Need suggestions for a cheap HTIB

leglez

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Nov 12, 2005
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My friends wife just called me today and is looking to get my friend a HTIB for Christmas. His mom bought him a bluray player for christmas and she is getting him this. She said she wanted it for cheap and she found some and sent me some all were under $200 so if there is anything for under $200 that would be great. I know it isn't going to be the best quality or anything. I found This it is $180 at walmart and I saw a couple recommendations on AVSForums. It is going to have the Xbox 360, BluRay Player, Wii, and TV hooked up to it. I can't remember the model TV they have, I am going to go over tonight and try and find out. What would be the best way to do it? He currently has the 360 going HDMI to the TV, Wii Composite to TV, and I am assuming the bluray will be HDMI. I am not sure if his TV has optical out, but if it does would it be best to just run optical out from his TV to the receiver? Also is there any other HTIB for around $200 that is better than that?

Thanks!
 

leglez

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Nov 12, 2005
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Ok I went and checked and their TV does have Optical out. So would that be the best way?
 

erwos

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Apr 7, 2005
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The problem is that you're asking which piece of trash is better than another piece of trash - no one's really going to know what to say, because this isn't the place where people buy trash. People tend to like the Logitech Z-5500. That's all I know. :)
 

leglez

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Nov 12, 2005
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I'm not really worried about the quality anymore. I was just wondering what the best way to hook them up would be? Just run optical out from TV to the receiver?
 

erwos

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Originally posted by: leglez
I'm not really worried about the quality anymore. I was just wondering what the best way to hook them up would be? Just run optical out from TV to the receiver?
Unless your TV is one of the extremely rare few that will pass DD-5.1 from an HDMI input to the optical output without degrading it to PCM-2.0, you'll want to run HDMI to the TV _and_ optical to the receiver/decoder.
 

leglez

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Nov 12, 2005
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So HDMI out from the receiver in to the TV and optical out from the tv to the receiver?
 

marketsons1985

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Apr 15, 2000
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Originally posted by: leglez
So HDMI out from the receiver in to the TV and optical out from the tv to the receiver?

...did you read erwos' post? Most TVs don't pass 5.1 Dolby from an HDMI out through an optical. So this is the option if you don't mind losing...3.1 channels.

A better solution would be to figure out what kind of blu ray it is, and find a HTIB that will either accept the HDMI from the bluray or that will accept an optical / digital coax. The z-5500's do the latter.

GL