Choosing a Home Cinema system

[Ferengo]

Ok, So I posted about the disaster that was my last attempt to buy into the world of 5.1. I had no idea what I was really buying.

So I'm putting it to you guys, if I want a 5.1 setup in my living room for my TV, V+, PS3 and Xbox then what should I go for?

I have HDMI on all the Devices, 3 HDMI inputs in my TV with one optical out and the PS3 has optical out.

My budget is pretty entry level for just now £200-£300. If I like this what I'll probably do is swap it to my second TV and get a better system for the main TV. For the moment though I don;t wanna spend a huge amount on something I may not like.

Any help would be great.

[Gismo]

Alrighty, The Dogfather posted up for someone a while ago, i'd try and search but for me in West Africa it takes about 5 mins to post, so, probably by the time i've done this one someone will have replied

Anyway, forget the optical side of things, HDMI takes care of all that.

Do you have speakers? if so, then it's easier, also, are you gonna use the PS3 for blu ray, if so, then even easier

What you need is an amp that supports the ohms on your speakers and it's up to you if you go for a 5, 7 or even 9 channels on the amp.
I would suggest at least a 7 channel amp, Dogfather linked to a Yamaha amp and at the time i looked it was incredibly good value.

The amp will need as many inputs as you have device outputs, you will only need to connect to one input on your tv from the output on the amp.

Simples
Providing you dont need speakers then you should easily be in the ball park, even if you take the speakers off your LG home cinema thingy, you could connect the LG as well but you'd be defeating the purpose because the amp will provide all the scenarios you need.

Hope that helps

[Ferengo]

Cheers, Gismo. Haven't got any speakers and DHL picked the LG unit up today to go back to Amazon. But yeah am planning on using the PS3 as the Blu-ray.

Regarding the inputs in the amp. Would I not just need an optical in? If I ran all my devices into the TV via HDMI, then could I not just output them via the optical channel on the TV?

Had a look for the thread from the Dogfather but couldn't find it.

[Andrew]

If no one pops up soon with a reply you could always try avforums.com.

I always look there if I need advice / reviews on electronic stuff.


Andrew

[Gismo]

Regarding the inputs in the amp. Would I not just need an optical in? If I ran all my devices into the TV via HDMI, then could I not just output them via the optical channel on the TV?

Hmm, you're gonna struggle to get an amp and a decent set of speakers for your budget.
Be a shame to cut back on something to get what you want, your system will only sounds as good as the parts allow and a decent set of speakers will play what you can output to them

If you go the amp route then you won't need any optical connections, the HDMI will carry all signals.

I'm maybe not understanding what you're trying to achieve, to get your 5.1 you need an amplifier of some description and this will acept your devices and then you simply connect one HDMI to your tv.
Typically on the low end amps you only get one optical in, therefore you'd constantly be changing the optical cable from whatever device you are gonna use.

You'd kinda be defeating the purpose of getting speakers then connecting your devices to the tv and running only an optical cable to your amp.
Sorry mate, you're gonna have to dig a bitty deeper into your pocket to get started off methinks.
Don't forget, HDMI cables aint all that cheap and you need a few of them

[Ferengo]

Hi Gismo.

You're probably right regarding the budget. I think it stretches to a half decent Cinema DVD system but for what you're talking about I will have to dig deeper, but I think I will get the benefit. I should point out though I won't need anything with a huge amount of wattage or volume as my living room isn't that big.

So the amps can take HDMI in then process it out to the TV? I did have the LG setup hdmi into the TV and optical out the the LG and it outputted the surround sound correctly. Some people said that isn;t possible but other said it was, guess it may be down to how the TV output? I have enough HDMI's for each device so would only need one for the output of the amp.

AV forums can be a great site. They helped me when I thought there was something wrong with my TV or PS3 as I could not here a word audibly during the Dark Knight. Turned out everyone was having this problem. I borrowed a mates 5.1 to see if it would help but it didn't. Can be a little hard to find what you are after on there though.

I'll google the home cinema amp thing and see if I can find anything and have a look into tall boy speakers to go with it, along with a center and sub. In the meantime anyone know of any amp to look at so I can get an idea of what I'm looking for?

All this just so I can hear Chris sneaking up on me with a knife on MW2

[euan]

Now, I'm no expert in this field, however I was looking to replace my setup for a while (still will eventually) and these were tempting:

http://www.richersounds.com/product/.../jamo-a102-blk

I was just going to hook my PS3 into it and use that for DVD/Blueray/gaming, I was less worried about hooking it up to Virgin though.

[Ferengo]

Now, I'm no expert in this field, however I was looking to replace my setup for a while (still will eventually) and these were tempting:

http://www.richersounds.com/product/.../jamo-a102-blk

I was just going to hook my PS3 into it and use that for DVD/Blueray/gaming, I was less worried about hooking it up to Virgin though.

Funny. I was just looking on their site at 5.1 amps as it was one of the first results in Google.

[Ally S]

Hi Gismo.

So the amps can take HDMI in then process it out to the TV? I did have the LG setup hdmi into the TV and optical out the the LG and it outputted the surround sound correctly. Some people said that isn;t possible but other said it was, guess it may be down to how the TV output? I have enough HDMI's for each device so would only need one for the output of the amp.

Try it the same way I have mine.

Connect the V+, PS3, and Xbox into the TV with HDMI.

Connect the TV to the AMP with the optical out from TV. Optical is fine because you don't need to carry the video signal to the AMP.

The added benefit of this is that you don't need to change channels on the AMP.

[Ferengo]

Try it the same way I have mine.

Connect the V+, PS3, and Xbox into the TV with HDMI.

Connect the TV to the AMP with the optical out from TV. Optical is fine because you don't need to carry the video signal to the AMP.

The added benefit of this is that you don't need to change channels on the AMP.

Hi Ally. That's exactly the setup I had. No problem other than the lag from the LG unit. turns out it was the unit as I tested a DVD in the unit itself and it outputted with a lag even though it was direct DVD home cinema to speakers.