Lots of stupid questions !!!!!

[LHatton]

Hi everyone, right, I have a lot of newbie questions and hope someone can offer some advice:

At the moment I have Dolby 5.1 only with my DVD player. A lot of cables come from the DVD player into a subwoofer, then cables from the sub to each small speaker.

What i would like is to be able to use the surround sound with TV/video as well. Now my tv/video are pretty basic (ie, dont have 10 audio outputs at the rear) Is there any way i can do this without buying a dolby5.1 compatable TV? , it doesn't have to be all singing all dancing, just cheap and cheerful.

Any advice would be greatly appriciated.

Thanks

Lee

 

[tamthetim]

set of red and white RCA audio leads between DVD/Amp and TV....mate

cheers,tam

 

[LHatton]

thanks for the reply,

Whats an RCA audio lead?????

Do i need to buy an amp, or is is integrated into the DVD, or sub???

Sorry for all the questions

Lee

edit: a bit of investigation has revealed the DVD has inbuilt 5.1 decoder, can i use this to decode tv signals and watch standard TV in surround sound.

 

[tpc3416]

Do you have a 5.1 audio video receiver? You cannot get 5.1 sound simply from a tv set and dvd player. You must route the dvd player through an audio video receiver to get the 5.1 surround sound. You cannot get 5.1 sound from a standard tv set unless your audio video receiver has processing settings to take a 2 channel tv stereo signal and split them up into "pro logic" 5.1 surround sound.

 

[LHatton]

I Think im starting to get this now.

So TV is not transmitted in 5.1, but you can buy a seperate decoder to turn the 2 channel sound transmitted into 5.1?

Thanks again

 

[Greg Hook]

Just to clarify a few things

Pro logic is not 5.1. Pro logic is a 4 channel system that gives you a front, left, right and one rear speaker (or two rear speakers in mono)

5.1 refers to dolby digital or DTS transmissions.

Transmissions through the TV in this country will not give you DD or DTS surround sound.

Most amps/receivers these days have sounds formats such as Dolby Prologic 2 or DTS Neo 6, which basically takes the stereo source transmitted and gives you a 5 channel multichannel surround sound.

Could you post the model of the subwoofer, by the sounds of it, it could be one of these subwoofer/amp things, but post the make and model and we can go from there.

Greg

 

[tamthetim]

thanks for the reply,

Whats an RCA audio lead?????

QUOTE]

Also called phono...standard cable......... set like these are required or cheaper..................check Tv has left and right outputs (red&white) though

http://www.cable-shop.co.uk/shop/customer/product.php?productid=4&cat=8&page=1

cheers,tam

 

[LHatton]

Greg,

Informative post, thanks mate. My bits are:

DVD - Toshiba SD-420E (white,red,yellow audio out. 3 x red/white outputs, composite video out, digital out?)

Sub - Videologic ZXR-500. (has 3 red/white inputs and 5 outputs)

Bog standard tv, but about to upgrade to, another bog standard one!!!

One more thing, if i can only have 5.1 with my dvds can i somehow utilise all surround speakers for 2 channel TV sound, ie, route the TV sound, to the Sub, via the DVD? or am i talking rubbish)

Thanks all

 

[tpc3416]

Check out this link... http://www.3dvelocity.com/reviews/zxr500/zxr500.htm

"Minimum System Requirements: Six-channel output - DVD Player with a built-in Dolby digital and/or DTS decoder; separate Dolby digital and/or DTS decoder; or 5.1-channel soundcard running 6-channel software DVD with inbuilt decoding. Stereo output - PC with sound card, or any audio source with line-level output"

I'm pretty sure this system is set up for a PC more so than a full fledged home theater system. This set up does not require an audio video receiver. The satellites are all powered through the 25 watt subwoofer, getting 8 watts to each of the surround speakers. No doubt you can hook it up to a dvd player and tv, but it appears it was designed to hook up with a 5.1 video card. I don't see any possible way for you to get 5.1 sound from this set up, other than a dvd player.

 

[Zigster]

I was looking at a similar set-up for a while, the Klegg M501 system. To use this (or your Videologic) you need to have a DVD player with 5.1 decoding built-in (you'll spot this by 6 RCA outputs on the back of your DVD player as well as L/R RCA and digital outputs).

These leads then go to the subwoofer which also doubles as an amp. At this stage, the DVD soundtrack has already been decoded into it's constituent parts - the subwoofer takes this, boosts it and then outputs it to each of the satellite speakers.

I can't think of any way of getting your TV to output to these speakers without a decoder or AV amp/receiver. (An option with the Kleggs is a decoder with various inputs and Dolby Prologic decoding so you can connect your Sky/Freeview box, VCR, etc - the amplification is still done by the sub)

You could pick up an AV receiver pretty cheap (RS have an Eltax one for £70 and you could get a s/hand one on eBay for much less. You may need to be a little careful about how the output from the AV receiver is directed to the sub - not sure on this point but there may be options on the receiver to output unamplified sound to the sub which can then amplify as now but for all sources.

 

[tpc3416]

I don't think those 8 watt speakers are going to be able to handle any type of A/V receiver or amplifier. Better to run that through a computer with a 5.1 sound card. Good luck.

 

[Zigster]

Completely agree. I wasn't sure what decoders are easily available out there or if some or all AV receivers had a kind of line out output option (like his DVD player) so could effectively be used as a decoder.

 

[BobBob21]

certainly almost all amps have preouts but it would be a shame to have a 1/2 decent amp and then use the amp built in the sub.

I have an old videologic DigiTheatre in the garage somewhere which was similar (though it had a seperate decoder box which then plugged into the sub) I looked at connecting the 'fronts' from it as rears to my current setup as my 'proper' rears died after a waterpistol incident but they are rated at 7.5 watts @ 4 ohms and only goes down to 180hz so decided to give it a miss.

Guess I should dig it out and dump/sell it at some point

 

[LHatton]

yes, thats the one.

Ok, so ive acceoted that i can only get 5.1 when watching DVD's.

Is there any way i can route my TV sound through the dvd,to the speakers to just utilize all the speakers (but not in 5.1)

cheers everyone

 

[BobBob21]

I dont know of any DVD player that can but you may be able to buy a cheapo decoder which will be able to accept a digital input from the DVD player and stereo input from the TV and then decode to DD or DPL (respectively) and output the 5.1 channels to your sub for amplification.

You could alternatively buy a cheap AVR and just use the pre-outs to do the same but then you would be paying for the amp section in the AVR which you wont be using

 

[LHatton]

cool,

Thanks for your replys eveyone.

Lee