Dracoro

Looking for a definitive answer to the following.

Currently have TV(phillips 32" WS) which has a centre and left/right speakers built in plus two auxillary speakers (rears) wired to the back/side of the room. The TV has dolby pro logic. Have PS2 wired in with good cables(scart) which has DVD player built in. Also have a digi-box (itv one) which is scarted to the video which in turn is scarted to the TV. There's 2 scarts in the back of the TV and a yellow/red/white 3 pin thing to the side of the TV.

What will i gain by buying a system such as the Sony DAVS500 which I've seen for £300 in multi zone format. Is it REALLY gonna open up the whole cinema experience compared to my current setup or will it just be 'a bit better'? If so, let me know why too! any any other recommended setups for circa £300. (PS2 speaker/amp setup worthwhile?)

thanks in advance.


[Edited by Dracoro - 7/31/2003 1:20:50 PM]

paulr

The only way to get a "definitave answer" is to listen and compatre the systems yourself.
All i can say is pro-logic 2 is widely regarded as an improvement over the previous pro-logic.

Diesel

yellow red white thing is component input - PS2 has this o/p if you get the right lead (I use it). this will be the best pic

you seem to loop yer box through the vid to the TV - would be best to get the box to the TV direct and make sure you set the TV to accept RGB on that input

can advise further if needed

bigsinky

300 quid will get you a half decent Dolby Digital/DTS amp. after that your are goinging to need (depending on whether you go for DD5.1 or DD 6.1) 5 or 6 speaker plus a sub woofer. having had a prologic system before my DTS setup i can tell you that the difference is like chalk and cheese. my full home cinema setup has taken about 3 years to build up but now i have a setup just the way i want it. the previous poster is right you really need to hear a DTS soundtrack in its full glory to appeciate what you are lacking with a ProLogic setup.

The amp will form the hub of your setup. all the switching of satellite gear, video, dvd, cd player, laserdiscs is done via the amp. £300 will, get you an all in one system containing amp, 5 satellite speakers and a passive sub woofer, but IMHO, (and from experience having owned one as well) you will never beat a good separates setup. take a look at this


you can see the amp on the RHS at the top. it switches and regulates all of that equipment, 2 DVB boxes, video, dvd player, analogue sat receiver, sky digi box, and ITV Digital box.

Personally i would build your system up as you can afford it, and if you go down the separates route then please please DO NOT skimp on interconnects and speaker wire. Nothing ruins a good system more than crappy speaker cable. I am tone deaf, and even i could tell the difference(unbelieveable i know). you can get away with using crappy speakers, i did for 2 years, but get out and listen to a few differnt setups and see which one tickles your fancy.

welcome to the world of Home Cinema. be prepared to to spend a few more shekels than you were anticipating.

hope this has helped you

cheers

big sinky

messiah

Dracoro - sounds like you're using the bog standard interconnects from the PS2 - the S-Video leads for the PS2 are good (I use them) they're a lot cheaper then the SCART socket, give a better picture and don't give you the green screen problem.

buying home cinema kit is as addictive as modding a car!

Tip for front speakers - best place to position them is around 2m either side of the screen.

Getting good interconnects is a must - spend about £40 minimum on a good SCART socket (QED SQART's are good).

[Edited by messiah - 7/31/2003 2:27:44 PM]

messiah

dont have itv digital myself - only sky so maybe someone else can clarify this...

the rears on the tv may not be doing that much - sky doesnt give you a NICAM signal, although if you have a sky+ box you can get dolby digital on the movie channels. some decoders (Sony for one) have an optical out socket on the back but dont support DD.

pbee

The s-video lead is not better than the scart if you can run RGB over your scart lead.

The sky box delivers the signal in stereo and can be recived and decoded as nicam, pro logic or upfilled to dolby digital (depending on receiver).

The early sony boxes had the spdif connector but the os does not activate it. the later versions have it enabled and it does work for stereo decodes as above.

The Sky movie channels are being updated and the streams will become dolby digital.

All channels in theory could become dolby digital it requires some extra hardware at the headend and the content at source would have to be made this way, and typically it is only films that do this. so it is only likely the movie channels will be dolby digital.

but a added bonus with the sony box with a working spdif is a optical cable is about £10 and to get a good phono interconnect to get a similiar quality signal will cost you 3 x that.

bigsinky

yeah about 2 years after Premiere, germans,and i am sure other european countries have had their satellite movie channels in DD for ages!!!

cheers

sinky

pbee

It is very exspensive in licencing costs alone to broadcast in dolby digital,

as brits we are not very good as a whole on paying extra for things like this, so why would sky do it for the small minority that have the capability to use it.

DAMN im sticking up for them. How dare they supply us with digital TV whilst the majority of europe was still in the analouge dark ages, and not keep up with the new systems that launched years later by replacing and upgrading their exspensive broadcast equipment.

I work in this industry and the return on investment unless you are near skys numbers suck, so spending millions on new equipment and paying dolby a annual licence fee, for a feature that less than 1% of your customer base is going to use, is business case suicide.

bigsinky

pbee,

i see your point, but would it not be better to bite the bullet now and be one step ahead of the competition. surely it is just a matter of time before all tv broadcasts will be like this, so if a big company like $ky were to upgrade and write the losses off over the period it would take for DD to be come common place then they would have a major ace up their sleeve when the masses eventually cry out for better sound, basically corner the market and clean up by offering something that other broadcasters can't offer.

cheers

big sinky

ps sorry drac for hijackin the thread m8

messiah

with reference to me saying s-video was better than scart, I was meaning from the PS2 only - sorry, should have said that.

