Team-BHP - The Home Theater thread

Shajufx

These guys at the Philips Arena here in Chennai said this is a current model and not outdated. Also, the PDF catalogue on the Philips India website says it was issued in Oct 2008. It's not printed in India though. It's the only model in the range with an active subwoofer. But the main advantage of having an active subwoofer is lost due to the pain of ejecting the disc and adjusting the bass & volume levels of the speakers through the system software.

The option for adjusting the volume is simply greyed out when you go into the setup menu / sound menu while a movie / song is playing. Same thing happens even when you press STOP on the remote and then go into the menu. The options get enabled only after the disc is ejected. This was very weird and inconvenient and I was shocked at how this could put off many prospective customers, though the system overall is superb.

Warm regards,
Venkat

OT but could not find another thread to post this question.

I need advice on which is the best option (choice among 2 walls in a room) to fix the TV and setup the HT.

The TV will be a Panasonic 42".
Front speakers: Wharfedale 9.5

Option 1:
Width of the wall on which TV can be mounted - 80 inches or 6.50 feet
Viewing distance possible - 130 inches or 10.00 feet

Option 2:
Width of the wall on which TV can be mounted - 100 inches or 8.25 feet
Viewing distance possible - 100 inches or 8.25 feet

With the option 1, I have longer viewing distance but the front floorstanders can be kept 6 feet apart.
With the option 2, I have shorter viewing distance but the front floorstanders can be kept 8-9 feet apart.

What do you think is a better option.

Hi RAC

My personal opinion is that Option 1 would be better, since you get a viewing distance of 10 feet, which is nice for a 42 inch plasma. Option 2, though better for your speakers since they would be 8-9 feet apart, is worse for your eyes as you'd be sitting almost 2 feet closer at only 8.25 feet from the TV.

Speaker arrangement can be changed later, since they are only floor standing units but you can't change your wall mounting for the plasma once it is done. Changes to the wall mounting would not be neat.

If you happen to visit any big electronics retailer / showroom where they have the plasmas wall mounted for display, measure 10 feet and stand there to check it out. It would be perfect. I have tried this myself. In fact I tried it at 12 feet from a 42 inch plasma, but 10 feet would be fine too. Viewing experience would be good and you would get the "big screen" feel.

Warm regards,
Venkat

Hi guys

My friend wants to get a HT system for his room. His budget is 50k, but is willing to stretch to even 70k if the system is really good and worth it.

Usage will be probably 70% music and 30% movies, as he listens to a lot of trance, techno, dance etc and likes earth shaking bass and higher levels of treble. He listens at higher volumes most of the time (even when using headphones).

He wants to go in for a separate A/V receiver and speakers. HD audio decoding is not important. HDMI is great if available.

He is impressed with the entry level Denon AVR 1509 receiver which he saw at ProFX in Chennai, connected to Polk Audio Monitor 50 front towers and matching Polk Audio surrounds, centre and subwoofer. Though the package was around 70-80k, he was not all that happy with the sound. He seems to have heard an Onkyo receiver connected to Elac speakers and says that was phenomenal for 60k.

Your ideas / recommendations are welcome. He has a friend who often ships electronic stuff to India from USA and he says he can get any model from there as well, with minimal shipping charges. Though of course, going this route there would be no warranty on the model he gets.

Look forward to hearing from you guys on this.

Warm regards,
Venkat

Hi All,

I kind of searched this thread without any specific information and hence posting it here.

I've got this new Onkyo 5105 and wondering how should I be connecting my Xbox 360 Elite to it. Onkyo has got 3 HDMI I/P.

One thing that I have not tried yet is HDMI connection from Xbox to Onkyo and then another HDMI connection from Onkyo to TV. I shall try that as soon as I get an additional HDMI cable.

Is HDMI connectivity going to give me full features like 5.1 sourround sound / DD / DTS etc!!

I dont see other type of connetions like optical or something on my Xbox. However, I see a cable that has got HDMI to component, not sure how to use it, I tried connecting that cable to component input to the Onkyo and then connecting Onkyo to TV using HDMI, this did not work!!

It would be a great help if someone can tell me the steps for connection.

It will take another couple of days before I can arrange the complete setup with a DVD player (yet to buy one - either Philips 3996 or Pioneer DV618 - or one that can play as many formats possible) and get the speakers arranged; I shall post my experiance once things are done.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ketan (Post 1134299)

onkyo 5105 has HDMI passthrough which means the reciever will just pass the signal and not process anything at its end. You will need digital cable along with hdmi cable. (digital for audio, hdmi for video) PM me if you want more details. I have connected ps3 using optical and hdmi

Quote:

Originally Posted by abbey4u (Post 1134492)

I don't think this is true.
HDMI Pass through means it will process the Audio tracks from the HDMI cable and pass through the Video to the TV.

