Home Theatre Help

sonstream

Hi You need to connect a cable from your tv to the surround amp (tv input) i have a sony bravia tv and mines connected on the back by a 3.5ml headphone jack to phono via the headphone socket on the tv and changed to to perform as a line out (fixed volume) ie the volume control if via my amp and not having to turn the tv volume up and down

googler

mouttou wrote: »

Thanks for the replies.

I now understand that the surround sound would not function unless its a 5.1. But would not the audio come out of all the speakers.

no. you're supplying a stereo, 2-channel, source. It's designed to feed 2 speakers.

what would you have it feed to the other 4?

googler

mouttou wrote: »

Thanks for the replies.

When you say, buy a simplle Hifi and run along this Home theatre, do u mean, use the hifi seperately for music and use this sony to watch movies....sorry for the queries and thanks for your replies.

Yes, I mean use the proper HiFi for stereo music, and the 5.1 for movies and/or other 5.1 sources

InsideInsurance

googler wrote: »

what would you have it feed to the other 4?

Thats what DD ProLogic and DTS Neo works out for you - though if you have ProLogic IIz its not the other 4 but the other 11 channels it can cope with.

Whilst they are certainly better with converting stereo "tv" into surround sound the music versions can have an interesting effect on stereo music that some like and some hate. Personally I prefer 2 channel for 95% of music but there is the odd song that listening to it in 11.2 can sound much more engaging

googler

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Thats what DD ProLogic and DTS Neo works out for you - though if you have ProLogic IIz its not the other 4 but the other 11 channels it can cope with.

That's sorta my point when I ask "What would the system send to the unused channels when feeding it a two-channel source?"

Essentially, the system and software will generate something that isn't on the original source, a falsehood, something that doesn't really belong.

It's the same as they did in the 50s and 60s when all these "Mono recordings reprocessed for Stereo" came along. The record companies felt they couldn't put out these 'old-fashioned' mono recordings when stereo had come along, so they did some crude filtering, put the bass to one side, the mid/treble to the other, and passed it off as stereo. The result, in most cases, was a horrible abomination that should have been strangled in the mastering studio, and a few years later, most folks were using a Mono/Stereo switch to restore them to the way they were. You won't find any vintage mono recordings being reprocessed for stereo these days, for the good reason that everybody decided it was a bad idea....

The Hollywood studios went through a phase of recolouring old B&W films, too, but that's gone by the board too...... that was a bad idea

In the same way, 'expanding' a stereo CD to fill more than 2 channels with the aid of arbitrary post-processing in your home system is a bad idea

InsideInsurance

googler wrote: »

In the same way, 'expanding' a stereo CD to fill more than 2 channels with the aid of arbitrary post-processing in your home system is a bad idea

Said like a true purist.... I assume you advocate having studio monitors instead of hifi speakers given they are both more transparent and because it is what the sound engineers will have used to do the mix too so closer to what was intended?

With TV/ Movies it is easier to understand how ProLogic/ Neo works and to be honest it does an exceptionally good job of creating the other channels. Listening to a Blu Ray in DTS MA and listening to the same film with the stereo soundtrack from the disk but the amp in Neo mode there is certainly a difference but for most of the film, even action, it is not pronounced as you'd expect (or hope).

I have to admit that I agree with you 95% of the time and that it adds little to it. That said there have been a few songs/ albums where it does add something - the best one is one of the Linkin Park ones. It does happen to have an actual 5.1 SACD/ DVDA disc so do wonder if it is because it was always intended to be multichannel that it sounds "better" when it is even if it is calculated as such rather than recorded.

googler

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Said like a true purist.... I assume you advocate having studio monitors instead of hifi speakers given they are both more transparent and because it is what the sound engineers will have used to do the mix too so closer to what was intended?

If I could persuade the studios to run a 15 or 30 ips copy of the original 2-track master, so that I could replay it on a Studer tape deck, the same as they use in the studio, I would go down that path....

