Video Switching + Speakers + DVD or CD5+FC2

Posted by: Stuart M on 27 August 2005

Well more than a year and a half after moving in to my new place and now the lounge (28’ by 18’ with max 18’ vaulted ceiling) is almost finished.

Several purchases along the way I now am the owner on the AV side of:-

DVD Player – Cheap job that needs replacing
Processor – Yamaha DSP-E800
Pre – 102 (Will get AV mod when sent in for service) +HiCap
NAP 250 – L+R
NAP 140 – Centre
NAP 140 – Rear
SBL – L+ R
Center – Pair of IBLs horizontal, or Pair of SBLs or Single SBL
Rear – SBLs or IBL’s

Plasma – 32” Toshiba (SVHS + PC cables)
which is a re-badged Panasonic TH4PW5B

Projector – Infocus (SVHS + PC + DVI + Component cables)

I intend to switch to an AV2 but what options are there for video switching. I don’t watch a lot of TV but HWMBO does so need to be able to switch several sources to either output easily in a simple way.

As far on the speaker combinations I could try does anyone have any experience of any of these combinations. I have tried SBL’s with IBL’s (mounted tweeter to tweeter) and they worked amazingly well because of there midrange abilities and speed (If I go this root the 140 will have to change for a 250).

DVD – Should I sell my CD5 and FC2 to go towards a DVD5 or buy something like a Dennon 3910

7.1 is it worth it – Have a reasonable pair of speakers and amp I could press into service if needed but would the a Naim solution be worth it £ for £

And for all the round earthers out there that think I’ve lost it I’m going for a Lingo2 (Sorry but I need 45 esp living next to DJs with access to their records – grin)
Posted on: 28 August 2005 by SimonJ
How many of what sources are you planning to switch between and how much are you prepared to spend? If it's just Sky and DVD then the easiest thing is to daisy chain them if the DVD player has two scarts. If you watch a DVD then DVD is displayed and to watch SKY just turn off the DVD.

I personally have SKY, a separate hard disk recorder/DVD and a DVD5. The SKY is daisy chained through the HDD recorder and my DVD5 is plugged in separately via DVI/HDMI. Both the HDD+SKY & DVD5 plug into my DVDO iScan scaler which acts as a video and audio switcher into my plasma and AV2. This also obviously upscales everything also.

I used to have a TH42PW6 and you can get an amazing upscaled picture from your plasma if you output from a scaler into the PC input of your plasma. This would make your TV and DVD pictures look amazing.

I'm awaiting with much anticipation the release of Naim's DVD5 scaler card as I have high hopes for it.