completely confused with AV home cinema set-up

[admin_exported]

Hi all.

I am looking to buy my first AV receiver and am completely confused.

I have the following equipment i want to hook up to the as yet un-bought AV amp and 5.1 speakers.

Sony PS3 (BD player)

Xbox 360

Nintendo Wii

DVD player (std def HDD/DVD recorder)

Sky + (Not HD)

Samsung 1080p 40" TV

I have (i think Narrowed) it down to the following Sony units STR-DA2400ES or STR-DG820, Sony mainly because of the good deals available and i know they both rate highly in what HI-FI.

My biggest concern is will all my gear connect to either of these?

Is there any advantage of going for the STR-DA2400ES over the STR-DG820 apart from 1080p upscaling and digital audio?

Any help would be good as i have only ever had an all in one box connected to a DVD before and getting seperates i know is the only way to go with this amount of tech...But what seperate

Any advice/help is appreciated

 

[Anonymous]

anyone?

 

[d4v3pum4]

The 2400ES will have better build quality, more features/connectivity and better components which will ultimately lead to better sound quality. The 820 is a budget amp and serves a purpose but not for me, I'm afraid. I would also look at the Denon 1909 and Yamaha 763 models. Both are well regarded in this price range. I would forget upscaling as a feature at this price point, the scalers involved are no better than the ones in your TV or source but unfortunately the budget amp market is as competitive as ever, so the manufacturers incorporate these features to try and lure you away from the other brands.

One feature that may prove useful is upconversion. The 820 lacks this. This particular feature would enable you to connect your various sources to the amp via video as well as audio connections. The amp would convert the non hdmi sources e.g. s-video from sky+, component video from your wii and Xbox 360 (although you didn't specify which model of 360 you have) and convert them to a single hdmi output to the TV. This is obviously convenient, particularly if you're chasing cables in walls etc.

The best video output from sky+ is SCART (set to RGB in the picture settings menu) and in order to use this you would have to connect directly to the TV or convert the RGB output to component and connect via the amp. The converters cost around £60 plus the cost of the additional cable. Some people have said that the s-video output is good enough to use and then route both audio (optical) and video (s-video) via the amp. If you don't have the component video (red/blue/green) cable for the wii, I suggest you get one. The component video output is vastly superior to the composite video (yellow + red/white) output.