Page 1 of Home Cinema problems.

Thinking of getting a home cinema kit, or maybe some seperates. I`ve got a Sony NS300S player and the Sony receiver with 5 speakers that I`ve seen in Comet (don`t know model) for £299 looks good and wil perfectly match my player. I`m also considering going to Richer Sounds and see what they can do for me for a similar price.

What confuses me is, where does everything plug in? I`ve got a sanyo tv with two scart leads, both of which are utilised by Sky and the DVD player. I want to use the speakers for normal TV as well as DVD. Any ideas welcomed, both on the set up and what system I should buy for £300. Is the Sony one in Comet any good?

I imagine the Sony one is the 215 - it is apparently underpowered. How about the Yamaha VS10 - similar idea, more grunt, well recommended by our lord and master Westy.
You don`t need to worry about connections - it`s actually easy! DVD player continues to use the SCART (as does the digibox), but you use either an optical or coaxial cable running between the DVD and amp/decoder. This sends the audio signal to the amp, which decodes it, amplifies it and sends it on to the speakers. Obviously you need to connect all the speakers to the amplifier, too!
If you go to Richer Sounds, they will likely point you in the way of separates, which may offer more bang for the buck, but will take over your room more. I`m a separates man, but it`s horses for courses.
you could also think about the yamaha 420 (£215 from Richer Sounds) plus the Yammy NSP220 speakers from http://www.qed-uk.com - slightly over your budget, but as a pair won the best home cinema in a box under £500 in the What HiFi awards this year.

This item was edited on Friday, 28th December 2001, 08:25

Just to add to the previous message.
Connect all your speakers to the amp.
TV sound (phono`s) out to the AMP.
DVD sound (optical/Coax) out to the AMP.
Satelite (Optical/Coax) out to AMP. If the sat. rec. does not have one I would personally not connect this up to the AMP seperately and just leave the SCART connected to the TV only.

Obviously when viewing DVD`s you will have to switch the AMP to the DVD sound channel. I bought all my speakers seperately from Richer Sounds - they now their stuff !!! The only thing I would say is that many shops go one about these miniture BOSE speakers and how great they are and some even stating they would blow any system away. True they are great for their size, but larger speakers - good quality blow BOSE off the Planet. So if you have the room - think size too. Some RS stores even have rooms to test sounds for you.