Advice on Surround Sound/home cinema

lilherbz

Hi everyone,

Not sure if i am posting in the right section or not.... it is kinda techie

But anyways I am thinking of buying surround sound for my partner and I noticed at lot of them come with a DVD player with HD upscaling etc, as he has a PS3 and we watch DVDs on here mainly blu rays is it worth just getting the speakers minus the DVD player as we will not be using it due to having the playstation?

Many thanks in advance.

steve1980

Always buy separates. That way if anything goes wrong it's easily changed over.

Check out richersounds for all their deals

downhillfast

More importantly than the going wrong aspect... before you spend ANY money be sure of what you are buying - 99% of the ones you mention that come with upscaling DVD player etc do not have inputs for your other equipment so basically you only get surround sound for the inbuilt dvd player... not on Sky... not on Freeview... not on PS3... not on anything! That is why the are so "affordable"!

:cool:

googler

If you've already got a DVD player and TV that you're happy with, then yes - buy the sound system as a separate item.

Look at Richer Sounds for a kickoff and see what they have for the amount of money you want to spend. Look at other retailers if you want to spend more, or if money is no object.

I think you'll need more than just 'speakers' though - they'll need an amplifier to drive them

Hammyman

googler wrote: »

If you've already got a DVD player and TV that you're happy with, then yes - buy the sound system as a separate item.

...is bad advice. ALWAYS buy seperate surround sound amplifier/decoder.

jayme1

so something along the lines of this is what the OP is looking for, you will put your ps3 into that via HDMI and then hook that box to your TV via HDMI and that will give you full 5.1 from blurays and DVDs played on the ps3, it also has another HDMI in for something like V+, sky+ or HD freeview/sat, and also an optical connection (say a DVD player that doesnt have HDMI but has SPDIF) or for anything else that outputs sound using that or of your HDMI ports get full.

also to add: look at ones that are made by the people who make your TV as I know sony ones tie in with sony TVs really well because they use bravia sync (like auto turn on and off the tv speakers when the surround sound is turned on/off, and able to use the TV remote to change the volume of the surround sound box), other manufacturers are the same

googler

Hammyman wrote: »

...is bad advice. ALWAYS buy seperate surround sound amplifier/decoder.

Yes, that's what I said.

A surround 'system' consists of an amplifier (which may include a decoder) and a bunch of speakers, in my parlance. The system is one item, with a bunch of sub-items.

trets77

downhillfast wrote: »

More importantly than the going wrong aspect... before you spend ANY money be sure of what you are buying - 99% of the ones you mention that come with upscaling DVD player etc do not have inputs for your other equipment so basically you only get surround sound for the inbuilt dvd player... not on Sky... not on Freeview... not on PS3... not on anything! That is why the are so "affordable"!

:cool:

^^^ what he said ^^^^


this is what Richer Sounds are selling at the bottom end of their price range

HDMI equipped Sony Amp £99

http://www.richersounds.com/product/av-receivers/sony/strdh500/sony-strdh500

Pioneer 5.1 speaker package £120

http://www.richersounds.com/product/speaker-packages/pioneer/shs100/pion-shs100

Proper Home Cinema is Separates .

lilherbz

Thank you everyone for your replies, being a woman I find these things a bit tricky! lol

jayme1 - I believe that is the kinda thing I am looking for and you have explained it very well.

Our TV is a BEKO so nothing special hoping to upgrade it in the new year we have had it a couple of years now but Im not sure what we will go for next so i will chose something half decent with a well known name.

I am thinking about price too, it would appear that the whole unit inc DVD player is much cheaper than buying it without what is that all about?

blackste

Cant recommend richersounds enough. I bought a one box home cinema system from them 3 years ago. It went wrong a few weeks ago, and it would normally have been a £600 write off. However, i took their 5 year warranty, which is both ridiculously cheap, and brilliant cover. I now have a whole new seperates system thanks to that warranty.

trets77

lilherbz wrote: »

Thank you everyone for your replies, being a woman I find these things a bit tricky! lol

jayme1 - I believe that is the kinda thing I am looking for and you have explained it very well.

Our TV is a BEKO so nothing special hoping to upgrade it in the new year we have had it a couple of years now but Im not sure what we will go for next so i will chose something half decent with a well known name.

I am thinking about price too, it would appear that the whole unit inc DVD player is much cheaper than buying it without what is that all about?

who cares . one box solutions are cheap and nasty overpriced solutions for lazy technophobes IMO .

go to your local Richer Sounds explain your situation , and say you want to go down the separates route for flexabilty in the future .

Surrond sound Amps look pretty scary round the back , but all the things there are just inputs and outputs . you input something ( like your PS3 ) and the amp outputs sound to your speaker and if you want, outputs picture to your TV .

i think of my Amp as a Home entertainment Hub .

going in i have

• DVD player (sound only)
• Blu Ray
• Wii (sound only)
• Xbox Elite
• Sky HD ( sound only)
• Ipod dock
• CD player

i'm thinking of Adding Apple TV and a stand alone DAB in the future as well .

Plumbing in the Blu Ray and Xbox Elite via HDMI , i get 5.1 sound and also i then output the the picture from these via the Amp to TV . seeing as my TV only has 2 HDMI inputs (one taken up by Sky HD , the other is the HDMI to the Amp) this allows me to have multiple HDMI sources plumbed into the Amp and only take up one HDMI slot on the TV .

you could not do this with a" home cinema in box" product . that's why buying stand alone products gives you the room to adjust and expand your system as you get new things .