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Home Theater on the Cheap
FF
Once Upon a TimeIn OaklandRegistered User regular
Once Upon a TimeIn OaklandRegistered User regular
Like, really cheap.
I have:
An HDTV
Digital TV Receiver (Motorola vip1200 box that comes with AT&T u-verse)
Wii
PS2 (mostly used as a DVD player)
I want:
Blue Ray player at some point
Speakers
A receiver to bring this all together
I can't seem to figure out:
What to look for in a receiver
How the crap all this stuff goes together once I get a receiver, and possibly a Blue Ray player. (i.e. does the HDMI connection from the motorola box go to the receiver, and then from the receiver to to TV? Or should I use the S/PDIF connections?)
I have:
An HDTV
Digital TV Receiver (Motorola vip1200 box that comes with AT&T u-verse)
Wii
PS2 (mostly used as a DVD player)
I want:
Blue Ray player at some point
Speakers
A receiver to bring this all together
I can't seem to figure out:
What to look for in a receiver
How the crap all this stuff goes together once I get a receiver, and possibly a Blue Ray player. (i.e. does the HDMI connection from the motorola box go to the receiver, and then from the receiver to to TV? Or should I use the S/PDIF connections?)
Huh...
FF on
0
Posts
I could just leave everything going through the tv since all the cables do pass through the dolby surround sound signals.
That said, a great place to start is with an Onkyo kit.
Sounds like you want a Home Theatre in a Box (HTiB), with these usually the more you pay the more (and bigger) speakers you get and the more feature-laden the receiver.
Typically HTiB systems fall into 2 categories: (1) HT Receiver with speakers [this lacks your blu-ray player] (2) an integrated audio decode/amplification unit/bluray player with speakers [these may not have additional A/V inputs for other devices]. There are HTiB systems that have a dedicated blu-ray player and a multi-input HTR, but they're less common (and more expensive).
If price is an overriding determinant (to the expense of flexibility and performance) just go to a deal aggregator site (like dealnews, dealzon, techbargains, or the fatwallet forums) and wait and see what comes up.
As to how to set it up, you don't need to worry about that until you have some gear to work with. Ideally you want everything outputting via HDMI into your receiver, and then your receiver outputting HDMI to your tv. The only time you need to get SPDIF or component cables involved is if the devices lack HDMI or you've run out of HDMI ports on the receiver.
What's your budget? You might do best by watching craigslist or eBay for the speakers and hit "doorbuster" sales or refurbished places for the BD player and receiver.
I don't suppose there's the chance of finding a relatively modern receiver (upconversion/hdmi/other misc inputs) that's not some huge honker of a box? Hell, I don't even care about 5.1 surround since I don't think the room is big enough for it to matter.
It just seems like everything is so much more fancy than what I really want.
Edit: When you say cheap, how cheap is cheap?
Actually, I never thought about doing just that. That may be more in line with what I want to do right now.
As for cheap...well. See; My Avatar.
Chances are good your tv is not passing multichannel audio to the receiver. If you have a stereo setup that doesn't matter, but if you have a multichannel setup then in that case the receiver is putting out matrixed audio.
These same games/movies have a stereo (2 channel, red and white RCA-terminated cables) soundtrack so if you connect the playing device to the tv/receiver with those cables you will get that soundtrack.
Matrixed audio (e.g. Dolby Pro-Logic) means a 2 channel (stereo) mix is interpretted by the receiver. The receiver makes guesses as to what sound to output to center, rear left, rear right and the sub (and any other speakers) and outputs sound to the respective speaker.
What does it mean? In movies and games any soundtrack that had channels of sound that went specifically to the fronts or specifically to the rears either some channels are squashed together, or some channels are dropped.
It's not a problem per se, but when playing back a DTS, AC3, or other multichannel-encoded audio stream there are literally different sounds coming out of the speakers if you have a setup that does a true multichannel decode vs. a system that processes a stereo audio stream to generate sound from 5+ speakers.
resolution upconversion - simply the process of converting signals to 720p, 1080i, 1080p, or some combination of them. May be offered on HDMI only, or HDMI and Component.
A/D upconversion - the process of converting your analog signals to digital (and usually resolution upconversion as well). THIS is what you want if you are trying to do one HDMI cable from your receiver to TV. Without this, your Wii/PS2 connections would require a separate analog cable to your TV as well as the HDMI. This is also the more expensive feature of the two upconversions.
Many people see upconversion, say "oh sweet one cable" and then spend two hours trying to figure out why their shit won't work at home.
PSN: TheScrublet
So...would something like this be what I'm looking for in terms of A/D upconversion?
I'm not sure you'll get the Analog-to-Digital for less than $400 but I could be wrong. I haven't really skimmed through lower-end models (or really any models) in awhile.
PSN: TheScrublet
Then you got a good deal because the Onkyos don't do that until the 600-series, and that series does NOT retail that low. I know my 606 cost around $420 when I got it. The 608 is at $500 (tho there may be some shaved off savings at some online retailers).
PSN: TheScrublet
edit: Wait, fuck me running, I might be wrong... my old TV didn't have HDMI and I've yet to set it up on my new TV...
Gah!!!