Movies through your stereo - a poll

Hi, I run a fibre from my Skyplus to NDAC and it works a treat.. Especially for those special movies. For regular TV the TV runs under its own power.

Simon

Well since my whole home cinema has been sold improved tv sound will be via a unitqute and two in wall speakers and tbh I'm more than happy to stick with this sort of set up for a long time. It all gets installed a week on monday so I'll let you know how it sounds. 

I keep my hifi in a separate room from the one where most TV watching is done.  I've got a TV in the same room as the hifi and I've got an optical lead into the nDAC if I want to push the TV sound through the hifi.  It sounds very good but the TV is not sited between the speakers but to one side so not ideal for movies and in any case the TV gets very little use.  In the room where the TV is used to watch movies I'm lucky enough to have the sound produced by an n-Vi feeding Focal domes in 5.1.  Sounds wonderful, not shouty and in-your-face like many AV set ups, but with depth and subtlety on the quiet bits.  This is the every-day TV so the n-Vi is on most of the time with Sky HD.  It copes reasonably well and Sky movies are great too but the n-Vi clearly doesn't like the regular channel hopping that is part of everyday TV and it freezes every so often when it then demands a re-boot.  But its quality far out-weighs this small irritation.

MDS

4 way giga switch for BRP/DVDR /Sky + box, optical from TV to DAC into 52. Whatever is on TV gets to hifi system.

Our living room has a two channel rig that sounds spectacular.

Our TV room has a Sony TV, a Meridian F80, and an Apple TV/Airport Express.   This sounds great for TV and a one-box sound solution.   We listen to TV, Spotify and iTunes on it, and an occasional DVD.  It is surprising how good it sounds.

The thought of having the relatively expensive HifI system lying idle when watching films or TV is positively offensive.

The Hifi is running many hours a day from many sources including TV, tuner and DVD - best value for money.

I did try a surround sound setup for a while but I found a good two channel system gave a better experience

 Me too.

Tv/DVD/Bluray through the hifi here too via an AV2/NAP175/n-Sub/cent/sats for full 5.1 sound. Really enhances things IMO.

A contribution and a plea for advice, if the OP will permit...

Currently watch TV through a 37" Panasonic plasma TV.  Thought it was HUGE when we first bought it.  Now it's okay for TV, we suppose...

Currently watch movies (which we adore) through the same 37" TV, with sound from the TV routed through a ground loop isolator to the 52 pre-amp and the rest of the hi-fi.  So much better, just so very much better.

Having acclimatised to this arrangement, we find the sound to be brilliant, leaving the picture to be a bit weedy and small. The sound stage is bigger, deeper, clearer in every way than the picture.

We want to keep the TV for TV (!) but want a bigger screen for movies in the evening, which leads to a complete rethink of how to tackle this.  The room is 19' long by 12' wide with the TV at one end of the room and us at the far end, so we are circa 14-15' away from the screen. 

So far, we have decided that a 72" wide, drop down screen would be ideal, as it would just fit in front of the tv and between the Proacs, which have a 74" gap between them. Then we need some sort of ceiling mounted projector.  The TV shop recommended one (a make I've never heard of before) at about £1100.

As for blu-ray/dvd player, we have a Panasonic BD35 which cost about £220 at the time.  I'm happy to change this if there is a real improvement in picture quality.

Sound-wise, our local TV shop has recommended using a £500 Yamaha AV amp and an £800 Monitor Audio 5.1 surround sound speaker package.  They said to switch off the hi-fi for movies.  They also suggested a new £250 Yamaha blu-ray/dvd player.

However, we are a little uncomfortable with the recommendations, so your thoughts would be much appreciated.

We like the idea of the roll up and out of the way screen, 6 feet wide.  This would give us a screen area about 4 times as large as the TV, which seems perfect to us.  My wife is a strongly visual person, so picture quality matters to her.  We were wondering about a Panasonic 5000 or 6000 something, which is in the range of £3k. 

We simply don't know if 5.1 is worthwhile, but I am very keen to avoid ruining the beautiful music that our hi-fi delivers, so am concerned about sticking 3 new front speakers and a sub in between the Proacs.

Any advice on screens, projectors, blu-ray players and 2.0 versus 5.1 sound would be greatly appreciated as this is a new area for us and gut feels says that I'm not getting good advice from our TV shop.

