DVD and home cinema
Discussion
Ok, confused now.
Want to buy a DVD player and have it expandable to a home cinema system (DTS or Dolby Surround sound). Would like to get a combo DVD and Video but doesnt matter.
However, confused as to what supports what. Cant really see any DVDs that support DTS or Dolby out - or am I missing something? Suggestions please...
Confused of Newmarket.
Paul
Want to buy a DVD player and have it expandable to a home cinema system (DTS or Dolby Surround sound). Would like to get a combo DVD and Video but doesnt matter.
However, confused as to what supports what. Cant really see any DVDs that support DTS or Dolby out - or am I missing something? Suggestions please...
Confused of Newmarket.
Paul
pdv6 said: You buy yourself an AV-receiver (essentially an amp with lots of inputs and outputs), which deals with all the sound trickery & plug the DVD into that.
Agree, I have a Technics AV Amplifier through which we run everything Sky, DVD, Video, the Amp is connected to a set of Bose (Lifestyle) speakers. I couldn't afford the whole Bose Cinema system
plotloss said:
pbrettle said: Ok, so AV amp the way forward - does the DVD player need to support any particular outputs for it to work with the AV amp?
Get an AV amp with an optical in and a DVD player with an optical out.
Matt.
DVD should have a digital out (for picture), mine has both scart (Amp does not support SCART) and RCA cable support. As mentioned it should also have Optical out (for sound)
Have a look at www.richersounds.com for good cheap stuff.
Basically put your DVD player needs to be capable of sending a digital stream to the AV reciecver, this stream is encoded to either 2 ch stereo/dolby digital/DTS, 90% of DVD players will do all these.
This is done via a Coaxial or Optical output (I use a Coaxial). Your AMP then processes the signal and outputs it to your speakers.
Make absolutely sure you get a region free player, try www.dvdplayers.co.uk, I got a Toshiba from them and its v good.
This means you can buy knocked off DVD's for £4 from shady characters on www.pir8forums.com or save cash by buying R1 films from US sites.
There's loadsa info on this stuff on the net though, do a google search.
Basically put your DVD player needs to be capable of sending a digital stream to the AV reciecver, this stream is encoded to either 2 ch stereo/dolby digital/DTS, 90% of DVD players will do all these.
This is done via a Coaxial or Optical output (I use a Coaxial). Your AMP then processes the signal and outputs it to your speakers.
Make absolutely sure you get a region free player, try www.dvdplayers.co.uk, I got a Toshiba from them and its v good.
This means you can buy knocked off DVD's for £4 from shady characters on www.pir8forums.com or save cash by buying R1 films from US sites.
There's loadsa info on this stuff on the net though, do a google search.
Depending on your Telly it might be worth checking that it can deal with NTSC input - since an American DVD will output NTSC. Either that or you have to get a player that can do NTSC --> PAL conversion. This is never as good.
DTS discs are generally more available in the states, since there is more room on the DVD left over from not having to put on French/Spanish/Swedish/Kurdish plus subtitles in 23 languages. The US only usually has American English, and Subtitles for the deaf, so they have the space to put Dolby Dig 5.1 and DTS 5.1 on the disc.
Might be worth looking here for R1 DVD's
Play
Steve
Edited to ensure I wasn't talking crap
>> Edited by madasahatter on Friday 14th February 14:22
DTS discs are generally more available in the states, since there is more room on the DVD left over from not having to put on French/Spanish/Swedish/Kurdish plus subtitles in 23 languages. The US only usually has American English, and Subtitles for the deaf, so they have the space to put Dolby Dig 5.1 and DTS 5.1 on the disc.
Might be worth looking here for R1 DVD's
Play
Steve
Edited to ensure I wasn't talking crap
>> Edited by madasahatter on Friday 14th February 14:22
Scart / NTSC are interchangable with an adaptor FYI
madasahatter said: Depending on your Telly it might be worth checking that it can deal with NTSC input - since an American DVD will output NTSC. Either that or you have to get a player that can do NTSC --> PAL conversion. This is never as good.
Basically, you can go the one box solution (the likes of Sony DAVS550 is a safe bet) which include the DVD player, 5 speakers and AV electronics to ensure that the sound is steered correctly to the speakers.
Alternatively, you can go the hi-fi separates route and get a separate DVD player, AV amplifier (or AV receiver which is the same but with a built in tuner) plus 5 speakers (or 7 if you want to go the whole hog).
Which route you go will depend on how bothered you are by quality. The separates route will always be of better quality (unless you buy real tat). With respect to connections for this, for audio signals in my opinion a digital coaxial connection between DVD player and amp gives a slightly better result than a digital optical connection. For video signals, my preference is to connect the DVD player straight to the TV for video purposes rather than via the amp as this results in a slight degradation of picture (but will depend on the quality of the DVD and the TV and the interconnecting cable). However, some amps use an on-screen display for set-up so you may need to connect it up temporarily to the TV for this purpose.
