52" HD Plasma and home theater?

I am hoping we have a few home theater people here as I am really lost when dealing with this stuff....

I have a new LG 52" HD Plasma TV and have not yet set it up. I am planning on buying the Play Station 3 game system now that it is 299.00 and would like to add a little sound to my set up. I really do not watch much TV in the living room and usually only play video games in there. I usually wait until I go to bed to watch TV and have a smaller TV in my bedroom.

So mostly the new 52" will be used for the PS3 and I have been looking at home theater set ups. I was shocked to see such a huge range of prices with some 6 speaker set ups starting around 300.00 and going all the way up to 2500.00.

If I am mostly gaming can anyone recommend an average set up for under 400 dollars? I know the PS3 doubles as a blue ray disc player so I may watch a few movies from time to time as well.

From reading the specs between price ranges they pretty much sound all the same as far as inputs and stuff. Can anyone tell me if I can have a good gaming sound system from the budget home theaters in a box?.....Maybe something I could find at BestBuy as I do not wish to buy online. What about those 300 dollar set ups at Wally World....are they all junk?

I am really looking for good seperation of sounds with moderate sound levels. I do not ever listen to music and mostly am concerned with sound effects from games on the PS3. I did read that the higher cost systems were aimed more towards those who wanted to listen to music and came with better speakers and more powerful receivers.

So can it be done....anyone here have a decent gaming home surround system and if so how much did it set you back? Is it also really necessary to buy the expensive monster cables or can I get what I am looking for with plain cable hook ups?....Thanks for any input on this.

Robocop said:

Is it also really necessary to buy the expensive monster cables or can I get what I am looking for with plain cable hook ups?....Thanks for any input on this.

Click to expand...

Get the cheap cables. You could use coathangers to carry the audio signals and you couldn't tell the difference. Anything is fine as long as it can carry the amperage. For HDMI, look at monoprice.com.

Agreed...get the cheap cables.

Robo, if you're not an audiophile or a die-hard home theater connoisseur, a $400-500 home theater in a box will probably be fairly impressive. I'm a home theater junkie myself with Pioneer Elite sound equipment and big Mirage 7.1 speaker system but honestly it's really not needed to fully enjoy some good video games and movies. I recently installed an inexpensive system at my uncles house and they're tickled to death with the sound experience now. As to the exact brand or model, I would ask the store to sample play them for you and then decide yourself which you prefer. Based on your needs, you might get away with spending only $300 or you might find the sound of a $600 system too irresistible to pass up. If you can't test drive a system first before bringing it home, make sure the return policy allows for refund/exchange/upgrade. It only takes about 60 minutes to roughly set up a 5.1 speaker system for a quick listen at home.

I'm also running a PS3 and have been very happy with it. It up converts regular dvd's reasonably well, operates quickly compared to many dedicated blu-ray players and looks nice on the shelf to boot. Blu-ray playback is the best of 3 different top players I tried about 6 months ago. I'm playing it on a Samsung DLP and even some of my home theater buddies are jaw dropped by the quality and film-like playback. You can't go wrong with the PS3, even as a stand alone player.

As someone who owns monster cables, I can tell you not to bother with them or the extra expense. I didn't pay full retail myself but instead internet bargain shopped mine. It's not going to make one bit of perceivable difference for someone watching movies and playing video games. When it comes to HDMI connections, again, buy the cheapest possible cables as there's no degradation in digital signals. Signals either get there or they don't at which point processors convert to analog. An argument could be made for future proofing with expensive cables capable of higher data streaming but my thinking is that when I need a cable capable of higher streaming I'll replace the one or two cables when that day eventually comes, years down the road.

If you'd like, I can look up the exact box system that I purchased for my uncle but I wouldn't get too caught up in matching any exact system. Rather, sample them and pick the one you like. On a side note, unless you just happen to run into a audio nerd at Bestbuy, you're unlikely to get professional advice there. You might have to ask to talk to the resident speaker and sound freak and have him help you to decide. That's if you even have that wide of a selection, which you hopefully will.

