Advice for a novice...

doedeer

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Hi
I am new to this so please bear with me...

I have just moved in to a new house and it seems the previous owners had a home cinema setup. The TV was was wall mounted and there are wires for speakers hanging out of the wall either side of the tv and below. Additionally there are wires in the 2 corners of the room for speakers. They all lead (behind the wall) to a corner of the room where the other ends are found. i am reliably informed this means they had a 5.1 surround system setup.

Its not something that I have ever considered but though I would investigate as it seems the hard work has been done for me. Can anyone advise what I need here? Someone has mentioned an AV receiver and sub woofer but I am unsure if this is neccasery. I would prefer to keep it as cheap as possible as anything would be an improvement to what I am used too!!!!

I think it is also worth mentioning that the speakers appear to have been fixed to the wall with a single screw for 4out of 5 speakers and the remaining one (under the tele) with 2. Keyhole mounting required i think.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated!!! Thanks in advance
 
Welcome to the forum :) Do you have a budget in mind? What do you have to connect up i.e. do you have sky, bluray, games consoles? Makes and model numbers will help. Will you be using the system for music? If you don't have a bluray player, perhaps an all-in-one home-cinema system is the way to go.

It sounds like they had a basic all-in-one home cinema system w/ compact speakers. Most, if not all of these have the keyhole slots on the back. Does the speaker cable look thin? Are there any markings on it? If the cable is thicker, they may well have had separates.

An AV Receiver plus speakers is going to give you the best sound quality and flexibility in terms of inputs. If you have a lot of equipment to connect, I would rule out an all-in-one home-cinema system as they're usually limited to 2 HDMI in and 1 optical at best.

The existing mountings won't necessarily have to be used but as I said most compact speakers have keyhole slots.
 
Hi, I am new to AV Forums as well, and don't know a great deal....however....what you describe is the bare bones wiring for a Home Cinema set up, so sounds like all you need to do is buy a complete system i.e. everything in one box, load of these available and lots of price ranges. The wires can then be installed into the new system and away you go. Only thing I would be wary of though is not all systems have the same wiring connections, so you may want to double check that before you buy. As I say, I'm a noob on here as well, but I think this is right, unless anyone corrects me, which I'm sure they will :laugh:
 
Cheers for the responses!!!

Budget wise - i am a bit clueless tbh. If I could keep it to £100-£200 then I would be over the moon but i'm guessing that is out of the question...?

In response to your other points...the 3 points either side and below the tv have slightly thicker wiring than the two on the other side of the room. Does this mean I could disregard the 'thinner wire' outlets? I'd prefer to use them but price is probably more important...

In terms of what I want to connect it up to...sky and a dvd player is he long and short of it. But i thought it would be simply run through the tv...?

Thanks again - any suggestions (or links to potential purchases..) gratefully received!
 
Yamaha YHT196 Black | 5.1 Package System inc Speakers excluding DVD Player | Richer Sounds

I'm assuming it's Sky+HD, therefore use optical (or digi-coax if you have an older Amstrad, Pace or Thomson box). If it's not Sky+HD, phone up Sky and get them to upgrade your box. Sky only outputs stereo over HDMI and has to use a separate digital audio cable.

The DVD player will use optical or digi-coax.

Alternatively look for an all-in-one home-cinema system with an optical input for your Sky+HD box and built-in bluray player. I don't have much experience of these sorts of setups but was always more impressed with Sony than the others.

Edit - Any all-in-one system you bought would need to have spring clip speaker connections to utilise your existing cables. A lot of them use proprietary connectors on the end which would be a pain to get fitted to your existing cables. As logiciel says below, something like the Yamaha linked to above would be your best bet. You can always upgrade to bluray later on.
 
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i thought it would be simply run through the tv
No, the TV is for displaying the picture;), the amplifier/receiver looks after the sound - and could pass through the video as well if you prefer it that way.
davepuma's link looks right for you and will make use of the wiring which an all-in-one wouldn't.
 
Thanks for the comments

Just to clarify - nothing will need to be plugged into the back of the TV? This is important as it could prove difficult with everything being behind the wall

Secondly if someone could summarise exactly what I need I would really appreciate it - it would allow me to search cheaper and most suitable alternatives

Thanks a lot for the help - i know you probably get a lot of clueless chaps like myself on here!
 
