Home Theatre Vs HiFi System Help Me

[Kashi Nath]

I recently bought a Sony KDL EX720 - 46inch TV. I have a HD connection from Tata Sky. I love the TV and quality. I am now pondering what additional stuff I need.
1. Is Home Theatre really needed (like Onkyo S3400) or a Sony DAV-DZ840K OR can live witha min HiFi System like MHC-GZR888DA.All the systems I have mentioned are more or less in the same price range. Incidentlally noone at my place including myself blast music or sound . Would both (Home Theatre Systems and Hifi Ssytem) provide HDMI?

2. Is Blue Ray a Must? What is the value add?

3. Are there anything additional I need to cpmplement my TV with?

Any help appreciated.

 

[kohinoorb]

You do need a blue ray player.. but an alternate vfm option is a nettop with a ssd connected to an external hdd.. then you dont need to worry for media damage .. regions etc, also all codec support.. depending on your taste a 46 inch tv .. very soon you will want a ht set up to complete the expeerience.. your htpc/nettop will be your source.. load it up with xmbc and you will have th ebest interface and maximum support.. dont go for a dedicated music setup... only go for it if you are very serious about music ..otherwise your ipod is a very capable musician but you will be very well served with an ht set up.. onkyo 3400 is good for movies crap for music but is a good starting point for movies.. i didnt like it .. but its the universal choice.. also the denon 1312 xp is a vlaid contender

 

[baijuxavior]

1. Is Home Theatre really needed (like Onkyo S3400) or a Sony DAV-DZ840K OR can live witha min HiFi System like MHC-GZR888DA.All the systems I have mentioned are more or less in the same price range. Incidentlally noone at my place including myself blast music or sound . Would both (Home Theatre Systems and Hifi Ssytem) provide HDMI?

Congratulations on your purchase of the HD TV.

I would suggest the Onkyo 3400 over the Sony HTIBs as it has 4 hdmi inputs and other features that are absent in entry level HTIBs. The sony and other entry level HTIBs lack connectivity options. You will need atleast two HDMI inputs if you want to add a blu-ray player.

2. Is Blue Ray a Must? What is the value add?

If you want to take full advantage of your Full HD TV, then buy a blu-ray player. But the main gripe is that blu-ray titles are very costly (read ~ 1K for a single disk) and are not easily available. In most case you will need to source them from amazon us or uk. In that case you will need to buy a region free player to play those disks.

If you have downloaded BR contents, then buy a media player like asus oplay, himedia 600 series etc.

 

[saj2001ind]

from my experience do not go for any HT from sony or samsung etc, get onkyo or denon HTIB, they are much better, if u want to enjoy the movies in 5.1, then its a must also for HD channels gives 5.1 DD which will need one of these HT

I too own 40EX720, its amazing and yeah samsung bluray D5500 will give you 3D bluray playback with 2D movies playback from usb sources even 1TB HDD, it plays most of the formats

 

[just4kix]

I recently bought a Sony KDL EX720 - 46inch TV. I have a HD connection from Tata Sky. I love the TV and quality. I am now pondering what additional stuff I need.
1. Is Home Theatre really needed (like Onkyo S3400) or a Sony DAV-DZ840K OR can live witha min HiFi System like MHC-GZR888DA.All the systems I have mentioned are more or less in the same price range. Incidentlally noone at my place including myself blast music or sound . Would both (Home Theatre Systems and Hifi Ssytem) provide HDMI?

2. Is Blue Ray a Must? What is the value add?

3. Are there anything additional I need to cpmplement my TV with?

Any help appreciated.

I will add my own 2 paise worth comments:

Congrats on the HD-TV. I must get one myself. I suggest that you live with your current setup, i.e., HD-TV and TataSky HD for a couple of months and see how it goes. You can always add an HT later.

If you really wish to treat yourself, stay away from the Sony. The Onkyo S3400 is anyday much better. The disadvantage of an HT is that, you should ideally have a closed room. For example, if you install an HT in the hall, where there are only three walls, the surround sound kind of gets lost. But this is my personal opionion.