Best way is to listen to several yourself. Look up reviews as well. Audio is very subjective, what is good to one guy is bad to another. Have it set up as closely as possible to your intended purpose. There are too many systems around to recommend one. $2500 is not expensive for a surround sound system, very average. You do get what you pay for usually, keep that in mind. I wouldn't buy $50-100 interconnects (just 1 pc) nor would I buy the cheapest junk either. You could probly do okay at Radio Shack. The amp and speakers will make the most difference, I don't recommend very thin speaker cable, 16 gauge should work well for you. A good center channel is pretty important for surround sound. I wouldn't recommend anything from WalMart. Enjoy! A new world for you.

One more suggestion, you can also connect the stereo outputs of your game to a small 6 channel mixer as well and use headphones. Has bass, mid and treble controls and you can crank it up as loud as you want, won't bother anybody. I use this setup alot for movies, the mixer is on the table next to me so there is no cord problems. It works VERY well and can be done for $175 or so. Something to consider. Takes up very little space too, no speaker clutter.

I also have a Pioneer elite receiver, with Kef/Kef reference speakers. It is a fairly high end receiver, so it has auto calibration and can process the dolby "trueHD sound" that many of the Blu-ray movies have. You want to make sure that your receiver has enough inputs and outputs for everything, and it should be an AV receiver that can output video to the TV. I have my HD cable box and blu ray player hooked up to the receiver by HDMI cables, and the receiver is hooked up to the TV by another HDMI cable.
If you think that $2500 dollars is high for a surround sound speaker set, then you would probably be alarmed by some of the higher end offerings from companies like Kef and Klipsch, which are over $2500 PER SPEAKER. In fact, some of the new kef reference floorstanding speakers are $14,000 for a pair.

However, a "home theater in a box" setup would probably work fine for you, and would be a lot better than the stock TV speakers. The rear surround speakers really aren't used all that much in movies, but they should help a lot with video games. The subwoofer and center channel make the biggest difference for movies, and make your room seem more like a movie theater.

You should definitely get your cables from monoprice; they have the best prices around. As far as cables go you do not need to get 90 dollar HDMI cables, nor do you need a "subwoofer cable;" a normal RCA cable will work fine. The only issue with cheap cables is that they could potentially be less durable, but the cables from Monoprice should be decent. I also have some "high end cables," but I got them for a very low price when the AV store Tweeter when out of business.

I have a separate stereo, so I don't use my surround sound to listen to music, but it does work very well for movies.

Robocop said:

I have a new LG 52" HD Plasma TV and have not yet set it up. I am planning on buying the Play Station 3 game system now that it is 299.00 and would like to add a little sound to my set up. I really do not watch much TV in the living room and usually only play video games in there. I usually wait until I go to bed to watch TV and have a smaller TV in my bedroom.

Click to expand...

Robocop, it sounds like a nice set. One word of caution - because of plasma's tendency to develop burned in images, be careful about leaving a static image on the screen for long periods of time. And if your set supports image orbiting (where the picture rotates s-l-o-w-l-y in a small orbit to distribute the burns), turn that feature on.

It's less of a worry when watching regular tv, but video games that show a static screen for long periods of time are troublesome for both plasma and crt sets for the same reason.

I was afraid that the burned images may be a problem however I thought the newer models had safe guards in place to avoid this. I really do not wish to mess up this TV. If it does not have safety features built in how long does it take to burn the screen?....Could I play for say an hour and then just cut the TV off for a few minutes and return playing?

Thanks for the input and I am going to BestBuy tonight just to look around. I really believe that anything would be better than what I have now as I am simply playing on a standard TV with a crappy 150.00 surround sound that is not set up correctly.

I really feel if I have the new TV and a properly set up average surround sound I will be happy.

