Cinema surround TV speakers

silkyuk9

any help wanted for surround speakers, i have a flat screen tv that has the connections for 5.1 speakers.

I do not want speakers plus a dvd player, i want surround sound all of the time running through my tv rather than only on my dvd player.

im looking to spend around £150

any advice on this subject please.

scotsbob

You might want to look at the Creative decoder DDTS 100 coupled with the Creative Inspire T5900 speakers will give you what you want and well within your budget
I chose that system 3 years ago after doing a lot of research and have been very happy.
You can have two other inputs as well as your tv, RCA plugs or optical, 5-1, 6-1 or even 7-1 speaker set up. Two headphone sockets and Dolby Digital and Dolby Digital EX and remote control

silkyuk9

scotsbob wrote: »

You might want to look at the Creative decoder DDTS 100 coupled with the Creative Inspire T5900 speakers will give you what you want and well within your budget
I chose that system 3 years ago after doing a lot of research and have been very happy.
You can have two other inputs as well as your tv, RCA plugs or optical, 5-1, 6-1 or even 7-1 speaker set up. Two headphone sockets and Dolby Digital and Dolby Digital EX and remote control

my tv is a sharp lc-32d44e

im hoping the 5 terminals for audio are for 5.1 speakers, looking at the terminals they are as follows

green. (Y)
blue. PB (Ca)
red. PR (CR)
white L
Audio
red R

are these slots where the speakers go (5.1)


ive seen these on amazon

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Airis-Surround-Wireless-Speaker-Subwoofer/dp/B001RMA7V2

whats confusing me is the dvd part, you have to connect 5.1 speakers to a dvd player, but does that mean you can only have surround sound when you are watching a dvd movie. how can you have surround sound all the time if thats the case.

all i want is surround sound all the time.

being no techie its confusing!

silkyuk9

I think im learning something, just read something about it on the net. Apparently you cant connect a 5.1 system straight to the TV

i need something called

5.1-capable AV receiver

havent a clue about these any help please

gjchester

silkyuk9 wrote: »

my tv is a sharp lc-32d44e

im hoping the 5 terminals for audio are for 5.1 speakers, looking at the terminals they are as follows

green. (Y)
blue. PB (Ca)
red. PR (CR)
white L
Audio
red R

are these slots where the speakers go (5.1)


ive seen these on amazon

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Airis-Surround-Wireless-Speaker-Subwoofer/dp/B001RMA7V2

whats confusing me is the dvd part, you have to connect 5.1 speakers to a dvd player, but does that mean you can only have surround sound when you are watching a dvd movie. how can you have surround sound all the time if thats the case.

all i want is surround sound all the time.

being no techie its confusing!

Sorry no.

The ones green. (Y), blue. PB (Ca), red. PR (CR)

Are for component Video input, I'd also put money on the fact that Audio Left and Right are inputs NOT outputs.

You won;t be able to do surround all the time without an Amp, and you'll only get 5.1 if the TV has a digital out, if it's only left and right all you can get is Pro logic, which mean 3.1 (Which means Front Left and Right and a MONO surround track, the Centre and Suboffer are generated in the Amp)

It's also worth noting that very few channels send 5.1 anyway, most are jsut prologic, nothing on Freeview sends 5.1, and Only the BBC HD sends it in Freesat, I don't have Sky so don't know what they send.

If your TV has digital out you can sent that and the DVD players signal into a surround amp and use that but I don't think you can do it with your current setup.

gjchester

silkyuk9 wrote: »

I think im learning something, just read something about it on the net. Apparently you cant connect a 5.1 system straight to the TV

i need something called

5.1-capable AV receiver

havent a clue about these any help please

Reciever just means amplifiers with a radio reciever built in. Without the radio they get called amplifiers..

You need to think what you want. You can only get true 5.1 via a ditial feed, be it Coax or Fibre optic. Look at the boxes you have already (TV, DVD, Sky or Freesat box) and see if they ahve digital outputs. If they do you need to buy a Surround sound amp and a set of speakers. Cost can be anything from £50 for a cheap set to Oodles..

If the DVD player DOES NOT have digital out then you may as well buy an all in one box solution with a built in DVD player, Argos have a Panasonic one box that you could buy.

It may be cheaper regardless to buy a one box solution, that will allow input from a 2nd source (or more depending how much you spend on it)

scotsbob

silkyuk9 wrote: »

I think im learning something, just read something about it on the net. Apparently you cant connect a 5.1 system straight to the TV

i need something called

5.1-capable AV receiver

havent a clue about these any help please

That is why I suggested the decoder, the DDTS-100, you feed into the decoder/amp and that feeds to your speakers.

I am not familiar with your particular tv, so you may or may not need a decoder.

