Surround Sound for a new kid!

[rich0411]

Hi All

After just finding out how useless the staff are in the local Comet are after they sold me a surround sound they told me would do the jobs I asked him for ( I know nothing about surround sounds etc ) and to get it home to find out it does not do what I wanted, I have decided too ask on here!

Firstly I am looking for a unit that can meet the following I have found out I dont need too buy a unit with a built in blu ray and can just buy a box I can plug everything I have into but I am getting puzzled by what connections I need as I am unsure!

I have the following I would like to connect up to the Surround Sound:

PS3 - connected to TV via HDMI to play games and watch dvds and blu rays
X Box 360 - connected to TV via HDMI only play games on this
Wii - connected via Scart cable (does this really need to be connected?)
LG TV - I would like this connected to watch movies and tv

I have run speaker cables for 2 speakers up front but can easily add another as I have saw alot of people have a speaker underneath the TV , I have also ran cable for 2 speakers behind the sofa and 1 set for a sub..

I am also looking for the accompanying (sp?) speakers and subwoofer the only requirements for these are they produce good quality sound obviously! Oh and the Mrs says they have too look "pretty" for example the ones we bought it Comet were like a Glossy black oval shaped things!

Budget is up to £400 for everything if this is possible!

Thanks in advance!

Rich

Edited by rich0411 on Tuesday 29th December 09:05

[Bullett]

Comet - That's yor 1st mistake.

You need an AV amp and Speakers,

PS3 HDMI to Amp
Xbox HDMI to Amp
Etc

Amp then takes the audio and plays it out of the speakers whilst sending the picture to the TV.

You should also be able to route the sound from the TV back to the amp so you won't need the TV speakers.

5.1 is surround sound - L+R front, L+R rear and centre front.

Examples - http://www.richersounds.com/information/home-cinem...

[rich0411]

So all i need is for the Amp to have HDMI Inputs ? What about Optical input?

[telecat]

rich0411 said:

So all i need is for the Amp to have HDMI Inputs ? What about Optical input?

HDMI Carries both Picture and Audio information digitally. It "Strips" the audio so that it controls the sound. An Optical digital input only carries sound hence is useful if you want to connect a DVD or CD player to get the amp to control the sound or in the case of the DVD player obtain Surround sound. The RCA Digital input or SP/DIF also works in the same way as the Optical one.

[rich0411]

telecat said:

rich0411 said:

So all i need is for the Amp to have HDMI Inputs ? What about Optical input?

HDMI Carries both Picture and Audio information digitally. It "Strips" the audio so that it controls the sound. An Optical digital input only carries sound hence is useful if you want to connect a DVD or CD player to get the amp to control the sound or in the case of the DVD player obtain Surround sound. The RCA Digital input or SP/DIF also works in the same way as the Optical one.

So I will need the optical input if I want 'Surround Sound' from watching a blu ray thoughh the PS3 ? Or will just the HDMI lead do this for me ?

[ccr32]

rich0411 said:

telecat said:

rich0411 said:

So all i need is for the Amp to have HDMI Inputs ? What about Optical input?

HDMI Carries both Picture and Audio information digitally. It "Strips" the audio so that it controls the sound. An Optical digital input only carries sound hence is useful if you want to connect a DVD or CD player to get the amp to control the sound or in the case of the DVD player obtain Surround sound. The RCA Digital input or SP/DIF also works in the same way as the Optical one.

So I will need the optical input if I want 'Surround Sound' from watching a blu ray thoughh the PS3 ? Or will just the HDMI lead do this for me ?

If you want to take the (surround) sound off the HDMI cable, then you will need to make sure that your A/V receiver can actually do this - a lot of A/V receivers only have HDMI pass-through's, which means that the sound won't be stripped from the HDMI signal by the receiver (in effect therefore only using the receiver as an HDMI switch box) - you have to use digital optical cables in conjunction with them.

Using the sources that you have though, I would definately recommend a receiver which does strip the sound from HDMI, as it'll save you a lot of complication as far as setup and cabling is concerned.

My setup is as follows:

1 x HDMI from PS3 to A/V Receiver
1 x HDMI from X360 to A/V Receiver
and to connect it to the TV...
1 x HDMI from A/V Receiver to TV

Then, I have the Wii connected directly to one of the TV's Scarts.

To be able to then get the sound from the Wii and Digital TV through the surround, I then have a normal RCA cable connected from the TV back to an input on the A/V Receiver (yes, this means you'll only get Pro Logic at best from these inputs, but I'm not overly concerned about that).

With the sources connected via HDMI though, you'll get full 5.1/7.1/TrueHD sound, and 1080p picture to the TV.

If all this is a bit confusing, or if you need to see it for yourself, I really cant recommend Richer Sounds enough - they'll give you as much advice as you need and show you how to set it all up properly if you so request.

[telecat]

rich0411 said:

telecat said:

rich0411 said:

So all i need is for the Amp to have HDMI Inputs ? What about Optical input?

HDMI Carries both Picture and Audio information digitally. It "Strips" the audio so that it controls the sound. An Optical digital input only carries sound hence is useful if you want to connect a DVD or CD player to get the amp to control the sound or in the case of the DVD player obtain Surround sound. The RCA Digital input or SP/DIF also works in the same way as the Optical one.

