My Home Entertainment Setup (LE46B650,HTBD155,Xbox360) -- Help Plz

[mattpm]

Hi guys,

Im looking for some help/comments/guidance over an entertainment setup i plan on investing in.

Setup

(HOPE TO OWN)Samsung LE46B650 LCD 46" 1080p tv
(HOPE TO OWN)Samsun HTBD1255 Home Theatre setup (5.1 surround sound + blu ray player)
(OWN)Xbox 360 games console
(OWN)Acer aspire media centre



Questions/Queries

1. Audio setup - My original plan is to hook up all my external devices (pc media centre and xbox 360) to the TV via HDMI, and then connect the TV to the home theatre box via the Optical Digital Audio connection. This seemed like the best option (simplicity with controlling all sound through the TV rather than adjusting individual channels). However I've just read the manual for the TV and this section worries me:

   When the source is a digital component such as a DVD / Blu-ray player / Cable Box / Satellite receiver (Set-Top Box) and is connected to the TV via HDMI, only 2 channel sound will be heard from the Home Theatre receiver. If you want to hear 5.1 channel audio, connect the digital audio out jack on DVD / Blu-ray player / Cable Box / Satellite receiver (Set-Top Box) directly to an Amplifier or Home Theatre, not the TV.​

   I know this might be stating the obvious, but if I want the best surround sound for my Xbox360 and pc media centre do I need to connect them all directly to my home theatre system (via digital optical audio)? Is this common amongst todays TVs or a limitation of the TVs audio output?
2. Can anyone offer feedback on any of the Samsung products i intend on purchasing and describe how their setup works?
3. With a max budget of £1500 (to include both TV and home theatre system) am I better off investing my money in other products other than the Samsungs?

Thanks,

mattpm

 

[deebs1986]

hi there i am also purchasing that same tv.

as for the hdmi only giving you 2.1 that is because the hdmi will only give sound out of the tv. for you to have 5.1 for your xbox 360/tv/theatre and what ever else you want you will need a decoder. infact having a decoder will give you far far far better results in surround and dolby and even prologic 2. here is a guide and is what i have my self and i can tell you its well worth it BELIEVE ME.

for your pc buy a xfi fatality extreme gamer pro series sound card with the i/o drive bay (or you could just look for another creative card which gives you spdif digital out. but i recommend the xfi for really good reasons.

secondly get your self a creative decoder ddts-100 with the switch box currently selling on ebay but not many as they are hard to find now. (please note that you dont need this as a decoder when having the xfi cards because they have a built in decoder) but its mostly there for your console and any other device you have connected to it such as a dvd player or your tv and what it does is control everything and converts it all to 5.1 dolby surround and prologic2.

hopefully you have some spare cash to get these things as you will be looking at about 150 quid for the decoder and atleast 70quid second hand for the xfi card but trust me its all worth the cash