[Need Help]Please suggest HTiB for my PC

onlytanmoy

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Dear All,

I am absolutely new to this fascinating world of home theaters, HTiB etc, so please forgive my queries if they sound stupid :)

My Current PC config-

  • AMD FX 8350
  • ASUS - M5A97 EVO R2.0
  • Corsair TX650V2UK
  • SAPPHIRE HD 7950 3GB GDDR5 OC with Boost VAPOR-X
  • ASUS DRW-24B5ST
  • G.Skill ripjaws 1600 MHz 8 GB
  • NZXT Crafted Series Guardian 921 RB USB 3.0
  • AOC 42" Full HD 3D TV

My PC is connected to the TV via HDMI. The TV is my primary display device.

I am planning to hook up a home theater from Onkyo, Yamaha to my PC and this is where I seek your guidance/ expert opinion.

My usage will be- 60% movies, 30% pc games and 10% music.
I watch the bluray rip movies downloaded via torrents.

I am looking for AVR which can decode all the sweet formats like Dolby True HD, DTS HD MA etc.

Now the most important part, my budget for the system is 30k and I am specifically looking for something from Onkyo, Yamaha.
I am from Kolkata and I plan to demo the system before sealing the deal :)

I hope I am able to articulate my requirement properly.
Please suggest me accordingly.

Thanks,
Tanmoy.
 
Dear All,

I am absolutely new to this fascinating world of home theaters, HTiB etc, so please forgive my queries if they sound stupid :)

My Current PC config-

  • AMD FX 8350
  • ASUS - M5A97 EVO R2.0
  • Corsair TX650V2UK
  • SAPPHIRE HD 7950 3GB GDDR5 OC with Boost VAPOR-X
  • ASUS DRW-24B5ST
  • G.Skill ripjaws 1600 MHz 8 GB
  • NZXT Crafted Series Guardian 921 RB USB 3.0
  • AOC 42" Full HD 3D TV

My PC is connected to the TV via HDMI. The TV is my primary display device.

I am planning to hook up a home theater from Onkyo, Yamaha to my PC and this is where I seek your guidance/ expert opinion.

My usage will be- 60% movies, 30% pc games and 10% music.
I watch the bluray rip movies downloaded via torrents.

I am looking for AVR which can decode all the sweet formats like Dolby True HD, DTS HD MA etc.

Now the most important part, my budget for the system is 30k and I am specifically looking for something from Onkyo, Yamaha.
I am from Kolkata and I plan to demo the system before sealing the deal :)

I hope I am able to articulate my requirement properly.
Please suggest me accordingly.

Thanks,
Tanmoy.

Well the YHT 196 would be within your budget, but its does not decode Dolby True HD, DTS HD
.
If you are particular about the AVR supporting those formats, you will have to increase your budget.
 
Well the YHT 196 would be within your budget, but its does not decode Dolby True HD, DTS HD
.
If you are particular about the AVR supporting those formats, you will have to increase your budget.
thanks for your response...increase budget by how much and suggest the model nbrs please.
 
Well the YHT 196 would be within your budget, but its does not decode Dolby True HD, DTS HD
.
If you are particular about the AVR supporting those formats, you will have to increase your budget.

Agree. Although you can still play HD Audio tracks by selecting to decode at your PC end before sending to YHT 196
 
Instead of going for HTiB, you can build your own system. I did it myself, got Monoprice 8247 5.1 set brand new and purchased Denon 1610 from fellow member.
 
How do I go with the decoding at PC end? do you mean by using some software such as Cyberlink Power DVD? Please clarify.

Your playback software like Kodi / XBMC will have a feature to enable or disable passthrough. When enabled this will let decoding to be done at AVR end and when selected as disabled it will decode and send LPCM over HDMI. So yes, essentially it is software decoding. From my personal experience in some movies the 5.1 to 7.1 surround conversion effects happens better in software decoding than at AVR end. For 5.1 it does not make any difference I guess
 
How do I go with the decoding at PC end? do you mean by using some software such as Cyberlink Power DVD? Please clarify.

Use PotPlayer and LAV Filters. Alternately you can disable in built-in audio decoder too... I prefer LAV Filters for both audio and video decoding.
 
Hi .
I have a YAMAHA YHT-299 bought last year, and I have connected it to my PC and my Sony BluRay player . I have connected it via Optical cable from PC to the YHT 299 - AVR. Pretty much satisfied with the setup . I have a dedicated soundcard- the Creative Sound Blaster Z gaming sound card- even though it wont use the sound card's DAC as I use it only as transport( I use optical out) , I have bought sound card as I wanted DDL for games. On board Realtek chip didn't support DDL . I use my sound card's analog o/p for other purposes. Let me know if you need any more details. I mostly use FooBar to play music via optical out, using WASAPI plugin.
 
@quad_core>> Thanks mate...that was some helpful info.

