Hey there! Welcome to the forum and congrats on buying the Samsung A750 TV! Very nice choice!
Hooking everything up has become rather complicated these days. Almost every component seems to have more plugs than you can count and it's easy to get confused.
To sort things out in the best way possible for you, what you really need to start with is one decision: do you want surround sound or not?
Personally, if you plan on getting a Blu-ray player in the not too distant future, I would say that you should go for surround sound. Half of the experience of Blu-ray is the improved audio. In my opinion, it'd be a shame to buy a very nice TV, buy a Blu-ray player, and then really only get half of the experience!
Your room may be small, but that does not mean that a "cheapo" sound system is the way to go. Sound, no matter what size room you have, is all about quality. A small room means that you do not need crazy loud output. But you still want high quality. You clearly took the time to think about your TV purchase. You didn't buy the cheapest. You bought a really good TV. It cost a little bit more, but it's still a very high value because the performance you get from that TV makes the extra money very worth while.
So just try to understand that the very same thinking should apply to audio. With Blu-ray - and even with just regular DVD and with HD Cable - you have some really excellent surround sound coming out of those sources. So just like the TV, it makes sense to spend the right amount of money on your surround sound. Not a crazy high price. But not a super cheapo price either. We want really good quality and we want really high value!
Hopefully, all of that will convince you that it is worth your while to put together a good quality surround sound system that is appropriate for your room size. Audio really is half of the experience. The Samsung TV's built-in speakers actually aren't too bad - so far as built-in TV speakers go. But they are not surround sound and they do not have the quality to really let you hear those wonderful TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks on Blu-ray.
So, if you decide that you do want surround sound (and I hope that you do), then you are actually just fine with just the one HDMI cable that you already have installed in the wall.
For right this second, you can just connect that one HDMI cable straight from your TV to your HD Cable box so that you can watch TV right away at least. But once you buy your surround sound system, all of your sources are going to get plugged into your A/V Receiver, then, you will just need the one HDMI cable from the receiver to the TV! Nice, neat and simple. The A/V Receiver will handle the responsibility of switching between all of your sources. Your TV will just stay on the one HDMI input - you'll never have to change it - and all of the audio and all of the switching gets handled by your A/V receiver
You've made it clear that you do not want to spend an arm and a leg for surround sound and you do not have to! But like I said, what makes the most sense is to spend the
right amount. Not the cheapest price. The right price in order to get good quality.
I would very much recommend that you start with the
Onkyo TX-SR606 A/V Receiver
For $350, you get a tremendously capable A/V receiver with enough inputs to easily handle all of your sources. It is completely ready to handle ANY audio format you might throw at it. And the Audyssey 2EQ auto setup is the best in the business for this low of a price and it's also perfect for your room size.
For a nice quality, inexpensive set of speakers with a subwoofer, I would highly recommend the
Onkyo SKS-HT540 package. At $250 for a full package of 7 speakers, a subwoofer and some included speaker wire, I personally haven't found anything better for this low of a price!
These are inexpensive speakers, so you can't expect "the best in the world" type of performance or anything
But what I like so much about this Onkyo speaker package is that this is a genuinely good, simple speaker design. So many inexpensive speakers use
seriously bad designs. I guess they figure - hey, they're cheap, we might as well try to make them super small and funky looking cause who cares how they sound, right? Well I care how they sound and so should you! These Onkyo speakers may be inexpensive, but they are a solid, genuinely good, basic design and that pays off with much better sound than other speakers that cost this little. The included 8" sub actually packs some decent punch! And the speakers are able to play low enough that they blend really well with the subwoofer.
So $600 for the receiver and speaker package. Not cheap. But certainly not sky high either. And when you consider how much you spent on your TV, I hope you'll consider the amazing value we're talking about here. For only $600, you're looking at an extremely capable A/V receiver: one that can literally handle any sort of audio or video you throw at it and it works extremely well to simplify your entire system! And you're also getting a nice, little sub and 7 pretty darn good speakers! Just compare the number of items you're buying for that $600 price tag and I think you'd have to agree that there is a ton of value here
When you are setting up your surround sound system, in a room as small as yours, you will actually get better sound by using just 5 of the speakers rather than all 7. The 7 speaker setup was invented in order to help fully encompass you in sound when you're in a large room and you're sitting far away from the back wall. But in a small room, all that happens if you use 7 speakers is that you have speakers directly behind you firing straight into the back of your head from a really close distance! That's not good
So stick to using just 5 speakers and the subwoofer in your small room. Use the spare 6th and 7th speakers from the package in a second room maybe?
As for Blu-ray players: personally, I still think the PS3 is the best value out there! It's a truly complete Blu-ray player - it does everything the format can possibly do and it does it really really well! It's still, by FAR the fastest player to load and to navigate discs and it's by FAR the most widely tested for compatibility.
The Samsung P1500 is known to have had some playback problems with certain discs. It's just compatibility errors. Samsung can fix these with firmware patches, but they tend to be slow in getting those patches out to the public.
If you really don't want a PS3 for some reason, or you just want to save the extra $100, then the Sony BDP-S350 or the Panasonic DMP-BD35 are the best Blu-ray players to consider. Don't worry about the "ANYNET" stuff. It doesn't do anything that a universal remote can't do and it sucks a lot of power, even when your gear is turned off!
Best of luck!
