mikeplow1961
Established Member
Hi all
I'm after a bit of advice on what people think I should get to complete my tv setup.
I have a 50 inch 1080 plasma (LG) which I'm very happy with. Connected to it are a Dreambox DM800HD, a very occasionally used XBOX 360 and a Revo HTPC running XBMC which I use for streaming all my movies/music etc from my server elsewhere in the house, icefilms etc
I'm happy with the set up apart from the sound from the lg set which, as with most big flatscreen tvs, are a bit poor to say the least, especially where music is concerned.
So I decided to buy a cheapish set up 2.1 speakers to give it a bit of oomph. Ordered a set of Speedlink Vivos and tried them on my pc first with some music and video. Very pleased.
Went to hook them up to the pc only to find that my tv has no rca audio out sockets and no headphone socket. ********, ********, ********. Curse you LG. Christ, what would it add to the cost to put a headphone socket
in?
I digress. Finding the only audio output on the damn thing is optical toslink, I headed over to ebay to look for an optical to anaolog converter. Thirty quid later it arrives, using a 5v adaptor and eating up another of the rapidly diminishing AC sockets. Never mind, I'll soon be hooked up and can finally enjoy the new Fall album with some oomph behind it.
But wait, what's this? That doesn't sound very loud. Ack, it's not amplified. The tv remote doesn't have any effect on the optical output? The only way I can adjust the volume is to get off my lardy backside and use the knob on the front of the subwoofer??? Gah!!
My dismay and forehead slapping at what should have been obvious to me was further heightened by her indoors asking innocently, 'Is it still not working? How much have you spent already?'
Woe, as you can probably imagine, is very much me.
So, knowledgeable AV types, here is the situation.
I don't want or need a 5.1 or more setup. Our living room is pretty small and her indoors is not down with the wires around the living room thing. I don't ever play dvds. All my media is streamed and I'm happy enough with stereo as I listen to music a lot.
Do I....
Buy a second hand av amp WITH A REMOTE to feed the tvs optical out and hook up my speakers to that?
or
Buy an all in one system, even though I won't use the player ever, feed the toslink into that and just use two speakers and sub?
or
Buy a more powerful 2.1 set of speakers with a remote and use the digital to analog convertor?
Recommendations? Advice? Mockery? All received with equal gratitude.
I'm after a bit of advice on what people think I should get to complete my tv setup.
I have a 50 inch 1080 plasma (LG) which I'm very happy with. Connected to it are a Dreambox DM800HD, a very occasionally used XBOX 360 and a Revo HTPC running XBMC which I use for streaming all my movies/music etc from my server elsewhere in the house, icefilms etc
I'm happy with the set up apart from the sound from the lg set which, as with most big flatscreen tvs, are a bit poor to say the least, especially where music is concerned.
So I decided to buy a cheapish set up 2.1 speakers to give it a bit of oomph. Ordered a set of Speedlink Vivos and tried them on my pc first with some music and video. Very pleased.
Went to hook them up to the pc only to find that my tv has no rca audio out sockets and no headphone socket. ********, ********, ********. Curse you LG. Christ, what would it add to the cost to put a headphone socket
in?
I digress. Finding the only audio output on the damn thing is optical toslink, I headed over to ebay to look for an optical to anaolog converter. Thirty quid later it arrives, using a 5v adaptor and eating up another of the rapidly diminishing AC sockets. Never mind, I'll soon be hooked up and can finally enjoy the new Fall album with some oomph behind it.
But wait, what's this? That doesn't sound very loud. Ack, it's not amplified. The tv remote doesn't have any effect on the optical output? The only way I can adjust the volume is to get off my lardy backside and use the knob on the front of the subwoofer??? Gah!!
My dismay and forehead slapping at what should have been obvious to me was further heightened by her indoors asking innocently, 'Is it still not working? How much have you spent already?'
Woe, as you can probably imagine, is very much me.
So, knowledgeable AV types, here is the situation.
I don't want or need a 5.1 or more setup. Our living room is pretty small and her indoors is not down with the wires around the living room thing. I don't ever play dvds. All my media is streamed and I'm happy enough with stereo as I listen to music a lot.
Do I....
Buy a second hand av amp WITH A REMOTE to feed the tvs optical out and hook up my speakers to that?
or
Buy an all in one system, even though I won't use the player ever, feed the toslink into that and just use two speakers and sub?
or
Buy a more powerful 2.1 set of speakers with a remote and use the digital to analog convertor?
Recommendations? Advice? Mockery? All received with equal gratitude.