Got a Sony 40" LCD telly in the sales, and could do with a new dvd player & surround sound to go with it. Whats good in the 'budget' ranges, how much should I be looking to spend to get reasonable performance, and what features are must-haves?
Also, would the surround sound work only with DVD's or would it work with my sky box all the time?
I've just bought a bluray home cinema in a box - 5.1 surround sound - Panasonic for just under £300. it upscales regular DVDs to something approaching HD, as well as playing bluray discs
I imagine your TV will have a digital optical output on the back, which when plugged into one of the digital optical inputs on the back of the bluray box, will make anything that comes out of the TV into a surround sound er sound. So yes, it would work all the time.
If you do go that way, get your digital optical cable from Maplin or equivalent, DO NOT pay 3x over the odds at Currys/Comet/PCWorld
Personally I would go for separates. Buy a good AV and the best speakers you can afford and upgrade them over time when you can.
You can spend thousands, but £200 would get you a pretty good setup to start off with.
Look for something that can do HD audio, DTS and Dolby.
There's all sorts of integrated systems, but if you look around places like Richer Sounds for sale, or end-of-line stuff, you should get some good deals on AV amps and receivers. Denon, Onkyo and Yamaha are the top choices. I picked up a Yamaha amp and Sony speakers some years back for half price clearance; £500 against £1000. You get more options, and most modern amps offer upscaling, with a lot more input options for Bluray, satellite, X-Box or Playstation, even a turntable, if you have old vinyl.
Got one of these thats very good
http://www.trustedreviews.com/home-cinema/review/2010/07/02/Sony-BDV-E370/p1
Also does iPlayer, Five on demand, youTube, streams media from PC and plays divx/mkv files etc..
Personally I hold a strong view that cheap 5.1 systems are a total waste of time, I have never heard one that didn't sound anything other than a toy. There is no feeling of being 'surrounded', you typically have one of the rear speakers so close to your ear that occasionally during a film there is a noise, and you think 'what was that?....oh yeah.... surround sound'
Next time you go to a cinema, listen out for how much surround sound information there is in a typical film.....not much IMHO. A decent pair of active 2 ch. speakers will sound so much better and provide a much greater sense of space than [i]any[/i] surround sound system. It will also provide realistic bass, which does not sound totally disconnected to the rest of the audio. You can also avoid descending into remote control switching hell, just drive the active speakers from the headphone jack and no additional boxes or remotes.
Unless you have a big budget, and a big room to get the rear speakers a decent distance from the viewers, I would not bother...they are toys.
well my "toy" is good enough for me 😐
it does ipod, youtube & all that shizzle too
gear snobs eh? 🙄