please help with my av setup

[admin_exported]

dear sirs , looking for some help in sorting out my av amp set up and buying a blu ray. up grading my tv to a 50inch plasma panasonic tx p50v20b. i have a harmon karden avr505 limited edition amp with no hdmi input.... it has optical and coaxial digital inputs and dont know how important it is to now have hdmi on your amp for hd blu ray discs. i also do not have a blu ray player yet. my speakers are mission and infinity. would like to know is it worth replacing my amp. my plan was to plug everything direct to my tv hdmi then take one digital output from the plasma to my amp? dont really understand why av amps have video inputs is it just so the amp acts as a big switcher? is it not better to go direct to the plasma from say your blu ray? at the moment i am happy with 5.1 surround. would be spenting 1600 on the screen and would be happy to spent around 500 on a blu ray if you could advise me on what would be best to get the best from my panasonic screen ? many thanks for yor help..... oh and is it worth buying good hdmi cables?

 

[Anonymous]

no need to spend £500 on a blu-ray player, buy a sony bdp-s370 for £100 and buy a decent avr, like the denon 2310 which can be had for around £450 right now, it was an £800 amp earlier in the year...

 

[Anonymous]

oh, theres no need to buy expensive hdmi cables either, the cheap ones are fine..

 

[simonlewis]

You need to plug everything blu-ray player ect. to your amp not to your tv or you won't get the hd sound.