Home cinema help

[lochgilp]

Right guys gonna treat myself to a new home cinema system for my new house,, ive just sold my old av reciever and speakers so anyone got a good system for sale or any good links or any recomondations would be more than welcome, it will need to run my ps3 and my sky hd
thanks as always in advance
scott

[Duncan]

How long is a piece of string? lol

Few questions...

1. You starting from scratch then? i.e. you need the whole outfit of amp and speakers by the sounds of it?
2. Do you have an audio side that you need to cater for? i.e. do you have a separate CD player for example that you still want to use or will you just use the PS3 for that?
3. Do you want HDMI connections on the AV receiver? Your PS3 can connect that way but the Sky HD box doesn't - that will connect by optical output for the audio and SCART for the picture so do you want the receiver to have an optical audio input to be able to get the sound through the AV receiver?
4. Budget?

[Steven]

Sky HD gets its picture via HDMI D.

Its basically budget driven Scott, i have a Yamaha av set up which was one of the most recomended one's on the av forums for sub 300 when i bought it but if you got deep pockets they will take your cash lol.

[Duncan]

Sky HD gets its picture via HDMI D.

Ah, cheers - I did wonder! I haven't got the HD box (yet), just the SKy+, and the diagram on the Sky site didn't show an HD connection on the back of the HD box.

Looks like he'll be after an AV amp with HDMI inputs then.

Its basically budget driven Scott, i have a Yamaha av set up which was one of the most recomended one's on the av forums for sub 300 when i bought it but if you got deep pockets they will take your cash lol.

lol, how true!

[spoons]

If you want to be totally confused and bewildered.... go to http://www.avforums.com/

This site discusses and argues over all the latest technologies... it'll leave you never wanting to buy a plasma TV again... or should that be LCD TV.... or maybe the new OLED TV's... damn... upscaling, downscaling, greyscaling, Full HD, HD Ready errr..... THX WTF ??

[Robward27]

#i have a Onkyo surround sound amp on mine (bit old) but still good. The plus points is that it has 2 optical inputs so i can connect my PS3 and Sky HD box and I get surround sound for all programmes and films it sounds amazing. Richer sounds do some good affordable set ups. Depending on the size of your room. You can get up to 7.1 sourround now but i still have 5.1. Visit richer sounds website very helpful and cheap!

http://www.richersounds.com/

[m8internet]

Really depends on how serious you want the system to be and your budget

I have converted one of my bedrooms in to a dedicated Home Cinema room
I had to move my Virgin Media STB and connection, but this was very easy and did it myself, as the room was already wired with a computer in place

The next step was to find out what size of TV was required
The wall would have taken a 60" plasma, but from the THX setup website the recommendation was for a 46" or 50" TV
I found I could get better deals on 50" TVs, after several weeks of comparing
The specification was also for :
at least 2 HDMi
at least 2 SCART (including 1 with bypass)
1 VGA port (for use with computer)
at least 100Hz subfield
1080p scaling
ideally with 24p cinema frame rate (for future upgrading)

John Lewis was doing the LG 50PS3000 for £600 (including their 5 year warranty and delivery) but I missed it by 1 day
Their next batch was £900, so I ordered one from Richer Sounds at £600 and then added their 5 year warranty (extra £60)

I currently have a SONY DVD Home Cinema System, but this does not upscale
I am therefore replacing this with a LG HT5xxTH system, but stocks at the best prices are not available (I have a preorder with b4udirect.com)

Yes, this is a basic setup, but it works for me

[spoons]

I currently have an 11 year old 32" CRT TV with a £50 second hand Sony surround sound system and a £14.95 DVD player from Woolworths...

That will have to do for me as well.... for now .... although..... I have a plan

[MCD]

You dont necessarily need an amp with HDMI inputs if your running sky HD! We recently upgraded from Virgin to SKY and i was loathed to get rid of my Marantz SR7200 which cost close on £1000 at the time, and can still kick it with the best!

Anyway, ive sent the HDMI lead direct to my Plasma, and optic fibre lead direct to the AMP. This way, i ahve normal TV sound on TV speaker. Or, turn that down, flick on the amp, full surround sound. HD channels give full 5:1 output too. ( or happily, 7:1 dont sound bad on it atall)

My current Plasma is brand new, prior to this, the last plasma had no HDMI input, but!! You can still run SKY HD on it. I used a scart lead to component from the SKY HD box straight into the screen. As the screen was still a 1080, it ran the HD channels OK, not fully HD, but better than SD channels!

You could do the same wit h the PS3 as well, HDMI to the screen, and optic fibre to the amp etc!

Depends what you really want? To behonest if your buying from new, then a HDMI input amp is a good idea, but you might find a better powered non-HDMI amp for less money!

And.. if you run out of HDMI plugs... you can always get a decent HDMI switcher from Maplins or the like.

Lastly, if your gonna upgrade the cables, dont bother with the HDMI ones, SKY ones are as good as any out there, unless you a total obssessed AV nut, and stand 3inches from the screen, you wont see any difference! However, sound cabling, now thats worth investing in! You can, and will hear the difference!

Mike

[LJ sxi-nav]

You dont necessarily need an amp with HDMI inputs if your running sky HD! We recently upgraded from Virgin to SKY and i was loathed to get rid of my Marantz SR7200 which cost close on £1000 at the time, and can still kick it with the best!

Anyway, ive sent the HDMI lead direct to my Plasma, and optic fibre lead direct to the AMP. This way, i ahve normal TV sound on TV speaker. Or, turn that down, flick on the amp, full surround sound. HD channels give full 5:1 output too. ( or happily, 7:1 dont sound bad on it atall)

My current Plasma is brand new, prior to this, the last plasma had no HDMI input, but!! You can still run SKY HD on it. I used a scart lead to component from the SKY HD box straight into the screen. As the screen was still a 1080, it ran the HD channels OK, not fully HD, but better than SD channels!

You could do the same wit h the PS3 as well, HDMI to the screen, and optic fibre to the amp etc!

Depends what you really want? To behonest if your buying from new, then a HDMI input amp is a good idea, but you might find a better powered non-HDMI amp for less money!

And.. if you run out of HDMI plugs... you can always get a decent HDMI switcher from Maplins or the like.

Lastly, if your gonna upgrade the cables, dont bother with the HDMI ones, SKY ones are as good as any out there, unless you a total obssessed AV nut, and stand 3inches from the screen, you wont see any difference! However, sound cabling, now thats worth investing in! You can, and will hear the difference!

Mike

good advice there.
I have mine set-up the same. both sky and PS3 are connected to the TV via HDMI and to the AV Rec via optical (PS3) and digital co-ax (Sky).

I also have a PS2 and Wii connected via component cables to my AV Rec - and a component output from the AV Rec to the TV.

This set up allows the sound to come from either the TV or amp.

I'd also recommend Richer Sounds - they have some good systems for good prices. My Yamaha (RXV357) came from them on offer a good few years ago, and I will be going back when I need to replace it. It has no HDMI inputs, but with optical and co-ax inputs I can stil enjoy 5.1 sound and it is quite a capable bit of kit.