Which Blu-ray surround home cinema?

MoodyMedic

Hi guys looking for help choosing a blu-ray home cinema. There doesn't seem to be many about.

Went to Harvey Norman and Currys but feck all there.

Should I wait till they become more mainstream?

Just got Samsung 47" Full HD and play Blu-ray through laptop (HDMI) and it looks incredible, but I aint appreciating the (stereo) sound on TV speakers

Thanks all.

Clank

If you have the money don't go for an all in one, buy a player, then amps and speakers, much more options and better quality for all the components.

vestanpance

You should ask for advice in here:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=1105

Idleater

MoodyMedic wrote: »

Hi guys looking for help choosing a blu-ray home cinema. There doesn't seem to be many about.

If you are looking for a blu-ray "home cinema in a box" then the two are sort-of mutually exclusive but they do exist.

The PS3 is probably one of the better Blu-Ray players on the market, with the Oppo BDP-83 probably being one of the better stand-alone players.

To do any of the HD-Audio soundtracks any justice you will either be spending too much on a system that won't provide any of the benefits of HD-Audio, or you will be better off buying a decent amp(s) and speakers.

What is your budget?

big_moe

i would agree with the separate amp/speakers/player suggestion but if it's an all-in-one then plenty of the big manufacturers make them. Here are the Panasonic & Sony ones

http://allianceelectric.ie/test/catalog/index.php?cPath=22_88

eddiem74

Some options:

http://www.richersounds.com/information/home-cinemasystems

MoodyMedic

eddiem74 wrote: »

Some options:

http://www.richersounds.com/information/home-cinemasystems

Thanks for all the advice guys/gals, budget less than 1000 euro.

Concerned that won't be enough outputs from Bluray player, usually only one HDMI and then stereo output - not enough for surround. I'm sure i'm very wrong though.

Gonna connect PC soundcard to system also for surround gaming - hope it all comes together.

big_moe

if you are going for separates then if you get an amplifier with an HDMI inoput you'll be fine for full surround sound. if you have an older amplifier make sure you get a blu ray player with multi channel analogue output (Panasonic DMP-BD80 etc).

if you're going for an all-in-one system, make sure it has an optical input and then you'll be able get surround sound gaming from your PC (assuming your PC has an optical output).

The systems I linked to above all have optical inputs

adam

eddiem74

MoodyMedic wrote: »

Thanks for all the advice guys/gals, budget less than 1000 euro.

Concerned that won't be enough outputs from Bluray player, usually only one HDMI and then stereo output - not enough for surround. I'm sure i'm very wrong though.

Gonna connect PC soundcard to system also for surround gaming - hope it all comes together.

As Moe said, looks like you need a receiver where you can connect all your devices to it.

RS have a few specials at the moment it seems, might be worth a look:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055631048

MoodyMedic

Thanks everyone, blew the budget, but who cares!

Some things I learned:

Optical out from PC Sound Card (Creative X-Fi) is only stereo, needed 3x stereo analog cables for 5.1 surround sound, which sounds unreal with Battlefield 2!

Optical out cable is required for Sky HD Dolby Digital - not sure its even a surround signal.

Sky HD is only 1080i (at best) and not full HD - disappointing, but still looks great

bob11

Moody,

What did you go for in the end and how much ?
Thinking of going the same route myself and you seemed to have done the research already, so interested in your decision ...

Cheers,

Bob

MoodyMedic

[FONT=&quot][/FONT]
Denon AVR1910 - 7.1 AV RECEIVER

Q Acoustics 1010i 5.1 Black speaker package
[FONT=&quot]SONY BDPS360 MR DVD[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Cables: Cambridge 0.75m optical cable (Sky HD audio to Denon), [/FONT] [FONT=&quot]Cambridge Audio HDMI-DVI 3M (PC graphics to TV), HDMI x2 (Blu-ray to Denon, Sky HD to Denon)[/FONT]


All ~UK£1350.
[FONT=&quot][/FONT]

[FONT=&quot][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot][/FONT] [FONT=&quot]also 30m Speaker Cable: XL315 (Symphony 400) £59.70 (Very thick pink cable, not very subtle)[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]3x RCA Phono Stereo cable for PC surround sound to Denon[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]theres always some component missing - it will take a few weeks to get it all right!
[/FONT]

slave1

get rid of your soundcard for a 96khz optical out card, this will destroy the current sound coming from your card which is analog and not making the most of your amp and speakers, esp. the sub, something like this

oh and SkyHD is DD5.1 via optical

Tea 1000

Is Sky HD not DD5.1 via the HDMI?

M00lers

No, slave1 is bang on.
Bit of an oversight but there is so little 5.1 content it's not really an issue IMO.

rwilson_ie

I picked up an Onkyo cheap

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=477436&view=detailed#ProductTabs

Is just 5.1 but has True HD and DTS Master Audio.

@OP - are your cabes HDMI 1.3a ? Supposedly you need the HDMi 1.3a specification to handle the TrueHD and DTS Master Audio formats.

I say "supposedly" because a lot of this may not matter in a normal size living room !

I'm playing my Blu-ray though my PS3 at the mo but it decodes TrueHD and DTS MA via PCM - so, it goes to my receiver and my lovely little blue lights don't come on, on my receiver !

My plan is to get a Blu-Ray drive and an Asus Xonar card for my PC, which is a media center - this card can bitstream output and then let my Onkyo decode it

Idleater

rwilson_ie wrote: »

I say "supposedly" because a lot of this may not matter in a normal size living room !

I thought you were going to say supposedly, because you had heard some myth that 1.3 is for transmitting HD Audio, which in fact it is not, so your actual "supposed" reason is wrong. You even mention that you are getting HD audio with PCM (HDMI 1.1).

