UPDATED: Please recommend a cheap HTIB

[Steve]

I can get this used for $75, anything I should know about? This model or type of equipment have any known issues?

Update: after reading comments in this thread, esp. by Slick5150, I'd like to find one that has a cable TV input just for simplicity's sake. My sister would actually be just fine with DVD only, but if we can find one that brings it all together, than so much the better.

 

[Nohr]

Poor deal considering you can get it new for $78 at Circuit City.

I wouldn't imagine it sounds all that good but maybe it'll get you by for a year or two until upgrade-itis kicks in.

Edit: After looking at the product page it appears to have a very limited number of outputs and inputs. You should be sure it has what you need if you are planning on connecting any other components to it.

 

[jtvang125]

I have a cheap Pioneer HTIB I picked up a year or two back for $120. Even with Pioneer's experience in building speakers and such they didn't still didn't sound that great, not that I was expecting much from a $120 sysetem. I can't image how a $80 set made by Zenith, who has little to no experience in speaker building would sound.

I'd say pass on that and save up for something better.

 

[Steve]

Thanks guys. It's actually for my sister who wants something cheap, quick and dirty that will tide her over for a few months, a year, whatever. It's not like she has a cutting edge TV either, and her apartment's not huge so something of this ilk and around this budget range will have to do. We're open to recommendations

 

[Slick5150]

Originally posted by: Steve
Thanks guys. It's actually for my sister who wants something cheap, quick and dirty that will tide her over for a few months, a year, whatever. It's not like she has a cutting edge TV either, and her apartment's not huge so something of this ilk and around this budget range will have to do. We're open to recommendations

You m ight be better off spending a few more dollars anyways and getting a lower end Philips or Sony system. Looking at photos of the Zenith on Circuit City, it has no inputs at all. Essentially, its a DVD player with 5.1 speakers hooked up to it. You couldn't run the cable/satellite feed into it, game system, or anything else. Plus I just can't imagine it sounds very good.

 

[Steve]

Update: after reading comments in this thread, esp. by Slick5150, I'd like to find one that has a cable TV input just for simplicity's sake. My sister would actually be just fine with DVD only, but if we can find one that brings it all together, then so much the better.

 

[tailes151]

Slightly off topic, and I don't mean this as a thread hi-jack but it seems suitable here; How would one be able to tell whether or not a receiver accepts cable tv input? Guess I should have figured that out before I ordered this one.

If it doesn't I guess I'll have to live with it, which is okay I suppose since I mainly got it for dvd's, but it would be a nice addition.

 

[WraithETC]

I don't think many receivers have TV tuners.

It is usually expected you have a box or you will just run audio from your tv to the the receiver.

 

[tailes151]

Errr, so I'll just be able to take whatever sound the TV would usually produce and put it through the receiver somehow?

 

[Slick5150]

Originally posted by: Steve
Update: after reading comments in this thread, esp. by Slick5150, I'd like to find one that has a cable TV input just for simplicity's sake. My sister would actually be just fine with DVD only, but if we can find one that brings it all together, then so much the better.

Well, if you're looking to stay as cheap as possible, this Insignia system might not be a bad idea. It has built built in DVD but also has inputs for other stuff as well. Granted, its not going to knock your socks off with the sound quality, but for under $100 its probably as good as you'll find. One thing to note though is that it doesn't have a DTS decoder, but I don't think there are many DVDs with only DTS surround (no Dolby Digital), so it might not be a huge deal.

Link

It'd be another $70 or so to step up to the low end Philips and Sony systems.

 

[Steve]

Thanks, I had my eye on that one too. I think I will stop by a store when I get a chance and see it in person.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: tailes151
Slightly off topic, and I don't mean this as a thread hi-jack but it seems suitable here; How would one be able to tell whether or not a receiver accepts cable tv input? Guess I should have figured that out before I ordered this one.

If it doesn't I guess I'll have to live with it, which is okay I suppose since I mainly got it for dvd's, but it would be a nice addition.

That's going to be significantly better than the ~$100 range sets that have been mentioned in this thread already. Onkyo makes pretty decent HTIB sets that are usually very safe bets vs. the competition.

WraithETC is right on stating that having a TV tuner in your receiver would be very odd. To connect the audio from cable to your receiver, you'll just need to either hook up from the cable box or the TV to one of the inputs on the receiver. For standard cable, that just means a pair of Red/White analog audio cables with RCA ends. On a 5.1 set you'll be able to enable Dolby Prologic II to get fake surround out of that if you like. Otherwise it will remain 2.1

The only trouble you could run into with hooking that up to your existing cable system is if you have the TV plugged directly into the cable line without a cable box and in addition your TV does not have audio output on it. In that case, you'd have to get a cable box or use something with a Tuner (like a VCR) between the cable and the TV to get audio output from it so you can send that signal to the receiver and not the TV.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Slick5150

Originally posted by: Steve
Update: after reading comments in this thread, esp. by Slick5150, I'd like to find one that has a cable TV input just for simplicity's sake. My sister would actually be just fine with DVD only, but if we can find one that brings it all together, then so much the better.

