Help Me Understand My A/V Needs

[GiftaGab]

Greetings Audiophytes!

I am upgrading my electronics and I need help understanding what I'm doing, types of components I should purchase, and cables I will need... adapters if any.

To start, I already upgraded to an LG LED 3DTV (55LM8600) and I'm looking to upgrade an old Sony receiver, surround sound, and add a BluRay player. My questions are:

1. Do I have to purchase a 3D receiver? Surround Sound; 5.1 or 7.1 or something else?
2. I cannot connect my XBOX to the LG's AV/Component connection. I've never seen this type (see image). Where do I go from here? I'm still using a first edition white XBOX {{{old}}}
3. I'd love to be able to connect my new Macbook to my TV wirelessly. Is that possible?

I'm interested in entry-to-mid level gear at this point and will purchase better equipment later. Any suggestions and recommendations for a receiver, surround, bluray, and wires/adapters/etc.

Thanks in advance for your assistance. I appreciate your feedback.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Greetings Audiophytes!

I am upgrading my electronics and I need help understanding what I'm doing, types of components I should purchase, and cables I will need... adapters if any.

To start, I already upgraded to an LG LED 3DTV (55LM8600) and I'm looking to upgrade an old Sony receiver, surround sound, and add a BluRay player. My questions are:

1. Do I have to purchase a 3D receiver? Surround Sound; 5.1 or 7.1 or something else?
2. I cannot connect my XBOX to the LG's AV/Component connection. I've never seen this type (see image). Where do I go from here? I'm still using a first edition white XBOX {{{old}}}
3. I'd love to be able to connect my new Macbook to my TV wirelessly. Is that possible?

I'm interested in entry-to-mid level gear at this point and will purchase better equipment later. Any suggestions and recommendations for a receiver, surround, bluray, and wires/adapters/etc.

Thanks in advance for your assistance. I appreciate your feedback.

To understand your needs we need first to understand your budget and to proper size the speakers your room size including any openings to other rooms/spaces
1. "3D receiver" - basically any a/v receiver which includes HDMI 1.4 will support 3D. Almost always 5.1 is the way to go and getting a mid-range typical 7.2 and using it as 5.1 is typical scenario
2. to connect your xbox you ether need to wait till you get a new receiver with regular component inputs or if you in a rush to connect xbox get adapter like this one:
lg tv component adapter | eBay
3. Yes and No, your TV supports Intel® Wireless Display (WiDi) - which is a feature found only on certain Windows based laptops as far as I know. It does support DLNA which you might be able to use with right software, but it is not great solution = i can't mirror the laptop, only send (some) media files
As an alternative you might want to select a receiver with support of AirPlay which should give you a better macbook support.

 

[BMXTRIX]

Do I have to purchase a 3D receiver? Surround Sound; 5.1 or 7.1 or something else?

You don't have to purchase anything.

What you want to purchase and what you can afford and what level of effort you want to put in are all factors in determining what you will end up wanting to buy. This is a long process, requires a level of expectation, as well as a budget. Room dimensions, and desire and ability by you to do the A/V work which is required.

For example, if you own the home, then you may very well want to run all your wiring behind the walls, and put in some good in-walls for the surrounds, and put in some decent floor standing loudspeakers. If you are renting, or have neighbors nearby, you may need to keep the volume much lower. A good subwoofer is always a solid purchase, but a good sub is pricey. All of those things MUST be connected to a surround receiver and if you want 3D then it has to support 3D (typically).

You mention mid-priced... Keep in mind that many companies consider a mid-priced A/V receiver to be $800-$1,000. They start at $200-$500 and the expensive ones are $1,200 to far more. A mid-priced subwoofer is often $800-$1,200. So, if that is 'expensive' in your mind, then you may need to adjust your expectations downward and let us know as there are deals to be had on 'entry-level' setups as well. But we need to know.

I cannot connect my XBOX to the LG's AV/Component connection. I've never seen this type (see image). Where do I go from here? I'm still using a first edition white XBOX {{{old}}}

As mentioned above, there is an adapter. The connection on your TV is just a way for LG to save space and money when they sell you that TV. Samsung typically ships WITH a breakout cable when they do the same thing, but they've been known to not include the breakout cable as well. So, you buy the adapter, and you will have your standard red, green, and blue component video connections as well as a red and white audio connection.

Of course, if you buy a receiver which upconverts all analog signals to HDMI, then you won't need that cable at all.

I'd love to be able to connect my new Macbook to my TV wirelessly. Is that possible?

I'm going with no.

Computer video sent wirelessly anywhere without a good wireless HDMI device tends to look terrible, be very laggy, and not acceptable. One HDMI cable from your laptop to the display makes everything perfect and reliable, it is the only way to go in my experience. When I hear about a solution to this request that I've heard dozens of times, I will let people know about it, but much like all other HD video, computer video is extremely high bandwidth and can't be sent wirelessly reliably and cleanly.

 

[g0bez]

I'm going to stick with question 3 since that is the one I have the most experience with -- maybe this can give you another point of view on the matter. The other points are valid, and imo there are cases for all of them (AirPlay, direct via HDMI, and using WiDi or DLNA)... I've used all listed, and have been generally happy with them all, so a lot will come down to exactly what you want to do, and what you have available.

I have a mac, and can say from experience that setting up and using AirPlay is stupid-simple... I've used macs since before they were cool (Mac LCIII was my first), and I know how well things generally 'just work'. Even at that, I was shocked at how easy it was to get this working, and working well. My 70 year old mother was able to show pictures and play videos of her recent vacation from her Mac to my AirPlay device with zero config, and more importantly nearly zero instruction from me. My receiver doesn't support AirPlay, so I use it via my HTPC running XBMC through my receiver, through to the TV. So YMMV depending on the receiver, but I think it is definitely a worthwhile addition *somewhere* in your setup if you have a Mac.

I personally didn't want to rely on my receiver for AirPlay (which also allowed me to buy a cheaper receiver: denon 1712) -- there are so many devices now that support it, you can add it in elsewhere. For example, the AppleTV can be found for well under $100, and would manage this for you, among other things.

I should also say that I only use AirPlay for general viewing... pushing a video I recorded from my iPhone onto the screen, letting guests easily play things on my home theater, casual stuff like that. I've never run into a bandwidth or picture quality issue, but it will depend a bit on your home network -- and if I ever am watching a full-length 40GB BR-RIP, I run it over a HDMI cable. This is mostly because I already have the HTPC setup, and I prefer to not push the bandwidth over my home network (plus, anything that size is mostly already saved to my HTPC, which is already connected to the receiver).


Lots of options, as I'm sure you've discovered... much will come down to two factors (1) what you want to do with your setup and (2) how much money you want to spend to make it happen. Good luck -- it is a fun project!!