Blood for the Baron!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Yamaha-YHT298-T ... 30&sr=1-22

I'd go for this and add a bluray player. HT is one of those things were good doesn't always mean expensive. Don't get a BR player built in as if it craps itself you are stuck with a boat anchor. My BR player cost about 70 pounds and can handle more sh*t than I can through at it, I can also hook in a USB HDD and watch divx/MKV on it. The audio and video is digital so its the TV that's doing all the work. I.e. display quality is limited to the quality of the TV, not the BR player. That and the amp/speakers is the best place to invest cash.

Now I'm off to watch Band of Brothers.....

I don't know if you already have 5.1 Steve but I did in my house in Cyprus which had a large front room. When we got back the UK we bought this house which an average size front room. I found the 5.1 too much and changed to 2.1.

Another thing to note, good 2 channel is infinitely superior to bad 5.1. THe Yamaha gear is usually pretty good for mid-fi, Sony you usually pay for the brand name. I have a 7.1 Marantz system set up in 5.1 and the more speakers you add the more attention you have to make with regards to speaker balance and placement. If you don't it will sound like shite. The Star Wars DVD's have the THX optimiser which is pretty good for a basic setup. Mine took weeks before I was happy. 2 channel is much better for music but for the movie experience, 5.1 is the way to go. Hence I have good front speakers and OK rear ones. You can get a good receiver then hunt for some good speakers, but never skimp if you want decent sound. The Yamaha is good bang for buck if you can't afford the earth and want a reasonable starting point, they will usually sound better than most that cost more. Especially Sony.

5.1 is essential! Especially when gaming. 5.1 amp with a decent set of speakers and a 42" plasma. I download all my blu-ray rips for free as .mkv torrents, you'd be better off investing in a mahoosive HDD and a fast internet connection

When it comes to Blu-Ray movies, I've no complaints with the picture & sound qulity from my PS3 & 5.1 is a must have for enjoyment of modern movies.

I've tried plugging my old games machines into my HD telly but the picture quality is awful, the N64 especially so, I guess it's down to the combination of low resolution output of the machines & the larger screen size ?

Thanks guys! I'll bear all that in mind! I'm a total noob tO home cinema, and looking at all these comments starting to feel a bit left in the dark ages with my 29inch LCD and regular DVD player!

I want to not clutter the front room too much too, so got to be careful, but I could always chuck the VHS that ain't been used in 5 years to make some space!

Funny you say that about old consoles Tshot - I was dead excited to plug my n64 into the LCD tv when I first got it and was gobsmacked how blocky it was!

Don't sit too close is the answer to that, Steve. The bigger the screen the further away you need to sit. Even DVD can look good on a HD TV. Most of the drama's I see with poor picture are due to setup.

I modded a 2600 and hooked it into the 50" Plasma, it wasn't too bad.

Plus most flat screen TV's have various screen modes; cinema, ultra, game, etc. As for clutter, my set-up is very simple - wall mounted plasma TV, amplifier and PC tower - everything is done through the computer. You may want to consider going for a PC upgrade instead.

I have a HD graphics card which powers the TV and three separate flatscreen monitors. You can either download blu-ray rips as I say, or you can get a Blu-Ray drive for your computer. No idea on prices but it's the simpler option.

This way I can play all of my PC games on the TV too I have 2 xbox handsets with USB adapters. Sound wise I have a very nice optical sound card to a 5.1 amplifier, being front left and right, back left and right, a centre speaker and a subwoofer.


Antec Twelve Hundred V3 Ultimate Gamer Case


Antec CP 850W Modular ATX Power Supply


Intel Core2 Quad Processor Q6600 CPU


Corsair XMS 6400 DDR2 2GB RAM [x4]


Asus P5Q Deluxe S775 Motherboard


Asus Xonar D2X PCI-E Sound Card


Sapphire AMD Radeon HD 6970 2048MB GDDR5 Graphics Card


Novatech 4 Port PCI SATA Adapter Raid Card


OCZ Agility 3 SATA III 2.5" 60GB Solid State Hard Drive


Samsung Spin Point F4EG EcoGreen SATAII 2TB 32MB Cache Hard Drive [x9]


LiteOn IHAP122-19 22x DVD+/-RW IDE Black - OEM DVD Writer [x2]


Lindy Mini-DisplayPort to VGA Active Adapter [x2]


Novatech LED Illuminated Keyboard


Logitech MX518 Gaming Mouse


Mad Catz Xbox 360 GamePad [x2]


Trust 15356 Stylus Design Tablet


Microsoft Lifecam VX-3000


Mustek ScanExpress A3 USB Scanner


Hewlett Packard Deskjet 2050 All-in-One Printer


Sony STR-DH500 Amplifier


Technics SB-CS55 Speakers [x4]


Eltax Rumble Subwoofer


KEF Cresta Centre Speaker


Acer V193 HQDOB 19" Monitor [x3]


LG 42PT353K 42-inch Widescreen HD Ready 600Hz Plasma TV

Holy sh*t!!! I'm gonna have to sell more stuff!! Or ram raid Tandy!!!

That's all a bit too tech for my lil old front room I suspect! And gaming for me rarely happens in the front room, just the occasional blast on Pikmin. Once I get around to pimping up the study however, that's exactly the sort of set up I got in mind!

Jim's got more high technology there than the bridge of the U.S.S. Enterprise has!