Home Cinema System For My Philips 32PFL7562 LCD

[madmak16]

Evening,

I am a newbie so please be patient, but all help is greatly appreciated!!

I am looking at a new home cinema system that will need to connect to:

SKY+HD
PS3
PC
(DVD player incorporated in Home Cinema)

I have heard the easiest way is to have an optical out from my TV to the Home Cinema, then everything plugged into the TV will go through the Home cinema.
Trouble is, there is only a coaxial digital out, I believe.
Can I use a converter from coaxial digital out to optical in the Home cinema system to achieve the same effect (Pros/Cons??)

The TV has 2 HDMI outputs, component outputs, audio outputs scarts etc etc.

Any help/suggestions on the best Home Cinema systems would be greatly appreciated, and/or what I need to get the lot working!

A bonus would be a USB dock for my Iphone, or bluetooth receiver.

Many thanks

Mark

 

[davepuma]

Welcome to AVF. As you have multiple sources, an all-in-one system is not ideal as they lack inputs and have a built-in DVD player which you don't need or will use. You have a PS3 which has bluray and is a more than capable upscaling SD DVD player too.

You mention that you have an existing DVD home cinema system. Presumably it doesn't have enough inputs for your current equipment? If you get a new system, forget about using this DVD player within the system as they don't have audio outputs. The audio is dealt with internally and output via the attached speakers. Please also note that in the majority of cases, you cannot re-use these speakers with another amp/receiver. The subwoofers on all-in-ones are invariably passive (unpowered) and cannot be used. Best to start again...

Not all TVs support multi-channel audio over their digital audio outputs. Some will simply output stereo. You would need to check the specs of the TV to see if it will pass multi-channel audio from HDMI etc. over the co-ax output. However, Sky+HD only outputs DD5.1 over separate digital audio cable. The latest Samsung, Pace and Amstrad boxes have both co-ax and optical. The original Thomson boxes use optical only.

The PS3 is capable of HD audio. How this is achieved depends on which model you have but the result is the same. The original 'fatboy' PS3 has to decode the HD audio internally and output it as LPCM, which is the language that the amp understands. The new slimline PS3 models can output the HD audio as raw bitstream for decoding by the amp/receiver. As I said, the result is exactly the same, except with the old PS3 you won't see the HD audio format displayed on the amp/receiver's display.

The cheapest route to HD audio is something like the HT-IS100 from Sony. I would always recommend separate amp/receiver and speakers. You will have better flexibility, more inputs and better overall sound quality. This need not cost the earth but in order to recommend anything you would need to confirm your budget.

To answer your other question, yes you can use a converter but just make sure you buy the correct one i.e. coax to optical converter and not the other way around!

The latest Pioneer receivers have digital inputs for ipods, which bypass the poor quality digital to analogue converter (DAC) on board the ipod and maintain the signal digitally. Pioneer VSX-819