Sub £100 5.1 Setup with Optical In?

Skeeter

Skeeter

Skeeter

Caporegime
Joined
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Surrey
First up, am I right in thinking that my Sony KDL40EX403 will pass the 5.1 audio it gets from my SkyHD box, PS3, Xbox360 and HTPC though HDMI cables to the Optical Out port to feed to a surround sound system? It wont just pass Stereo or anything will it? Also the sound on the Optical Out will be in sync with the picture, as opposed to taking a feed from the source devices which will be slightly ahead of the TV image?

Assuming I have assumed the above correctly, whats a good set of 5.1 speakers with optical in that I can feed 5.1 sound to? Ideally the rear speakers should have stands as I live in a rented flat so can't wall mount them or make shelves or anything. Its also going to be a good 10 - 15 meters to feed the cable from the sub round to the rear speakers so good length or something that can be lengthened easily would be great. Its for a combination of movies and games in 5.1 and normal TV where available (Sky Sports F1 :D).
 
That budget is about £200 too low I'm afraid. You would need to look at one of the onkyo systems, check over on richer sounds.
 
What about speakers with with standard connectors that I can plug into the separate speaker outs on the back of the TV? So no need for something with optical in?

I'd love one of the £300+ Onkyo setups, but unless I can find £200 down the back of the sofa its not gonna happen for a while :)
 
I did have a old Sony 5.1 system with optical in, But it's rare to find a cheap system with the feature,

Also, Your SkyHD box will only output 5.1 sound over optical, They only support stereo over HMDI.
 
ZG002 said:
Also, Your SkyHD box will only output 5.1 sound over optical, They only support stereo over HMDI.
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Whaa! Really :(.

Thats put a stopper on the whole thing then. My TV has a bit of a delay in it meaning if I connect the surround sound directly to the Sky box I would need an amp that allowed me to dial in a bit of delay, which is definately going to be £300+

Rubbish :(. Why don't Sky output the 5.1 over HDMI? Thats just stupid.
 
You are going to have to save up I am afraid, I bought some what is considered average (QED Micro) speakers cable for the rear, after go round the living room, over a door, I needed 15m x 2, with banana plugs, cable for the centre it cost me a better part of £70. That's cheap because I already have cables for the front 2 speakers.

Your £100 will barely get you cables, unless you go really cheap (which will work and tbh, what I'd do in your shoes), you are going to have to increase your budget.

Speakers wise, I'd go on eBay and find something personally. I picked up a full 5.1 set for £126!, but declined the rears and got the rest for £106. (long story). They were like £900 new as I also got the stands.

It's not just speakers, speakers need to be driven by an amplifier, I'd would say £500 if I were doing it on a budget to cover everything. Even these all in 1 package 5.1 sets of speakers can be a couple of hundreds, I'm afraid you are just going to have to buy a proper amp for like £200/250 for that optical in.
 
Skeeter said:
Whaa! Really :(.

Thats put a stopper on the whole thing then. My TV has a bit of a delay in it meaning if I connect the surround sound directly to the Sky box I would need an amp that allowed me to dial in a bit of delay, which is definately going to be £300+

Rubbish :(. Why don't Sky output the 5.1 over HDMI? Thats just stupid.
Click to expand...

Yeah it's pretty lame, I set all mine up new onkyo amp and new sky+hd (as you know) and thought something was broken till I did a "quick to the internet" search.
 
The latest SkyHD box that doesnt have a harddrive in it does 5.1 over HDMI but thats only really intended to be used as a Sky multi room, wonder when they will bring out a Sky+HD box that does it though.
 
Skeeter said:
Whaa! Really :(.

Thats put a stopper on the whole thing then. My TV has a bit of a delay in it meaning if I connect the surround sound directly to the Sky box I would need an amp that allowed me to dial in a bit of delay, which is definately going to be £300+

Rubbish :(. Why don't Sky output the 5.1 over HDMI? Thats just stupid.
Click to expand...
If you haven't done so already, change over to a Sky HD box. These include an audio delay feature with adjustable timing.

SkyHD boxes don't do surround via HDMI because were designed to suit the "average" install i.e. under the TV - No surround system. There was also the question cost. All of the additional features in a HDMI socket cost money due to licensing. Finally there's the question of payback. After the first year of subscription the box becomes yours, so it has to pay for itself out of a basic subscription.
 