Best regards, FT

Hi FT,

I cannot comment on every topic you mention but can share my experience with a few of the questions you had.  I think the projector is a good idea.  You have the room for it and it should look brilliant with movies in the evenings.  I would doubt your blu-ray player would need any upgrading, I would definitely go for the projector first and see how you like it.  The picture probably will not benefit much for a newer/better blu-ray.  All of them output 1080p.  Some may do better colors but may not have much impact.

For the audio you are right, it will probably get too complicated if you add a 5.1 system in parallel with the hi-fi.   You don't want your living area to look like an audio shop.  Just run the blu-ray through the hi-fi and use that only during movies.  Other times use the TV for stereo.  If you really want some more punch to your TV and movie playback without over complicating with a 5.1 system look into getting a soundbar / subwoofer combo.

Hi Foot Tapper,

By all means go for the projector. The latest ones from the likes of Sony, Panasonic & JVC are very good indeed but do bear in mind that you really need the room to be backed-out as much as possible; projectors don't work properly in well-lit rooms. The Rolls-Royce of projectors are SIM2 but they're very expensive and a bit overkill for a six-foot wide screen.

Consider if you want to try 3-D. If so, you'll need to change the BluRay player. The latest crop of projectors come equipped to handle 3-D. I've mixed feelings about it myself - one or two films I've got work really well (Titanic & Avengers Assemble), others, particularly if they're full of dark scenes, are pretty hopeless.

Regarding surround sound, it's great and can really enhance a film but, to repeat my thoughts from a previous post on this thread, it requires a full 5.1 or 7.1 setup with subwoofer (irrespective of size and capability of the main speakers) and centre channel speaker. Sure, the sound quality is improved by using your stereo system instead of the TV's speakers but a properly installed surround sound system is a different kettle of fish! 

Plexxx, Tony

Many thanks for the guidance.  re blacked out rooms, we only really watch movies after 9pm, when the wooden blinds are closed, so it is pretty dark.  Neither of us likes 3D movies, even at the cinema, as it makes our eyes go squiffy (such a good word ). 

We find it amazing that a £220 blu-rau player does the job when it has taken £10k+ to find the CD player that we adore.  Amazed and delighted!

I have heard of SIM2 projectors, but we are hoping that a £3k player would do us - feedback appears encouraging for this.

Also appreciate the steer clear of 5.1 systems unless they are very, very well done.  As we are about to buy a pair of SF Guarneri Evolutions (which are not terribly cheap), a 5.1 version leaves us quaking just a little so we'll stick with 2.0 through the hifi.

Once again, thank you for being such helpful sounding boards.

Best regards,

FT

I have my front channels, voice and subwoofer running through my stereo systems (Verity Audio Speakers for that part) and then I have the rear speakers running through my NAD AV receiver (Linn Speakers). I think it's a splendid combination.

At present, my music room (SuperUniti, TT, Totem Hawks) is separate from our TV area. In the TV area, we have no audio to speak of, other than the built in speakers in my LG flatscreen. My plan is to pick up a UnitiQute and run the TV audio through the Qute and out to my spare Totem Arro speakers, which at present are not being used. Will also make for a good little music system when the TV is off (which is my preferred state for said device :-))

Where's the poll? 

My son watches DVD's on his laptop and wires the sound through the upstairs Flatcap-Nait XS-nSats rig via the Meridian Explorer.    He and a girl can watch the same movie in a small space.    Decent picture and great sound.   Cute girl, too, last I checked.

We can do the same thing downstairs via our Meridian F-80 for sound and Apple TV for streaming to our Sony TV.

Yep, I do it.. sky digi box and AppleTV out into the NDAC Toslink inputs, with automation controlled ny Nstream... nDX display indicates Sky or AirPlay (for AppleTV)

Works and sound a treat.

Simon

New Samsung 8000 and DVD player, I only have sound thru my ND5xs and Harbeth speakers.

My Humax and my BD player are both connected to the 282 to provide sound through the SL2s which are either side of the TV. I almost never use the TV's own speakers.

Regards,
Frank.
All opinions are my own and do not reflect the opinion of any organisations I work for, except where this is stated explicitly.

Interesting thread.

I have 2 very different setups in 2 very different locations.

In Location 1, have a dedicated listening setup (in the main floor "Living Room") which is perfect for serious listening, casual listening with dinner and/or when guests are over, and late night, lights low ethereal music listening.  This is my main NAIM system.

