surround sound, home theatre and shite like that

[slick]

I'm after something decent sound wise to add to my big telly but its a minefield out there when you start to investigate it, fcuk me looking at some forums you can spend three times as much as the telly is worth just on a sound system which i find a bit crazy, music maybe but not to listen to some movie you have ripped off the internet.

I'm looking for soemthing that can give me that cinema experience in the living room and i don't mean spunk all over the seats, something with a bit of ooomph that won't have the neighbours banging on the wall, I've been looking at getting a western digital HD player as the media player i have cannot play mkv's, which in our terms means HD movies, the WDHD player along with an external hard drive would let me create a nice catalogue of new and classic movies on hand at the press of a button, but i need soemthing decent to listen to them on as i've noticed most films nowadays that are downloaded are nigh impossible to listen to due to them being created for the home cinema market.

I don't want to spend silly money but just want something that will do a decent job for a decent price, even seperates will do considering everything i will be viewing will be from what i have downloaded.

I did create a shortlist but it soon became a longlist with the amount of stuff on the market available at the moment so i won't bother , I'd be very intersted mind to see if anybody has a decent sound system at the moment, I've never had one before so don't worry about the ins and outs of everything , i Just want to know if it does a job and sounds ok, oh and it needs to have dts whatever that is, as from what i've read it seems a necessity.

[AnothrSpacecat]

Would love to help but im a bit clueless, what I can add is that I have an independent amp with 2 main speakers, a central one and a sub woofer. The only useful thing I can add is that through my xbox, pc and tv, everything sounds amazing and it isnt a complete (all in one) system, dunno if it'd be cheaper to build one yourself or not? I never really looked, all my stuff was handed down to me from mates.

The speakers/subwoofer are all Acoustic Energy and the amp that powers it all is labeled Musical Fidelity, thats all I can say about them

The biggest difference I noticed with them when moving to this flat was the sound quality when I bought really expensive cables, I'm sure theres folks on the music forums that spunk over the thought of cables, I've no idea why one sounds better than another but the pricey ones are noticeably better.

[AnothrSpacecat]

I think the best thing to do is to go round your local Comet and ask the bloke to let you hear the different systems they have, decide which ones best, then go home and buy it online

[slick]

thats juts it Spacecat I'm not a Currys or comet man, i used to be b ut got fed up with all the bullshit speal they give so now rely on honest tdp reviews hence the original post, ok so I've ended up with the worlds only black and white digital telly, three tier bunk beds and a slovakian talking book but at least the thought was there.

Tell the truth Spacecat i never thought of using my stereo , can that be done or did u ever mention it, if not where did that thought just come from?
either way i have a decent stereo and would it be possible to use that via nahhhhhh its only phono leads, I'm looking for the hdmi experience, like i say i've been looking for the last fortnight but its a minefield, seperates sound ok but cost a fortune and theres hundreds of bits and bobs to create a system, I think i might be better suited to an all in one system for lazy cnuts as i just want to plug and play with no fcuking about.

[AnothrSpacecat]

if youve got a decent stereo as it is then you probably only need to buy a modern amp with all the right connections for it.

most new tvs will have either a phono or optical outlet for sound, you can connect your tv to the stereo with an optical cable for best quality, might need to fuck around with the sound settings on your tv though?

i prefer the sound from all of my gadgets to feed straight into the amp, i just use the remote to pick whichever i need at the time, i dont trust the sound processes in my tv at all (given that the xbox, cd deck etc will all have their own sound processors fucking around with the sound output, as will the amp, cuts out the middle man in my head)

the only one that uses the optical cable from the tv is my virgin media box, which is normally only used for watching sky sports or shitey tv programs, i dont care if the sound is any good. everything else feeds directly into the amp and so far nothing hasnt worked in terms of sounding surroundy or good

[AnothrSpacecat]

and no i didnt mention it but really my tv is used with the stereo, though its virtually never used as a stereo these days

[AnothrSpacecat]

if you are going to give it a go, id now advise plugging the tv into the stereo and trying everything you want to use with it first, as a quick glance behind mine reveals about 400 meters of cable all in knots.

without going into the specifics of what each do, i actually have 16 cables coming out of the 3 speakers and subwoofer beside the tv, 4 coming out of the xbox, 3 from the cd player, 3 from my desktop (which has 3 going into it too) about another dozen coming from the amp and a rough guess of 6 more all doing something in there. it all looks pretty from the front mind if you can get one tv->stereo youre happy with then go with it

fucking shambles. i thought wireless technology was supposed to end this bullshit?

[ONEDUNME]

Originally Posted by slick

ok so I've ended up with the worlds only black and white digital telly, three tier bunk beds and a slovakian talking book but at least the thought was there.

.

[kompressaur]

Whatever you do dont get something like this slick
LG HT304 Home Theatre Kit - Tesco.Direct

I got a similar thing although for about half the price (cant see the modle) I dont get surround sound off my hard drive. Maybe its the files i have. Ive gave up on surround sound but id be interested in what you plum for.