just bought myself a rather nice lcd screen and i want to mount it up on the wall.

the slight drawback of this is all my other setup is quite dated. i have a DVD player with component out, but my home cinema amp is really old (not dolby digital) and doesnt allow component through it.

my question is this? what setups are you guys running and how do they perform, i obvious want to limit the amount of cables running to the TV but also gte the best picture quality.

one consideration is the best way to view freeview, as it isnt built in to the TV, box recomendations?

has anyone got a HDMI dvd player, can you run freeview through this?

what are your thoughts

cheers

 

ive got last years top of the range jvc intelligent system.you clap and it set it up for where you are,thats great.or the panasonic is meant to be shit hot going by my mate who sells them.

or if flush bang and olefsen

 

more interested in the ins and outs of the system, what cables, connections etc. as i will be using different manufaturers for different components, just wondering what the best set up for picture quality is

is component better than scart? and is an hdmi dvd player better than that?

 

I'm going for Hdmi as I have just got a 42" plasma and want to use it mainly for films, picture and sound quality is said to improve dramatically, one cable for sound and picture helps out messy cable runs as a bonus

 

in what respect?

HDMi from the dvd, from all sources. what amp will you be using

is hdmi better than component rgb, if the source ISNT HD?

 

I run 2 video cables to mine, the setup is in the toilet cupboard and I run long video leads to the living room. Its all controlled by an RF pronto.

There are also 6 cables running for the 5.1 setup, I managed to do this via the voids in the plasterboard but it was a royal pain and involved skirting board removal but worth it for no cables showing. (wife friendly)

Component rgb straight from the dvd player to screen (doesnt have to go thru amp) this was the best quality option for me and i tested the other methods.

and svideo for watching tv (outputted from a video recorder with cable boxes plugged into this)

I then use the input selector on the screen to switch inputs.

I dont have any hdmi source and my screen is not HD ready. HDMI would not give you any quality increase over proper component leads with a non hdmi source DVD.

 

My screen is HD ready but for the minute i have no hd sources. will have to leave my amp on all the time from now on for the sound

cheers for the answers

 

So if i buy a HDMI dvd player and plug it into my LCD i can watch HD movies?

I bought this puppy on monday....



Im really getting into surround sound and HD, i have an xbox 360 running in HD on it, the gears of war trailer in HD is fooking stunning!

 

I tried running dvd player through composite (crap) svideo (crap) scart (bit better) and finally bought a Ł200 component lead (I told you it was long)

I have my amp running all the time anyway, my display is just a display (no speakers)



wires are hidden in the trunking above the skirting board and pass thru the cavity to run into the front room to the monitor, speakers and hidden subwoofers.

The remote took 6 months to program !!! pretty neat tho as it lists on screen of all my dvds by name and at the push of a button it selects the right disk from the 400 disk dvd autochanger and plays it !!! No more fingermarks on the dvds!!!

 

for true HD you need a HD dvd player and HD movies (at Ł25 each they arent cheap)then you have to choose between HD and blue-ray

HDMI will make the best of the signal but it isnt true high definition

 

Sony DVPNS76H DVD Player is hdmi output and improves standard dvd to near hd

a good website for all your needs is http://www.avforums.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=41

had to get the best for my parents money and after 2 weeks research i settled on the

sony bravia kdl-40v2000 Ł1238 online

sony dvps76h hd upscaling via hdmi Ł89 online

 

the W series bravia is only a couple of hundred more and supports 1080p (which you would need for HD DVDs/blu ray)

 

we got that one last week

 

Thats the Łcuking bollox!!!!!!!

 

cheap too, $400 which I thought was top value considering what it did, just got my mate to send it to me from the states...

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-dQEa63G...er&i=158CX995V

only downside is that it wont play UK disks, even if I had it chipped they dont have PAL so would still be buggered.

I have to buy or download R1 NTSC dvd's only, PAL R2 play in the Xbox.

 

got my panny IN the wall.

to identify best cable connection, i bought of ebay a test dvd which generates test card and various other images to assess picture quality. my dvd player can output svideo / component / rgb or hdmi upscaled from the dvd test disk (or of course from a tv signal source). the quality of the static images produced by using the hdmi is significantly better than all the others so now the telewest box feeds the dvd player/recorder and the hdmi signal from this goes to telly. when you view a test card image and identify the things to look for then the hdmi connection is a clear winner imho







[

 

i have hd ready 42 inch hitatchi plasma mated up to the panasonic 1000 watt cinema set up it rattle s the windows and got a smaller set up in my bedroom with a 20 inch flat screen lcd and my old cinema sound

 

I've got a Denon upscaling DVD player which connects to a LG Plasma via HDMI.

As my Yamaha AV amp doesn't have HDMI connectivity, I'm using QED scarts to carry the picture and using optical cables to connect Sky/DVD player to the AV amp for the sound.

Am thinking about getting a Yamaha YSP1000 for the plasma in the dining room tho.

 

So far, there is no way to pass Freeview signals through a digital interface (HDMI or DVI) Freeview signals will only pass through analogue outputs, as the signal, althoug in digital format when it arrives to your aerial, is converted to analogue via the decoder in the set top box or built in decoder in the TV) From worst to best, the connections you can use are : RF (aerial) passthrough, composite video (single yellow RCA ) s-video (4 pin din) Scart (CvBS - basically s-video quality) or RGB Scart (best)

However if you buy a Topfield TF5800PVR, you have the ability to output component (YUV/YPbPr) via the RGB scart socket, for which you only need an adapter cable (see HERE )

So, if you really want to limit your cable run, what you want to do is get a Topfield and output the YUV component via the scart socket, into this amp;

Sony STRDA-5200ES

THis amp has component and HDMI inputs, along with component and HDMI outputs. But whats special about it, is that it has the ability to upscale and pass through component signals via the HDMI output. So if you connect your Topfield freeview box to the component intput on the amp, you can pass this signal out though the HDMI output on the amp to the TV. THis means you dno't have a bunch of cables running from the amp to the TV, and also you can use the av amp to do the video switching aswell as the audio switching.

However, if you are installing cables in the wall, then you'd be wise to future proof yourself and install at least one cable from each type into the wall space, as you never know what you might need! Don't wanna have to keep ripping the wall conduit out to run another cable

 

the samsung telly is the bollocks

but i have 10 inputs into the back of the telly (3 x scart, 1 x hdmi, 1 x nomral areil, 1 x rgb, 1 x pc, 1 x svideo and 2 x other stuff i haven't worked out yet) and i am using at least 5 of them

so would it be wise to just run cable from all of them and hang them out before covering the holes up?

and before you ask, i've also got a 192cm tall cabinet which is full of stuff like the sky box, video, cd player, dvd player, dvd recorder, amp, ps2 and xbox360 to all get hooked up

the problem is, like ginge, i've got an old amp which needs loads and loads of cables

i'm after an amp that i can just put some digital cables into from the other ends and get rid of the 25kgs worth of wire thats currently clogging up the back of the cabinet