Just to clarify - nothing will need to be plugged into the back of the TV? This is important as it could prove difficult with everything being behind the wall

I'm confused. If you can't connect anything to the TV, how do you expect to get the picture to it? With the Yamaha I linked to, you would connect the two sources to the amp and then run a single HDMI cable to the TV for carrying the picture.

What cables have they run to the TV? Are the video/power/aerial cables for the TV inside some sort of conduit/trunking?
 
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The second system at least has an optical input so you would get DD5.1 from your Sky box. The built-in player would obviously replace the DVD player you presently have. Why not bluray though? For a few quid more you would get something that would be a little more future proof and modern TV's really need HD sources as they're pretty poor at displaying SD material.
 
There is already an existing HDMI cable running through the wall from Sky HD box to tv but i would be unable to add another. But is seems this isnt an issue...?
 
You would either need an HDMI switch or a setup with multiple HDMI inputs that performs the switching. The Yamaha system is ideal.
 
That you have only the one HDMI cable to the TV, and that you can't add another, confirms that you need a device with multiple HDMI inputs which simple sound systems don't usually have.
With the amplifier/receiver that does have several HDMI inputs you'd connect the Sky machine to that by HDMI instead of to the TV, and use the existing HDMI cable for connection from the Yamaha HDMI out.
 
Hi -

I do not mean to usurp the OP's thread, but this seemed more economical than starting a new one.

2 questions:

I am trying to set up surround sound for my wife - I am deaf on one side - in a fairly small room (8 by 14) and am wondering if there is any REAL need for the center speaker (i.e. - I would go with RF/LF, RR/LR and SW.)

I will be receiving the amp soon (I hope-lol) and am wondering if there is any real gain in putting cable and PlayStation through the amp before the TV or can I leave it as is - cable and PS to the TV and just pipe the audio out to the amp?

Thanks for any thoughts and/or guidance ... and @doedeer - sorry for hijacking your thread! :)
 
On reflection I think davepuma is right... it is probably worth getting something a bit more future proof - with blue ray and DVD playback.

So I need a 5.1 system with hdmi in(for sky HD and laptop), hdmi out (for the one pre existing hdmi to run to TV) which offers blue ray and DVD playback. For the cheapest possible price!!!!

If it could be hooked to the internet so I could get Netflix it would be useful.

Is this right? Any suggestions?

Cheers
 
Hi -

I do not mean to usurp the OP's thread, but this seemed more economical than starting a new one.

2 questions:

I am trying to set up surround sound for my wife - I am deaf on one side - in a fairly small room (8 by 14) and am wondering if there is any REAL need for the center speaker (i.e. - I would go with RF/LF, RR/LR and SW.)

I will be receiving the amp soon (I hope-lol) and am wondering if there is any real gain in putting cable and PlayStation through the amp before the TV or can I leave it as is - cable and PS to the TV and just pipe the audio out to the amp?

Thanks for any thoughts and/or guidance ... and @doedeer - sorry for hijacking your thread! :)

1) You will need the centre speaker which deals with "voice" and will make it clearer to understand what the people are saying.

2) The benefit of including the AVR in the chain depends largely on the audio capabilities of your "cable box" and what you use the playstation for. (is it a playstaion 3, if so do you use it for bluray and DVD playback??)
There could also be another technical reason, in that if you want dolby digital 5.1 surround sound, your TV might not be capable of passing that format on to the AVR, ie it might only output 2 channel stereo despite the format provided by the source. Also some TV's can only pass on the audio from their own tuner, not from external sources.

From a functional point of view, your either going to be changing source over on the AVR, or in your current set-up, changing input on the TV so it comes down to which remote control you prefer to use assuming the technical issues I presented above are not present.
 
Threads don't belong to anybody so it was OK to post here.
The centre speaker might be considered the most important and you do need it.
Having everything go through the amp has the main advantage of simplifying control.
Each device does need its own connection to the amp though as the TV is not likely to pass full audio back to it.
 
On reflection I think davepuma is right... it is probably worth getting something a bit more future proof - with blue ray and DVD playback.

