looking for home theater receiver (1 Viewer)

[Mike Thomass]

im not sure receiver is the right word, but i guess it is
im just looking for a unit to take the signal from the tv and do the surround thing. it doesnt have to also receive radio signals or play cds or anything, but id be open to suggestions on those units as well.
im looking for a bang for the buck model recommendation i suppose as i probably wont notice the subtle differences anyway. price range $0-1000.
ill be asking for speaker recommends in the other forum
thanks in advance

 

[mark alan]

You are not going to take the signal from a tv and do the surround thing.

You need a component (cable/satellite box, dvd player) which sends a dolby digital or dts signal to the receiver. The receiver than decodes this digital signal, and powers the speakers and subwoofer.

Probably, just about any $200 receiver will be adequate for what you want. However, if you provide details of your room, what you plan on using your system for (music, movies, high def, etc.), you will get a lot more assistance.

 

[Mike Thomass]

ok fair enough
i dont know what to tell you about the room?
intended use from most likely to least likely would be normal tv, hdtv, movies, and rarely music
hope this helps
feel free to ask me any other important questions
thanks again

 

[DorianBryant]

I think you would do well with one of the new digital receivers. Both the Kenwood 7100 and the Panasonic SA-XR50 have gotten some very good reviews. I own the XR50 and paid $240 shipped from E-tronics. It replaced a $800 receiver and I think it has better sound, etc.

These are 6.1, very slim design as they are less than 3" high and put out very little heat.

"Bang for the buck" I think these are one of, if not the best thing out there...IMHO!

 

[John S]

Most people do not get surround from their TV for TV shows, but with that said, as long as yur TV is Stereo and has Stereo analog outputs, you can get surround from your TV as a source. Most people get their TV surround from their Stereo H-FI VCR tuner.

You can get a Pre/Pro (Pre-amp, Sound Processor) that will not be able to tune in AM/FM stations, but would still be able to play CD's with an extrenal CD player. These need to be attached to an external amp with enough channels to drive all needed speakers.

With that said, the AVR (Audio Visual Reciever) is stil the way bets bang for your buck, and will include AM/FM reception as well as a host of inputs and outputs. These AVR's contain an impressive amount for sound processors, to give you surround sound from many different sources, they also include power amps for the respective needed speakers for surround.

To get surround on "Normal" TV, the program, network, and local station / cable provider must provide the channel / program in stereo. You must be able to recieve it in stereo and output it to the AVR via L/R (Left / Right) analog RCA audio cables.

HDTV is usually recieved on a separate tuner, then fed via digital connection to the AVR or pre/pro. If the tuner is in you TV, usually there is a digital output on your TV for this.

Movies, the sound needs to be output also through a digital connection most of the time from your DVD player / VCR / Laserdisc player. (On laserdisc, not all discs have digital sound, so once again you also need to hook up L/R analog audio cables.


I hope this helped some... A fair amount of ground to cover there.