Comments on: Surround a wash on the Wii for me; if only I could cable my DVD.

By: morphiend

morphiend — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 18:07:09 +0000

Shoulda grabbed one on Black Friday!

I bought my receiver last year because I had a similar issue: the DVD player I had had the Dolby Digital/DTS decoder built-in and it only produced 6 discrete audio channels. Therefore the speakers that came w/ the setup only had 6 discrete inputs and no logic, only amp’s. Once I obtained other devices that had surround capability (OTA Digital TV, PS2, a new DVD player once that one died), I needed a way to get real digital audio and bought myself a 6.1 receiver. I looked at the 7.1 systems, but since 7.1 was only supported via 8 discrete audio lines, and HDMI 1.3 wasn’t available on any receiver or source yet, I decided that I could upgrade my receiver at a later date and save a $100-200.

The one I settled with supports component switching (3-to-1) and up-convert s-video/composite to component. That way I only have a component connection from the receiver to the TV. The only issue I have with is that I wished the component inputs were closer to their corresponding 2-channel audio inputs and that I had more of them. With a PS2 and DVD player it’s almost already full and I have a PC-based DVR and NextGen consoles to add :-/. With this generation, I will definitely be replacing my standalone DVD player with either a console or the PC-DVR.

By: Stephen Munn

Stephen Munn — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 23:38:14 +0000

The switch boxes tend to degrade your signal if you don’t buy the high-end self-powered ones. I’ve looked at a few and they’re a bit pricey. James, I know what you mean. I really need to pick up a receiver that can decode that audio.

By: James Munn

James Munn — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 19:13:05 +0000

I can’t imagine going without surround now. It’s an absolute necessity in my everyday gaming.

By: George

George — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 18:50:23 +0000

Or, you could just get a component switch-box. They’re pretty cheap and mine has 4 separate sets of inputs. If you really want to spend the money, you can get one with a remote. I’m cheap, though, so I just hit one of the buttons and it switches to the proper console. At one time, had a 360, regular Xbox, Wii, and PS2 all hooked up to it. No reason you couldn’t put a DVD player on there, though.

By: Paul Munn

Paul Munn — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 13:10:29 +0000

I still use a DVD player alongside the PS3 because my kids like to load the DVD player themselves. The phillips player is really a good player except for its annoying remote.

My TV only has two component inputs as well. One is for the DVD the other is for the PS3 (since the TV’s DVI input is probably glitchy).

The TV does a good enough job with stereo sound that with some games frequently the background noises in the game will make me think I’m hearing something somewhere else in my house and have me pause the game. I’ve never had a receiver and surround sound system and would probably only go down the road of one of those one or two-speaker Bose surround systems just because I can’t run wires through walls there.

That said I’d want to set up a receiver so I could use headphones with my PS3 after hours.