Setting up Surround Sound - Help!

[Marky Mark88]

Hi,

The mother in law has just got herself a new Tele. She also has a Freesat HD Box and a DVD Home Cinema System. She can get surround sound to work when playing DVDs but wants to be able to get it to work with the Freesat box. Does anyone have any idea at all how I can do this?

The TV is an Hitachi LED TV-42HXT12U -
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/1...

The Freesat HD Box is a Goodmans GD11FSRHD32 -
http://www.tesco.com/direct/goodmans-gd11fsrhd32-3...

The Home Cinema System is a JVC DVD Digital Cinema System TH-A5R -
http://support.jvc.com/consumer/product.jsp?modelI...

I think the problem might be with the fact that the Home Cinema System is quite old whereas the rest of the equipment is quite new.

If anyone has any ideas how I can connect these together to get the Freesat to work with Surround Sound I would be most grateful.

Cheers,

Mark

[bristolracer]

If the TV has an optical out, then run an optical cable from the tv to the amp.

The amp will then play what ever source is being played on the TV without having to switch inputs on the amp

[SeanyD]

bristolracer said:

If the TV has an optical out, then run an optical cable from the tv to the amp.

The amp will then play what ever source is being played on the TV without having to switch inputs on the amp

That will not do proper 5.1 surround sound when watching a freesat surround sound channel, instead you'll probably end up with Dolby 3/2, which is a 'pretendy' surround sound mode, probably good enough for general TV watching, but not good for movies etc.

Edited by SeanyD on Tuesday 21st January 11:36

[Marky Mark88]

As far as I'm aware, there is no optical out on the DVD Home Cinema System, just the red and white phono connections.

[Oakey]

But what about optical in?

[Marky Mark88]

SeanyD said:

That will not do proper 5.1 surround sound when watching a freesat surround sound channel, instead you'll probably end up with Dolby 3/2, which is a 'pretendy' surround sound mode, probably good enough for general TV watching, but not good for movies etc.

Edited by SeanyD on Tuesday 21st January 11:36

She won't know the difference I doubt, as long as there's sound coming out of the speakers around the room she won't care!

No optical connections of any description on the DVD Home Cinema System, just a Scart, the red white and yellow connections, an S-Video and some other stuff that I have no clue about!

[Marky Mark88]

There is an SPDIF Coax. OUT Connection on the TV though, not sure if that would plug into anything on the DVD Home Cinema?

[bristolracer]

From freesat box Scart output to Red/white/yellow phono adaptor,connect red and white phono leads into aux of surround sound.
Leave the HDMI from freesat connected so set TV to hdmi input and surround sound to aux, hopefully the freesat will still run the scart output when HDMI is connected

Failing that then headphone socket of TV to red and white input of surround sound. (that will cause the TV speakers to mute)

hope that helps

[Marky Mark88]

The back and side of the TV look like this. The yellow socket on the side has a wire that plugs into it which splits into 3, giving the sockets for the red, white and yellow connections:





The back of the Freesat HD Box looks like this:

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/6/00rx.jpg/

The back of the DVD Home Cinema System looks like this:



Hope that helps!

[bristolracer]

The simplest way is a headphone to phono plug lead so from the headphone socket on the tv to the red and white connectors on the surround

http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/nikkai-connect-35mm-twin...

Or from the freesat
http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/nikkai-connect-scart-to-...
and then this
http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/nikkai-pure-connectivity...

into the surround.

Allthough i have linked to maplins you will find these leads quite often in ASDA/wilkinsons and such places far cheaper than quoted by Maplins

Edited by bristolracer on Tuesday 21st January 14:21

[conkerman]

Probably not the most popular option.

Buy an AV reciever and surround speaker kit.

Should have all the connectivity you need.

[Some Gump]

Lol at some of the suggestions, it's like the 300BHP/Ton of the AV world. Get her a massive sub next, she needs one of those.

OP, see those red / white connections marked "aux in" on the surround setup? Connect those to either the freesat box or the TV, whichever is easier. You'll need a "3.5 to 2 phono" if you're connecting to that TV, or a "SCART to Phono" if you're going from the freesat box (you'll only use the red and white connection in this case). This will give her sound from both TV and on surround.

One thing - sometimes there is a setting on both / either TV or freesat box to have the volume adjustable. If you connect to the TV, set it's AUX out to fixed volume if possible, otherwise there's 3 different ways to change the volume (surround, tv, freesat) and it could get confusing. Setting the TV to fixed gets rid of that.

I'd leave the freesat one movable though, so you can just use 1 remote most of the time (the freesat remote). Just make her aware that if you turn the freesat volume down, then the surround amp up (to compensate), you end up with the DVD much louder than the satellite when switching between the 2.



ETA - What bristol said (sorry chap, didn't spot that)

Edited by Some Gump on Tuesday 21st January 14:19

[Marky Mark88]

Thanks for all your help guys, I have bought some wires/plugs so I'll have a crack at the weekend and we'll see what happens!