Please can you answer the below queries-
a. What is the current price of the set?
b. YHT-299 comes with DTS HD & Dolby TrueHD- have you played any movies with these file formats from your PC? If yes, which software/ player you used?
c. Is the Sub-Woofer side or down firing?
 
Last edited:
@quad_core>> Thanks mate...that was some helpful info.

Please can you answer the below queries-
a. What is the current price of the set?
b. YHT-299 comes with DTS HD & Dolby TrueHD- have you played any movies with these file formats from your PC? If yes, which software/ player you used?
c. Is the Sub-Woofer side or down firing?


You are welcome mate ! I will try to answer your questions :

a> I think its not available currently . Its been replaced by some other model number( YHT-2910, I think, not sure ), but basically its the same.Although the YAMAHA India website does show YHT299, i don't think its available anymore . When i purchased in Feb last year, it was for Rs39,990 . I bought it from Vijay Sales for 35K.
b> I have not played those formats from PC. If I have to play, I would play those formats using Media Player Classic . I don't have Power DVD .
c > The subwoofer has front facing driver and has port on the side.

Movies and Music both sound good on this system . I listen to 320KBPS MP3s and FLACs made from my Audio CDs , and also via BluRay Player , that is connected via HDMI.

I didnt buy the YHT196 as its got passive subwoofer, and the YHT299 has an active one. I prefer the active one.
 
@quad_core>> thank you so much...how is the performance in terms of bass? does it deliver good thumping bass? Like I stated before, my primary usage will be watching the blu ray rip movies (mkv files) downloaded via torrents, playing pc games and then lastly listening to music.
 
@quad_core>> thank you so much...how is the performance in terms of bass? does it deliver good thumping bass? Like I stated before, my primary usage will be watching the blu ray rip movies (mkv files) downloaded via torrents, playing pc games and then lastly listening to music.

BluRay disks as well as the BD Rips both sound awesome. Its hard to find faults . It does what its supposed to, at 35K, and and it does so brilliantly . The bluray disks which I own , like Conjuring and Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift and others really sound awesome :yahoo: . But be sure to hook up the satellite speakers properly . I got them installed from the YAMAHA guy, and had to buy the speaker mounts at Rs 450/ per speaker . Yes, it does deliver good bass, but I m not sure how much bass head are you, because , bass , though sufficient, is not over powering. I don't prefer over-powering bass, so this suits me.
PC games, again sound good, but I don't use HDMI , as I said in my old post, I use SPDIF. I too use the HTiB sometimes for gaming(I have the GTX770)
 
@quad_core>> thanks a lot bro...i too will get the speakers installed via the Yamaha guys when i purchase them...it makes sense to have some one professional do the proper setup to enjoy the system in its full glory. Thanks again for your support. I shall connect with you via PM or something, should I have some more queries.
 
@quad_core>> thanks a lot bro...i too will get the speakers installed via the Yamaha guys when i purchase them...it makes sense to have some one professional do the proper setup to enjoy the system in its full glory. Thanks again for your support. I shall connect with you via PM or something, should I have some more queries.

You are welcome..You too can connect / setup the HTiB by yourself, its very easy . By installation I meant drilling the walls to install the speaker mounts. After installation, do play around with all the settings, as you can tune it better than the YAMAHA guy, you can trust your own ears, as he follows some fixed settings, example Bass/Tone has to be set at xyz value only , and so on..
 
Correct, I agree with you mate. He will go by his pre-defined settings and all...I need to play around to get the setting that sound best to my ears.
Like I said initially, I will go for something between Onkyo & Yamaha. I have one query with regards to Onkyo, not sure if you will be able to answer this.
This query of mine is more for members owning Onkyo HTiB like Onkyo HT S3500 or HT-S3700. As I understood going thru the specs, the sub-woofer is a down firing one. Isn't that a problem? in a sense that the sub tends to undergo a lot of displacement while in action, it won't stay at the initial place and will gradually shift from there mainly on marble floors? I am speaking this out of my experience of a previously owned Logitech 2.1 speaker system.
 
a> I think its not available currently . Its been replaced by some other model number( YHT-2910, I think, not sure ), but basically its the same.Although the YAMAHA India website does show YHT299, i don't think its available anymore .

Its still available in reliance digital outlets for 38K plus 2K offer price for Philips BD player.
 
As I understood going thru the specs, the sub-woofer is a down firing one. Isn't that a problem? in a sense that the sub tends to undergo a lot of displacement while in action, it won't stay at the initial place and will gradually shift from there mainly on marble floors? I am speaking this out of my experience of a previously owned Logitech 2.1 speaker system.

At least I own a downfiring sub and I do acknowledge this problem in my case too. However I believe there was a older thread on this forum where somebody had placed a heavy block of granite on the subwoofer to prevent this "displacement" and there were claims that granite improved bass (not sure myself though)
 
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