I have the Decoder linked to my Freeview box via an optical lead (although I could, if I wanted to, feed it through the red/white RCA sockets.) I could also feed it straght from the red/white RCA outputs from my tv.

Having read jgchester's answer above I have looked at the manual and see that Pro- logic is also an option on the Creative Decoder

scotsbob

silkyuk9 wrote: »

all i want is surround sound all the time.

being no techie its confusing!

Indeed and that is all I wanted when I bought my system.

I am happy with the surround sound that I get and it greatly enhances all the programmes I watch.
When I watch a movie and a car is driven from right to left that's what it sounds like. If I watch a war movie the explosions sound like they come from behind me.

A technical purist may argue that I only have 5-1 sometimes and 3-1 at other times etc etc. All I know is that for a non technical person like myself it sounds really good.

All I wanted was surround sound from ordinary tv programmes and that is what I have.

gjchester

scotsbob wrote: »

A technical purist may argue that I only have 5-1 sometimes and 3-1 at other times etc etc. All I know is that for a non technical person like myself it sounds really good.

It's somewhat academic at times.

Not only do you need the right hardware but a broadcast show may or may not have 5.3 or 3.1 or even stereo sound depending on what was bought by the broadcaster. Back in the eighties when the BBC bought Star Trek The Next Generation, they did not pay for the stereo version for the first 3 seasons so although the show was recorded with a Dolby Surround track you would only get Mono regardless of what the system you had (Nicam or Sky) could handle.

The main difference with Prologic and 5.1 is the fact the sound is carried as discrete channels, Pro Logic has two channels and the Amp works out the Surround and Centre frrom the two signals, whereas 5.1 carries them as seperate channels. Again regardless of what the packaging may say you can only get 5.1 if you have a digital output from whatever you are using (be that PC, DVD or TV).

Something else to bear in mind is that even a cheap system will probably sound better, almost every TV I've had the speakers have been so-so and notreally that great quality. Even adding a cheap ish system will mean better performance, even if you are only getting the left and right channels.

trets77

what you need is a half decent Surround sound Amp and a set top box ( freeview , sky ect ) with a digital out ( coaxial or more likely Optical Toslink) .
you cannot get true 5.1 with every program , you only tend to get it with Movies and Live sport on Sky . however you can get Pro Logic , Pro Logic II , DTS neo 6 , or if your really lucky and get a decent enough amp Logic 7 or similar ( my high end Onkyo 875 has a few others as well, which really sound great ) , all of which upgrade 2 channel sound into a 5.1 mix , meaning you can watch any program with surround sound .

you can get some good deals for decent Amps second hand on Ebay .




as a rule Denon , Yamaha and Harmon Kardon don't do poor amps from my experiance

examples
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Denon-AVR-3805-AV-Receiver-Amplifier-7-Channel_W0QQitemZ180359669885QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_AudioVisualElectronics_HomeAudioHiFi_CompleteHifiSystems?hash=item29fe46287d&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1690%7C66%3A4%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318%7C301%3A0%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A200

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Harman-Kardon-AVR-4500-Receiver_W0QQitemZ180360567985QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_AudioTVElectronics_HomeAudioHiFi_Amplifiers?hash=item29fe53dcb1&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1690%7C66%3A4%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318%7C301%3A0%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A200

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Yamaha-RX-V1000RDS-AV-RECEIVER-AMPLIFIER_W0QQitemZ200345253568QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_AudioTVElectronics_Video_HomeCinemaSystems?hash=item2ea581f6c0&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1690%7C66%3A4%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318%7C301%3A0%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A200


of course you then need good speakers , a sub woofer , decent speaker cable and interconnects to get best out of them though .

If you want to buy new then a trip to your local Richer sounds is what would advise

http://www.richersounds.com/

gjchester

trets77 wrote: »

however you can get Pro Logic , Pro Logic II , DTS neo 6 , or if your really lucky and get a decent enough amp Logic 7 or similar( my high end Onkyo 875 has a few others as well, which really sound great ) , all of which upgrade 2 channel sound into a 5.1 mix , meaning you can watch any program with surround sound .

Prologic is Surround, Pro logic II uses a stereo back channel generated by sending the left and right signals out of phase, which is picked up by the amp.

DTS Neo6, Logic 7 and so on (My Sony STR-DB930 has "Digital Cinema Surround EX" modes, which is probably deliberatly named to sound like Dolby EX) all take the signal and process it to give a pseudo suround sound field.

This is NOT the same as surround sound, and as it's generated in amp it's greatly dependant on the system it's in, it may sound more or less realistic, and in some cases sounds pants (I never bother with any of my Sony's effects they sound too artificial to my ear, and I'm never going to convince anyone my living room is a stadium or arena).

However by the time the OP has bought an Amp and a speaker package it's going to be far over the £150 budget he mentioned in the initial post.