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Sorry for the large price range. I am doing some legwork for a friend and not sure how much she is willing to spend. I have some general questions:1. Is it important that I get a receiver that has Dolby, DTS, THX, Dolby Prologic etc?
2. Am I better off getting brands like Sony, JVC, Onkyo etc or investing in a complete home theater system from Polk or Bose?
3. Can anyone recommend a DVD player that sounds decent for audio CDs as well? Price range $200-$600.
4. Her TV is an older Sony. How many and what jacks would she need on the TV to set all this up? Will she have to buy A/V switcher?
Thanks.
1. Dolby Digital, yes. That is clearly the format of choice now. More DVD's are being released with only 5.1 soundtracks. Pro-Logic is automatically handled by a 5.1 system. DTS: nope. There's not much software available, and I don't see that changing. THX is more a set of standards: for example, bass xover must be 80Hz; highs are rolled off to ease a harsh soundtrack, etc. THX is not necessary; I doubt that you can find a complete THX system in your price range---for example, THX specifies a pretty heavy duty sub2. A complete package offers a great benefit: it's easy to deal with for a technophobe, and gets you _decent_ HT performance quickly.
I have a review sample of the Polk RMDS system, and one of the great things about it is that I can setup a HT system in 15 minutes, and start enjoying movies.
My wife likes the little Polk system b/c the subwoofer level is controlled via remote, so she can turn it down to avoid feeling pounded by the bass...yet the sub does a respectable job of filling a room. But now for the tradeoff: it has a pretty steep cutoff at (guessing) 30Hz or so...that's how it gets close to 100dB potential without costing an arm and a leg.
I'm willing to bet that every prepackaged system makes similar tradeoffs...it's always a compromise.
3. Ditto Shawn.4. Ditto Shawn, with a word of explanation: the receiver will not do a format conversion, i.e., you can't plug in an S-video source and a composite video source into the receiver and have *only* an S-video hookup from receiver to TV. You will also need to run a composite out from the receiver to the TV.
Good luck.
1. Is it important that I get a receiver that has Dolby, DTS, THX, Dolby Prologic etc?If she only has a VHS then ProLogic is important; if a DVD then DD is important (or even if she wants to upgrade one day). DTS is worthless as far as I'm concerned because there are so few titles but you'll probably get it on the box anyway. THX is nice but not necessary, especially for DD.
2. Am I better off getting brands like Sony, JVC, Onkyo etc or investing in a complete home theater system from Polk or Bose?
I read that Polk's latests system is nice but it's around 2 g's I think. You're best to stay as far away from Bose as possible in my opinion.
3. Can anyone recommend a DVD player that sounds decent for audio CDs as well? Price range $200-$600.
Any of the current approx. $400 DVD players make nice cd players: Sony 530, Toshiba 3109/2109, Pioneer (forget model #'s).
4. Her TV is an older Sony. How many and what jacks would she need on the TV to set all this up? Will she have to buy A/V switcher?
The receiver *should* act as an AV switcher. All she needs is composite inputs (rca jacks). If she doesn't have those then she'll have to get a converter and suffer a nasty picture, probably, unless the receiver has rg59 output.
Shawn
NT
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