got a question on 5.1 surround sound speaker & tv setup

J

jansster

Audiophyte
Hello all,
Please excuse me for asking this 'probably basic' question which i have, to all of you. I recently went to my buddy's apartment and found that he bought Sony's 5.1 surround sound speaker & dvd player and he has setup with his tv. He does not have any AV receiver, just basic setup.

I was wondering how to setup 5.1 surround sound speaker systems with dvd/BR player, and im not interested in having a AV receiver at my home, so just connecting 5.1 speakers with dvd/BR player and my tv. Im literally terrified as to how/where to start this process and not sure if my tv has necessary inputs/outputs. BTW i dont have a cable tv subscription and just watch tv with OTA free channels.

Im interested in watching movies & ipod/mp3 music in 5.1 speakers and i do have PS3 gaming systems and sometimes i do watch movies on it, so im interested to hear audio of netflix movies and games in 5.1 speakers. However i want to hear normal tv audio outputs (ie., local news channels) thru my tv itself and do not want 5.1 speaker audio to play local news channels audio from OTA antenna.

tools i currently have at my home:
1) Haier 32 inch tv(2 HDMI,1 USB, has AV2 port(not sure if its input/output), has component port(not sure if its input/output), audio out port(this looks like headphone port) and probably thats it. My tv does not say if the ports are either input/output just says AV2 and Component.

2) PS3 gaming console

3) ROKU LT

tools i plan to purchase:
1) 5.1 surround speakers with BR/dvd player (im inclining towards SONY, since my buddy bought that), and hoping that speaker cables come with this too.

So thats all i plan to have for home entertainment. Am i expecting too much out of these components and its just not possible without having AV receiver component or is my ask actually simple to setup @home and feasible?

Please advice.

Thanks
Jan
 
Last edited:
G

Grador

Audioholic Field Marshall
You absolutely need an AVR. The AVR is what provides energy to the speakers and is responsible for decoding the surround sound from digital.
 
tmurnin

tmurnin

Full Audioholic
I'm assuming your friend has a Sony home theater in a box, where the receiver and DVD player are the same piece of electronics. You can do the same thing if you're just looking for a basic setup. Many people are perfectly happy with these setups, although they are generally not upgradable if you decide you'd like something better later on.
 
G

Grador

Audioholic Field Marshall
Sometimes I get a little to caught up in more traditional setups, tmurin's advice is quite sound:

I'm assuming your friend has a Sony home theater in a box, where the receiver and DVD player are the same piece of electronics. You can do the same thing if you're just looking for a basic setup. Many people are perfectly happy with these setups, although they are generally not upgradable if you decide you'd like something better later on.
One thing you'll want to watch out for on this type of setup are inputs on the dvd player/receiver. Many TV's do not pass through surround sound from items plugged strait into them [and since you didn't mention an optical port on the TV then yours will not], so if you're looking to play your ps3 games and roku video through the new speakers [in surround, not stereo] you'll likely need to plug them into the player/receiver instead of the TV.
 
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