£1000 for Cinema system for my School Classroom

[crocandy]

Hi, I'm looking to purchase a new system for my classroom (approx size 4m by 8m). I have a large Interactive Whiteboard and a projector (not a specific cinema projector) and use my laptop as a dvd player. I cannot decide to go for something like an all in one system stright out of the box or to purchase seperates. I run a film club once a week and at the moment we have 2 tiny speakers and no sub woofer. I would need the system to connect to my laptop so that i can play music and internet clips and assuemd this would not be a problem if i use the hdmi connection on the computer. My main problem was that when i looked at the all in one systems the speakers seemed fairly small and i was concered that the sound maybe lack a bit of base. I know this is probably an unusal request for help but kind of assuemd it might be like getting a system for a large front room. Any advice you can provide would be grately appreciated.

 

[John Duncan]

Hi again crocandy

Should be perfectly feasible within budget to get a nice receiver and full size speakers, which is probably advisable in a biggish classroom.

My first question, however, would be about your laptop - what is it? Many older laptops don't do audio over HDMI so want to make sure you can do that before we send you down a particular route.

 

[crocandy]

TBH if i could get a dedicated dvd player id prefer that. I'll cehck laptop tomorrow as I do not have it with me but i would guess it is not capable of producing sound via hdmi.

 

[Son_of_SJ]

TBH if i could get a dedicated dvd player id prefer that.

I really hope that you mean a dedicated Blu-Ray player, which of course will also play DVDs, especially as depending on exactly what features you need, you can now (prices have come down over the last two years, or you get more for your money than I did when I bought mine!) get a good Blu-Ray player from, for instance, Richer Sounds for £200 or less.

 

[John Duncan]

TBH if i could get a dedicated dvd player id prefer that.

I really hope that you mean a dedicated Blu-Ray player, which of course will also play DVDs, especially as depending on exactly what features you need, you can now (prices have come down over the last two years, or you get more for your money than I did when I bought mine!) get a good Blu-Ray player from, for instance, Richer Sounds for £200 or less.

Indeed, or even £100 or less. If that's the case, I'd be looking at Richer Sounds package deals and adding a Sony BDP-S380. I'd probably go for the Sony 820 with either the Wharfedale or Q Acoustics packages. With your budget and the same player you might even fancy some of their premium deals on that page like the Yamaha/KEF combo.

 

[richardw42]

OP. Do you want DVD or blu ray. If blu ray is of no importance to you, I'd pick up a capable but reasonabl cheap DVD Plauer.

You will then have a very big chunk of you budget left for amp, speakers + cables.

Also think about how many speakers you want in the classroom and the subsequent cabling that comes with those speakers. Do you want surround, if you're not too fussed, even more to spend at the front. Is a sub woofer feasible ?

Id consider all this, if you haven't already as I'd guess your specific requirements aren't quite the same as ours in our living rooms.

 

[richardw42]

Has your project got a HDMI input ?

 

[crocandy]

Thanks for the replies.

1) Projector does not have HDMI but laptop does play sound via HDMI tested it at home.

2) Bluray DVD would be prefferable rather than standard DVD. However, we tend to watch DVDs as Filmclub is sponsored by Lovefilm, but as of yet they only send out standard DVDs (still no harm in futureproofing). I think this is why my first thoughts were for a 1 box kind of solution.

3) Subwoofer is an option as some of the classrooms have a 2 speaker system with a subwoofer kind of a deal.

4) I'll have a look at Richer sounds as i thought of £500 Speakers, £300-£400 amp rest for wire etc. The main bonus for me as we do not have to pay VAT so this may stretch the budget a little further. Has anybody had any experience with soundbars as they may reduce the amount of wires and wall mounts etc?

 

[crocandy]

Thanks for the replies.

1) Projector does not have HDMI but laptop does play sound via HDMI tested it at home.

2) Bluray DVD would be prefferable rather than standard DVD. However, we tend to watch DVDs as Filmclub is sponsored by Lovefilm, but as of yet they only send out standard DVDs (still no harm in futureproofing). I think this is why my first thoughts were for a 1 box kind of solution.

3) Subwoofer is an option as some of the classrooms have a 2 speaker system with a subwoofer kind of a deal.

4) I'll have a look at Richer sounds as i thought of £500 Speakers, £300-£400 amp rest for wire etc. The main bonus for me as we do not have to pay VAT so this may stretch the budget a little further. Has anybody had any experience with soundbars as they may reduce the amount of wires and wall mounts etc?