Help a luddite get the most from Home Cinema

[admin_exported]

Okay I think I have a pretty good bit of home cinema kit (thanks to you guys) and an ok TV. Not really interested in upgrading. But I don’t use this to its full potential. I use the Home Cinema for listening to music in CD format, freeview in the TV and watching DVDs.

Home Cinema Kit - already have 5.1 KEF 2005.3 and Arcam DV35 & Arcam DiVA AVR300 AV RECEIVER, Samsung HD ready 42 inch TV.

I know you can watch TV from the internet and have lots of music in an MP3 or equivalent format, I don’t do any of this. I know it is the way things are going. I don't even own a PC or Mac, nor an MP3 player, or anything remotely gadget-like. Although I do have wireless broadband in the house.

I have a second sitting room with another 42 inch TV, no home cinema, but a mid 1990s Hifi system (Marantz CD 63SE, Kenwood KA 3060R + an equally old tape deck and record player gathering dust)

Ideally I would have everything linked up, be able to take music to both rooms, minimal number on remotes ideally a nice clear display.

A friend has his music through Apple TV and can scroll through the music on his iPhone, it displays on the TV and plays through the home cinema. As you can probably tell I am not remotely technical but it all looked amazing to the untrained eye.

Can you help me with some sensible options of what I need to do to get the most out of the kit I already have and what I need to do drag myself into this century?

I don’t have a budget, but would quite like to spend as little as is sensible. Quite happy to save if need be.

Cheers

 

[Anonymous]

Interesting, why would you have wireless broadband if you don't own a computer?

You'll need to start there I think as this is really THE most important gadget of the 21st century and will give you access to online video, streaming and MP3's all in one go.

Once you had this, you could then look at sharing that music via Apple TV, Sonos, Squeezebox or other such devices.

 

[kinda]

Assuming with the internet TV you're talking about iPlayer and similar. Some of the new BluRay players are supporting this now and might be worth looking at. Otherwise a computer is probably the best bet. You'd need one in each room where you want to watch it.

I'd go for a small PC like the Acer Aspire Revo rather than the Apple TV which is a bit older now and has some limitations,

Music I'd go for Sonos especially if you want to synchronise music between rooms, and may want music in further rooms later. Can be controlled via iPod Touch using a free app. Sonos is very easy to use if you're not computer literate.

However, you can also play music from a computer with iTunes or XBMC, controlling it again with an iPod Touch, so if you don't need the multi-room benefits of the Sonos and are planning to have computers in each room for video then this might be a good option.