[DPB1]

I am after some advice for a Home Cinema system for use with SKY HD.

I have an LG 37LD490 TV and Sky HD at present and am looking at getting an all in one Home Cinema system (Under £200). I have 2 questions -

1) Can this TV accept Home Cinema for use with Sky HD ?

2) What do I need to look for in a system (ie Outputs/Inputs etc) ?

Many thanks for any help anyone give.

[chrisjr]

The important thing with any Home Cinema system is whether or not it has enough inputs compatible with all the bits of kit you want to hook up to it. And that it has an output compatible with the TV you are using.

In your case you need two optical digital audio inputs (one for the Sky box and one for the TV) and an HDMI or SCART output to send pictures from the built in disk player to the TV.

However most cheap all in ones don't have many inputs so that may be where you fall down with a budget of only £200. You might find there is only a single digital audio input for example. In some cases there may not even be that!

If you only ever watch TV via Sky and never ever use the TV's built in tuner then you could get away with just connecting the Sky box to the Home Cinema system. as you would only need a connection from the TV if you did watch TV via it's own tuner.

Personally I would never buy an all in one as there are too many compromises for my liking. I would far prefer to spend the money on separates. However you are very unlikely to get a new separates system for under £200 quid.

[Deacon1972]

I agree with chrisjr in regards all in ones, too many compromises.

Add another £50 and you could get a Pioneer HTP701, it's about as good as it gets at this price for a complete package.

You could go for a Onkyo TXSR309 Receiver and Pioneer S-HS100 Speaker Package, about the same price but has a better receiver IMO.

If you want to add a Bluray these start at around £50-£60 taking the total to about £300.

[chrisjr]

Just been having a quick look on Richersounds website and can't see any all in ones that have two digital audio inputs to allow you to connect the TV and Sky box up for less than about £300. There are a few around the £250 mark that have a single input which would do if you only need the Sky box playing through the Home Cinema.

Though if you are stretching the budget to 300 quid I would go with a separates system as suggested by Deacon1972. You are likely to get a more versatile system and more than likely a much better sounding one.

Plus you avoid the pain of all all in ones, what to do when it breaks or you get the upgrade bug. If the disk player in an all in one breaks then you lose the amplifier bit as well when you send it off to be mended. With separates you can at least watch Sky TV in surround sound while the separate player is being fixed.

Also if you want to upgrade an all in one the only real option is chuck the whole thing away and buy a new one. With separates you just change the bit you want to change. So spreading the cost of a total system upgrade should you want to do that.

[DPB1]

Many thanks for your replies so far -

I have looked on the Richer Sounds website and seen the Yamaha YHT196 for £179.95.

It has 2 optical inputs and HDMI 3 in and 1 out. Most of my TV is watched through SKY HD.

Forgive my ignorance but how would this be connected- ie Sky to Yamaha and then Yamaha to TV ? - How would DVD's or TV be put through this system or would that not work ?

As I state I do not know much about how Home Cinema systems are connected through various components.

Thanks again.

[Deacon1972]

Originally Posted by DPB1

Many thanks for your replies so far -

I have looked on the Richer Sounds website and seen the Yamaha YHT196 for £179.95.

It has 2 optical inputs and HDMI 3 in and 1 out. Most of my TV is watched through SKY HD.

Forgive my ignorance but how would this be connected- ie Sky to Yamaha and then Yamaha to TV ? - How would DVD's or TV be put through this system or would that not work ?

As I state I do not know much about how Home Cinema systems are connected through various components.

Thanks again.

I did notice the Yamaha System, but thought the Pioneer or Onkyo system would be better, the speakers let the Yamaha system down IMO.

If that is your system of choice you would connect something like this.

HDMI out on the Receiver to HDMI in on the TV.

HDMI out on Sky HD to HDMI 1 on the Receiver or HDMI in on theTV if you don't want the amp on everytime you watch Sky.

Optical out from Sky HD to Optical in on the Receiver.

If you were to introduce a DVD/Bluray player.

HDMI out DVD/BD player to HDMI 2 on the Receiver.

Sounds/looks complicated but it's very straight forward.

The receiver accepts multichannel audio via HDMI so you would get HD audio from Bluray when available.

[chrisjr]

The Yamaha is an AV receiver and speaker package it has no ability to play disks, as an all in one would. So it needs an external disk player.

The standard means to connect things up is to plug everything into the amp and the amp into the TV. It is easiest to use HDMI for everything. So you plug the Sky box, DVD or Blu-Ray player and any other device you have (eg Freeview recorder, games console etc) into the HDMI inputs on the amp. The HDMI output of the amp goes to the TV.

In that way the amp acts as the source selector for the TV. You just stick the TV on HDMI 1 for example and use the amp to select Sky, disk player etc. The amp processes the audio signals in the HDMI inputs and passes the video on to the TV.

If you want to use the TV's built in tuner through the amp you will need an optical digital audio connection from the output on the TV to one of the inputs on the amp. A complication is that the Sky box does not pass surround sound from channels that use it via HDMI so for surround sound you will also need a digital audio lead from Sky box to the amp. Though that sounds complex it often isn't that bad. I don't know about Yamaha but my Onkyo (and I suspect the one Deacon1972 mentioned) you can set the video source as HDMI and the audio as one of the digital audio inputs on whatever input button you use for Sky. So the amp takes care of selecting the right connections to pass video to the telly and audio to make a noise from the speakers.

