Radio while watching TV

challenger

Standard Member
Joined
Oct 14, 2011
Messages
35
Reaction score
3
Points
9
I sometimes listen to radio on an old HiFi system whilewatching TV.

I am now considering putting together a Home Cinema system toserve as an entertainment centre....ie watch TV/films, listen to CD's & ipod, listen to radio, therefore being able to eliminate the HiFisystem.

Will I still be able to listen to radio while watching TV ona Home Cinema system? It was suggested to me that I would not be able to dothis on the receiver. A way of doingthis would be if I connect a Blu-Ray player using an optical lead, then I couldlisten to radio on the internet through the Blu-Ray player.

Being a Home Cinema novice, I am not sure just what ispossible and how to achieve it. Can someone please advise?

The system I am considering is: Yamaha RXV671 receiver, QAcoustics 2000 5.1 speaker package, Sony BDP-S380 or 580 Blu-Ray player. Thiswould cost approx £1050 - £1100. (an alternative receiver is Marantz NR1602 and alternative speakers QAcoustics Q7000 or Kef KHT2005)

Is this a good starter system for my requirements, or are thereadequate alternatives out there for lessmoney?
 
Last edited:
The Yamaha and QA speakers is a good started system. You would not be able to use the internal FM tuner on the reciever at the same time as watching a bluray. If you use the internal tuner on the TV then you could watch TV and have the radio on.
 
Thanks PSM1.

Am I correct in thinking that you mean I can select to watch the TV in the normal way as if it weren't connected to a AV system, with the sound coming from its own speakers, then listen to the radio through the speakers connected to the AV receiver?

I would have my V+ box connected through the AV receiver, so I guess I wouldn't be able to watch anything from that, just the freeview channels accesible through the TV tuner?
 
I would have my V+ box connected through the AV receiver, so I guess I wouldn't be able to watch anything from that, just the freeview channels accesible through the TV tuner?

Thats correct, which would then allow you to listen to the Radio via your receiver. You could however switch off your TV while listening to the radio and save yourself some electric and money.
 
What about buying a HDMI splitter and running the other connection direct to a second HMDI input on your TV....then just keep the volume on your TV turned right down.

Just a thought
 
If you're happy to use Internet Radio, how about getting any AVR that allows mixing of display+audio inputs and an Internet Radio with an optical output. That way you would have more choice over AVR, could have the TV on your Video Source of choice and listen to the radio. I used to have a Harman Kardon AVR which would allow me to assign one preset for Virgin Media Audio+Video and another preset for Virgin Media Video but a different Audio Source and would then use my Roku Soundbridge or Apple Airport Express to listen to music whilst having something on the TV display. Good for sports where you're not fussed for the commentary.

You mention an NR1602 - I'm selling an NR1402 (NOTE: This is NOT a sales pitch mods, keep reading and you'll see why!) and one of the things it CAN'T do is the mixed inputs for audio and video via HDMI as described above. If the NR1602 is similar in this respect then you may want to avoid it as you will only be able to listen to what you're viewing - unless you use Scart instead of HDMI as it can mix non-HDMI sources for some reason.

Hope that makes sense,

Mouseboy007
 
Last edited:
I do exactly this with my marantz 1501, normally to have five live commentary for sports on the tv. I do it by using a Sonos into one of the digital input ports on the back. When watching tv from the V+ box audio is from the HDMI to the speakers on the marantz, then I just use the remote to flick to the alternate audio input. Works a treat.

The Sonos ZP90 has all my music and just streams radio as required.

Works for me.
 

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom