Page 1 of Home Cinema Dilemma

Having a bit of a nightmare. I know everyone will say seperates is the best but I don`t want too many cables round the place. I want a whole Home cinema system. I am thinking of the Sony DAVS500 cause it seems that will cause me the least hassle. But it has to be multi-region and am having trouble blagging it for 400 quid - I may have to wait a while on that one!!! Or do I get the Toshiba 210 DVD player and one of those Sony amp and speaker packages, so I can upgrade the player at a later date? However, Im not sure about whether the Sony kits are that good. I havent been able to find any reviews on them. I really want the whole thing to have DTS and to be silver. It has to be silver. Any suggestions? The panasonic SCHT70 looks quite good but the reviews are mixed and it doesnt have DTS, but Comet have it at 299 quid which isnt too bad.

This item was edited on Friday, 28th December 2001, 17:52

why spend £400, I am a Sony fan, have been for years, but on this occasion i spent £199 on the Venturer system from Toys r Us, plays dvd,vcd,cdr,cdr-w is dts has dolby 5.1 with the 6 speakers 200watt RMS, and can be changed to multi region (macrovision disabled - record your dvds to video) with a simple hack with the handset, had no problems with mine

regards

george

Sony 215 is meant to be a bit weedy - it`s only with the fully all in one S500 & 800 that they`ve apparently done the business, but as you say - not hackable, plus no scart output.
Mind you, a Tosh210 is going to cost £170 ish, so if your budget is under £400 in total, you`ve not left yourself much - maybe a silver Videologic thingy, but they`re around £210...
As regards cables all over the place, what ever you buy will require cables to the speakers - this is the worst of it - if you have separate dvd and amp the only extra cable will be a single coax/optical lead between dvd and amp, plus an extra power lead.
Shame you need silver, as the yamaha 420 has DTS etc, and can be got for £215 (Richer Sounds), and paired with the NSP220 speaker package (£139 http://www.qed-uk.com) would be an excellent package, with the upgradeability you mention. On that subject, for the DVD, what about going for something like the Dansai player (silver, available from Tescos, £99) - fully hackable. Not going to be as good as the Tosh, but worth a look.
Re Panasonic - just seen d2k`s post on this - reasonable price for a package, but if you say the reviews are mixed (but they were presumeably reviewing it at the original price).... also can you hack it multiregion?
This all depends on your budget - if you`re trying to do the lot for under £400, then I`d say you`ll need to look at the Panasonic or similar - perhaps you ought to just get the DVD player at the moment, build up some discs, and get the amp/speakers when you can put a bit more money towards it - sounds like you want a good system, rather than just something that will make noise from all corners of the room. Staggered purchasing is another advantage of separates!
HTH

This item was edited on Saturday, 29th December 2001, 08:05

I bought one of the Venturers from Woolworths for £179.99. It sounds great and I have linked up my iDTV and video through it. The TV and video sound only comes through the left, right and sub woofer though. Does anyone know a way to get it to play through all speakers.

Also, I have found that some CD-R don`t want to play on it, any advice?