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General discussion

how 'bout HTiB (home theater in a box)?

Jun 7, 2005 9:28PM PDT

I've been lookng for a moderatly priced (around $250 or less) home theater system for my soon to be min HLR5067W. So far, I like the Samsung AS601. I live in a townhouse, so I'll hardly ever get to put it at full blast, but our walls are really thick and soundproof, so I can crank it pretty good. I'm looking for some suggestions as to what I should buy. I don't need it to come with a DVD player.

Thanks

Discussion is locked

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re
Jun 8, 2005 2:25AM PDT

save your money. A HTiB for under $250 isn't even worth wasting the money. I lived in a townhouse for a year and have the nice 600 watt denon system that sounds great and I never had any problems with the neighbors. Now that I have a house I can really crank it up for those good movies and video games

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which system
Jun 8, 2005 10:34PM PDT

Which dennon system are you speaking of?

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re
Jun 9, 2005 1:25AM PDT

I've got the denon AVR 683 system. its an 03 model but I'm sure they have something comparable now as well. It fits my needs well because it has excellent sound and if I want to crank it up it def has the power to do so. It also has 3 fiber optic hookups and one digital coax which allows me to hook everything I need up for a digital connection

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You can do OK
Jun 8, 2005 1:42PM PDT

Check out the Sony HT-DDW660 on this site.
http://reviews.cnet.com/Sony_HT_DDW660/4505-6740_7-30827139-2.html?tag=tab

I have a component home theater in my lower level family room with a big old ugly Rear projection TV that sounds just great. I put a 42 inch plasma in my small upstairs TV room. I too wanted an inexpensive HTIB to add some dimension to my casual viewing. After a lot of looking and reading reviews, I bought one ar Radio Shach for 200 dollars when the were offering a 50 dollar rebate for a net price of 150 dollars. Never got the rebate, so go somewhere else.

This HTIB far exceeded my expectations. It actually sounds pretty good and the bass is very good. You will not shake the walls with this and to get high levels, you are pushing it to about 75% volume levels. At these levels. it does not distort. Action movies sound good and you will feel the explosions.

Keep in mind, you are not going to expand this system. There are only 2 digital inputs (1 optical and 1 coax). The subwoofer is passive and levels are only controlled thru the menus. There is no video switching as in my component system. It has one of the worst manuals I have ever seen, so setup is a little trial and error. Once you get it set up with accurate speaker distances and positions, you will be pretty happy with it.

There is no DVD player included so if you buy one, make sure it has the output that will be left open after you connect your cable or satellite box.

I do not think you will come close to the sound in components unless you spend at least 6-700 dollars on a receiver and speakers and at that price, you are still at entry level.

If you are using it in a small romm, it will suit your needs just fine.

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Regarding Purchasing HTIB less than $250 for townhouse.
Jun 9, 2005 3:01AM PDT

Hello,

Can you tell me what all you plan on using your system for, example: game console, vcr, PVR/DVR etc..

This will help me with a suggestion of what to purchase.

I own a wiring and consulting company and install low end ($200-$1000) to high end ($5000 - $30000+) systems for a living.

Thank you,

Shawn Mosqueda
WireSmart LLC
www.wiresmart.com
shawn@wiresmart.com

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How I'll use it
Jun 9, 2005 5:18AM PDT

Thanks for your help in advance.

I'd like to spend less that $250.

I plan to use it in my livingroom for TV/DVD/PS2 and music via my laptop (hooked into TV).

I hear that there is an audio lag issue if you guy directly to the reciever. So, I am thinking of running everyhting into the TV then out through the digital or optical out and into the reciever. Make sense? Thanks for any suggestions you can offer.

Chris

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Re: How I'll use it
Jun 9, 2005 2:39PM PDT

Hi Chris,

After looking at the specs of the Samsung you are looking at and for your budgeted price range, I would say this is probably your best bet.

The main problems I see with this unit is that there are no component (R,B,G) or s-video connections leaving you with the least of the video standards, the composite connection. And you only have two composite in connections, which means you will have to connect one of your components to your display directly. So make sure you have a minimum of two video inputs on your display.

