Samsung home cinema constuction

creasy987

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Hello!

I have the following equipment currently...

Samsung UE40D6100 TV.
Samsung BD-D5500 blu-ray player.
Sky HD.

I am looking for a home cinema system, but am confused wether or not I need to buy the whole set up as I have obviously already got the blu ray side. Just need the speakers to my mind. I am sure that someone will tell me otherwise though.

Can someone let me know what I need to be buying, I don't have a huge budget for this, just disappointed with the flat sound from the TV.

Cheers

James
 
No, you don't need a home cinema system (DVD player with its own speakers) if you already have a Blu Ray player. All you need is an AV amp/receiver plus speakers.
 
Cheap options would be the Onkyo HTS-3405, HTS5405 (better), HTX-22HDX (plus optional speakers), Sony HT-AS5 (if you can find one), Yamaha YHT-196. Separates shouldn't cost too much. Richer Sounds has a good selection of budget receivers. Hook them up to some half decent 5.1 speakers e.g. Jamo HCS5-A102, Boston Acoustics XS, Tannoy SFX, Q-Acoustics 2000 and you would have a nice setup. All of the aforementioned equipment would give you HD audio from your Bluray player and have an optical/digi-coax input for your Sky+HD box for Dolby Digital 5.1.

If you just want to improve the TV speaker sound, a few people have used the Q-Acoustics Q-TV. I wouldn't buy without a demo but a few people have been pleased with them. I would always recommend 5.1 if you want the true movie experience.
 
Thanks for the response guys.

Looking into it the amp route seems more expensive, starting at £200+ for just the amp. I was looking at this option (obviously DVD not Blu-ray) Samsung HT-D350. Can I just disregard the DVD side of it and hook it upto the Blu-ray player and TV?

I live in an apartment and don't need anything too incredible sounding, just want improvement and 5.1 sound. Also, don't have much of a budget unfortunately!
 
The Samsung HT-D350 only has one optical input. Therefore you would have a couple of options:

1. Compromise with one of your sources and connect via analogue. This would result in a matrix/pseudo surround sound effect mixed from the stereo analogue input.
2. Buy a 3 way manual optical switch. Connect both bluray player and Sky+HD box via optical to the switch and run another optical cable from the switch to the single optical input.
 
Thanks davepuma for the speedy response.

From your experience will this option give a decent enough sound quality if I went with option 2? I presume that the switch does a fine job and automatically switches the input signal?

If you have any other suggestions for a £150ish budget that would be brilliant. Thanks again!
 
2. Buy a 3 way manual optical switch. Connect both bluray player and Sky+HD box via optical to the switch and run another optical cable from the switch to the single optical input.

Thanks davepuma for the speedy response.

From your experience will this option give a decent enough sound quality if I went with option 2? I presume that the switch does a fine job and automatically switches the input signal?

The switch is manual so you will need to get up out of your comfy chair to switch between sky and bluray. They aren't nice to look at but obviously work, providing you don't go for some ebay tat. I've always found audiovisualonline to be a reliable retailer and they also stock short (Fisual Pro) optical cables.

Option 2 would give you true discrete multi-channel surround sound (Core DTS/DD5.1 from bluray and DD5.1 from Sky+HD) and therefore the best available sound quality with the equipment in question.

As for other suggestions, I would visit the all-in-ones forum. Ideally you would need a system with 2 optical inputs so that you don't need the switch.

If you can raise the budget to £200, something like the Onkyo HTX-22HDX would be a good buy. It's only 2.1 but you can add the remaining speakers when funds permit. There were some AV receiver + speaker packages on sale for £200 but it seems like they're all gone now.
 

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