ALL THE GEAR AND NO IDEA!!!!!

[admin_exported]

i have just purchased a pioneer 500m which i hope will be delivered in the next 2 weeks and i have sky+ and a ps3, i am looking at buying a onkyo tx-876 amp and some q acoustics 1010i 5.1 speakers. firstly i hope these are good choices as this is my first home cinema, also i have purchased the following cables and wires :

2 x QED qunex hdmi cables

QED sr75 optical cable

QED svs svideo cable

i hope these are good choices as well

these cables come with the onkyo amp that i am looking at: 30m QED original speaker cable

10 gold plated 4mm plugs

Being an avid follower of this site for the last few months, i know there is alot of helpful and knowlegdeable people on these forums i was hoping that someone could help me and give me a step by step idiots guide to setting my first new home cinema system up. any help would be grateful. thanx.

 

[Anonymous]

also i will be connecting my pc to the tv

 

[up the music]

I'd expect you'll get the wiring sorted with the manuals with your TV and amp for guidance.

There may be some problems getting aspect ratios and surround sorted though. I think you'll get loads of help with that when the time comes.

You may want to consider 20 banana plugs to wire each end of the speaker cables, though you can do without them.

Consider too a mains block such as the Tacima.

Is a sub cable included in the Q Acoustics package or might you need extra speaker cable and banana plugs to use the high level in/outputs on the sub?

Have you any need for speaker stands?

Bear in mind I'm really a 2 channel stereo person but what you've got (coming) looks good to me.

 

[up the music]

jimmygolf:also i will be connecting my pc to the tv

Do you have an optical or coax out you can use from the PC to one of the digital inputs on the amp?

You will get better sound using a digital output, otherwise you're probably stuck with a 3.5mm mini headphone to 2 phono cable.

If you're using USB, Maplin do a USB/Optical converter box for £18. Add an optical and USB cable and you're set. If you can afford an MAudio transit or better that'd be good.

 

[Anonymous]

Hello there

If it's not too late, I'd consider investing in a different combination of speaker package and receiver. They're fine products in their own right, but are mismatched here: the Onkyo is simply far too capable for the speakers. If you're settled on the former, I'd consider a bigger, better speaker package: at least KEF KHT3005SE quality, and ideally better still. In fact, the Onkyo could be used with most speaker packages of up to £4000 with few problems.ÿ

If it's the Q Acoustics kit you're more interested in, a cheaper receiver will be more than adequate. The Sony STR-DA2400ES, at around £400, would be fine. Perhaps you could put some of the money saved towards a dedicated Blu-ray player, or towards upgrading your Sky+ box to Sky+HD status - or both.

Cheers

Andyÿ

 

[Andrew Everard]

Agreed with AK, unless you're planning a serious speaker upgrade in the very near future. But then I do run a TX-SR875 into around £7000's-worth of speakers, and it's not outclassed...

 

[D.J.KRIME]

What is the S-VHS cable to be used for? If it is for your Sky box then I strongly recomend upgrading your Sky+ box to Sky+HD as your TV and eyes will both benifit from the far superior PQ.

 

[Anonymous]

no i have not purchased the amp and speaker package yet, i originally wanted the best buy yamaha 863 amp but it seemed to be sold out everywhere and i got offered the onkyo 876, 1010i, speaker cable, 5m sub lead and other leads for £1085 which i thought was a bargin! the reason i chose the amp was for the picture upscaling (hope im right on that and not sounding more stuipid) the set up is going in my bedroom and wont be played over loud but i thought buying the 1010i would be a inprovement over the standard pioneer krp side speakers and because i wanted to connect my pc to the tv the 500m was the only option and that did not come with the seperate media box so a amp was a must as i am wall mounting it and want my system looking neat, i was not going to originally buy any amp or speakers i was going to buy a sony lcd and that was that, but after the issues the set has had i did not want to take the risk.

yes the svideo cable is for the sky+ box.

 

[D.J.KRIME]

jimmygolf:

yes the svideo cable is for the sky+ box.

Cancel the cable and call Sky, pay them the £49 for the HD box!

The benifits will be so clear to see and not only with the HD content.

 

[Big Aura]

that's a big system for a bedroom (unless you're going to feature on MTV's cribs at some point?!).

 

[Anonymous]

i know its a bit over the top but i watch most of my tv in my bedroom.(i find it more comfortable)

 

[D.J.KRIME]

jimmygolf:

i know its a bit over the top but i watch most of my tv in my bedroom.(i find it more comfortable)

Apparantly so does the Home Secretary's Husband

 

[Big Aura]

Have you seen the Home Secretary?

 

[Anonymous]

i was going to purchase the speaker and amp today! Is it a bad choice?

 

[Anonymous]

slight change im now getting 30m of QED silver anniversary speaker cable, QED subwoofer cable and 20 gold plated banana plugs. (hopefully better choices)

 

[Messiah]

Andrew Everard:Agreed with AK, unless you're planning a serious speaker upgrade in the very near future. But then I do run a TX-SR875 into around £7000's-worth of speakers, and it's not outclassed...

At what point would you know if it was outclassed??

 

[Anonymous]

jimmygolf:
no i have not purchased the amp and speaker package yet, i originally wanted the best buy yamaha 863 amp but it seemed to be sold out everywhere and i got offered the onkyo 876, 1010i, speaker cable, 5m sub lead and other leads for £1085 which i thought was a bargin! the reason i chose the amp was for the picture upscaling (hope im right on that and not sounding more stuipid) the set up is going in my bedroom and wont be played over loud but i thought buying the 1010i would be a inprovement over the standard pioneer krp side speakers and because i wanted to connect my pc to the tv the 500m was the only option and that did not come with the seperate media box so a amp was a must as i am wall mounting it and want my system looking neat, i was not going to originally buy any amp or speakers i was going to buy a sony lcd and that was that, but after the issues the set has had i did not want to take the risk.ÿÿ

ÿ

yes the svideo cable is for the sky+ box.

Hi Jimmy,

According to another thread Musicraft in Derby got some 863s delivered this morning. I'd recommend you give Rick over there a call (01332 346284). I don't think he does mail order as a rule (just in case you don't live nearby) but he may well let you organise your own courier. They have Onkyo kit too so it might be worth making the trip to demo the two side by side.

The video processing in the 876 will be largely redundant in your setup. The PS3 does a decent job of upscaling to 1080p but its 576p output is only so so. Because it outputs 576p and not 576i (at least over HDMI) you won't be using the deinterlacing bit of the Reon chip's HQV processing (that's the best bit). As for the Sky box, other owners have reported good results connecting to the 876 via s-video. HQV includes some cleverÿalgorithmsÿfor correcting problems with lower end analogue video sources. Having said that though, the best way to get video out of a standard Sky / Sky+ box is RGB SCART. The 876 (and most other AV receivers) can't handle RGB SCART (aka RGB + Sync), so normally the advice would be to run the SCART connection straight into the TV and the optical cable to the AV receiver. But I don't think the 500M has a SCART socket - you'd need an LX5090 or 500A for that. There are other solutions, but they involve adding convertors which typically degrade the picture quality or external video processors which typically cost a bomb. Upgrading to Sky HD is definitely your best bet.ÿ

The 876 / Q Acoustics bundle you've been offered sounds like decent value for money, but they're poorly matched. I'd be inclined to get a cheaper amp and better speakers (Yamaha 863 + Kef 3005s is a combo that's known to work well), plus a Sky HD subscription. I'd connect everything via HDMI (plus an optical cable for the Sky HD box) and rely on the upscaling built into the PS3 and Sky HD box.

 

[Anonymous]

...Oh and while I might be tempted to pay the extra for a QED HDMI cable to connect the amp to the TV for a longer run, I wouldn't bother for connecting the sources to the amp. I use these throughout my system (2 x 1m from sources to amp and 1 x 3m from the amp to the TV):

http://ukhdmi.com/hdmi-ikuna.php

Over these distances there absolutely no difference between these cables and the QED HDMI-P ones I used to have.ÿAlso, just about any optical cable will do perfectly well.

Spend your money on better speaker cables instead. I use QED Silver Anniversary XT in my current setup. It's aÿnoticeableÿimprovement on the QED Original I started with years ago.

ÿ

 

[PJPro]

Messiah:
Andrew Everard:Agreed with AK, unless you're planning a serious speaker upgrade in the very near future. But then I do run a TX-SR875 into around £7000's-worth of speakers, and it's not outclassed...

At what point would you know if it was outclassed??

When you run it into £8Ks worth of speakers?

 

[Anonymous]

Thanx for the great advice beaverme. im afraid i purchased the amp and speakers today so i am stuck with them! good news thou i did upgrade to the QED silver ann cable and QED sub plug. i was advised by the dealer to set my system up this way:

tv to amp by hdmi

ps3 to amp by hdmi

sky+ to amp by svideo and optical cable

i did not ask about the pc connection

could you please tell me if this sounds right?

also do you know what would be the best settings for my ps3 in my new system as there is lots of different setting available and is there the right settings for the amp or will it set itself to the best settings? (please say it sets it self up)

 

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I'm sure you'll be fine. To connect up your PC your best options are HDMI > HDMI if your PC supports it or DVI > HDMI (plus an optical or multichannel analogue output for audio). As for the PS3, connect it to the amp and go into Display Settings > Video Output Settings and Sound Settings > Audio Output Settings in turn. Select Auto in both cases and it should swap EDID data with the amp and negotiate which resolutions, sample rates, bit depths and codecs are supported. In Display Settings set RGB Full Range to Limited and YPbPr Super White to Off. Then go into Video settings, set BD / DVD Upscaler to Normal, 1080p 24Hz Output to Auto and BD / DVD Audio Output Format (HDMI) to Linear PCM. That's just about it.

 

[Anonymous]

Really appreciate the advice you have given me! its nice to know that there are still people out there willing to help other with nothing in return for them self. (top man beaverme)