Page 1 of DVD player, 5.1 theatre sound and speakers can i do all this from scratch for under £600?

I only have an amp cd player and a pair of speakers. I think I need a "processer" (Think thats what its called!), a DVD player and the speakers (5 i think!?) As you can tell im a novice but can I get all this for under £600 ? and can anyone suggest any names.?
Thanx, Richie.

Easy peasy lemon squeezy!

DVD Player - Pacific 750/ Alba 113/ Dansai - anything of that sort. They`re all well-built machines that might not have some of the finesse of the "name" players, but IMHO you do tend to pay for badges, and the big companies (Sony, Philips) don`t let you switch off the nastier elements like Region Coding or M*crovision. £90 - 120 (the Pacific from Asda includes a three year warranty for free).

Amp - Sony STRDE475S - This 250 watt monster includes built-in Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS so you can blow the windows out listening to Die Hard - Special Edition. The 475 is the same amp that`s available in the Sony HTK475 Home Theatre Kit for £399.99, but with wimpy surround speakers and a small subwoofer. Buy the amp on its own from Comet or QED-UK.com for £190 - 230 and what you save on the speakers you can spend on

Speakers - With the STRDE475S you have to make sure your speakers are 8-16 ohm rather than 4-8 ohm to avoid your amp having problems, but (again QED-UK.com) have speakers you can mix and match. If you buy (say) a couple of £100 (a pair) Wharfedale brutes for the front, and smaller £30-40 jobs for the rear surround and centre speakers, you can save on getting a subwoofer because you`ll get all your transonic elements from your five speakers - which is significantly more realistic than being surrounded by five tinny little speakers while a 100watt monster roars away behind you on the occasions the Low Frequency Effect track kicks in.

The speakers I`ve got (and quote the price below) are Wharfedale Valdus range (Home DJ speakers) - twin 400`s at the front, 100`s at the back and a matching centre. I have to watch I don`t overcook them (or the amp) but they certainly do the job.

DVD - 89.87
Amp - 190.10
Centre Speaker 39.04
Surround " (s) 39.04
Main Speakers 99.85
---------
£457.90

Or, how about
DVD - as above - £90
Yamaha RXV520RDS (baby bro to the awad winning 620) - Richer Sounds website/instore - £179
Yamaha NSP320 5.1 speaker pack - £137 http://www.qed-uk.com
Total £406 (plus some £££ for cables).

The speakers aren`t going to be the bee`s knees, but it gives you a very cheap setup, and you can upgrade the speakers later - you`ll probably sell the speakers for near what you paid on ebay, as the RRP is £249. A better alternative might be a Wharfedale or Mission Cinema pack - around £300 will see you right there. It all depends whether you have the space to have decent sized speakers, or whether you want to go the discreet satellite route (satellite speakers - small speakers that rely on the subwoofer to deliver the bass). If you can, I would go for "full size speakers" - a good set I can personally recommend would be a Mission M71 Cinema pack - if you go for the slightly more beefy M72 pack (£283 @ QED) you`ll get more bass. This doesn`t allow for a sub, but cheap subs aren`t worth bothering with, really. With these speakers, you will really need a pair of stands for the fronts, so allow £40 or so for them - post back if you want info about what and where.

Alternatively, go for the very well regarded Wharfedale 8.3 floorstanders as your fronts - no need for stands then!
You should also allow for decent cables throughout - I would suggest you need the following:

SCART lead (the cheap one you get with the DVD won`t make the best of your kit), Optical or Coax cable to connect DVD to amp (check which outputs your player has before choosing), plus speaker cable.
Try http://www.beyondhifi.net/ for cables - their prices are great, as is the service (and no, I`m not sponsored!)
SCART: BTech Premier (or Ribbon cable for a couple of £ more)
Coax: 1.5m Techlink RCA/Phono (680051)
Total inc VAT & Del £21.80
For speaker cable, you should go for something reasonable, but don`t go mad. Depends on what speakers you end up with. If you go the Yammy 320 route, I`d wait until you get them to see what connectors you have - I doubt you`ll have decent binding posts to strap beefy cables to. If you go the Mission/Wharfy route, try QED Original. I actually have my rear speakers (the excellent M7DS from the M71 cinema pack) running on mains cable - £10 for 50m from B&Q!
You may be swayed regarding speakers depending on room size/child /cat/dog friendliness. Post back if you need any more suggestions!

