Home cinema system on a budget!

[Chocolate Teapot]

Hello all, I currently have £500 to spend on a TV and speakers of some sort, not a lot I know but our TV has gone bang and we're on a tight budget at the minute!

I am looking at the following TV and surround sound as it seems to get decent reviews:

LG 42LM3450 42 Inch Full HD 1080p Freeview 3D LED TV priced at £380 from argos
Also, second hand would be LG HB405SU 5.1 Bluray Home Cinema System priced at £100...

What I am concerned about is the speaker setup mainly as it does not have HDMI Arc or a HDMI in which I think means that it won't play everything I want to connect in surround sound?

I have a PS3 and Sky TV already that I would like to be surround sound. Is it going to be possible or am I going to have to compromise?

Would I be better off with a soundbar and sub? or are there any other better options for my budget? Would some sort of HDMI switch work?

My only requirements are that the TV has to be at least 42" (ideally bigger) and it needs to have reasonably decent sound. I'm not to concerned about 3D and we rarely watch any full HD content.

[944fan]

The Sky+ boxes con't currently output surround via HDMI (at least mine doesn't - Black 500GB HD) and so I needed an additional optical cable to connect sky to my Sony BluRay/Surround Systems. Something else to consider.

[Chocolate Teapot]

944fan said:

The Sky+ boxes con't currently output surround via HDMI (at least mine doesn't - Black 500GB HD) and so I needed an additional optical cable to connect sky to my Sony BluRay/Surround Systems. Something else to consider.

Didn't realise that

I was thinking about the following, however I have no idea if this would work:

hdmi in (tv) > 3 port switch

- Sky
- Blueray
- ps3

Blueray (optical in 1) > sky
Blueray (optical in 2) > ps3

[M@verick]

Chocolate Teapot said:

Didn't realise that

I was thinking about the following, however I have no idea if this would work:

hdmi in (tv) > 3 port switch

- Sky
- Blueray
- ps3

Blueray (optical in 1) > sky
Blueray (optical in 2) > ps3

So the surround sound processor has no HDMI in ?.

Does the TV have Optical Out ?. If so, you could feed the TV HDMI and use the TV to do Video and Audio switching for you, then use the optical out to the surround processor to get surround sound.

Looking at your notes above - the three way HDMI switch will handle HDMI inputs, and the PS3 can be set to output audio via HDMI (so you wont need optical). Also dependent on the sky box you are using a software update to output surround via HDMI is in the offing - so you might find you only need the HDMI input from your switch to the TV and one toslink output from the TV to the surround processor to make all that work.

HTH,

R.

[M@verick]

M@verick said:

So the surround sound processor has no HDMI in ?.

Does the TV have Optical Out ?. If so, you could feed the TV HDMI and use the TV to do Video and Audio switching for you, then use the optical out to the surround processor to get surround sound.

Looking at your notes above - the three way HDMI switch will handle HDMI inputs, and the PS3 can be set to output audio via HDMI (so you wont need optical). Also dependent on the sky box you are using a software update to output surround via HDMI is in the offing - so you might find you only need the HDMI input from your switch to the TV and one toslink output from the TV to the surround processor to make all that work.

HTH,

R.

Balls. It doesnt have Optical out.

As you were.

R.

[Chocolate Teapot]

M@verick said:

So the surround sound processor has no HDMI in ?.

Does the TV have Optical Out ?. If so, you could feed the TV HDMI and use the TV to do Video and Audio switching for you, then use the optical out to the surround processor to get surround sound.

Looking at your notes above - the three way HDMI switch will handle HDMI inputs, and the PS3 can be set to output audio via HDMI (so you wont need optical). Also dependent on the sky box you are using a software update to output surround via HDMI is in the offing - so you might find you only need the HDMI input from your switch to the TV and one toslink output from the TV to the surround processor to make all that work.

HTH,

R.

Didn't realise this would work on all the other things, might have to see what other TV's are in the price range and see if any come with optical out.

[JimbobVFR]

Be careful with that though. AFAIK the majority of TVs will only output stereo via the optical out, some are even more restricted in that they won't output anything on optical if fed certain inputs.

[Chocolate Teapot]

took the plunge and bought both the tv and the sound system, I've set up the tv and it looks amazing coming from my old 32" hd ready set so very pleased.

It also has an optical out so when I get the home cinema system I will give it a whirl with the advice above.

Thanks