So I need a 5.1 system with hdmi in(for sky HD and laptop), hdmi out (for the one pre existing hdmi to run to TV) which offers blue ray and DVD playback. For the cheapest possible price!!!!

If it could be hooked to the internet so I could get Netflix it would be useful.

Is this right? Any suggestions?

Cheers

With your situation, the problems that I can envisage with an all-in-one bluray solution are:

(1) The speaker connections on all-in-ones are often proprietary, so in other words, you couldn't use your existing cables. Therefore you would need to seek out a system that has spring clip connectors on the rear.

(2) I do not know of any all-in-one home-cinema solutions that allow you to assign inputs. As Sky+HD only transmits stereo over HDMI, a separate digital audio cable is required to get Dolby Digital 5.1. Therefore if you wanted Dolby Digital 5.1, you would need to connect the HDMI cable direct to the TV but as you only have a single HDMI cable in the wall, this isn't an option. To summarise, you would not get the best (Dolby Digital 5.1) from sky if you went with an all-in-one.*

Therefore my suggestion would be to get a separates setup or package such as the Yamaha I have mentioned above. This would allow you to route your DVD or Bluray player plus Sky+HD (via HDMI and optical) and use the single HDMI cable to the TV and the existing speaker cables.

* I am happy to be corrected. If anyone knows of an all-in-one home-cinema system that allows you to connect both HDMI video and optical audio at the same time and prioritise optical for audio, I'm all ears.
 
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Thanks davepuma

The Yamaha plus external blue ray seems the way to go for my situation. Cheers.
 
Thanks davepuma

The Yamaha plus external blue ray seems the way to go for my situation. Cheers.

Seems you have sussed it!

You can build you own home av system depending on your budget. It might be worthwhile spending a bit of money now rather than upgrading in a few months time once you get involved. You can still do this on a budget if you want to get you started.

Something like the Boston Soundware XS speakers get great reviews and are nice and subtle - http://www.richersounds.com/product/speaker-packages/boston-/soundware-xs-se/bost-sndware-xs-se-b

An entry level AV receiver by Onkyo has plenty of HDMI inputs for your needs and has two optical for your BlueRay and Sky - Onkyo TXSR313 Black | AV Receiver | Richer Sounds

And BluRays do not need to break the bank and often have smart capabilities once hooked to the web to use things like iplayer and netflix - LG BP620 Black | 3D Blu-ray Player | Richer Sounds

all from RicherSounds - I am sure you can negotiate a deal if you bought it all at the same time.
 
@ byngo - I would think that the frequency response of the other 4 speakers would be the same as the 'front' speaker ... what is it that makes that speaker the 'voice' speaker?

@ logicial - I am in the US and am connected to cable - wall->coaxial to their cable box->HDMI to TV. Do I understand you to say that newer TVs (I just got a Panny VT50) do not have the ability to pass the audio through in its full glory? (BTW - The VT50s only audio-out is an optical digital.)
 
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What you hear on the centre speaker is what the source expects you to find there - and when there's dialogue that what they usually put there.
If the TV is doing the tuning then the programmes's audio is meant to be sent from the optical out to the sound system.
If the cable box itself is the tuner then it needs a separate optical connection to the sound system.
Maybe US AVF would be more helpful in this case?
 
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@ logiciel

Thanks a bunch ---

I actually went to a high end stereo shop in town today (advised them I was NOT buying) but advised that if they had some time I wanted to pick their brains. They said essentially what you and davepuma said vis-a-vis the central channel. I did not know enough to ask where the signal was being 'tuned.' Perhaps the Panny site will have something more on this - at least as regards the TV.

Absent any other need, the fellow indicated that a lot of folks run through the amp as they would only then need one wire to the TV (e.g. - hung on a wall) and could control everything from the amp. In my particular case - not hung, and plenty of HDMI slots on the TV.

As an additional thought, the fellow indicated there were now 'center' speakers that provided the center, and emulated (somewhat) the LF and RF --- thus removing the need for two additional speakers. Cost ends up about the same. If my wife is not interested in true surround sound (i.e. 5.1) that might well suffice as it would keep the clutter in the room from getting out of hand. Any experience with any of them?

Again, thanks for all the input.
 

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