For your TV viewing, if you are interested in satellite/cable with HDTV and 5.1 surround you will want to reserve one optical in connection for your satellite/cable receiver (which is already designated as Satellite/cable in on this unit). You will have to hook up your video directly to your display because this unit will not be able to provide HDTV video. However, if you are not concerned with HDTV and 5.1 surround sound then this unit is good to go.

For the PS2 you will want to reserve one optical in connection to enjoy 5.1 surround sound for your gaming experience. You will connect your composite video into the receiver. But, this unit does not have another optical devoted to a aux input such as the PS2.

For your DVD player, you will need a optical connection (which is designated as DVD optical in) if you wish to use 5.1 and especially 6.1 surround sound. And again, you will need to connect the composite video to the receiver. You will also want to use your DVD-player for any DVD-Audio or SACD that you will want to play. If you want to reserve the designated DVD optical for your PS2, you can so this by using the 5.1 out on your dvd player to your 5.1 in on your receiver and accomplish having 5.1 surround sound for your DVD's and DVD-Audio discs. But you will sacrifice your 6.1 surround sound.

You can use the coax digital connection, but the quality of sound will be deminished slightly compared to the optical because it uses wire vs light for transmitting the signal. Also, I am not sure if you can assign the Digital Coax seperately to another component.

For your laptop, there is a device that you plug into the headphone jack of your laptop which will allow you to transmit your music through the receivers FM or AM tuner. This costs about $29 and has a 30ft radius for tranmitting the signal. This can be found at Best Buy and/or Radio Shack.

As far as the sound goes, if you are not happy with the bass (LFE), simply purchase a new subwoofer down the road. You might not like the sound of the center speaker because of the size of the speakers, so you can either use the speakers built into your display or upgrade the center speaker to one that has more of a frequency range.

Other than that my suggestion would be to jump up to the $400-500 range to find a better unit that will provide more connection options.


Hope this helps. If you have any other questions, feel free to contact me.

Shawn Mosqueda
WireSmart LLC
www.wiresmart.com
shawn@wiresmart.com

How To Build a Home Theater PC Guide coming soon! check out www.wiresmart.com

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Thank you very much
Jun 9, 2005 11:04PM PDT

I appreciate all the time you put imto that post. The display I will be using is the Samsung HLR5067W. I was looking at the spects on the TV and wondering if it might be better to fo the following? :

1. Connect HD-Digital Cable with HDMI to the TV.

2. Connect the DVD player (panasonic DVD-F65) with optical audio and either S-video or component video (best I have until I upgrade DVD player)

3. Connect the PS2 to TV with S-Video and Optical Audio.

4. Connect the PC Laptop with monitor cable and audio cable to the TV

5. Then, finally, I could use the Samsung TV's Optical Audio out to the HTiB.

Would that still give me all my surround sound? It seems like that would give me all the best audio connections. Thanks for any further imput!

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I should check my facts...sorry
Jun 9, 2005 11:11PM PDT

So..I messed up. Looks like the HLR5067 doesn;t have any optical INputs...just the one OUTput.

So........the reciever on the samsung HTiB has 2 optical audio and 1 coax-audio.

So, I should use the 2 opticals for my PS2 and my display set....but what about the DVD player? Run it through the TV set or into the HTiB via some other connection? Not sure what to do.

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Making the connections
Jun 10, 2005 4:52AM PDT

Hi Chris,

No problem. I enjoy helping out.

Just remember that the TV is unable to provide 5.1 or 6.1 surround sound as it only has two speakers. You cannot get 5.1 or 6.1 surround sound without connecting to a audio receiver any of the following; "Digital Coax", "Optical Cable" and/or 6-7 composite audio inputs (5 speakers and a sub or 6 speakers and a sub).

Here is what I would do based on the components you have.

To be able to utilize 5.1 surround sound for
gaming and tv

Optical out of PS2 to Receiver to DVD optical in

Optical out of Display or cable/satellite receiver to Receiver Sat Optical in

To be able to utilize 6.1 surround sound you must have the DVD player connected by "Optical IN" on the receiver.

