Samsung HT C5500 Home theater system as my sound system (1 Viewer)

[phanos]

Hello,


I am trying to build my own home theater system. So far I have a Philips Led TV 40" (4 HDMI input- one with ARC, Two scart inputs, and an aerial input for DVB-T), an XBox Kinect (with HDMI output), my HTPC (with HDMI output), a dreambox satellite receiver (with scart output), a nidendo wii (with scart output) and a Logitech universal remote to control all of my devices. What I am missing here is a good sound system for all of my devices.


After searching a lot I came to the conclusion that I need something like the “Samsung HT C5500 Home theater system”. Since I never use a home theater system before I have a few questions that perhaps you people can answer please.

• Since I am planning to connect the two hdmis (Xbox and HTPC) to the Samsung HT C5500 Home theater system and from there the hdmi with ARC to my TV, I am guessing here that the video will pass through the Samsung system and then to the TV correct? Will there be any degradation in the quality of the picture while it passes through the home theater system?
• How do I connect the two scart devices that I have now in order to hear their sound onto the Samsung system speakers instead of the TV? If I keep those devices connected to the TV will I hear sound from my home theater system since I will be using an HDMI with ARC? In this situation will there be any synchronization issue between the video and audio while the audio passes through the Samsung system?
• Is there something I am missing here? Something that I need to take into consideration before I buy my home theater system?

Thanks in advance,


Phanos

 

[phanos]

Hi mccambley and sorry for the misunderstanding. I meant HT-D5500 not the HT-C5500 (http://www.samsung.com/us/system/consumer/product/ht/d5/50/htd5500za/7282_HT_D5500_v4.pdf).


What other setups would you recomended for a budget arround the samsung HT-D5500 and my setup?


Thanks


Phanos

 

[Jason Charlton]

Phanos,


How are you going to connect your HDMI devices to the HT-D5500? It has ZERO HDMI inputs. In fact, it has ZERO video inputs of any kind! The ONLY inputs it has is a pair of analog stereo audio inputs and one digital optical input.


You have HDMI devices, a component device (Wii), and your satellite system (sorry, I'm not sure what "scart" is - we don't have that in the US).


Your connectivity needs are WAY beyond what any cheap HTiB system can support.


Casey offered one good solution - build around a real receiver (preferably one that has analog to HDMI video upconversion for the Wii) and start with a pair of decent speakers, and go from there. A receiver in the $400 range, plus a pair of decent bookshelf speakers, for less than $200 will get you there.


Alternatively, you can opt to spring for a much better HTiB system that can support your system and provide a means for you to upgrade and grow over time. The Onkyo 5400 system is one option, however it doesn't upconvert analog video to HDMI, so video from the Wii would still connect directly to your TV. You'd have to step up to the Onkyo 7400 system to get that feature added.


Either way, for a system that you won't regret buying, you'll likely have to spend $500-600. Much less than that, and you'll be making some compromises that you'll have to live with until you can't stand it anymore, then scrap the whole system and start over.

 

[phanos]

Hi all and thank you for your help, I really appreciate it. First of all the Samsung model HT-D5500 that I have in mind has 2 hdmi inputs and arc support. This is the link from the Samsung UK site http://www.samsung.com/uk/consumer/tv-audio-video/home-cinema/3d-blu-ray-home-cinema-systems/HT-D5500/XU/index.idx?pagetype=prd_detail&tab=specification. Perhaps the us model is different but I believe I will be buying the European version .


However after reading what you guys have said I believe that I will research it a little further and perhaps I will end up building my own HTiB.


Before I go would you please answer my questions?

1. Let’s say you end with more devices than you receiver can handle, I mean fewer video inputs, how can you hear the sound form the additional devices through the receivers speakers? If you connect those additional devices directly to the TV and you have your receiver connected with Audio Return Channel enable will you be able to watch the video on the TV and hear sound form the receiver speakers? Will the video/audio be out of sync while using this setup?
2. Is there any effect on the quality of video that passes through the receiver and then to the TV? I mean if I connect my Xbox to the receiver through HDMI will there be any degradation in the quality of the video while watching it on the TV?

Thanks a lot,


Phanos

 

[Jason Charlton]

Hmm, interesting. Indeed there is a pretty significant difference between the two models.


Here's the US manual, page 16 shows no video inputs at all.

Here's the UK manual, page 14 clearly shows two HDMI inputs. Sorry for the confusion!


To answer your questions:


Running out of inputs

Most A/V receiver have at least 4 HDMI inputs (6 is becoming more common), and usually an additional 3-4 digital audio inputs (mix of optical and coaxial). So the chances of running out of inputs is pretty slim provided you purchase a receiver that's in line with what you expect to need in terms of inputs. That being said, if you DID manage to run out of HDMI inputs, I would first run HDMI video from each source directly to the TV, and run a separate digital audio connection from the source to the receiver (bypassing the TV). Using this approach should allow you to add in the neighborhood of 10 devices before you start having to consider analog audio.


You would prioritize the sources that feed HDMI to the receiver vs. digital optical/coaxial based on the audio formats they support. Blu-ray, for instance, should ALWAYS feed HDMI to the receiver so that you can enjoy lossless audio (which is not carried via digital optical/coaxial cable). DVD, on the other hand, would offer no performance improvement whatsoever to having the audio carried via HDMI.


I'm not fully versed in the nuances of ARC, but my general approach is to shy away from "lengthening" the signal path any more than necessary. Sync issues have been mentioned by other users in this forum, but they tend to be very tricky to conclusively track down. The basic cause of sync issues is additional signal processing for one signal chain versus another. If the TV's internal circuitry has to process audio (frequently downmixing digital 5.1 to simple analog stereo) that can cause delay.


Frankly, I'm not that sold on the utility of ARC for anyone who's serious about HT. Once you start talking about multiple sources, you should not be using the TV as the hub of your system. That's what an A/V receiver is designed to do.


Video Processing

As with just about everything in HT, the answer is "it depends." If you are careful about how you set up your source devices and the A/V receiver, there should not be any processing done to the video stream unless you want it to be done. Just about all receivers will upconvert incoming video to whatever resolution you specify. Technically, however, if you have a modern fixed-pixel display, it will do exactly the same thing no matter what the receiver puts out, so some folks prefer to have the display do ALL the processing. Alternatively, you can set your sources to do the processing, then pass the data, unaltered, downstream through the receiver and out to the display.


If you take care to set the output resolution of all of your sources to a format that your display supports, then you can usually select a video mode on the receiver such as "Direct" that disables all scaling and processing of incoming digital video signals.


If you have any analog devices, and you want to preserve them as well, you will likely need an analog connection from receiver to display as well, and opt NOT to have the receiver convert the analog signal to digital (HDMI). Again, these are all choices that a decent receiver (Denon, Pioneer, Onkyo, Yamaha) should allow you to make.


If these are crucial features for you, do yourself a favor and download the manuals for any receiver you consider purchasing and take a good look at the video setup options. It should be very clear whether or not a receiver will meet your needs.

 

[phanos]

Hi all and thank you so much for your help! The answer you provide have clear a lot of thinks. Since I am really thinking about building my own HTiB would you please recommend an av-receiver with 5.1 speakers for me within the price range of 500-700 us dollars? If possible I want to buy also a set of 5.1 speakers with that price as well. Thanks