Good start point? Advice or general reassurance needed!!

[admin_exported]

Hello there

I've got a couple of questions I'm hoping some of you can help me out on. And please, bare with me on the absolute novice queries....

This will be my first home cinema set up and I've got my eye on a couple of separates so far. Namely the Denon 1910 or Sony DH800 receivers, and either the Q acoustics 2000, Jamo A102HCS5 or the newly reviewed Boston Acoustics speaker package. But herein lies the issue; I have no idea weather to get a DVD player or Blu Ray player, and haven't even started looking at TV's yet! I don't know much about Blu Ray or indeed upscaling DVD players. Am I correct in saying that upscaling is basically a way of improving picture quality to near Blu Ray quality?

My room is approx 35msq, and I would mostly be using the set up for movies and general TV viewing, but would also like a decent sound for music. The only real restriction on speakers is, no wall brackets.

As I'm sure you can tell, I'm taking most of the information off WHiFis Best Buy's, which is a good place to start I reckon. But my budget is somewhere between the budget and mid range systems. I'd like to spend a little more on the speakers than anything else, but am concerned that I'll be missing out on so much by not matching them with an amp or TV of equal or better quality. But unfortunately something has to give.

Another issue I have, and this one is causing me quite a headache. I will shortly be moving to Sweden, but I want to buy the items in the UK, and have them shipped over. My concern is the handling of items during transport and any warranty issues I may have outside of the UK. I don't plan on tampering with any of the plugs (my paranoia over the warranty again!), so will using an adaptor affect the quality of viewing at all (apologies if this is a very stupid question!)?

I've spent so much time looking at products, and trying to get up to date with the latest specs and technology that I'm starting to doubt some of the basic knowledge I had. And to be honest with you, I just can't keep up.

I have also started a similar thread on the HiFi board as I'm planning on doing the same with a new stereo system, so apologies if you have also read something like this on there!

As always, any help will be greatly appreciated.

Cheers.

Jaimie

 

[davejberry]

The kit you have mentioned so far is a good starting point, you will have to audition it to make a choice as everyone's tastes are different. I prefer the sound of my Sony amp to that of Denon but, each to his own. Most of my kit was brought to Spain from the UK and the majority of it has detachable mains leads so no issues with 'plug changing' or using adaptors, you just replace the leads.

You have to buy a blu ray player! In my opinion, the picture from blu ray is so much better than from DVD and a lot of the recommended blu ray players upscale DVDs very well if you have a large collection.

I suggest you get to a dealer and audition a few configurations. Keep all the boxes and get all the warranty paperwork filled in and sent off while you are in the UK. I am sure that most manufacturers would honour the warranties even if you move abroad.

 

[Anonymous]

Cheers Dave. Thanks for the prompt reply. I think a Blu Ray player is a must also, I just can't get my head around all the outputs, audio decoding and making sure I match correctly to an amp.

 

[f1only]

Mostly, its dependant on your budget.

Home cinema is a cheap as you want to make it.

You will need A/V Amp, Denon, Sony, Pioneer or Onkyo is a good choice, newer 3D models available in the next few months

Blu Ray player is a lot down to personal choice check reviews & there are some new models coming or are just available with 3D, all upscale to 1080p

Speakers, well thats very individual, i would advise you listen & watch everything before purchase with the equipment you intend buying preferably at home.

Dont forget either to add in the cost of cables ( HDMi & Speaker )

Enjoy

 

[bigboss]

Godriah:

Am I correct in saying that upscaling is basically a way of improving picture quality to near Blu Ray quality?

No, upscaling merely means that the picture is 'expanded' to fit your big TV (pixel-wise, that is). DVD is 576 lines, which is then 'upscaled' to 1080 lines of a full HD TV.

 

[Anonymous]

Right, thanks Bigboss. So does that mean that ultimately then the upscaled picture quality is in, or near, HD quality? I've also been reading reviews of the TV's in this months WHifiM (off topic, sorry!) and have read that some of them have motion issues. Does this mean that moving images on screen appear to stutter? This amazed me as I can't notice any motion problems on my 21 inch goodmans!? Again apologies for the ingnorance. Or do I just have untrained eyes!!!!

Thanks again.

Jaimie

 

[bigboss]

You won't notice any difference on a 21-inch screen, because the upscaling image has to fill only a small screen. The difference is more noticeable of screens larger than 32 inches, & much more apparent on screens above 40 inches.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_scaler#Upscaling.2Fupconverting_DVD