Home theater Perrysburg-style

The Sony home theater-in-a-box that I bought last week worked well, but it only had two digital audio inputs. Since Buckeye is about to start their HD beta test, and since a little bird told me that my odds of being selected were quite good, I wanted a receiver that could accomodate the Xbox, DVD player, and an HD settop box, so it was back to Best Buy. I found a good deal on a open-box Pioneer VSX-D811S, a much nicer receiver than I would otherwise have bought. It has component video switching and some other nifty features, along with support for 7.1 surround. I also picked up some open-box Sony speakers. Everything works great… but that’s not my point.
Yesterday, I got a real dose of home theater. From my chair on the back deck, I could hear: David and Thomas playing baseball next door (complete with the occasional ping of the aluminum bat when somebody got a hit), a couple of lawn mowers, an F-16 flying overhead, a train, one each lawn mower and weed eater, lots of birds, the occasional Harley ripping past on River Road, Matthew squealing with delight as he climbed through the deck railing to get a golf ball, and my neighbor’s dog. That’s my kind of home theater: live, glorious, surround sound; full-motion, high-definition video, and Scent-O-Vision.