Need help picking a home theater.

[Jakel]

I'm pretty new at this and I need some recomendations on a home thater system. My buget is about $500, and must include DVD player and speakers. The TV I have is a westinghouse LVM-42w2. I picked this TV because it had good reviews and when I saw Best Buy had a price mistake and sold it to me for $1500 I couldnt pass it up. TV will be mounted to the wall, so I would like as few cables running to it as possible. I want all sound coming out through the theater speakers, so audio to the tv is not important.

What I have:
Westinghouse - 42" 1080p LCD HD Monitor - 1 HDMI in, 2 DVI in
Scientific Atlanta 8300 HDDVR - Does HDMI amd DVI out
PS2

I was thinking about the Sony HT-7000DH. It does HDMI passthrough, 2 in, 1 out which seems like what I need. Comes with a DVD player that has HDMI out w/ upscaling to 1080i. This seems to be the only system I can find in my range right now that does what I want.

Please help.

 

[billy p]

Seem's like you've made up your

mind already but most would tell you stay away from HTIB set up's.Buy each component 1 at a time you'll get a better system and make yourself more flexible

 

[jcPanny]

Entry level system

I would recommend sarting out with something like this:
Onix X-LS and X-sub from AV123.com: $400
Refurbished Onkyo or Denon receiver: $100
Cheap DVD player: free-$30

Save a few bucks and add an oppo upconverting DVD player for $150-200.
Then add the center and surround channels for $300 more.

You will have a real HT speaker system that will perfrom much better than the HTIB speakers.
If the speaker prices are out of your budget, than check out the Athena Audition series and BIC venturi lines for about $100 / pair.