I wouldn't necessarily advocate the same speakers. The acoustic in my listening room will be radically different from the studio. Different studios will use different speakers and have different acoustics in their control rooms, so there's no point trying to match Abbey Road's setup for recordings made in Capitol Studios, Hollywood.....

mouttou

almillar wrote: »

Why are you not hearing the TV through it? You haven't connected it, simple. You need to find an audio OUTPUT on the back of the TV - hopefully it's optical out, or it might be stereo phono (red and white). You need to connect that to an INPUT in this 'home theatre system'. Hopefully there's an input available. Then you select the TV as the source for the sound on your home theatre system.
CDs - as you've been advised, there are 2 channels of info coming from your stereo CDs, and the system is sending those to your front 2 speakers. Maybe they're not that great.
Sounds like you might want 'proper' home theatre system, as in one that doesn't all come in one box and that you can pick and choose.
If you want to listen to CDs, £300 will get you a great sounding amp, CD player and 2 speakers, no doubt. But you can manage a full on 5.1 system too, and it'll make the CDs sound better than that all in one system too.
Have a look at this for a quick choice, and remember that you can save money on speakers if you already have some - if they're good, use them as the front stereo ones, but you can use any old rubbish at the back, for starters at least...

Onkyo TSXR 309 £140

and
Pioneer SHS100 £100

You've even got £60 change out of £300!
Would make a massive improvement to your current kit, and you've loads of scope for upgrades. Go second hand for better bang for buck. AV amps and big floor standing speakers are hard to shift (physically) so will be on Gumtree and eBay local for low prices.

thanks ! Can u pls help me further? Sorry I am not tech savy...so do you suggest me to get the above receiver and the above speakers and get a blue ray player? If yes, which blue ray player as I need something that would play my audio cds in good quality. Or do i need a seperate Hifi and a separate blue ray? For your info, my tv is sony KDL32U 2000. Would it be possible to control treble and bass settings in this Onkyo? My maximum budget would be £350. Also I have a Goodmans Micro 1990 DVD, if that is of any help! Thanks.

mouttou

Lil306 wrote: »

Alternatively if you're prepared to sell existing system. I'd recommend selling it and buying a Logitech. You're still affected by Surround Sound but it's got upscaling capability and it allows you to listen to 5.1 on stereo and it does it quite well.

Although I currently use mine in a different configuration as a media centre because it's hooked up to a PC, if you can get yourself a cheap cd player with optical spdif out and one of these systems, it should work fine for upscaling

I love my logitech, it's got plenty of volume

Thanks. Can u pls let me know what logitec model it is? And also, do i need to buy a seperate blu ray player? Is this good to listen to audio? Also when u say, you can listen to 5.1 on sterio, do u mean that you can listen to audio in 5 speakers but without the surround effect? Thanks for your help!

InsideInsurance

mouttou wrote: »

thanks ! Can u pls help me further? Sorry I am not tech savy...so do you suggest me to get the above receiver and the above speakers and get a blue ray player? If yes, which blue ray player as I need something that would play my audio cds in good quality. Or do i need a seperate Hifi and a separate blue ray? For your info, my tv is sony KDL32U 2000. Would it be possible to control treble and bass settings in this Onkyo? My maximum budget would be £350. Also I have a Goodmans Micro 1990 DVD, if that is of any help! Thanks.

Question 1 - are you limited for space and thus need or want a sub/ sat package? (or just want one)?

Any AVR system is not going to sound as good for music as a dedicated stereo system costing half as much. That is just basic logic because you looking at the speakers for example you are paying £100 for 6 speakers and an amplifier (in the sub) and so the cost per speaker is only circa £10 -v- buying a stereo set of speakers for £50 when you are paying £25 per speaker.

If you are interested in music at all I would either (a) retain your stereo system or (b) dont go for a sub/sat setup but a full size speaker 5.1 instead.

The advantage of (b) when combined with the onkyo amp is that you can build it up slowly over time. Start with the AVR and buy a pair of Wharfdale Diamond 10.1 (or ideally 10.2 if you can). Then when you have some more pennies buy the Diamond 10.CM for the centre etc

Will take you a while to get to a full system but it will sound much better, particularly for music

As the Blu Ray will be connected digitally then playing CDs it is basically just a transport rather than a "cd player". Given the rest of they system you aren't going to get any noticable difference in music between different Blu Ray players and so just concentrate on which ones will give you the image quality, speed, noise, features etc you want.

On some AVRs you can setup an equaliser (rather than just treble and bass) but others just have a number of preset ones. Generally any with a room EQ system/ auto setup you don't really want to be playing with it too much as the AVRs engine adjusts everything to factor in your room and starting to play with it can create undesired results.