I got the Yamaha YHT 196 for 5.1 F1 mainly and games, its £180 at Richer Sounds and works perfect for my needs, off course people will tell you to spend hundreds but if you have a budget that can stretch to that then it all sounds awesome IMO. You can have the Sky via HDMI to the amp and tell it to use the optical from Sky box as the audio source. 360 and PS3 connect fine via HDMI to the amp.
 
lucid said:
If you haven't done so already, change over to a Sky HD box. These include an audio delay feature with adjustable timing.
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I have a new Sky+HD box.

However, as I understand it if the video and audio both come out of the TV they are in sync, yet taking audio from the source device means it will be slightly ahead of the video on the TV so needs to be delayed slightly.

However, even if the Sky box can do this, is still needs a 5.1 system with optical in which means a half decent amp which means £200+.

The Onkyo kit seems the best then, but I will have to save up.

Ah well, no F1 in 5.1 for me for a while. :(
 
Yeah been looking at second hand. Decent setups seem to hold their value well though.

What are peoples view of the Onkyo HT-S3405? Its the absolute bottom of the Onkyo range.
 
Purgatory said:
A second hand Logitech Z-5500 will do optical and coax digital. You may be able to find one for £100 and they are pretty good for the money and they do DTS and Dolby decoding.

http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/pc-speakers/260443/logitech-z-5500-digital
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Unfortunately a simple singe feed 5.1 system with an Optical In is now no good having discovered that the Sky+HD box doesn't pass 5.1 though HDMI to the TV. Rather than just taking the optical feed out of the TV for all sources I would need something that can take the imputs directly from all the sources themselves, meaning an amp with 4 HDMI inputs plus is needed :(
 
TBH, routing the sound via the TV isn't the best solution if you're looking for quality anyway.

Most of those TVs that will pass 5.1 to the optical out will only do so for Dolby Digital. They won't do DTS. The other thing is that the Xbox 360 is notoriously finicky about sending 5.1 over HDMI. It seems that there are compatibility issues with a lot of TVs. The result is that the Xbox defaults to stereo. Some report it can be changed manually each time the system is used (but what a pain!), and others say it's a complete no go.

The best solutions for the Xbox seems to be either direct optical or HDMI out to an AV receiver.
 
Skeeter said:
Yeah been looking at second hand. Decent setups seem to hold their value well though.

What are peoples view of the Onkyo HT-S3405? Its the absolute bottom of the Onkyo range.
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The 3405 is fantastic, in fact its what I use. Currently have my Sky HD, Blu-ray, PC and PS3 running through it to my TV and although yes I could get better for the money I don't think I could, only paid £200 for it.
 
lucid said:
TBH, routing the sound via the TV isn't the best solution if you're looking for quality anyway.

Most of those TVs that will pass 5.1 to the optical out will only do so for Dolby Digital. They won't do DTS. The other thing is that the Xbox 360 is notoriously finicky about sending 5.1 over HDMI. It seems that there are compatibility issues with a lot of TVs. The result is that the Xbox defaults to stereo. Some report it can be changed manually each time the system is used (but what a pain!), and others say it's a complete no go.

The best solutions for the Xbox seems to be either direct optical or HDMI out to an AV receiver.
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I wan't expecting brilliant quality for £100 :D.

Thanks for letting me know about the 360. I've got one of the newer Slin 360s, do they have the same issues? Like you say might just be better to go straight for an optical connection for the 360 from the start.

On that note, does anyone know how good the 5.1 is through the Audio over HDMI option on the ATI HD4xxxx graphics cards? At the moment my HTPC is just connected with stereo sound to the TV but if I got an amp I would want to use the HDMI function of the graphics card (I can't remember the exact model, but its a low end passive one).

pepp77 said:
The 3405 is fantastic, in fact its what I use. Currently have my Sky HD, Blu-ray, PC and PS3 running through it to my TV and although yes I could get better for the money I don't think I could, only paid £200 for it.
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Yeah its available for £220. Seems massively cheaper than the next nearest Onkyo, yet not that far behind spec wise. Best get saving! :D
 
I think your best bet and most economical is to save up and buy an amp that does everything you want in the first go, otherwise you will just have to buy it again later and spend more money.
 
Skeeter said:
Yeah its available for £220. Seems massively cheaper than the next nearest Onkyo, yet not that far behind spec wise. Best get saving! :D
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I've got the older version (3305 I think) and it's superb. Considering the Onkyo kits are similarly priced to the Samsung/Sony/LG etc all-in-one systems, the difference in quality is absolutely massive. I actually had a Samsung one before it and it was horrendous.

I'm rather perplexed as to why Raymond Lin is suggesting £500 systems when it's clear you don't have that sort of budget or the requirements that such a system would satisfy. Even the lowest-end Oknyo receivers have plenty of connectivity on the back and settings to play with.
 
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