Solved! 5:1 for a tiny living room - how does this look?

[gorgot]

Hey, I have a 32" 1080p 60hz Samnsung which is primarily used for Xbox and DVD viewing. Want to bump up the experience a notch so going to get a Blu ray Player (PS3) but I want some better speakers than the ones in the TV before I get the player -- I figure if I'm going to upgrade the visuals might as well upgrade the audio.

Now, the room is small and also is only enclosed on the West side, which is doors to the bedroom. The north side, behind the TV, opens to the hallway with no door, and the east side opens to the kitchen, again, no door. It's not the biggest apartment. Also, to make matters worse, the property manager lives below -- nice guy and and we can play music fairly loud but we can't blast stuff obviously.

Which is all to say I'm looking for a modest system, and my budget is modest as well. How does this look:

http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882105291

I've only skimmed the surface of research but this one got good reviews. I think there's one for cheaper at a Best Buy near here too.

 

[Supe_]

Hi gorgot, welcome to the forum.
I am wondering a few things. You did not mention a budget but I can make an assumption given that you are looking at a $300 Sony HTiB and plan on buying a PS3 which retails for $300 also. So you are looking at $600.

If you are wanting to get a bluray player for the sake of, as you say, bumping up the experience, there are cheaper solutions. In keeping with HTiB's there are units that have bluray players in them for far cheaper than $600.
Perhaps something like this Sony bluray HtiB. This seems like a pretty cool unit because of it's Netflix and Pandora capabilities that are included, if you have a home network. but there are drawbacks.
About the only real big problem I see with just about every single one of the Bluray HTIb's that I have been looking up as an example is available inputs. Very limited, if not non-existant HDMI inputs!! What's up with that? And it seems that with the ones that do have an HDMI input they will not pass audio over HDMI so you would be forced to use S/PDIF. So, they are intended as one thing. To play bluray and not offer much for other components you may have or expandability.

However, if you are getting the PS3 because of it's bluray player being a pretty darn good one (according to many reviews...I do not own one), and what the heck you can play some games not available for Xbox, then I would say that Sony unit you have picked is a very good choice. PS3 will output LPCM and the HT-SS360 will decode it. Only issues are proprietary speaker connectors so expanding later on will involve splicing and you may have to work on taming the bass down in your small area.

But overall, besides sinking tons 'o money into a receiver and speakers and standalone bluray player, this seems like a great way to go for your situation.