starter theater system supporting HDMI (1 Viewer)

[jack_ingoldsby]

Hi,
I am looking for a basic home theater setup for $800 max.


I have a 42” Vizio LCD HDTV (2 HDMI inputs)
HDTV Time Warner Cable (via HDMI)
PS3 (via HDMI)
XBOX 360 (using a component cable)
Wii (using a component cable)
A normal multiregion DVD player (using a component cable).

I have a large number of region 2 and region 3 DVDs

I also have a HDMI cable switcher

My constraints are:

1. I’m looking to spend $700-800 at the most
2. I do not want to change anything from HDMI to component cables.
3. I’d ideally like something wireless
4. I’d ideally like an iPod port.
5. I’d ideally like something fairly small.

Things I’m concerned less about:

1. Volume. I live in an apartment building so I can’t get anything too loud anyhow.
2. Sound Quality: 5.1 DTS is all would need, but I would like to get good quality given this (minimize hiss etc)

I had envisioned a setup whereby I would use the HDMI cable from the PS3 and Timewarner cable, component from Wii, Xbox, DVD player into the receiver and output the HD picture through a HDMI cable (assuming the input is in HD), and output the surround sound through the home theater (where the source media is in surround sound)

I looked at a Panasonic unit, but it would not take a HDMI input (which struck me as crazy).
One concern I have is that I have read that some theater systems “pass through” the HDMI audio directly to the TV without using the surround sound (which kind of defeats the purpose).
Does anyone have a system they could recommend?

Thanks in advance ,
Jack

 

[jack_ingoldsby]

Actually, I think perhaps I may wish to look at higher quality sound than DTS.... but no more than 5.1

 

[Jeff Gatie]

This is one of the best "starter systems" out there right now. Onkyo HTiB are well respected for the beginner and this one has 4 HDMI ins and HD audio support for Blu-Ray. It's a little less than your budget, but you can't really do much better for the price. Ignore the 5.1/7.1 difference. The 5.1 systems won't have the features of this one and you can configure it to 5.1 and not use the extra speakers:

Onkyo HT-S6100 7.1 Receiver/Speaker System with iPod Dock

 

[hodedofome]

Onkyo HT-S6100 - In Stock at OneCall.com

That's probably all I'd be looking for with your budget. Finding something smaller is the challenge. It takes all of the newest audio codecs in blu-ray and will upscale everything to HDMI.

 

[amacsteeze]

Audio: Home Audio & Speakers: Samsung Home Audio System (HT-AS720) | Best Buy Canada Web Store

HDMI passthrough, enough inputs for your different components, 7.1 compatible, you can keep your current DVD player, and its a suprisingly small system that will give you a pretty decent sound considering the price!

 

[jack_ingoldsby]

Thanks for the feedback... was leaning towards this after some further research.
Anyone know what is the best speaker stand to use with this?

 

[jack_ingoldsby]

Went for the onkyo 6100.... seems to meet my requirements (but have ordered some new 16AWG speaker wire as I understand the wire you get with it is not great)
Thanks for everyone's help
Jack