So I will need the optical input if I want 'Surround Sound' from watching a blu ray thoughh the PS3 ? Or will just the HDMI lead do this for me ?

Generally no. BLU-RAY carries up to 7 channel Surround sound on the HDMI digital link. MOST amps with HDMI take the audio digital signal from the HDMI cable. You ONLY need the Optical/SPDIF link on DVD and games machines without a HDMI output.

Of course then you have to setup the Blu-Ray player and consoles to output the correct Surround signal. Dolby HD is an 8 channel surround format and requires a rear centre and two extra effects speakers it's usually referred to as "7.1". This is usually in the setup menu of the player and refers to playing Blu Ray discs.

Edited by telecat on Wednesday 30th December 09:22

[derestrictor]

Yamaha AV65 package.

Jobbus donum.

[4hero]

I have a similar setup, what about the Sony HT-IS100? I have this, it's just a matter of running an optical cable from the tv to sub and you're sorted. Anything playing on the tv will output to the surround system.

edited to say, the surround speakers are tiny, about the size of golf balls, amazing sound though!

Edited by 4hero on Wednesday 30th December 09:42

[ccr32]

4hero said:

I have a similar setup, what about the Sony HT-IS100? I have this, it's just a matter of running an optical cable from the tv to sub and you're sorted. Anything playing on the tv will output to the surround system.

edited to say, the surround speakers are tiny, about the size of golf balls, amazing sound though!

Edited by 4hero on Wednesday 30th December 09:42

Bear in mind that the optical outputs on some (or most? certainly mine - a Sony W Series) TV's are only 2 channels, and not 5.1 as you may assume. Running an optical from the TV back to the receiver will not give you full surround sound - Pro Logic at best.

That said, I can't speak for all TV's, so check yours before you commit to that particular setup.

[ccr32]

telecat said:

rich0411 said:

telecat said:

rich0411 said:

So all i need is for the Amp to have HDMI Inputs ? What about Optical input?

HDMI Carries both Picture and Audio information digitally. It "Strips" the audio so that it controls the sound. An Optical digital input only carries sound hence is useful if you want to connect a DVD or CD player to get the amp to control the sound or in the case of the DVD player obtain Surround sound. The RCA Digital input or SP/DIF also works in the same way as the Optical one.

So I will need the optical input if I want 'Surround Sound' from watching a blu ray thoughh the PS3 ? Or will just the HDMI lead do this for me ?

Generally no. BLU-RAY carries up to 7 channel Surround sound on the HDMI digital link. MOST amps with HDMI take the audio digital signal from the HDMI cable. You ONLY need the Optical/SPDIF link on DVD and games machines without a HDMI output.

Of course then you have to setup the Blu-Ray player and consoles to output the correct Surround signal. Dolby HD is an 8 channel surround format and requires a rear centre and two extra effects speakers it's usually referred to as "7.1". This is usually in the setup menu of the player and refers to playing Blu Ray discs.

Edited by telecat on Wednesday 30th December 09:22

Also, IIRC, you can only get up to 5.1 from an Optical output/lead - 7.1/Dolby/TrueHD requires HDMI.

[Plotloss]

Most television opticals are two channel.

[Plotloss]

ccr32 said:

Also, IIRC, you can only get up to 5.1 from an Optical output/lead - 7.1/Dolby/TrueHD requires HDMI.

Whilst what you say is practically true.

Optical technically has the bandwidth its a licensing restriction that limits the bandwidth.

Good old Sony.

[ccr32]

Plotloss said:

ccr32 said:

Also, IIRC, you can only get up to 5.1 from an Optical output/lead - 7.1/Dolby/TrueHD requires HDMI.

Whilst what you say is practically true.

Optical technically has the bandwidth its a licensing restriction that limits the bandwidth.

Good old Sony.

Ah...

[Plotloss]

telecat said:

Dolby HD is an 8 channel surround format and requires a rear centre and two extra effects speakers it's usually referred to as "7.1". This is usually in the setup menu of the player and refers to playing Blu Ray discs.

It requires 4 surrounds, each with their own discrete channel.

SR, SBR, SBL, SL

The SBR/L channels being 60degs apart and the SR/L channels being in the usual place at the directly to the side of or slightly behind the listener.

A rear centre is only present in 6.1 (Pro-LogicIIx) which is where the centre is matrix encoded onto the rears and DTS-ES which carries a discrete rear centre channel. Dolby Surround EX is similar to DTS-ES with the option that Surround EX amplifiers can split the centre rear channel onto two speakers. EX differs slightly in that using two speakers on the centre rear allows phasing of the speakers to allow better sound steering.

Physical speaker placement in TrueHD focussed arrays differs from EX arrays however, just to keep things interesting. In TrueHD they are 60degs from cash seat apart, in EX they are next to each other around the 0deg line from cash seat. This reflects the discrete nature of the TrueHD surround field.

[4hero]

Plotloss said:

Most television opticals are two channel.

oops, was always wondering why things didn't sound quite right.

Time to revisit my setup and it's wiring