All the other replies have been spot on. From what your OP says you're looking for, a home theater in a box is perfect. I went a little higher end, but that was for my needs. Any cheap HTIAB will kick the crap out of your TV speakers.

I do recomend listening to at least a couple different systems. Maybe the $500 one is worth it... over the $300 one. It's very subjective. I've directed a few people who wanted a $1000 system. After spending $1300 on speakers and $500 on electronics they love it... have thanked me repeatedly... and don't complain about the extra cost. But let me reiterate... as you have stated... a HTIAB should work great for you, and blow away the stock speakers in your TV.

I have some fancy cables... but they're all pretty much the same. Unless you buy the cheapest... toothpick thin cable you can get... it should be fine. If you're spending $5000 on speakers it makes some sense to spend a little more on cables. You're looking at gaming and some movie watching. BTW... Blu-Ray looks beautiful... I have a PS3... and I'm getting very used to 1080P HD movies.

Go to at least one real home theater store... IE... not best buy... and I really like BB... so I'm not bashing them. I bought my reciever from them for about $380... really good deal at the time... eight years ago. I bought my front three speakers/stands for around $550, they came from a home theater store. My rear speakers are Bose... for their size... also bought on sale.

I guess my best recomendation is... don't move too quick. Spend some time comparing. The person that got me into car audio looked at me with surprise saying... why doesn't my home system sound as good as your's?

Depending on your need's it doesn't have to cost a lot of $$$. It's what makes you happy. BTW check out MGS4 on the PS3.... it's incredible.

Good luck... I'm sure you'll be happy moving into the home theater territory.

Robocop said:

I was afraid that the burned images may be a problem however I thought the newer models had safe guards in place to avoid this. I really do not wish to mess up this TV. If it does not have safety features built in how long does it take to burn the screen?....Could I play for say an hour and then just cut the TV off for a few minutes and return playing?

Thanks for the input and I am going to BestBuy tonight just to look around. I really believe that anything would be better than what I have now as I am simply playing on a standard TV with a crappy 150.00 surround sound that is not set up correctly.

I really feel if I have the new TV and a properly set up average surround sound I will be happy.

Click to expand...

You're not likely to burn the screen in a single session or even 50 sessions. But a static image, score or even a logo "big" can burn over a period of months-to-years depending on intensity. This is still the dirty little secret of plasma. The two "safeguards" are essentially band-aids.

1) Orbiting
The entire image is orbited around the screen very slowly to spread out the burn.

2) "Negative image" or "white screen" de-burning.
The negative-image method simply inverts the polarity of the image so the brightest pixels become the darkest and vice-versa. This exercises the exact opposites of the phosphors that were used to display the normal image. The thinking is that it spreads out the wear patterns evenly.

The "white screen" method is similar but is a little more coarse. It works like this: Let's say that you have a scratch on a coffee table. You can remove the scratch by sanding down the whole area until the remaining material is the same height as the original scratch. This fixes the problem at the expense of aging the whole thing a little quicker. By running all of the phosphors at full brightness, it "sands down" the phosphor layer a tiny bit until the burned areas are sanded off.

Plasmas make a terrific picture - they have excellent color fidelity, high contrast ratios, excellent off-axis brightness and no motion artifacts. The main downside of plasma is the tendency to burn-in.

BTW, earlier television cameras that were based on tubes instead of CCDs had a similar problem. The tube could be "burned" by leaving it focused on an extremely bright image, and it was difficult and/or costly to fix it once it happened. Modern CCD cameras are essentially immune to this.

.

Like PhotonWrangler points out, each formula has it's pros and cons but with any of the technologies the cons are pretty darn small. I have a personal preference for DLP images but understand that I'm in the minority. I live with the few minor cons because the benefits to it outweigh the negative points. With that said, I think plasma serves a much wider group than either LCD or DLP and thus think it's a great choice unless you have a specific preference or objection yourself. I don't think the "burn in - issue" if you can even call it that, should be a major consideration. It's not nearly the problem that it was even 3-4 years ago an even back then it took years to noticeably burn an image. Sometimes I see examples of burn-in in a restaurant on a really old plasma set.

