Personal computing discussed
Moderators: renee, Captain Ned
FireGryphon wrote:Is there a reason you want a sound bar and not a studio monitor + amp solution (like the B652 + DTA-1 combo at PArts Express) as a cheap solution to sound?
derFunkenstein wrote:Hmm, weird. Maybe it's a limitation of my TV (which is an RCA LED 50" I got at Kmert for $460 last weekend on sale). The owner's manual says digital audio out will only work for the tuner and is not supported for HDMI inputs.
derFunkenstein wrote:Hmm, weird. Maybe it's a limitation of my TV (which is an RCA LED 50" I got at Kmert for $460 last weekend on sale). The owner's manual says digital audio out will only work for the tuner and is not supported for HDMI inputs.
derFunkenstein wrote:FireGryphon wrote:Is there a reason you want a sound bar and not a studio monitor + amp solution (like the B652 + DTA-1 combo at PArts Express) as a cheap solution to sound?
Just space mostly. I'd have to get a stand or a rack for a receiver (though the DTA-1 is tiny! Cute!), or speaker stands for the monitors and I'd like to avoid that. My TV stand is 40" wide but it only has 3 spaces and they're taken up by the DVR, the PS3, and the OG Xbox/Wii, respectively. The rest of the space is fold-out doors with media storage.
Arvald wrote:the other thing is to possibly give it a try to see... you never know the manual may be incorrect.
FireGryphon wrote:You could just put 'em on the floor. My instinct is that real speakers will sound better than a sound bar, but I could be wrong. Good speakers could also do double duty for music playback.
derFunkenstein wrote:So my wife wants a big area rug for the living room (which has a hardwood laminate), and anything in the 10x7 range is going to be big enough that it would hide speaker wires going from a receiver to surround speakers that could be placed on end tables that sit by our couch. So maybe I can convince her that waiting and using the Behringer speakers would allow us to get a reasonable 5.1 setup.
HTIB or separate speakers/receiver? I want something with HDMI switching because if I'm going to be fidgeting with inputs, I don't want to deal with "well some of this goes through the TV and some of it goes through the receiver" nonsense. Also, does adding a switching HDMI receiver add to input lag? Or does it basically just pass through the video signal while playing back audio? My new TV has way lower input latency than the Westinghouse before it, so now I don't really notice HDMI lag on my PS3, but I don't want to in the future, either. Looks like $300 would buy a nice enough Onkyo HTIB and a longer roll of speaker cable, and it's well reviewed on Amazon.
ludi wrote:If your budget is $300, go with the Onkyo. If you can go a bit higher, start with the speakers you have and a Yamaha or Onkyo 5.1 receiver in the $350-400 range (make sure it supports OSD over HDMI, some of the cheapest receivers do not) and then begin building the surround system progressively.
derFunkenstein wrote:ludi wrote:If your budget is $300, go with the Onkyo. If you can go a bit higher, start with the speakers you have and a Yamaha or Onkyo 5.1 receiver in the $350-400 range (make sure it supports OSD over HDMI, some of the cheapest receivers do not) and then begin building the surround system progressively.
What am I giving up by not hooking up surround speakers right away? What I mean is, will the receiver know what's attached so I don't lose sounds that sound be in surround speakers?
derFunkenstein wrote:What I mean is, will the receiver know what's attached so I don't lose sounds that sound be in surround speakers?