New 5.1 Home Theater System Receiver PC compatable

[zonation]

Hello everyone,

I'm looking to start a project, upgrading my home sound system because my current system is shot.

I want to get a 5.1 Receiver, new speakers and have everything (PC/TV/PS2/3).

Currently, I have an MSI 16F3 laptop with an external Soundblaster X-Fi card going to a Logitech 5.1 Speaker system. My PC is connected to a 40" Samsung 650 LCD TV as the monitor. As it is now, only my PC got the benefits of the surround sound and as I mentioned the system is not functioning well and I think it's time for an upgrade. The HDMI output on my laptop supports audio and video in the same HDMI cable.

As I mentioned, I would ideally like to get a receiver where everything is connected to it, or really I suppose it would be everything connected to the tv which is connected to the receiver. Also of note is that my TV does not have an HDMI output. I do not know a whole lot about a/v receivers, or at least not newer ones so I am not even sure if it is possible to achieve this. I wanted to know if any of you had some suggestions for decent receivers that would, if possible, be able to accommodate all my needs. And then, how I would go about connecting. I assume I would pretty much keep the same setup as I have now but then have the optical output on the TV going to the receiver input. Since there is no HDMI output I would think to go for the next best connection?

I am looking to spend no more than about $700 for the receiver and speakers. Also, if the receiver has some kind of Graphic/Multi-band EQ built in that would be a huge plus. Thank you fro taking a look.

 

[ssddx]

you will want all of your inputs to go to the receiver. you can then run one single output to your television. you can then run all hdmi.

personally i would run sound over the dvi or hdmi cable coming from your pc if it is capable instead of going through the soundcard. the receiver should be doing the decoding and when multiple sources try to process sound sometimes there are issues.

 

[zonation]

you will want all of your inputs to go to the receiver. you can then run one single output to your television. you can then run all hdmi.

personally i would run sound over the dvi or hdmi cable coming from your pc if it is capable instead of going through the soundcard. the receiver should be doing the decoding and when multiple sources try to process sound sometimes there are issues.

Hi SSDX,

Thanks for the response. I am able to just use the HDMI cable on the back of the PC to get sound through the tv. I wasn't planning on still using the external sound card. I was hoping to just be able to hook the PC to the tv and then connect the tv to the receiver. But since sound from the HDMI output on my computer supports audio and video I should be bale to just plug that directly into the receiver?

However, since I'm using the tv as my PC monitor I can only have the one HDMI cable connected to the tv in order to get picture that way. You would still be able to get the display from the PC on the tv using the one HDMI cable? Sorry, I have a very limited knowledge on how receivers work. So basically it would be like.....everything (including the one HDMI cable on the PC) connected to the receiver--->1 HDMI out cable from receiver connected to tv and all video and audio for all devices will be good to go?

Also of note- on my tv, there is one specific HDMI input that is dedicated to a PC and must be plugged into that slot to get the PC display on the tv. Not sure if this is an issue. Thanks again for the help

 

[Wolfshadw]

You have your connections backwards in your head. The receiver you want to get will have multiple HDMI inputs. All of your devices (PC, PS2/3) will connect to the receiver via HDMI. The receiver will have an HDMI output. This will connect to your HDTV's HDMI input (shouldn't matter which one) and your receiver will pass the video from whichever source it's on to the HDTV while playing audio through it's own speakers.

-Wolf sends

 

[zonation]

You have your connections backwards in your head. The receiver you want to get will have multiple HDMI inputs. All of your devices (PC, PS2/3) will connect to the receiver via HDMI. The receiver will have an HDMI output. This will connect to your HDTV's HDMI input (shouldn't matter which one) and your receiver will pass the video from whichever source it's on to the HDTV while playing audio through it's own speakers.

-Wolf sends

Hi Wolf,

Thank you for clarifying that for me. It just seems like the more channels you run the equipment through the more of a degrade in quality you would get. So for example: Running an external Hard Drive through a USB hub into your computer. You would experience slower data transfer rates, etc..than if you would just connect the HD directly to the computer. I now see that's apparently not the case with receivers.