The Samsung HLR5067W display is capable of decoding Dolby Digital brought in via a satellite/cable through the coax in connection or the HDMI connection. You then must output it to a audio system capable of decoding it to the 5.1 surround speakers.

If you want the PS2 to play in 5.1 surround sound then you will need to purchase a "Digital Optical Cable Select Switch box" to allow you to manually select either DVD or PS2. Then the one optical cable coming out of the switch box will be plugged into the receivers DVD optical in.

If you plug your laptop into the tv for audio you will only be able to play the music in stereo. However, if you purchase the $30 transmitter for the laptop, you could transmit the signal via FM or AM signal to your receiver and play stereo sound through all your speakers.


For Video


I would plug your DVD component cables into "Component 1 IN" on the back of your display for the highest quality video playback. Bypass the receiver completely for DVD video. When you select DVD on your receiver to watch a DVD you will need to change the TV channel to "Component 1 IN".

I would plug your PS2 composite video cable into "AV IN 1" since the PS2 doesn't have any other video options.

I would plug your cable/satellite receiver either into your "cable in" for sound and video, and/or, I would "S-Video out" on the cable/satellite receiver into "AV 2 IN" and run from your TV "Optical Out" into your audio receiver's "Sat Optical In" to provide 5.1 surround sound for your cable/satellite (only do this if your cable/satellite receiver doesn't have a "Optical Out" which can be connected directly to the audio receiver).

If you have any other questions, let me know.

Take care,

Shawn Mosqueda
WireSmart LLC
www.wiresmart.com
shawn@wiresmart.com

How to Build A HOme Theater PC ebook coming soon! go to www.wiresmart.com

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nix the PS2
Jun 10, 2005 7:14AM PDT

The help is great. A little background on the purchase. I am waiting until I get back from a honeymoon in Maui in August for the TV. Upon further review, I thinkI will leave the PS2 in the den on the Sony TV in there. I don't use it much, and if the guys are over for some NCAA2006 video gaming, I'll bring it downstairs and hook it up. That way, I only have to deal with the DVD player and the Cable box for great audio 99% of the time. I can go optical Audio in from the Cable box and the DVD to the reciever. Componant video from DVD to display and HDMI to Display from cable box. I might still purchase the optical selector box for when I bring down the PS2. I'll be sure to check out the ebook and website. Thanks again from rainy florida (we get upset here when it rains for days on end!!) Happy

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why not
Jun 10, 2005 8:15AM PDT

just use the digital coax from the DVD to the receiver. Fiber optic from PS2 to the receiver and fiber optic from the cable box.

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RE: Why not?
Jun 10, 2005 9:58AM PDT

Hello,

Because the Panasonic DVD-F65 player does not have a digital coax out, only an "optical out". Otherwise that would have been a good work around.

Take care,

Shawn Mosqueda
WireSmart LLC
www.wiresmart.com
shawn@wiresmart.com

How to Build A HOme Theater PC ebook coming soon! go to www.wiresmart.com

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exactly
Jun 11, 2005 12:14AM PDT

That is correct. When I do finally go buy a new DVD player (want to see what this looks like first), I will look for an up-converting DVD player w/ a digital coax audio out.

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Shop wisely and you'll do fine...
Jun 9, 2005 11:23PM PDT

About a year ago I was looking for home theater audio setup and kept reading about a particular Onkyo system that got great ratings everywhere and was fairly low priced. The only knock on it was that the speakers were rather large, and since they were black boxes just didn't look so cool and/or hi-tech. Being an old audiophile who believes in putting his money where the sound is, regardless of aesthetics, I checked into the system and it did sound great. But then I found that the speakers were being sold separately and were on clearance at some online stores; and I also found that the receiver supplied with the HTIB was very good power-wise, but lacking in some additional features/amenities that were found in higher end models by Onkyo. So what I did was to buy the speaker system separately and a better Onkyo surround-sound A/V receiver (I did take a chance on a re-furb unit) from another reputable vendor, with the result being an even better sounding system than the HTIB, for about $160 less total outlay. So, shop around and be sure to HEAR the system(s) you're interested in; and remember that any system will sound different in your room than in the store.