Advice for a home cinema virgin please

[admin_exported]

Hi everyone.

I am totally new to home cinema and would really appreciate some advice. I have just bought a new Sony LCD TV and am looking to get a home cinema system to go with it.

I have a budget of no more than £1000.00 and would like to get a blue ray player as well. I would also like the system to play music CD's to a reasonably high standard and have a connection for an ipod.

I know that going down the seperates route is better than buying a home cinema in a box but am not sure if i can get a decent set up for my budget.

All help much appreciated

Thanks

 

[Anonymous]

Have you looked at:

Reciever: Onkyo 606 / Sony 820

Speakers: KEF KHT1005 / Tannoy F1

BD player: Sony BDP-S350

 

[Anonymous]

Have had a look round the site and thinking on these:

Sony 820 rather than Onkyo 606, simply because the Sony can be got for £250.00, £150.00 cheaper than the Onkyo.

QAcoustics 1010i package

Sony BDP-S350 (once it comes out)

All in this package should cost me around £950.00 and all of these components have recieved 5 stars in there reviews. I am thinking this would give me a good system that meets my needs. Would i be right?

cheers

 

[Anonymous]

Sounds good... don't forget about cables though...

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks

didnt realise speaker cable could be so expensive. Have thought about the QED silver anniversary XT for my fronts which have a total of 10.5mts to run.

My rears on the otherhand will have around 23 metres total to run. Will i hear much difference if i was to go with a cheaper cable for the rears?

Thanks

 

[Anonymous]

Have you seen the QED Micro? Think you can get it for about £2/m.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks

just found the QED site, micro cable comes in at 1.70 per metre so will use that for my rears.

I will be wall mounting my LCD and recessing all the cabling, with the Sony 820 having four HDMI inputs am i safe just running one high quality HDMI cable up to my TV?

Other equipment i will be connecting to the reciever include SKY plus box, Sony Blue Ray player and games console (probably Nintendo Wii)

Cheers

 

[Anonymous]

That depends on what other equipment you connect in the future. To be on the safe side you could recess 2 hdmi cables and connect one to the 820 and the other to your Sky HD (which would likely give you a better picture). Then you have the hdmi inputs on your 820 spare.

 

[Anonymous]

Dont have Sky HD, just sky plus. The Sky box has a scart connection. Question is what is the best way to connect this to the 820, or would i be better running scart cable direct to TV?

cheers

 

[Anonymous]

Since the 820 can't upconvert you'll need to run a component cable up to the LCD aswell as an HDMI.

 

[Anonymous]

I would use component, but your current scart will be fine, connect it to the TV. Then run the optical from the Sky+ to the 820.

 

[Anonymous]

Totally new to this game so can you explain what upconvert means and what the component cable is for?

thanks

 

[Anonymous]

Component video is the video version of the red and white phono RCA cables you use for audio. With a decent cable you can achieve better results than scart because it is less complex. You could run this to your receiver then to your Sky or straight to your Sky.

 

[Anonymous]

sorry I didn't explain myself very well. The 820 can't take a source such as a Wii connected to it via component, and then pass it on via HDMI. Instead, you'll need to run a component cable to the 820, then another component from the 820 to the LCD.

 

[Anonymous]

Lewis201:Since the 820 can't upconvert you'll need to run a component cable up to the LCD aswell as an HDMI.

Upconversion is usually taking a TV or DVD input like 420p and upconverting it to 720p/1080/i/p, Lewis is right the 820 cannot do this but I don't understand how a component cable will help as the HD signal should be passed by HDMI or DVI, the 820 can pass through any HD signal so if you get another device in the future than can upconvert you can simply pass it through.

 

[Anonymous]

Lewis201:sorry I didn't explain myself very well. The 820 can't take a source such as a Wii connected to it via component, and then pass it on via HDMI. Instead, you'll need to run a component cable to the 820, then another component from the 820 to the LCD.

Ah, correct I forgot about the Wii HD component!ÿ

 

[Anonymous]

Octopo:
Lewis201:Since the 820 can't upconvert you'll need to run a component cable up to the LCD aswell as an HDMI.

Upconversion is usually taking a TV or DVD input like 420p and upconverting it to 720p/1080/i/p, Lewis is right the 820 cannot do this but I don't understand how a component cable will help as the HD signal should be passed by HDMI or DVI, the 820 can pass through any HD signal so if you get another device in the future than can upconvert you can simply pass it through.

That's upscaling, as opposed to upconverting. And the Wii only has component.

 

[Anonymous]

Lewis201:Octopo:
Lewis201:Since the 820 can't upconvert you'll need to run a component cable up to the LCD aswell as an HDMI.

Upconversion is usually taking a TV or DVD input like 420p and upconverting it to 720p/1080/i/p, Lewis is right the 820 cannot do this but I don't understand how a component cable will help as the HD signal should be passed by HDMI or DVI, the 820 can pass through any HD signal so if you get another device in the future than can upconvert you can simply pass it through.

ÿThat's upscaling, as opposed to upconverting. And the Wii only has component.

As I understand it, today, they are the same.ÿ

 

[Anonymous]

Well that wasn't how I understood it, however I could well be wrong. I often am

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks guys, think i am getting the hang of this:

Wii doesnt have HDMI out only component, therefore it has to be connected to the 820 by component.

The 820 cannot take in a signal via component and send it out via HDMI

Therefore to be safe i would be better recessing a quality component cable to my TV also

Back to my Sky plus connection:

The back of the Sky plus box only has a scart connection so can i get a scart to component lead to allow me to connect the sky box to the 820.

Also can you remind me what the optical connection from my sky box to the 820 is for and do i need to connect one from the 820 to my TV also?

Sorry for all the questions guys but i am going to be starting to run cables etc this weekend and dont want to miss anything out.

Thanks again

 

[Anonymous]

1. connect Wii to 820 via component. Then connect your 820 to your tv via component.

2. Sky+ will have component out, so run this to your 820.

3. Optical > 820 for sky sound

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Octopo

just checked the back of my Sky plus box though and no component out.

Has optical out, RF, S-Video, audio R and L and something called RS 232? am i missing something?

cheers

 

[Anonymous]

You could use the s-video but to be honest I've over complicated this, you're scart will do fine!

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks

if i connect sky plus direct to tv with scart and connect optical from sky plus to the 820, do i need to connect an optical link between the 820 and the tv?

cheers

 

[Anonymous]

Nope. Optical's just for the audio.