Dear Group, I should be taking deleivery of my new Samsung LE37R87BDX TV soon. Next thing to get is a DVD Recorder or PVR.

Now, i was thinking about getting a 5.1 Cinema Sound system also. But, after doing a bit more research i've found out (i think) that the Cinema Sound experience will only be noticeable when playing DVD's and not whilst watching ordinary Freeview programs. Is that right chaps? If that's the case it's hardly worth the expense as i only watch a DVD once in a blue moon.

Am i also right in thinking that with the Freview programs the sound is only in Stereo? If that,s the case also, would i be better of getting good stereo speakers instead as i've read that LCD TV speakers aren't that great a quality. Are there such things? See my confusion, but i don't want to fork out on an expensive Cinema Sound system if i'm hardly going to gain any advantage from it.

Many Thanks

Even an inexpensive Pro LogicII system can help with tv stereo and will out class your tv speakers.

Really! Thats interesting to know. But how would such a thing operate? Does it need to be mains powered, and how is the volume controlled?

You are correct, Freeview is not capable of DD5.1, therefore you would only benefit by listening to DVD's.

Not all is lost, plenty of the upto date AV receivers carry DPLIIx, which basically turns the mono rear channels to stereo giving you as near to DD5.1 as you can get with a 2 channel source, it can be very effective, especially with movies.


AV receivers are mains powered and have their own volume.

Speakers are connected to the AV receiver, the receiver powers the speakers via it's onboard amplifiers, the receiver has audio inputs where you can connect external devices like DVD player, Sky/Sky+/Sky+ HD, VCR Freeview etc.

I see, thanks Tommy. Just out of interest, is there some type of 2 speaker system that would just replace the inbuilt TV speakers?

There's a couple of ways you can do this.

If your TV has external speaker connections you could just buy a pair of speakers to replace the TV's onboard speakers, IMO you won't benefit much from doing this as you are still using the TV's onboard amp.

The other option is a stereo amp, something like this...

http://www.richersounds.com/showprod...=CAMB-A1V3-BLK

Then all you would need to complete the system would be a pair of speakers/cables