On a separate floor and in a smaller room is the Video system.  With the consent of my wife, we decided that separate purpose oriented rooms would be preferable for music and TV/Movies/VideoGames.  The Video system consists of a smallish (by current standards) 42" Panasonic Viera Plasma.  The heart of the video system is a Rotel RSP1069 with an RMB-1085 amplifier driving a Paradigm home theater speaker system (4 x Atom Monitors (2 FC, 2 RC), CC-300 center and PS-1000 powered subwoofer).  The Rotel was selected because of all the inputs it could handle (Panasonic BD, Toshiba HD, Sony VCR, Panasonic DVD & HDD recorder, Pioneer LaserDisk (yes, still have about 30 of these), Magnum Dynalab FT101A tuner).  This system is very good for movies and is set to optimise the playback from each source. Achilles heal of the system is the Rotel remote.  This system is going on 8 years old or more and has yet to disappoint (but will not do 3D).

Location 2 is in someways the experimental location.  Here the video and music systems share the same room.  Final configuration and whether the 2 systems will be merged has yet to be determined.

Original Video system (this system was first) consisted of 55" Panasonic Viera (GT series) 3D Plasma, Panasonic 3D BD, Anthem MRX700 Video Receiver, Neat Elite ES front channel, Neat Elite center, Focal V705 rears.  This was very good for movies (especially after using the Anthem ARC room setup feature) but the Anthem just wasn't as good for straight music and seemed to have problems driving the Neats.  The Neat Elite ESs were replaced by Totem Mite's on high stands and that is the video system for now.  The Anthem has preouts that allow it to be used as a preamp/control amp only, I am toying with mating this with 3 NAP 250s, however I may need another 250.

Music system is almost all NAIM, 32.5/HiCap/NAT01/NATPS/2xNAP250/CDS3/XPX2/Oracle Delphi/Stageline/HiCap.  For the Neat Elite ESs to "come alive" I found it necessary to biamp as opposed to biwire the speakers.  Hence if I experiment with merging the 2 systems, I would use a 3rd 250 for the rear channels, possibly a NAP150 for the centre channel, and maybe have the Anthem drive only the side channels as it would now potentially be either a 5 or 7 channel setup.  If I go this way, then finding a better video preamp/control amp will probably be necessary. All this just to try and get better combined theater and music only performance. 

I had a fairly decent multichannel setup (4 x Epos M12.2, the M8 centre, a Velodyne subwoofer etc) for a number of years and I wasn't impressed. In my experience very few movies actually benefit from multichannel, most soundtracks sound as good in stereo with the benefit of a much better SQ for your money.

So I have been using, for the last 5 years or so, my main stereo Naim system for AV duties as well, currently feeding my NDS with audio signal from my TV via toslink. Not a puristic approach, I know, but it isolates my Naim system electrically from the TV system and most soundtracks are no Chesky Records anyway so a bit of jitter / resampling etc doesn't kill anybody - the sound is certainly massively better compared to the average multichannel setup save for the surround effects.

Lately however I am getting to the point of considering a multichannel system of some sort again. The reason: massive dynamic range issues, with the dialogue (normally centre channel) being almost inaudibly low while the action scenes are deafeningly loud. And there is no way of altering the balance, unless a processor is included in the chain - I tried the basic dynamic range control on my TV and player but with next to no effect.

I have done a lot of reading, the producers are not interested in stereo users anymore, most BluRay's have only multichannel audio options and the mastering is done so that only a correct multichannel setup can offer the correct sound balance. 

I am now looking at options but, to be honest, I am not tempted by any. The AV processor would probably work well but then I wouldn't be using my NDS as a DAC anymore so the sound would take a couple of steps backward due to the cheaper DA conversion, processing etc. The soundbar would be a neat, wife friendly alternative but most of the ones I've heard ranged between unlistenable and awful. The proper 5.1 system, even with "style" satellites (a synonym for very average sound quality at best) would clutter my fairly small room with boxes, cables, a subwoofer and so on. 

Any ideas?

Hi Gurux,

As you've discovered, there's really no substitute for a full 5.1 or 7.1 surround system, and unfortunately the Soundbar solution really doesn't cut the mustard, even though it's considerably better than the built-in TV speakers.

I recently went to an Anthem processor and IMO if you want a no-frills surround processor it's exceptionally good. I've also discovered its ability in processing stereo SACD and DVD-A isn't exactly shabby.

,

Hi Geofiz,

It's an MRX700. It replaced an AV2, NAP145 & 2x NAP150s (I use my main stereo for the left & right channels). It's a lot more convenient than my old setup of course and its sound quality is very good indeed.