home cinema setup

[admin_exported]

hi

so i currently have nailed down my home cinema kit to sony 40w4500 pending reviews and test run, the sony htis100 speaker kit and probably the sony bdp 350 blu ray player depending on the supertest next month,oh and an xbox elite and sky HD.

my speaker syster has 3 hdmi inputs and 1 out.

so sky the blu ray player and the xbox would all fire into there am i correct so far?

and one hdmi would then go from the speaker system to the tv?

any pointing in the right direction would be great.

also can anyone suggest good hdmi cables? i need 4 but dont wanna pay any more that 50quid a cable if possible!

thanks in advance

you forum guys are great!

 

[Alsone]

I'm not familiar with the Sky box but if it has hdmi out then that should be no problem. You seem to have it correct to me, basically everything into the amp and then 1 cable out to carry the processed info to the tv. Switching between sources being done at amp level.

Only disadvantage to this combination is that you can't watch Sky without the cinema sound on as most amps usually need to be on to allow the signal to pass through. Only way around this I could think of would be a switcher box if you tv has 2 hdmi inputs so you can choose to route Sky to the amp for cinema sound or direct to the tv via a switch. However, someone else would have to confirm if this would work, and switches do degrade signal quality a little.

As for HDMI cables around £50, look no further than the QED Qunex HDMI-P, its one of the finest there is, its 5 star What HiFi rated, and a 2m cable will cost around £45, although there's still some debate as to whether or not good HDMI's actually make any difference over cheaper ones.

 

[professorhat]

Alsone:Only disadvantage to this combination is that you can't watch Sky without the cinema sound on as most amps usually need to be on to allow the signal to pass through.
The other way round this is to hook your Sky HD box directy to the TV with HDMI. Since the HDMI cable only carries stereo sound for Sky (a limitation in the Sky box), you need to hook it up to your amp with an optical cable anyway to get 5.1. This way, you can get standard sound through the TV speakers when you want and also 5.1 sound by switching on the amp when you want this.

 

[Anonymous]

so i need to hook it direct from sky hd box to the tv and also with an optical connection from sky hd to my amp as well?

also with regards to hdmi cables why dont people mention 1m lengths? surely that would be sufficient for a system all on one stand.

 

[professorhat]

Hooking HDMI direct to the TV with the optical going to the amp is an option which allows you to have sound coming from your TV as well as from your amp. You can also hook the HDMI into the amp and the optical direct to the amp which allows you 5.1 but also means all the switching is done via the amp (might be easier). Up to you really.
On cable lengths, I normally go for 1.5m or 2m cables even if 1m is enough as it gives me a little freedom to move things around on the rack (e.g. if a new component comes in) without fear of not having enough cable to do this.

 

[Anonymous]

Sorry to barge in on this thread but I have a quick query...

If, as is suggested you hook the Sky to the TV via HDMI and the optical from Sky to Amp, how do you then connect the TV to the amp? Are we assuming that the TV has two HDMI in sockets?

 

[professorhat]

Indeed we are.

 

[Anonymous]

yipes!

so thanks to your tech genius of setting up a quality home cinema system im gonna have to pay for four hdmi cables and a decent optical cable??!!

cheers prof, any chance you can recommend a good optical or will any of the whta hi fi 5 star cables do the job?

thanks for all the help and input people,slowly but surely im learning!

 

[Alsone]

Just go with QED again, you really can't go far wrong and its cheaper, £30 if I remember rightly.

BTW, don't forget to remove the clear plastic boots off the ends. I had all means of a struggle trying to fit mine thinking it was a part of the cable (looks like a small LED when on the QED). Luckily I didn't damage anything but eventually tore mine at one end, thought I'd wrecked the cable, and only then found it came off and the cable fitted without! So much for giving you instructions - sum total = none! Could have wrecked a £30 cable or the amp port but luckily didn't harm either.

 

[professorhat]

Yup, QED cable will be fine for this.