If you spend some times on the AV forums you'll see that the general consensus is that burn in has become a non-issue for most average users of plasma.

1wrx7 has probly the best comment. TAKE YOUR TIME! Hard to do I know, I don't have surround sound any more, but my "system" (2 channel pro gear) took a good 10 years to put together. Some was figuring out what I wanted, some was finding the gear, and some of couse was saving the money. Believe it or not I saved a bit of money buying used gear. And you can always sell and upgrade just like lights only alot more expensive. And like I say HAVE FUN man! The whole point.

I bought the Panasonic SC-PT770 for my master bedroom 50" plasma. It has wireless rear speakers so you don't have to screw around running wires. It is a real nice setup. They go for about $333 now. It puts out way more sound than my bedroom needs. It would be fine for a big front room.

The Best Buy trip was not very helpful as their demo set ups were not working so I could not listen to anything. The salesman tried to get me to buy a soundbar type thing however I am really wanting at least a 5 speaker + sub set up.

I looked at a Yamaha package that was a little over 450 dollars and it "looked" pretty nice however again I did not listen to anything. I have never been a music person so I am out of the loop when it comes to brand names. I do remember Yamaha from my youth as my father was big into music and had Yamaha components everywhere.

The biggest problem I found so far is most of the pre-arranged box systems all come with a blu-ray player built in. I plan to use the PS3 as my player and would not need that feature. From looking around online it seems as if it may be best to go with seperate components and leave out the fancy blu-ray feature.

I may look at a decent receiver and speakers and depending on the brand could come out pretty cheap and still have good performance. I am taking my time on this as it is not something I must have. I can be happy playing my new game system as is for now...especially with this much improved TV.

Hi Robo,

I wouldn't be to concerned with an audio system with a blu-ray player built in. Your PS3 is probably a far better player anyhow. It's just an added cost. For now, you could just hook you PS3 to your TV and then add your audio system as you find one you like.

Just a thought id like to pass along . I saw on the news the other day how many of these large screen tvs are having trouble with their motherbaords just beyond when the factory warranties runs out . So far my small 28" LCD has been ok but you may want to get some extended coverage on your TVs . Has anyone had trouble or heard of this ?

I haven't heard this yet. Do you have any specifics?

The parts that usually age the fastest are the electrolytic capacitors. Insuring adequate ventilation helps prolong the life of anything electronic, particularly the capacitors inside. And good surge suppression is a must! Look for a surge suppressor with the highest possible joule rating, and one that arrests surges in all three directions - hot to neutral, hot to ground, neutral to ground.

To reduce the risk of burn in you should turn down the brightness and contrast settings on the plasma for the first few hundred hours that you use it.

If you want to spend a little more money, you might want to look at something like this:
http://www.klipschspeakers.com/na-en/products/hd-theater-300-overview/
It is a full 5.1 set of speakers, but doesn't include a receiver. Buying a surround sound set and a separate receiver will give you better sound quality than a cheaper HTIAB, but will cost more.

A cheap surround system is going to be fine 95% of people. Unless you are a true audiophile, you will not be able to tell the difference. You could go down to Walmart and buy a $300 system and it will sound 100% better than the TV alone. The subwoofer is what makes the biggest difference when it comes to factory TV sound and surround sound.

As already stated, buy the cheap cables. You will not be able to tell the difference between a $1000 HDMI cable and a $15 HDMI cable, that also goes for all the audio and image cables as well. Be warned though, there will always be someone who will argue with you till they are blue in the face that cables make a world of difference.

The new Plasma TV's are light years ahead of the older models. I would not be concerned with burn in unless you are going to leave a static image sitting for hours. If your gaming, I would not worry about it because the images will constantly be moving. Just to be safe, I would not leave the game paused with the TV on though for long periods of time.