With respect to the best type of cable to transmit the video, an RGB scart (assuming you are not using a plasma screen and assuming that your TV has an RGB scart input as opposed to a normal scart input - the socket will normally state 'RGB' next to it or alternatively look in the manual) is the best followed by an s-video lead followed by normal co-ax.
Hope this helps.
if you really want to get into home cinema try these forums - plenty of friendly people to help you on your way
I'm in the process of deciding on which Plasma screen to buy - need to get the wife to agree as well as course but we'll cross that bridge at a later date
www.whatvideotv.com/
I'm in the process of deciding on which Plasma screen to buy - need to get the wife to agree as well as course but we'll cross that bridge at a later date
www.whatvideotv.com/
while we're on the topic I have a portable panasonic dvd player that has been converted to play r1 discs. If I output to my normal tv all discs play fine, if I output to my plasma screen (this accepts pal&ntsc) the picture is all fuzzy.
Any ideas? I think the dvd player outputs r1 in pal 60, its all a bit gobbldygook like to me so If anyone knows the answer I'd be grateful.
Any ideas? I think the dvd player outputs r1 in pal 60, its all a bit gobbldygook like to me so If anyone knows the answer I'd be grateful.
Okay, most of what has been said is correct EXCEPT that you can buy a DVD player that has all of the Dolby/DTS encoders built-in and you can then wire direct channel outputs to an AV amp using standard RCA jacks IE the sort of cable you use for connecting your CD player to your amp (only you need on per channel so either 5, 6, 7 or 8 depending on number of speakers).
It all depends on how much you want to pay and whether the amp or the DVD has the best decoders.
In my case I have a quite old (but very very good) Yamaha decoder that doesn't have built in Dolby Digital or DTS decoders but will happily play them as independant channels if given the seperate inputs. So I made sure that my DVD player had them built-in.
It all depends on how much you want to pay and whether the amp or the DVD has the best decoders.
In my case I have a quite old (but very very good) Yamaha decoder that doesn't have built in Dolby Digital or DTS decoders but will happily play them as independant channels if given the seperate inputs. So I made sure that my DVD player had them built-in.
icamm said: Okay, most of what has been said is correct EXCEPT that you can buy a DVD player that has all of the Dolby/DTS encoders built-in and you can then wire direct channel outputs to an AV amp using standard RCA jacks IE the sort of cable you use for connecting your CD player to your amp (only you need on per channel so either 5, 6, 7 or 8 depending on number of speakers).
It all depends on how much you want to pay and whether the amp or the DVD has the best decoders.
In my case I have a quite old (but very very good) Yamaha decoder that doesn't have built in Dolby Digital or DTS decoders but will happily play them as independant channels if given the seperate inputs. So I made sure that my DVD player had them built-in.
Agreed, except that generally speaking a dedicated decoder in an amp will always outperform a DVD player's dolby/dts decoder and AV amps with decoders are 2 a penny nowadays.
Not always depends on make/model etc. Anyway the main thing is go and listen to as many systems as possible. Mix and match makes and see which you prefer. If you already have speakers you are going to use - specify them for the listening. If you don't have anything yet then set budgets for each item and find a shop that will let you spend hours playing with different mixes.
NickD said:Agreed, except that generally speaking a dedicated decoder in an amp will always outperform a DVD player's dolby/dts decoder and AV amps with decoders are 2 a penny nowadays.
icamm said: It all depends on how much you want to pay and whether the amp or the DVD has the best decoders.
There are many different schools of thought as to where you should put your money IE DVD based on rubbish in = rubbish out, amp based on the fact that this is what controls the actual sound output, or speakers as they are the things that actually produce the end result.
I personally feel that trying to match stuff of similar price (ie split your budget fairly equally) is the best policy otherwise you end up thinking that one component is being let down by the others. Pick a price range for each component assuming that you will pay the max for each. This way you don't go over your total budget. Then if you are a little under in each you can spend the rest on better interconnects and speaker cabling.
If your a stickler for sound DON'T get one of those all in one kits with the tiny little speakers, in my experience if you get yourself a set of DECENT speakers then you will defiantly tell the difference, everyone who comes to my house comment on how much better it sounds. Get some lovely floor standing 2 or 3 way fronts (B&W 600 series ones are nice) and pay as much as you can for your centre speaker as that’s where most of the talking and complex sound will be coming from. rears don’t need to be that beefy but a nice set of those missions you find on the denon mini systems do nicely again 2 way. Also the thing that really takes the cream is a BIG FAT sub with this you WILL notice a difference. i got myself a 12" warfdale beast, a bit overkill for a small living room but when you hear (and feel through every bone in your body) those tones and bass lines flowing out of it you'll understand. those little Sony kits aren't really up to it if your really going to get the best out of a film.
The problem you will have if you get your self set up properly is the disappointment when you go to the cinema and realise it sounds better in your living room.
The problem you will have if you get your self set up properly is the disappointment when you go to the cinema and realise it sounds better in your living room.
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