Again I'm not sure about the Yamaha but my Onkyo has a multifunction remote so I just use the one remote to control the amp and the telly. Saves faffing about trying to work out which remote control you have to pick up to change channel or adjust the loudness.

[DPB1]

You folks really know your stuff - Many Thanks.

[DPB1]

The Mrs has just thrown a spanner in the works - Says OK to Home Cinema but doesn't want wires all around the room - Which means wireless speaker system - I know that will blow the budget but any suggestions ??

[chrisjr]

Wireless speakers are not truly wireless. Well not unless they use batteries to power the speakers. So you will need mains wherever you mount the speakers. No mains = no speakers basically.

Most systems that I have seen only wireless up the rear speakers as in most cases you can hide the front, centre and sub cabling behind whatever you sit the TV and the rest of the kit on. And there are two basic types. One has a separate amplifier that sits between the speakers with cables to the speakers but a wireless link to the amp. The other type has the wireless receiver and amplifier built into the speaker cabinet, so you need two mains supplies for that type.

The advantage of a separate amplifier is that you can use the speakers that came with the original set so you can guarantee they will match the fronts soundwise. If you use powered speakers from some other maker there is no guarantee they will match the fronts properly and who knows what effect that may have on the sound of the system.

I have never used wireless speakers so can't comment on what may or may not be available. I much prefer to run cables anyway. If I were you I'd be looking to upgrade the wife

If you are careful you can run the cables round the edge of the room and conceal them using the edge of the carpet. Can be a problem if there is a door in the way as you should really go up and over rather than straight across the floor. All depends on where you were planning to mount the rears. If you were thinking of sticking them out in the middle of the floor I suspect SWMBO would object rather more to a couple of mains leads trailing across the floor to power the "wireless" speakers than the speaker cable!

Or did you think "wireless" really did mean no wires at all? As I say only if the speakers use batteries to power them. Which will cost a small fortune keeping them going!

[DPB1]

Would a Soundbar be a better option rather than having speakers around the room ? - This would cut out the cabling problem.

Any thoughts on this ?

[chrisjr]

A soundbar is a neat solution. Though as with basic all in ones you need to check it has all the right connections for whatever kit you want to use with it. Some of the very basic models are somewhat lacking in that department.

An alternative could be something like this

http://www.richersounds.com/product/...y-htx22hdx-blk

It is a 2.1 system and you can easily conceal the cables to the two satellite speakers behind the telly stand if you use a bit of care. But it is a fully grown up AV system hiding in the sub. And when you upgrade the Mrs to Wife Mk2 you can also upgrade this system to full 5.1 surround sound by adding on the optional speaker pack.

[DPB1]

Thanks Chrisjr

I've seen the Yamaha YAS101 at Richer Sounds but note there are no HDMI connections but it has 2 optical inputs. How would this connect to SKY HD, DVD, XBOX360 ??

Cheers

[chrisjr]

An option is to connect everything to the telly and then take the digital out of the TV to one of the digital ins on the soundbar. If you use HDMI for the DVD/Blu-Ray (depending on what you have) then there is a chance it may pass the surround sound audio signal to the sound bar for processing by that.

The Sky box only does surround from the digital audio out not the HDMI so for the full effect you will need a separate audio lead from the Sky box to the second input on the sound bar.

Not sure how many HDMI inputs the TV has so you might have to compromise on one input and use SCART or whatever which would only give you stereo. Might be OK for the x-box though?

So for most sources you use the TV to select what you want to watch and hear. But if you want the full surround sound effect from Sky you would also have to switch inputs on the sound bar. If only the Sky box fed surround up the HDMI you wouldn't have to do that. And of course it depends on the TV being able to pass surround sound from the HDMI ins to the digital out.

If it is anything like my LG it will certainly pass stereo audio. I have a full AV receiver set up so have never tried my TV in surround pass through mode. But from reading the manual it seems it ought to. So there is a chance your TV will pass surround sound from the DVD/Blu-Ray (depending on what you have or get) player to the sound bar.

Though never having heard one of these devices I can't say if the surround effect is worth it. But Yamaha do build some decent kit so it should be better than some Technika rubbish from Tesco!

[bluesguy]

Originally Posted by DPB1

The Mrs has just thrown a spanner in the works - Says OK to Home Cinema but doesn't want wires all around the room - Which means wireless speaker system - I know that will blow the budget but any suggestions ??

How about ,,, http://www.johnlewis.com/231608399/Product.aspx (John Lewis Sound Booster with Bluetooth)

All in one system that fits under your TV...

Connects over digital audio or stereo phono from your sky hd box judging by the connections it lists...

[DPB1]

Anybody got a soundbar and if so are they a good solution.

Any recommendations from folks ?

[XxBlaKOuTZxX]

Originally Posted by DPB1

The Mrs has just thrown a spanner in the works - Says OK to Home Cinema but doesn't want wires all around the room - Which means wireless speaker system - I know that will blow the budget but any suggestions ??

I know that feeling lol my mrs is the same. she gets irate at all the wires from our cinema lol its like spaghetti junction down the back of our tv. A cable tidy could help you out there