Newbie Set-up of PS3, HDTV & Amp Questions (sorry, basic stuff!!!)

[admin_exported]

My surround sound kit has been in its box for the last 3 years due to moving house and the new lounge not being the best shape for my kit but am about to haul it all out having ordered a new HD TV. Now, I’m completely out of date with everything so please excuse my ignorance. I’ve searched various forums but thought I’d check my thought process so far is right.

I’ve got a Sony VA333ES amp and matching NS999ES DVD/SACD player which I bought 6 years ago. I’ve got a PS3 which I’m going to use for Bluray (to dip my toe in as it were) and awaiting delivery of a Sony 37W5500 full HDTV. I’ve got a set of KEF 2005 eggs (enough for 6.1 but will only use 5.1 now). Also I’ve ordered Sky+ HD to be delivered.

My DVD/SACD player is now virtually defunct now but will hold onto it if it fits within the new TV stand but think the PS3 (and likely upgrade to a dedicated Bluray player) will basically take its place. Am I right in guessing my existing DVD player when playing standard DVDs, if the TV does the upscaling, will provide a better picture than the PS3; I suppose only testing it will confirm this.

Neither my Amp or DVD player have HDMI but both have S Video & Optical (I presume S Video is useless now).

Now for my questions... ...am I right in the following connection assumptions -:

PS3 to TV – HDMI

PS3 to Amp – Optical

This obviously sends the image & 'standard' sound to the TV and '5.1' sound to the amp (I presume if the amp is not on the TV still receives a sound signal?). Might have to play with the settings.

TV to Amp – Optical

Sky to TV – HDMI

Sky to Amp - Optical

The only item in the set-up which isn’t ‘modern’ is the Amp but does this make any difference as it's only dealing with sound; are there such things as ‘HD Amps’ that improve on sound or, as long as it’s connected correctly, my Amp will cope with what’s thrown at it??? I presume 5.1 is 5.1 no matter whether it’s coming from standard DVD or Bluray???

Sorry to be so basic but as I say I’ve kind of lost my way a bit (and all the connectors have changed!!!).

Roger

 

[professorhat]

Hi Roger, welcome to the forums!

Okay, there's a few points / questions here, so I'll try and work through them:

rogerxp:Am I right in guessing my existing DVD player when playing standard DVDs, if the TV does the upscaling, will provide a better picture than the PS3; I suppose only testing it will confirm this.

From what I can see, this DVD player was well regarded in its day, so possibly yes. However, the PS3 is an excellent upscaler of DVDs in its own right - as you say, the best bet would be to test them both out and see which you prefer. You'll want to hook the DVD player up using the component output.

rogerxp:Now for my questions... ...am I right in the following connection assumptions -:

PS3 to TV - HDMI

PS3 to Amp - Optical

This obviously sends the image & 'standard' sound to the TV and '5.1' sound to the amp (I presume if the amp is not on the TV still receives a sound signal?). Might have to play with the settings.

Yup, that's right. When the amp isn't switched on, you'll have to go into the Audio Output settings on the PS3 and tell it to send sound via the HDMI connection rather than the digital optical connection (and vice versa when going from TV sound to outputting to the amp), but it's not a particularly arduous task.

rogerxp:TV to Amp - Optical

Sky to TV - HDMI

Sky to Amp - Optical

Again, yup, looks correct to me.

rogerxp:The only item in the set-up which isn't 'modern' is the Amp but does this make any difference as it's only dealing with sound; are there such things as 'HD Amps' that improve on sound or, as long as it's connected correctly, my Amp will cope with what's thrown at it??? I presume 5.1 is 5.1 no matter whether it's coming from standard DVD or Bluray???

Blu-Ray does include high definition soundtracks now and there are new encoding formats from Dolby and DTS (called Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD Master Audio respectively) which offer lossless encoding of the original soundtracks. The main difference from the older Dolby Digital and DTS formats is no information is thrown away during the encoding process, meaning the soundtracks contain a lot more detail and thus sound much much better. Think of it the same as listening to a CD or listening to a highly compressed MP3 - the MP3 has thrown information away in order to reduce the file size and thus it doesn't sound as good as the CD. The same is true with the Dolby Digital / standard DTS formats - in order to squeeze the soundtracks on to the DVD disc, a lot of information had to be thrown away. With the extra capacity of Blu-Ray, that no longer has to be done. So although the HD soundtracks are still mostly 5.1, the quality is much better and it sounds much better (believe me!).

Unfortunately, you won't be able to enjoy the HD formats with your PS3 as it requires an HDMI input on your amp (optical just can't carry the necessary bandwidth). However, your amp does have 5.1 multichannel inputs. If you're thinking of getting a standalone Blu-Ray player as well, if you make sure you get one which has multichannel outputs and also has the ability to decode all the new HD formats onboard, you can then enjoy these new HD soundtracks through your current amp.

Hope this helps, let me know if you need any more info.

 

[Anonymous]

Many thanks for the response. I'm glad I seem to be still understanding this updated tech. I've a plan to sell the PS3 and buy a BD80 which I beleive has the necessary analog outputs to go straight into my Amp so given your input might happen sooner rather than later.

I'm toying with changing the centre Kef Egg for a subtle black flat oblong one which will sit infront of the TV better (a centre silver Egg isn't great for asphetics!!!) but not sure whether that is sensible as it could imbalance the system somewhat. That's another thread though...

 

[professorhat]

You're welcome - yup the BD80 will work fine with your amp for HD audio.

 

[Gerrardasnails]

rogerxp:
Many thanks for the response. I'm glad I seem to be still understanding this updated tech. I've a plan to sell the PS3 and buy a BD80 which I beleive has the necessary analog outputs to go straight into my Amp so given your input might happen sooner rather than later.

I'm toying with changing the centre Kef Egg for a subtle black flat oblong one which will sit infront of the TV better (a centre silver Egg isn't great for asphetics!!!) but not sure whether that is sensible as it could imbalance the system somewhat. That's another thread though...

If you are going down the road of updating your system and you have new equipment that you may not be keen on (dvd player and Egg centre speaker), you could sell them and generate a bit more money to buy you what you do want. PS3, dvd player and the 6.1 Eggs could get you a decent amount to pay for the Pana BD player and a speaker system with the nicer aesthetics and better sound.
http://www.petertyson.co.uk/ebuttonz/ebz_product_pages/monitor_audio_r90_r360_av.shtml
http://www.petertyson.co.uk/ebuttonz/ebz_product_pages/monitor_audio_r90_av-12.shtml

 

[Anonymous]

I would consider selling the Sony NS999ES player and PS3. I'm happy with the Eggs it's just that the Centre Speaker never looks right. I think the 2005s still sound pretty good however, as I've said, I'm a bit out of date with things and tech does move on quickly. I was wondering about replacing purely the centre speaker (just to look better) and keeping the rest.

I just don't have spare cash I used to now that I'm married, bigger house, 2 year old daughter and a single income (boo hoo!!!) so have to be careful with lavish things like this but do think the Panasonic BD80 will fit the bill pretty well.

 

[Anonymous]

To quickly relight this thread...

I'm about to order a couple of optical cables and just thought "why am I connecting the TV to the Amp"???

If my PS3/DVD player and Sky+ HD are connected directly to the Amp (via Optical) and TV (via HDMI) what is the need to also connect the TV to the Amp (I never watch terrestrial telly).

Have I over-egged the connections here or am I missing something??

 

[professorhat]

If you never watch terrestrial channels, then you're right, there's not really a requirement if all the other sources are hooked directly into the amp.