1st HD Home Cinema on a budget

[admin_exported]

Hi, looking for comments and recommendated changes to my purchases before i take the plunge.....

I'm looking to upgrade my current CRT TV (28" Sony Wega Trintron) and DVD player with surround sound (DAR-RD100)

The TV I have no issues with other than it takes up a considerable amount of floor space in my moderate 12x12 living room.

The DVD system i do have issues with, being a budget system it was never up to scratch especially recording from the TV (we have a very reliable Virgin Cable service) the picture having a strange strobing effect that glides across the screen, fortunatly we never had much call to record anything. It also has problems with the occasional disc and often plays movies with subtitles on, forcing me to exit the film and go into the dvd menu to switch them off. But the sound system sounds great (to my uneducated ear lol) and is loud enough to annoy the wife, which is always fun ;-) The surround system connects via an Audio Digital from the DVD Player to the subwoofer which decodes the sound and powers all the speakers (5.1 DTS)

I'm thinking of purchasing the following

Sony KDL-40W4000 40" TV (5stars)

Sony BDP-S550 Blue-Ray Player (5stars)

The TV will be wall mounted on a chimney breast and the BR player, bass speaker and kids XBOX360 will sit in the old fireplace, freeing-up a ton of floor space.

I have yet to find a budget priced HD surround system from Sony, but figure my current speakers will suffice for the time being. The Sony LCD having a Digital Audio Out socket.

I have an extensive DVD collection (300+ movies) so i dont want to replace all of them with blue-ray, but will be purchasing BR discs once the system is up and running.

Any thoughts, comments would be appreciated before I spend my hard earned cash

Many Thanks

GregZebidy

 

[Messiah]

The TV and BD player will certainly be a good match.

Your DVD system will do until you upgrade it but I am concerned about sticking the sub in a chimney breast. I am pretty sure it will have a detrimental effect on the sound it produces. (Although you might like it!)

If you can, connect the BD player directly to the system as I am unsure if the TV outputs 5.1 audio. (Although it might????)

 

[d4v3pum4]

I personally would go with the cheaper S350 player and free up some funds for your audio upgrade unless you esp. need analogue audio output? I bought one for my parents and it is a great little machine. AFAIK, it will decode all audio formats with a firmware update over ethernet. Have you checked the budget h/c systems such as Sony HT-SF1300 or Sony HT-DDWG800? Both of these can accept LPCM audio over HDMI utilising the BD player's HD audio decoder so you would get the new HD audio formats. The speakers on the 800 system could be upgraded later, the ones on the 1300 cannot as the unit/speakers are low impedance rated. It really depends on what you call budget, you could easily get the Sony 820 amp and some budget speakers for a few quid more.

 

[Anonymous]

d4v3pum4: you could easily get the Sony 820 amp and some budget speakers for a few quid more.

Or buy the 820 Amp and just keep the current speakers initially, assuming the sub can operate in such a configuration. Worst case, buy a budget sub too.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the help, will still be purchasing the tv n br player's listed but will wait until they are up n running before looking into the sound sysems.

again, many thanks