surround sound question

Agent_M

Can anyone help I've bought a samsung dvd recorder with hard drive and HDMI output and I would like to get a surround sound system to go with it but the only ones I've seen come with another dvd player sureley there must be just an amp and speakers I can buy? any ideas? the dvd recorder's quite new (I just waited for the price to drop abit) and I'm not bothered about the make as long as it does the job

TonyDP

Unfortunately most of today's home theaters in a box (HTIB) are really dumbed down in terms of inputs and almost always throw in an unwanted DVD player.

Sony however offers several affordable HTIB packages with plenty of inputs and no built-in DVD player. Here's a link to an Amazon.com page for one such HTIB; I would imagine that something equivalent is available on your side of the pond.


http://www.amazon.com/Sony-HT-DDW990-Component-Theater-Digital/dp/B000OG4DWG/ref=pd_bbs_sr_4?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1208863277&sr=8-4

This particular model also includes two HDMI inputs and one output, so you can pass video and audio from your DVD recorder to the receiver to the TV all via two HDMI cables (one from the recorder to the receievr, and another from the receiver to the TV).

Other receivers may not have an HDMI passthru; in that case, you'd use either a coaxial or digital optical TOSLINK cable to pipe the audio to the receiver and an HDMI cable to pipe the picture to the TV (there is usually a menu option on the DVD recorder that lets you control what the sound is output over).

Hope that helps.

Agent_M

cheers although i've googled it and it only seems to be available your side but saying that on some of the sites I looked at its actually cheaper to ship one over than to buy something simmilar over here! (yes I'm looking at you samsung, £250 just for the AV reciver )

RogueAgent

I still own those Sony tower Surround Sound speakers with the built-in mode adjustments. Yes, antique by today's technology standards but I've honestly never had a problem with them and they compliment the tv that I have now.

Compared to a few models that I've seen and heard in stores today, my set still sounds like you're in a movie theatre. I got my money's worth and then some. B-)

I'll have to upgrade eventually though because I want one of those new HD/Plasma sets I've had my eye on....

Nightshooter

You don't necessarily need to upgrade, RA - a speaker is still a speaker, what you may want is a new receiver with more updated inputs, like HDMI, etc.

Sir Miles

There are plenty of systems about - just depends what you want and how much you want to spend. Here are a couple from Yamaha to start you looking;

Yamaha NS-P110

Yamaha YSP900.

Nightshooter

Keep in mind that HTIB is not the only way to go - you can always buy an A/V Receiver and 5 speakers separately (usually two pairs and then a center channel on its own) - but this is always a much more expensive route.