Another issue with HD sound is that the surround sound towers over the dialogues/speech. You have to turn on the volume to hear dialogues and when the surround sound kicks in, the decibells rise. This causes disturbance to others who are not watching. So that is why I say, the room should have four walls.

Good HT systems have a feature called dynamic sound control or midnight cinema that reduces the bias to the surround channels and thus cutting down on the surround sound output. But this can also be a kill-joy.

Is Blu-Ray player a must? No absolutely. But true 1080p source with true HD sound (i.e., Dolby TruHD or DTS-HD MA) is a must if you really want t enjoy the HD-TV. But such true source is available on BDs or BD-rip downloads. The TS-HD will give you 1080i picture (nearly as good as 1080p) but Dolby Digital 5.1 sound (not true HD sound but still good enough).

BD-rips have a fairly large size and downloading them will take a lot of time (unless you have a really fast Broadband). Since this is a piracy issue, I will not say much on this.

Blu-ray players are cheap, you can very well buy one just in case. But as baiju said, BDs movies are expensive - my average cost of each disc works out to Rs. 800 (I have 95 titles).

Your TV is I think a 3D-LED. So if you buy a BD player, make sure to buy a 3D BDP.

 

[Kashi Nath]

Thank you all for your help and valuable suggestions. I particularly like just4kix suggestion about waiting out for a couple of months and see what is best instead of jumping to buy some.

Meanwhile I have a question (May be I need to post this elsewhere): While going through my TV connections I see the pain while it is mounted on the wall. As I mentioned its a Sony KDL EX720 - 46inch TV. All the connections are at the back! Is there some kind of port replicator equivalent we find in laptop PCS that would bring out all conections to accessible area from the TV and make connections/ switch connections easy?

 

[Kashi Nath]

One other thing I forgot to mention - I have a Sony DAV DZ370 HT... its not great or anything, but some level of HT. The speakers are ugly and this system was connected to my old 22 inch bulky Samsung TV. I am planning to connect this initially to my Sony TV and see how it goes before deciding on trading for a Onkyo or anything better.

 

[moshel]

From my experience, I suggest you not to go for a HTiB system. The biggest minus point being, that in such a system, once the DVD/Blu ray player breaks down (time depending on usage), the whole system becomes useless.

I have a 5 yr old HTiB from Sony and about 3 years back the DVD player started giving me troubles, it threw out dvds, didnt read them etc. got it repaired but it gave respite only for a couple of months. Moreover, I have to make do with 2 channel line in from my PS3. So if you are planning to connect a media player or something else and want 5.1 output, go for a AV receiver+speaker system.

All in all, if you have 25-30K check out Onkyo 3300/3400, JBL SCS 140, Yamaha 294/296 and Denon (forgot model no. but it costs around 28.5K) and have the freedom of connecting whatever you like.

 

[GeorgeO]

I suggest you use the next few months assessing, evaluating and auditionin all of the products you have in mind( maybe a few new ones will also pop up) and then decide.

 

[marsilians]

You would need decent sound with a hi-def TV. Anything external would be better than the TV speakers. So buy a decent HTiB within your budget - Onkyo has one at a decent price. Dont jump into AVR + separte speakers combo yet as the cost will increase significantly as well as confusing options if budget is tight.

Search around the forum for HtiB options if you have not yet decided on the mini-hifi system.

Bluray is not necessarily required but a good addition down the road. This iwll definitely require a good sound system for the audio effects. So, audio sys > blu ray for priorities.

I recently bought a Sony KDL EX720 - 46inch TV. I have a HD connection from Tata Sky. I love the TV and quality. I am now pondering what additional stuff I need.
1. Is Home Theatre really needed (like Onkyo S3400) or a Sony DAV-DZ840K OR can live witha min HiFi System like MHC-GZR888DA.All the systems I have mentioned are more or less in the same price range. Incidentlally noone at my place including myself blast music or sound . Would both (Home Theatre Systems and Hifi Ssytem) provide HDMI?

2. Is Blue Ray a Must? What is the value add?

3. Are there anything additional I need to cpmplement my TV with?

Any help appreciated.