Actually, I`ve just had another thought. You might want to go for a better specced amp, and get the cheap speakers - as I said, you won`t lose much on them. Try the Marantz SR4200 (£269 - Richer), with the added benefit of prologic (DPL) 2 - turn all TV and video sound into near 5.1. See http://www.area450.com/homecinema/dpl2.htm for an article all about DPL2 - also other articles there about amps and speakers that you may find helpful.
The amp will then stand you in better stead for the future, and (if you want) you can save up for a better set of speakers.


Alternative suppliers for kit: try:
http://www.hifijunkies.co.uk (who will price match)
http://www.hifistore.co.uk (some good special offers)
http://www.hifibitz.co.uk (not usually the cheapest)
http://www.richer.co.uk

The only DVD that has had rave reviews, & rightly so is the `Mico` from bigger Sainsburys. You only have to look at the review in `WHAT VIDEO & TV`. It is the only player that plays all systems correctly, including the well known makes. With Panasonic parts it is not surprising. There may be a shortage but if you want the best then it will be worth it. It is region free & has Macro disable. Oh it is only £89-00. Not only is it the best player in the budget market, it leaves you with more money to spend on a Dolby Digital receiver & Speakers, or package.

This item was edited on Friday, 29th March 2002, 09:30

The hell with ` dubious ` makes !
Why not go for widly recognised quality kit.
The Tosh 210 for around £160 ( award winner ) + a Sony HTK215 surround kit for around £280.
I`d venture both will out perform and out last the other options !
Either that or Powerhouse are doing a cracking all in one Kenwood home cinema system for £499 this weekend.
Really nicely styled, which IS important !!

You hit the nail on the head with the Toshiba 210. That was my second machine (made in China) & although good on DVDs, it still took a second to change over halfway through the disc. It had tremendous problems with lip sinc on SVCDs. I know of 4 people who sold them because of this alone (unfortunatly I recomended the Toshiba to two of them before I found out the lip sinc problem). Toshiba were less than helpfull over the problem. I think you are paying for the name, may be different if they were the price they are & MADE IN JAPAN. I also had a Pioneer 444 & this was worse. I can understand the cheap dubious makes (I had a wharfdale & it went back faster than anything, talk about cheap). I have been through a number of DVD players over the last 6 months & by far the MICO is the best for picture. It has a very good feel, definitely not cheap. I use component connections to a Toshiba 36" TV. I`m sure any picture problems would show up on this. There is no doubt the `MICO` is the BEST for DVD, SVCD, VCD, MP3s. It also has a zoom that the Pioneer, Sony, Panasonic, don`t have. I like to watch in true Cinemascope (wide screen is the size a normal TV puts out) but some times I like to watch with my TV screen filled. The Mico does the lot.

This item was edited on Friday, 29th March 2002, 16:16

If you really want to go the basic route, you could do it for well under £600....like me :o)

Samsung 511, which cost me £180 at the time. I`ve added a good Scart to this so the pic is fantastic on my Samsung 28" widescreen TV.

I then decided I wanted to try out surround sound, and spotted the Yamaha TSS-1 amp and speaker set-up down my local Pioneer shop. It`s a basic system but does the job for a nice surround sound set-up (and is DTS compliant too). I had The Fast and the Furious absolutely booming out on it the other night.

This cost me, all in all, around £350, and it does the job for me :o)

How about you give me £579, I go down to Lidl and get the TerraTec DVD HomeCinema 5.1 player for £179 and keep the £400 difference?

Call me a trogladyte, but I don`t see why it`s worth paying loads of cash for HiFi equipment that`s going to be half the price next year.
If you buy something like the above, it`s got a 3 year guarantee aparently, then you can buy something else equally state-of-the-art in 3 years time instead of shelling-out 600 notes now and probably the thing breaks one month after the 12 month warranty (like my Sony) and you have to buy another...

If you are considering the cheaper route then buy any of the decent £100 DVD players mentioned above and then add on the VideLogic Digitheatre for £200 from www.qed-uk.com
Total system cost: £300!
OR the Digitheatre DTS for an extra £100-150.

If you goto http://www.videologic.co.uk/Products/VL-60484/ProductIntro.asp?Product=VL-60484 and click on reviews you will see rave reviews including a What TV & Video Best Buy Award.
The advantage of this is you get a Dolby Digital AC3 5.1 / Prologic receiver based on a Zoran DSP (Zoran processors have been used in Boston Acoustics, Creative, Denon, Dolby, Marantz, Pioneer kit). You can even upgrade the speakers if you want to in the future.

The DTS model has also had some rave reviews http://www.videologic.co.uk/Products/VL-60483/ProductIntro.asp?Product=VL-60483 - including a good review on this website - http://www.dvd.reviewer.co.uk/reviews/hardware.asp?Index=2487