Why would anyone ever manufacture an AMP if it just passes the signal without processing any part of it ? If this were the case then people would connect the HDMI cable directly to the TV instead of passing through the AVR.

Thats what I have been given to understand. Its not going to decode / process audio signals if provided thru HDMI :( Hence, we have to provide audio either using optical or coax so that AVR can give DTS / DD / 5.1 effects.

@Abbey,
I shall PM you soon, still stuck with something at work. I will see if I can find you over IM (I use ketandp AT msn DOT com for IM) and take some help on this, I have lots of questions around this and yet to setup my AVR for the first time (its been there for 2 days now and I've not done anything, just waiting for new TV stand and electrician to complete his job before I do anything).

Others, fell free to share your views, extend your help on this.
Thanks in advance.

My system is about 2 years old now so its no longer super impressive, but its still a ton of fun. I went with Definitive Technologies for all my speakers. All audio/video signals are sent to the receiver via HDMI. Good quality speaker cable was used along with LFE output to sub.

TV: 56" DLP Samsung 1080p capable.

DVD: Samsung HU and a PS3 for BD playing capability, both through HDMI to receiver.

Receiver: Pioneer Elite VSX-94TXH

Front speakers: 2x BP7002
Two 1"
Four 5-1/4" high definition upper bass/midrange drivers
One 12" long-throw subwoofer coupled to two 12" Low Bass radiator
400W + 300W powered sub.

Center Channel: CLR2002BLA
Dual 5-1/4" 2-way
250W capacity

Rear: 2x BP2X
Two 1 inch aluminum dome tweeters.
Two 5-1/4 inch high definition bass-midrange drivers
200W Capacity

Subwoofer: Supercube I 1500W
One high-definition 10" long throw woofer,
pressure coupled to two 10” low bass radiators.
This thing is relatively small at 14"^3 but belts out some serious bass!

I am routing all the power through a light-duty Panamax 10 outlet power conditioner/surge protector.

I'm completely satisfied with this system - I just need a bigger room :)

Adding Abbey's response to my query so others can BENEfit.

Quote:

Originally Posted by abbey4u

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ketan

Hello Abbey,

I have got this Onkyo 5105 recently, still setting up with the new TV stand and waiting for sourround speakers to be fixed in couple of days.

I'm yet to buy a DVD player too and shall mostly be going with either Philips 5996 or LG DV388 (may be Pioneer 610 if I get that cheaper in grey market), let me know which DVD would you suggest to make full use of Onkyo 5105 with Sony 3LCD projection TV (with one HDMI input).

I have got Xbox 360 Elite model that has got only HDMI output (I beleive, I'm correct here as it doesnt have any other type of output than HDMI port - there is one cable that goes to bigger slot right above HDMI and gives two different output where one is component and another is composite I guess with a switch on the cable that can be either set to TV or HDTV).

I understand that 5105 has got passthru HDMI audio so it will not decode 5.1 / DTS / DD kind of sound and simply pass the audio from its source (Xbox) to target (onkyo speakers) << Am I right?

If my Xbox is doing this job of decoding and providing features like DTS / DD / 5.1 then I should still be okay with passthru audio, but if its not doing so (which would be surprise to me), then I dont have an option to output audio from Xbox using optical or coaxial type of digital audio format as I dont see those outputs on my Xbox :(

If I let Xbox do the decoding job (DTS / DD / 5.1), how would be the final audio output on my HTS!! This means I'm not using my AVR for audio at all and its not going to do anything with the audio coming from Xbox - no contribution by AVR for audio in this case and if I'm playing some standard DVDs / Games off the Xbox, AVR is not going to enhance my audio anymore as I'm using HDMI as the only connectivity option - is this true?

What are the other options I'm left with if the above situation is true?

I have other questions regarding my cable/sat connection to AVR as well and may have some once I get the DVD player, but I shall keep them for later, I shall take one thing at a time and move forward.
Thanks in advance.

Ketan, when I say passthrough, it means it will not output from onkyo speakers. It means it simply pass the signal coming from source to destination. You will need digital cables.

Other way is from xbox setting output your video through HDMI and audi through component. (RCA). Use the rca cable into your AUX input of onkyo and you will enjoy the output from onkyo speakers