is a good amount of money involved, I'd rather not make mistakes.
Seeing that I will already have pro-quality amplifiers and speakers, how feasible would it be to add in "studio" functionality such as a mixing board and effects? (It would end up considerably cheaper than a dedicated studio.) This would be used for recording and generally "messing around", seeing that about half the family is into music.
No-brainer, right? Not so fast. The issue is that movies generally have surround sound audio information, while the studio side of things will be stereo. How can I hook these things up and not cause problems, i.e. loss of multichannel audio on the TV side or loss of speakers on the studio side? More importantly, how can I seamlessly transition between the two -- ideally with no human involvement, though I'll settle for a single switch.
Sorry if this is confusing but seeing that there is a good amount of money involved, I'd rather not make mistakes.