Well, if you're looking to stay as cheap as possible, this Insignia system might not be a bad idea. It has built built in DVD but also has inputs for other stuff as well. Granted, its not going to knock your socks off with the sound quality, but for under $100 its probably as good as you'll find. One thing to note though is that it doesn't have a DTS decoder, but I don't think there are many DVDs with only DTS surround (no Dolby Digital), so it might not be a huge deal.

Link

It'd be another $70 or so to step up to the low end Philips and Sony systems.

Yeah DD is much more common than DTS, and on these kind of systems and their quality, I wouldn't worry too much about getting DTS vs. DD.

With these very low cost systems, I think you need to go see and hear them in person to try to get an idea for which one would work best for you. I don't think there's really a "go to" system in this pricerange.

ShopOnkyo used to sell refurb 590 sets for ~$150 which would have been a nice step up from these, but I think they're done selling those since it's been replaced for quite some time now.

Also there have been some very hot deals on the Logitech z-5500 computer set of speakers that have brought it down to the sub-$200 range or even sub-$150 which would be another strong choice. It has a decent amount of inputs on it that would help you connect it to several sources at once which gives it an advantage for this kind of duty vs. most computer speakers.
If there's an amazing deal on one of those sets soon, that would be another good option.

 

[Steve]

Thanks Yoyo and others. I have to find out what kind of outputs her TV has, if any. I guess I'll get her to send me a picture. We are tying to keep things under $100 if possible, bear in mind this is not for a demanding application, just casual enjoyment. If her TV doesn't have outputs I have a spare cable box we could try out.

 

[Steve]

I got a look at my sister's TV, and unless I'm missing something it looks like it has inputs only:

http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/sm8000/tvback.jpg

Anything that can be worked with here, or do we need to find a system that can receive the antenna signal? I can't find what model of TV it is, it's an old 20something inch Samsung CRT.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Steve
I got a look at my sister's TV, and unless I'm missing something it looks like it has inputs only:

http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/sm8000/tvback3.jpg

Anything that can be worked with here, or do we need to find a system that can receive the antenna signal? I can't find what model of TV it is, it's an old 20something inch Samsung CRT.

That doesn't look too promising.

Do you have a VCR with stereo output? (Both red and white RCA connections labeled output)

 

[Steve]

No VCR at all, but I'm sure a cheap one can be procured easily enough.

Reading the user reviews of the Best Buy (Insignia) setup, one person says it does have a tuner despite what the sales people say. I'll have to go in again and take another look at it, I either missed it or am thinking of the Circuit City (Zenith) setup which I also glanced at in person Friday evening.

 

[Slick5150]

Originally posted by: Steve
No VCR at all, but I'm sure a cheap one can be procured easily enough.

Reading the user reviews of the Best Buy (Insignia) setup, one person says it does have a tuner despite what the sales people say. I'll have to go in again and take another look at it, I either missed it or am thinking of the Circuit City (Zenith) setup which I also glanced at in person Friday evening.

By tuner, they likely mean FM tuner. Receivers / HTIB setups do not tune TV channels on their own.

 

[Steve]

Ah, I see. Well in the meantime I do have an old Comcast/Motorola STB (DCT2524/1612) that has RF in, will that do the job? I take it she'd like a universal remote for it too?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Steve
Ah, I see. Well in the meantime I do have an old Comcast/Motorola STB (DCT2524/1612) that has RF in, will that do the job? I take it she'd like a universal remote for it too?

If it has RF in and has RCA audio output on it (which I assume it does), then that would probably work. I don't have enough experience with using cable boxes to know if that will work for sure, but a cable box that is compatible with her cable service would work to accomplish what you want it to do.

You'd hook the cable up to the cable box and then route video to the TV and audio to the receiver for the HTIB. Then you'd change the channel with the cable box rather than the TV, so if you don't have the original remote then yeah, you'd need a universal remote to get something working. Make sure it works before you go out and buy a remote for it though

 

[Steve]

Fair enough. She actually doesn't have any cable TV service aside from free OTA antenna channels, but I will definitely try it out.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: Steve
Fair enough. She actually doesn't have any cable TV service aside from free OTA antenna channels, but I will definitely try it out.

I haven't tried hooking up a regular antenna to a cable box to see how that goes, but good luck