Need help with my Sony DVD Surround sound all in one.

Maxwell

Okay, I had my eye of these:

http://www.recommendedbuys.co.uk/images/sonydavsb300.gif

for a long time and bought them a year ago. Now since then the room I had planned for these is too big and the quality is not good enough for what Im using them for (movies through my projector) I know now that I should have bought separates and probably will do over the next few months, in the meantime I want to play movies that I have backed up on my hard drive to a new dvd player that has a usb input e.g.:
http://www.pixmania.com/ie/uk/170874/art/iisonic/ii3016pu-dvd-divx-player.html

My long winded question is:

Can I use the existing surround sound speakers with this other dvd as the back of the Sony has the "colour coded" speaker inputs (attached picture shows)

How do I do it if the new dvd doesn't have these "colour coded" inputs?

Yes I am technically naive and haven't a clue of which I apologise for this stupid question.

...but can someone help me as I want to play by backuped dvd's in surround sound.

Lump

Simple answer is no.... you need a Surround sound de-coder. The current dvd player you have, has the decoder built in, hence the 6 outputs 5.1

The Divx player you're thinking of buying has co-ax digital out, as a reult you'll need firstly a decoder that had a co ax digital input, most of which do, and then something to decode the surround sound.

You could set it up to emulate surround sound.... but that sounds crappy and will only split the stereo sound to the 6 speakers.... which trust me, sounds rubbish

So the answer is no. There's been lots of threads on this kind of thing before. Also if you buy an amp, and no new speakers, make sure it's not too powerful for the speakers you have. You don't want to blow them. Those types of all in one tend to have like 20-30 watt satellitte speakers. Decent amp's might output 60 watts per channel.

John

Maxwell

Thank you!

I really appreciate you detailed answer!

One last question if you don't mind. The speakers wires from the existing setup - are they useless if you are buying a new seperates set up. After all, they are now buried under the carpet and the wife will go nuts if I have to pull it up?

Lump

Cable's cable, might be useful to have around, but without knoning what you're goig to buy, yes, probably. Can you not just pull them through.... Are the connected to the speakers? or it is just a bare cable at the end? You should be able to pull them through with out havig to pull up the carpet.... If not, just leave them, although if you want to sell your current kit you'll need to have the cables.

John

Wertz

That must be a big ass room. I have the model beneath that and I can't turn it up past 15 without shaking the windows.

Have you tried playing around with the sound settings in the set-up menu?
You can individually change the volumes on each channel, and more importantly, change the timings on signal delay to compensate for a bigger room.
This may not be a reference system but I think it does an admirable job for the cost...

Maxwell

Thanks again Lump,give's me food for thought.

Hi Wertz,
Glad to see someone else bought this system. I thought it was excellent in one of my smaller room's when I set it up, but I now have a home cinema/living room that is 30 feet long and 14 feet wide in places. Unfortunately as it has a stairs up to it - it is not an enclosed space and therefore I think its at fault rather than the system and therefore I may need a superior system to give me the effect Im looking for.

I am going to tweak with the setting's and try and re-position the subwoofer, to try and get the most out of it.

Would you mind posting your usual setting when watching a DVD?

Maxwell

Wertz wrote:

Have you tried playing around with the sound settings in the set-up menu?
You can individually change the volumes on each channel, and more importantly, change the timings on signal delay to compensate for a bigger room.

I think I may have to do that as up to now I have not made any changes. I was just going on the factory settings. Out with the instruction manual for me!

Wertz

Not much point in posting mine, as I've set it to have the sweet spot in my corner of the sofa (in a considerably smaller room)

The way the set-up works is it will give you a set of preset distances to set each speaker at, so in the case of you having your seating at the far end of the room, you'd set the surround L&Rs to maybe 1.2m (?) and the fronts and centre to 3/4 m respectively. The option isn't available on the sub (since it doesn't make any odds)...best thing to do with it is have it at the back of the room IMO, preferably where it can reverb off walls.

then it;s a matter of adjusting the volumes to make up for your distance from each speaker...that's a matter of tweaking. there's a test signal that should help. Increasing the volume on the sub will help fill the room, I would think.

If nothing else, this will tide you over till you cobble together a few quid for a new set-up...

Maxwell

Excellent, thanks again for your input.