receiver and speaker advice needed (1 Viewer)

[NeilO]

I have gone through a number of postings and the introductory primer. I have looked at the specs of a number of receivers and speakers and I think I have seen too much data and am very much confused.

Right now, I have a Panasonic 27" TV, a Pansonic VCR, and a Phillips DVD player which has S-video, coaxial digital audio and optical audio output. Right now, the S-video form the DVD goes into the TV. The TV has video, video 1, and video 2
options which are used for cable, VCR, and DVD.

What I'd like to do is get a receiver that will work well with this for watching my DVDs and a speaker system. I was thinking of spending up to $300 on the receiver and up to $400 on the speakers. I was thinking of getting a six piece system - maybe something like the JBL SCS135 or JBL SCS150.

The room for this has one full wall (---) which the tv is in the middle of. Another wall which has two windows ([[[). There are about a couple yrds of full wall (---), gap, then a diagonal partial height wall (///), and then another gap. I was thinking one rear speaker would fit on the half wall, another on top of a bookcase.

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Anyway, there are so many options out there, I don't really know what would be good enough.

Thanks,

Neil

 

[Geoff S]

Hey Neil,
Seeing how it is your first post I'll start by welcoming you to the Home Theater Forum.
Your question is a good one, but still a little broad so lets see if we can narrow it down.
At this point I think the best thing you can do is to go to an Audio/Video store and start browsing and demoing the goods. Let the salesman know your price range and usually they're pretty good at helping you make a selection. And if you want something good be prepared to go a little overbudget from $700 cause it's easy to fall in love with those big badass systems
Some points to go on, demo your speakers based on their musical performance as well as HT, if the surrounds sound good and are seamless when creating ambience and effects, if the front 3 speakers are well balanced, and if the is sub able to output the bass you need for your room.
For receiver ensure it has all the inputs you need, a decent processor, amp section, and all the modes you want (DSPs, Dolby Digital, DTS, Pro Logic I/II etc). may I recomend the Denon AVR-1802 or AVR-1803 for starters.
Hope this helps and gets this thread going so we can move on to answering some more of your more specific questions. Good luck.