Sony HT-AS5 AV Setup?

[GeX]

Sony HT-AS5 (or others?) AV Setup

Hi all.

Just had a call from my dad asking for some help picking a 5.1 system for his lounge. Couple of weeks ago he bought himself a ~40" Samsung 3D TV, blu-ray player and Sky 3D - the only 'lacking' bit now really is the sound setup.

He's been looking at this;

http://stuff.tv/Review/Sony-HT-AS5-review/

I've noticed in the review it makes mention of HDMI V1.4. I'll confess to being very behind with regards to current AV kit (I still run a Toshiba 36ZP18P CRT, SD DVD and an 11 year old Sony AV Receiver all linked up with TOSLINK and RGB cables). So I don't feel best suited to advise him.

I'd love to her some feedback re the HT-AS5 and any other suggestions. If anyone can explain what this 3D sound is that Sony go on about (I can only assume it's just an upmix / spatialiser?)

Thanks in advance.

 

[lucid]

The Stuff review isn't that factually accurate. Too much marketing hype, IMO

1) HDMI 1.4 and HDMI 1.3 work just the same way for 3D video from the Blu-ray and Sky HD 3D. They both pass the same amount of data which is all that's required. You definitely don't need all "HDMI 1.4" gear to enjoy 3D as the article wrongly suggests.

The only advantages of 1.4 spec is the audio return channel (sound back down the lead going to the TV) and Ethernet over HDMI (one network connection enables internet/network features on all the compatible connected products).

2) 3D audio - I've only skim read, but there's only a suggestion of audio being tied up with 3D specs and HDMI 1.4. Again this is another load of bollix.

You've got an AV system, so you know about Pro-Logic, DD and DTS. The Sony has these. You also probably know there's better sound on Blu-ray - Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD - which needs new gear for decoding. The Sony doesn't support that.

What they do instead is rely on the Blu-ray player to do some signal conversion to Linear PCM. This isn't the same thing. For a start you often lose the ability to set speaker distances and delays. You also lose Lip Sync adjustment. The best solution is an audio system handles HD Audio as well as DD, DTS and DPL. The Sony isn't it.


The two favourite - and fully HD Audio/3D video compatible - audio systems in the sub £400 price category are the Onkyo HTS3305 (£300 5.1 amp & speaker kit) and Onkyo HTS22HDX (£230 2.1 sub/sat). There's been loads written on these in the last couple of weeks. Several readers have gone ahead and purchased. Use the search feature to find posts about these kits.

 

[BF-Bert]

The Stuff review isn't that factually accurate. Too much marketing hype, IMO

1) HDMI 1.4 and HDMI 1.3 work just the same way for 3D video from the Blu-ray and Sky HD 3D. They both pass the same amount of data which is all that's required. You definitely don't need all "HDMI 1.4" gear to enjoy 3D as the article wrongly suggests.

Not entirely true, while HDMI can support certain 3D video it certainly wont support all the new 3D standards...... in particular 3D at 1080p.

 

[lucid]

If we were talking about at TV or a projector then sure, you'd be correct. The display processing required for 1080p/60Hz x 2 (eye-by-eye) needs 297 MHz of bandwidth in the HDMI processing chip. Most HDMI chips have a max bandwidth of 225 MHz.

However, an AV system isn't a sink device. It's passing the signal rather than processing it for display directly. It that respect it's very much like a cable; and according to HDMI.org (the people responsible for setting the standard of HDMI specification)...

What kind of cable will I need to use for 3D?

3D video requires substantial data throughput, so you’ll want to use a High Speed HDMI cable (with or without Ethernet).

LINKY

High Speed HDMI cable has been with us for a good 3+ years now and it already supports a bandwidth of 340 MHz. That's more than enough to cope with 2 lots of 1080p @ 60Hz. So, what we've been buying marked up as HDMI 1.3 is fine as far as video goes.

 

[GeX]

Yeah the review link I posted was my attempt at finding a site that wasn't trying to sell it, but listed at least some information about it (do OcUK still stock AV kit? Don't want to break the competitor linking rules)

I'll suggest to my Dad the HTS3305, it'll no doubt mean a 240mile round trip to set it all up for him though!

Thanks lucid