Also, you do realise that the only effect that buying a Bit Streaming player will be that the blue light goes on on the amp?

I.e. I'm willing to bet that with that equipment you won't notice the difference between which device is doing the decoding.

In fact, I'd go further and suppose that if I were to wager, I'd say that in fact the PS3 would be marginally better overall at decoding the sound thanks to the significant increase in processing power that it has compared to the amplifier chips. Never mind the noisy circuitry that resides when doing such processing at the same time as video.

rwilson_ie

I know the blue light will go on - thats why I mentioned it

I was making the assumption that the Onkyo will decode the TrueHD better than the PS3. PS3 may have a more powerful processor but that isn't always the whole story in terms of quality. Its not what you got, its how you use it . Also, the likes of Onkyo and Denon etc do go to lengths to separate/shield (maybe not the best in my amp). I wouldn't wager on either - I'd say in a normal living room, there'd be prob no difference to the human ear.

I also said that a lot of this prob makes no difference - so, yes I realise the PS3 decoding and Onkyo may be negligible but I'd like to try it out.

The reason I am going for the Asus Xonar is because I wat to have my blu-ray player in my Media Center instead of switcing to my PS3 to play discs.

So, I may not get any discernable difference but I'll have my blue lights and I'll won't have to use my PS3 every time I want to watch a BD movie

P.S. I don't get your point about my "supposed" reason ??? What I was saying is that a lot of the differences you pay extra money for don't come into play in low/mid end equipment - e.g. you prob won't hear the difference between using a Monster cable for €50 and a less known brand for €10 etc

Idleater

rwilson_ie wrote: »

I was making the assumption that the Onkyo will decode the TrueHD better than the PS3. PS3 may have a more powerful processor but that isn't always the whole story in terms of quality. Its not what you got, its how you use it .

Agreed, but I have read many sources that state that the PS3 is in fact better at decoding than many stand alone players and again that AVP's decode better (or cleaner) than AVR's.

rwilson_ie wrote: »

Also, the likes of Onkyo and Denon etc do go to lengths to separate/shield (maybe not the best in my amp).

I'd still rate both Onkyo and Denon as mass market (albeit towards the upper end), and they are definitely features over function for the price. And clean audio quality is not top of the criteria in this market segment - it's blue lights showing.

However, you correctly state that 99% of people will never tell, certainly with the assumption that the budget for speakers does not extend much further than the cost of the AVR and player.

rwilson_ie wrote: »

What I was saying is that a lot of the differences you pay extra money for don't come into play in low/mid end equipment

See above, and as I was merely pointing out the flaws in your logic for determining a better decoding quality by using a standalone bit-streaming player and your Onkyo, I have no issue with this statement. In fact I applaud your intention to use the BRP in your Media centre as opposed to the PS3 for ease of use. The PS3 and their lack of a proper "full" (incl on/off) IR remote is irksome for starters.

My point was more to the assumption that one must buy a separate standalone player in order to get HD Audio (i.e. to get the Blue light to display on their shiny new 1.3 amp), when in fact this is clearly not the case, and may in certain circumstances yield a poorer user experience of the BR content.

One example of this is BR load times, which is notoriously slow on many standalone players, but fast on the PS3.

rwilson_ie

I agree with what you are saying - essentially I am saying that I am going for a setup which will let me decode my HD audio through my Onkyo, knowing full well that unless I had some audio sampling equipment, I'd not be able to tell either way which was better !

And I did say "maybe not my setup" - so, I agree that Denon and Onkyo in the low/mid end aren't going to give you the best quality but they will still be much better than "out of the box 5.1 sytems".

I agree - AVP's may decode better than both AVR's and PS3's but at this price range, the difference isn't discernable. And I don't have the cash to go with a very hig end setup

So, why am I doing it if I'm not going to be ableto tell the difference !?

Mostly down to integration in my media center. Start up times aren't great on that but with the felxibility of having my DVD collection, TV on it and soon BD, I love integration

Also, currently my Media Center plays to my Pioneer plasma and my PS3 goes to my Infocus projector. I don't get to play games much, so will prob send my Media Center to my projector once I have a BD drive.

To be honest, if the current high end Denons come down in price, I'll try pick up the AVR4810 - as well as being their flagship, it has two HDMi outs

Idleater

rwilson_ie wrote: »

So, why am I doing it if I'm not going to be ableto tell the difference !?

Probably for the same reason that I want to upgrade my speakers

"just 'cause"



Best of luck with the setup, the big Denon's are certainly impressive. Have you considered going down the AVP route instead of AVR? There are some very impressive PrePros coming out soon (if not already) such as the Emotiva UMC1 which cost less than a mid range Onkyo.

Apart from the initial outlay, upgrading (which one has to do - see above) is easier, more beneficial and you can tailor better to your listening environment.

rwilson_ie

The problem for me is that my wife (and parents when they babysit) started to get lost in my remote controls (even have one for my electric proj screen).

So, Media Center was the solution to integration. And also the answer everytime my wife asked why we had so many "things" stacked under the TV !!

That Emotiva looks tempting. If I was to have a room for myself, I'd def go high end separates.

But I am afraid, due to family, I am compromising

The Onkyo is a stop-gap - it will do me for now. My video needs upgrading - the Infocus is an older IN76 - need to get one of their newer models with 1080p and a better chipset (and still at a decent price). And my TV is old too - a 7th gen Pioneer.

And you just reminded me - prob need to upgrade my Mission speakers.

I'll just have to play the Euromillions this week .....

John mac

rwilson_ie wrote: »

The problem for me is that my wife (and parents when they babysit) started to get lost in my remote controls (even have one for my electric proj screen).



I'll just have to play the Euromillions this week .....

Logitech 1000 job done.

takes a while to set up but well worth it..