Diesel

No! 'Component' out of the PS2 is better than Scart, S Video whatever... Trust me! You can get the lead for a fiver and component (or YUV, Y Cb Cr whatever they fashion label it as) is the boy to have.

If SKY had 5.1 audio I guess I would subscribe to the Movie Channels. It's the only reason I have never subscribed to them before. What is the 'off air' pic like? Is it close to an anamorphic DVD pic?D

corradoboy

A separate quality amp and some decent surround speakers will be significantly better than a prologic tv. The newer amps are equipped with Dolby Digital EX and DTS-ES which give much better separation of effects and a much deeper bottom end. DTS is the daddy, my neighbour hates me for it, LOL.
For £300 you need a trip to Richer Sounds. Look at amps from Pioneer/Yamaha/Sony/Denon at around the £150 mark, and add some decent speakers. For the front mains I'd recommend some floorstanders at £100+, these should allow you to get by without a sub. As for the rear (and side if specified) you can get by with some very small cheapies as they don't carry much detail, budget no more than £50 a pair in this starter set-up. It's worth getting a reasonable centre so allow about £100 for this. Oops, I've already gone over your initial budget. A reasonable system is do-able at this price but like anything, the more you pay, the more you play.
Don't be suckered into expensive digital interconnects. They can do nothing to sound quality. Eight 1's and 0's cannot be influenced by cable resistance or RF interference. It's a con. A good scart on the other hand is worth it, £25 tops though. Similarly, good speaker cable is and always has been a way to improve a basic system. Pay no more than £4/m.
I've heard set-ups from one like yours, to £250,000 exotics and the law of diminshing returns definately kicks in. My current set-up is about £2500 worth (£1400 on TV) and I can't see any reason to go any further.
Before you buy any electronics, look here

SiCotty

Sky has DD 5.1 on most of it's movie channel and box office broadcasts. They also transmit in anamorphic so that you get a nice wide screen picture on a wide screen TV. The only thing you need to pick up Sky DD is a Sky+ box. A lot of people moan about this but it's just one of the advantages of Sky+.

Oh and pro-logic has a single mono rear channel. DD 5.1 has seperate feeds for rear left and right. DD 6.1 is even better at this as it has a rear centre channel.

Oh and home cinema is addictive as I'm spending about 2k on equipment and this is medium range system.

Si

Diesel

Sky+ is the hard drive fella yes?

Still, what does the SKY pic look like on a 42" 16:9 TV (like mine) I ask cos the Telewest cable pic is soooo compressed - cant even handle a fade to black without 'overloading' and pixellating horribly & a sunset is always series of steppy contours. Bag o ****e...!

Got the same Sony AV amp as you here - TOP TIP - use the old amp you have to drive the SUBWOOFER (my Sub travels between duties in the car & in the living room). You really need a subwoofer cos you do NOT get bass out of your centre speaker - imagine if it was a Barry White concert - would sound baaaaaaaad cos vocals are always centre!

D

Pete Croney

Diesel

I have my Sky output set as RGB and the picture on a 36" Sony is amazing. I do have a 1m dish feeding the Sony decoder, but being digital, you've either got a signal or you haven't.

I agree with you on the signal from cable, but the sound from cable is awful, due again to compression.

DTS does indeed rock THX is pretty damn fine too.

Dracoro

Thanks for the tips guys.

2 products I have in mind are the Pioneer DCS313 and the Sony DAVS550 (both multi region).

The Pioneer looks fantastic and is £270 and the Sony is £300.
I will have to visit somewhere (anyone recommend anywhere to listen to systems in the Tottenham Ct Rd area, I guess there must be some places!) to see how much diff there is between normal
Prologic TV and the Systems above.

WIll the above systems be better than a Prologic II amp for circa £100 and a speaker set for circa £100 (and then use the PS2 as the DVD player bit).

Essentially I will need small (satellite?) speakers for where I am. I like the idea of an almost invisible sound system for the TV.

Boost II

iTrader: (1)

Reckon the Sony or Pioneer systems might be a bit better than the TV setup for watching TV in Prologic. When watching DVDs which have full 5.1 channel surround these systems should be significantly better than the TV. The small satellite type speakers are fine so long as your room is not very big.

Dracoro

Room is about 15foot by 15foot.

I thought the cinema setup only works for DVDs? Does it actually take in the signal from the aeriel/digibox too?

Diesel

PS2 gives a good pic on my TV via component connection. It does however lose lip sync after playing back for a while. You pause it and it 'catches up' wit the actors' mouth! Bit annoying, but i put up with it for 2 yrs b 4 getting a 'proper' DVD player...

Think I'll look into SKY+ now and ditch the cable box - more channels and consensus seems to be a better pic. Only thing is its a crap EPG - you only get info on current progs - you get no detail on future progs, like you do with Telewest. This is so much more useful than just gettin the prog name and no content description...

D

messiah

the footie is quite good on sky in dolby surround. all the crowd chants seem to come from behind you but the commentary still comes from the front.