Surround sound advice

dahamsta

Unfortunately the corking special offer is about out of my league, but it did remind me to ask for advice here, so I guess that might be a win.

I have a Sony KDL40L400 TV, a PS3, a Sky+ box that'll be swapped for a SkyHD box next week, and a crappy old DVD player that will shortly become a crappy old DVD recorder. The audio comes through the TV though, it's time to fix that and I'd like to know what I should be buying. I'm no audiophile but I presume I need a 5.1 system, preferably free standing. I don't have a crazy budget, we'll say €300-500. What should I be going for?

Also, any special offers on DVD recorders at the moment? Has to be cheap, all I need it for is exporting from the Sky box.

Thanks,
adam

Richersounds.ie: Dave

Hi Adam.

Thanks for the post.

Essentally you would be best to look at an A/V receiver, rather than a 5.1 on-box system as the A/V receiver will give you the necessary inputs for the sources that you want to connect.

One of the issues with the one-box systems like the Pioneer DCS585, is lack of inputs and issues with upgrading down the line.

Take a look at the Pioneer VSX819 as a good future proofed A/V receiver as a starter or the Yamaha RXV367 which is a slghtly different alternative as it does not handle high definition audio.

On top of this, an A/V speaker pack is also needed to give you the 5 speakers and subwoofer to connect to the receiver. For a decent speaker package, take a look at the Tannoy SFX 5.1.

This system would come to approx 520 Euro with delivery.

Take a look at this and let me know what you think.

Unfortunately, the days of cheap DVD recorders has passed, but I may have something in clearance if you would be interested. Do you need it to have anything specific, or just a scart input for recording ?

Hope this helps, but let us know if we can be of any further assistance.

ATB


Dave

dahamsta

Hi Dave,

Thanks for the comprehensive reply. Although I'm not averse to spending in that region, it feels like overkill to me. Am I right in saying that this setup requires me to feed the video signals into the receiver via HDMI, and then back out to the TV? Doesn't this add another level of complication to my setup? I already have two remotes because the PS3 is Bluetooth, adding another "change this to this step" sounds like a pain in the ass, and and I'm not sure I'm audiophile enough to tell the difference anyway. Hopefully I'm just understanding it wrong.

Again thanks,
adam

superleedsdub

dahamsta wrote: »

Hi Dave,

Thanks for the comprehensive reply. Although I'm not averse to spending in that region, it feels like overkill to me. Am I right in saying that this setup requires me to feed the video signals into the receiver via HDMI, and then back out to the TV? Doesn't this add another level of complication to my setup? I already have two remotes because the PS3 is Bluetooth, adding another "change this to this step" sounds like a pain in the ass, and and I'm not sure I'm audiophile enough to tell the difference anyway. Hopefully I'm just understanding it wrong.

Again thanks,
adam

Hi Dahamsta,
You don`t necessarily have to feed the video signals through an amp/receiver- you could connect a device e.g. dvd recorder player to the tv via HDMI or scart and for audio, use an optical lead from the device straight through to the amp. But i`d recommend going through the amp via HDMI if you can
As for remote controls, I believe most AV amplifiers have remotes that act as universal remotes - I know my 11 year old sony amp does and has operated my devices for 11 years (to be replaced tomorrow when my new Pioneer VSX819 amp is delivered by Richer sounds:)

Richersounds.ie: John

dahamsta wrote: »

Hi Dave,

Thanks for the comprehensive reply. Although I'm not averse to spending in that region, it feels like overkill to me. Am I right in saying that this setup requires me to feed the video signals into the receiver via HDMI, and then back out to the TV? Doesn't this add another level of complication to my setup? I already have two remotes because the PS3 is Bluetooth, adding another "change this to this step" sounds like a pain in the ass, and and I'm not sure I'm audiophile enough to tell the difference anyway. Hopefully I'm just understanding it wrong.

Again thanks,
adam

Thanks Guys (esp Superleeds!)

Yep Superleeds is coreect - you don't HAVE to connect the video from your sources through the Receiver and then onto the TV - but that is by far, way and above the right way to do it - on a basic level it means that you need less (or one) lead from all your video sources to the TV, it also means that you don't have to keep changing inputs on both your TV and your Audio amp - when you change source on the amp - the TV picture will also change automatically - however the best improvement is the scaling options of most modern receivers will seriously improve the picture from most sources.

I hope this does not serve to confuse even further - believe us - Separates are the way to go - if you ask anyone here or over on the General HE Forum they will give you the same advice!

Thanks again and please drop us a line if we can assist,

ATB,

John Mc & Crew

dahamsta

Fair enough, I'm sold.

On the DVD recorder, as I mentioned all I want to do is export stuff from a Sky box; tried one of the EasyCap things but it was more trouble than it was worth. So yes, a SCART out is all I need.

Thanks,
adam

Richersounds.ie: John

dahamsta wrote: »

Fair enough, I'm sold.

On the DVD recorder, as I mentioned all I want to do is export stuff from a Sky box; tried one of the EasyCap things but it was more trouble than it was worth. So yes, a SCART out is all I need.

Thanks,
adam

Adam,

Thanks for that - I'll get one of the guys searching out a bargain DVDR for you tomorrow,

Thanks again,

ATB,

John Mc

superleedsdub

dahamsta wrote: »

Fair enough, I'm sold.

On the DVD recorder, as I mentioned all I want to do is export stuff from a Sky box; tried one of the EasyCap things but it was more trouble than it was worth. So yes, a SCART out is all I need.

Thanks,
adam

As far as i`m aware the only way to export a recording from a sky box via a dvd recorder is to play the recording through an av channel on your recorder and record it as plays on the channel - if you have alot of recordings then this could be a long process.....
But of course there could be other ways of doing this.....

dahamsta

Thanks John.

You can use the Save option on the Sky box to chain several programs together superleedsclub, and then separate them out again after ripping. TBH the ideal would be something like an EasyCap that actually works, but the info out there on the web isn't exactly confidence inspiring...

Soarer

If you're looking to drop stuff from your Sky box to a dvd, then defo get your hands on a dvd recorder with a built in hdd.

So say you have a few thing you want to copy from the Sky box. It's best to do it at night, as you can do them one after another. And they're done in realtime, so 6 hours of recording will take 6 hours to transfer.

Anyways, to do this, you'd have your VCR scart from the Sky box going into the DVD recorder, and another scart back from the DVD to the tv.
Your Sky signal should come through on one of the AV channels on the dvd, but that's easy to check.
You go into your program planner on the Sky box, and select what you want to copy by highlighting each item and pressing the red (I think) button. This applies the option to copy to the item.
When you've selected all the items, highlight the first one, press select to start playing it, press record on the dvd, and away you go. When the first recording is finished, it will automatically start playing the second one, and so on until the list is finished. It will all come through as one big "file" though.
It's for this reason I suggested getting a hard-drive. If you copy everything to the hdd, you can then cut the file into episodes, remove the ads, rename, add chapters, etc. and when you've that done, you can then drop it onto a disc.

Probably way too much info for you there.

dahamsta

Any news on the DVDR John? I should be good to go next week. (Waiting on a house purchase to go through.) Also, have you any alternatives to the Tannoys, of similar quality? I'm sure they're great but they're ugly as sin. Something with optional stands would be ideal.

Thanks,
adam