how is this hTiB?

[Semidevil]

So I am planning to buy my first HTiB. I'm looking for a budget one, and found this:

link

The reviews on this seem fairly okay, and it should be on sale on Black Friday.

Questions:
1. I dont know anything about HTiB. How are the specs in general? Okay for a home use, and better than TV speakers?

2. When I buy one of these systems, am I able to utiilize the speakers only for DVD/Music Playback on it's DVD player, or can it also be used when watching Cable TV.

3. I also have my desktop connected to my TV right now via VGA cable. Is there a way to utilize the speakers for my desktop also?

4. it looks like te speakers are wireless. Do wireless speakers usually involve frequent battery changes?


5. one complaint on most of the reviews: "...Speakers are fitted for proprietary mounts and plugs only..." <----what does that mean?


6. Would I need to buy anything else? wires, etc etc
Also, if you guys know of something that is comparable in price, let me know.

 

[Agentbolt]

Originally posted by: Semidevil
So I am planning to buy my first HTiB. I'm looking for a budget one, and found this:

link

The reviews on this seem fairly okay, and it should be on sale on Black Friday.

Questions:
1. I dont know anything about HTiB. How are the specs in general? Okay for a home use, and better than TV speakers?

2. When I buy one of these systems, am I able to utiilize the speakers only for DVD/Music Playback on it's DVD player, or can it also be used when watching Cable TV.

3. I also have my desktop connected to my TV right now via VGA cable. Is there a way to utilize the speakers for my desktop also?

4. it looks like te speakers are wireless. Do wireless speakers usually involve frequent battery changes?


5. one complaint on most of the reviews: "...Speakers are fitted for proprietary mounts and plugs only..." <----what does that mean?


6. Would I need to buy anything else? wires, etc etc
Also, if you guys know of something that is comparable in price, let me know.

1. Those specs are pretty standard. It's a lower-middle quality HTIB. The 1000 watts number is probably ridiculously inflated (wattage ratings for HTIB sets are like wattage ratings for PSUs, there are other more important specs so don't solely go by them).

2. It has a TOSLINK input connection, which is good. If you want to plug something else (cable box, Xbox, whatever) into it you'll be able to get surround sound from it as well as your DVDs. You'd plug an HDMI cord from the cable box into the TV, and a TOSLINK cable from the box into the DVD player. If you don't have a cable box, your TV would have to have an optical audio out that you'd plug into it.

If you don't care about surround sound per se, and just want sound to come out, you can plug some red and white RCA jacks from the cable box or tv into it, and get sound.

3. Get a headphone-RCA adapter, or if your motherboard has one, again, an optical audio cable, and plug that from the desktop into the DVD player, and you'll get ze sounds.

4. Wireless speakers blow, especially budget wireless ones. It's pretty easy to make decent sounding wired speakers for cheap, but wireless ones I've always hated the sound of. The sound quality is pretty bad even to a non-audiophile like me. Not sure about battery life.

5. I'm not sure either. Usually speakers are just stripped wire plugged into snap-jacks. It sounds like on this one there's some kind of proprietary connector at the end of the speaker wire that plugs into the DVD player. It just means you won't be able to use any other speakers with it.

6. What else you may need is going to be based on what you plan to do with it. It sounds like you'll at least need either a TOSLINK cable or a red and white RCA audio cable.