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Home Theatre Help

LehmanLehman Registered User regular
edited January 2007 in Games and Technology
I recently purchased a Westinghouse 1080i 42" LCD which should be here by next week and have been racking my brain over what HTIB I should buy and how to set everything up. I have never set up a receiver before so everything is looking very confusing to me so I will give you the break down. Currently I need to set up the 42" LCD, Atlantic BB HD-DVR, Xbox 360, and possibly a DVD player but I might just end up using the 360 as my media player, and a HTIB that I have yet to decide on. In the near future I will definately own a WII and maybe a PS3.

The two HTIB's I am looking at are the Samsung HT-TQ85. This set up comes with a DVD player but looking at the connections im not sure if it will have enough to set up what I need to.

http://reviews.cnet.com/Samsung_HT_TQ85/4505-6462_7-31929471.html?tag=pdtl-list

And Onkyo HT-S790. Lacks a DVD player(not too big of a deal cause of my 360) but seems to have a myriad more of connections and better sound quality. Not sure what id do with all the speakers though.

http://reviews.cnet.com/Onkyo_HT_S790_black/4505-6740_7-31930511.html?tag=pdtl-list

Basically where all the confusion lies for me is what HTIB to get and hooking everything up and getting everything working properly. The only sure thing I know is I will be hooking up the 360 through VGA. I dont want to screw myself over in the future and not have room to add A WII or the PS3 if I decide to buy one. I apologize if the post is messy and thanks in advance for any help.

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SteamID: steamcommunity.com/id/lehmancm/
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Lehman on

Posts

  • djklaydjklay Registered User regular
    edited January 2007
    Does the Samsung have any optical inputs? I can't see any mentioned online which means you don't want it.

    djklay on
  • LehmanLehman Registered User regular
    edited January 2007
    Yeh it says the Samsung has 1 SPDIF/ Toslink input which I guess would pose a problem because my HD-DVR would probably have to use that to get sound to my receiver. That means if I use the VGA for my 360 I wont have an optical connection for its sound to get to the receiver. This is all very confusing to me as I am a complete newbie to Home A/V and am having trouble figuring out what I need to get everything hooked up and running sound through a receiver. Maybe this will help someone explain everything to me.

    42" LCD: 1 Hdmi, 2 DVI, 2 Component a/v, 1 VGA, 1 S-Video, 1 Composite

    HD-DVR: DVI, S Video, Component, Digital Coax and Optical

    360: Component and VGA/ with Optical and Stereo

    Future: WII and possibly a PS3

    Lehman on
    Xbox Live: LehmanCM
    SteamID: steamcommunity.com/id/lehmancm/
    BnS: Draggan (Server:Poharan)
  • AbsoluteZeroAbsoluteZero The new film by Quentin Koopantino Registered User regular
    edited January 2007
    HTIB = fail.

    If you are going to go that route, I'd just go with whatever is cheapest.

    AbsoluteZero on
    cs6f034fsffl.jpg
  • LehmanLehman Registered User regular
    edited January 2007
    Ok after a bunch of time browsing AVS forums I decided to go with the Onkyo 604 receiver and AV123 speakers all around. Kept me below what I wanted to spend and according to the masses at AVS will sound a metric fuckton better than an HTIB.

    Lehman on
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    SteamID: steamcommunity.com/id/lehmancm/
    BnS: Draggan (Server:Poharan)
  • jwalkjwalk Registered User regular
    edited January 2007
    Onkyo actually makes decent HTIBs.

    Friend of mine just got the HT-S590 system, to go along with his 50" plasma... for $269, you can't beat it.
    h580HTS590S-f.jpeg
    It sounds pretty good, for a HTIB, and his wife doesn't even hate it that much. 8)

    jwalk on
  • NswyersNswyers Registered User regular
    edited January 2007
    I picked up the Samsung HTIB at an employee discount over christmas for like $200 off with a 5 year warranty... the 2 tallboy version anyway.

    Here's my 20 second review:

    It sounds real nice and has enough inputs for whatever you want to do with it. With an up-converter, you can't really go wrong for the price. If you're going to be hooking up a $5000 TV though, you might want to get a receiver and speakers that match it.

    Nswyers on
  • MrOlettaMrOletta Registered User regular
    edited January 2007
    jwalk wrote:
    Onkyo actually makes decent HTIBs.

    Friend of mine just got the HT-S590 system, to go along with his 50" plasma... for $269, you can't beat it.
    h580HTS590S-f.jpeg
    It sounds pretty good, for a HTIB, and his wife doesn't even hate it that much. 8)

    Actually, I just got that HTIB about a week ago and I love it. It has component inputs so it's nice to be able to handle that plus volume from there. It also has a couple of optical audio ports. I bought it refurb from www.shoponkyo.com for $139 (it was $149 - $10 sign up points) and free shipping (which was great considering it weighs 58lbs total).

    MrOletta on
    http://olverawoodworks.com
  • AhhseeAhhsee Registered User regular
    edited January 2007
    Got the same thing about 2 weeks ago. Beats every other HTIB I've listened to at friends houses, as well as my brother's system. Yeah, they all have Sony or some other offbrand, and you can tell.

    If you're gonna be getting something like this, I'd highly suggest avs forums. Not saying people here wouldn't know anything, just, that forum is dedicated to that, and that specifically. Whole forum for HTIB.

    That aside, $150 (free shipping) for a 5.1 system that sounds superb is not bad.

    Ahhsee on
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    Click image for my huge backlog :\\\
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