5.1 Home Cinema system with a blue ray player? (Wireless rear speakers required)

[Tomsta]

Having just moved in with my girlfriend i've now got a small issue i'm trying to rectify. Due to the way the lounge is setup i can't use my existing sound system as all speakers are cabled therefore meaning cables running along the floor/having to make super long extensions to go around doors etc.

 

So i'm now having to look for an alternative method, problem is that home cinema setups have come a long way i'm basically starting at square one again, with a budget of around £600 i'm not sure how best to do it. Any help would be appreciated. Blue-Ray play is required as i have blue-rays and wireless rear speakers (if going with the full speaker setup) are required as well

[seanondemand]

Back in the day, I know Sony did some combo blu-ray/receiver setups. These days, not so much. You’ll be buying your blu-ray separately. You could pretty easily pick up a system like this and be left with plenty left over for a good quality player 

[Tomsta]

30 minutes ago, seanondemand said:

Back in the day, I know Sony did some combo blu-ray/receiver setups. These days, not so much. You’ll be buying your blu-ray separately. You could pretty easily pick up a system like this and be left with plenty left over for a good quality player 

How would i connect a separate play to that and have the TV use the sound bar? Given that i'm used to combo units you might need to do a ELI5

[seanondemand]

48 minutes ago, Tomsta said:

How would i connect a separate play to that and have the TV use the sound bar? Given that i'm used to combo units you might need to do a ELI5

The sound bar will be connected to the tv via hdmi arc (preferably, if your tv has an hdmi port with arc it’ll be labelled as such) or an optical cable. The blu ray player will be plugged into one of your tv’s hdmi ports. As an example, in my case I have a sound bar plugged into my tv’s HDMI 3 port, which is the arc enabled one on my tv; I then have my PlayStation 5 plugged into HDMI 5. I switch my tv’s input to hdmi 5 and it handles passing along the audio to the soundbar. 

[Tomsta]

5 minutes ago, seanondemand said:

The sound bar will be connected to the tv via hdmi arc (preferably, if your tv has an hdmi port with arc it’ll be labelled as such) or an optical cable. The blu ray player will be plugged into one of your tv’s hdmi ports. As an example, in my case I have a sound bar plugged into my tv’s HDMI 3 port, which is the arc enabled one on my tv; I then have my PlayStation 5 plugged into HDMI 5. I switch my tv’s input to hdmi 5 and it handles passing along the audio to the soundbar. 

So make sure that assuming the device is ARC compatible plug that into the TV and then what ever else is connected to the TV via other HDMI ports should route through teh sound bar/system?

[seanondemand]

5 minutes ago, Tomsta said:

So make sure that assuming the device is ARC compatible plug that into the TV and then what ever else is connected to the TV via other HDMI ports should route through teh sound bar/system?

Correct. It works the same way if your TV doesn’t have an arc compatible HDMI port, just optical; you’ll just first need to go into your TV’s settings to tell it that your audio should go through the optical port. HDMI-ARC should be automatic.

[dalekphalm]

On 11/23/2022 at 12:48 PM, Tomsta said:

Having just moved in with my girlfriend i've now got a small issue i'm trying to rectify. Due to the way the lounge is setup i can't use my existing sound system as all speakers are cabled therefore meaning cables running along the floor/having to make super long extensions to go around doors etc.

 

So i'm now having to look for an alternative method, problem is that home cinema setups have come a long way i'm basically starting at square one again, with a budget of around £600 i'm not sure how best to do it. Any help would be appreciated. Blue-Ray play is required as i have blue-rays and wireless rear speakers (if going with the full speaker setup) are required as well

I'll give you an option that doesn't require wireless speakers, just in case you'd like to consider it. It's what I did in my apartment.

 

I opted to purchase Cable Runners (also known as cable channels/cord channels/wiremold, etc). I bought white ones that blend in nicely with the paint. Most of them are made out of plastic, and are paintable, if you want to actually colour match your walls/ceiling.

 

I then ran the cables up to the ceiling, and across the ceiling to where the rear speakers are placed, then back down. Yes you can see the channels if you look for them, but they blend in well enough that it looks decent and doesn't bother me.

 

I opted to use the Legrand Cordmate II line (most bigger hardware stores should carry these). The Cordmate II line uses larger rectangular looking channels, so they're a bit more flexible - in my setup, I had to use an RCA extension cable for my speakers, so I had an RCA Phono connector mid-way through the run, so I needed the extra space.

 

The Cordmate I line is smaller diameter, so if you're running regular speaker wire, it's totally sufficient. It's also mildly cheaper.

 

Just something to consider.

 

Edited to add: Blu-Ray player. If you don't have one at all, I highly recommend checking out the following:

XBOX One S - these are excellent Blu-Ray players that can also play 4K Blu-Rays. At this stage in the game, don't spend any money on a non-4K Blu-Ray player.

 

Another option is an XBOX Series S or Series X if you can get them for a good deal.

 

The go to Blu-Ray player for enthusiasts is the Panasonic UB820. It's apparently pretty much the best you can get. But it's pretty pricey for a standalone device.

 

You can go with cheaper Blu-Ray players, but the experience will likely suffer, slow menus and loading times, poor performance, lack of features or long term quality. That's why I suggest just getting the cheapest XBOX you can find with a 4K Player built-in, it'll cost the same or less as a good standalone player, and it'll be way better than cheaper players.

[dalekphalm]

On 11/23/2022 at 4:58 PM, Tomsta said:

How would i connect a separate play to that and have the TV use the sound bar? Given that i'm used to combo units you might need to do a ELI5

That depends ultimately on the setup you buy.

 

Some Soundbars (and all AV Receivers) will have HDMI inputs, and an HDMI output. The HDMI output is of course for the TV. The inputs are for audio passthrough - you connect, say, a Blu-Ray player to the Soundbar's Input, then connect the output to the TV. Now your Soundbar can play audio from your Blu-Ray Player.

 

Some Soundbars don't have HDMI inputs - so in that case, you'd use a feature called ARC (Audio Return Channel), which is supported on pretty much all modern Home Theatre equipment worth buying.

 

ARC needs support on both the Soundbar and the TV. Most TV's will have a single designated ARC port. You'll also notice, newer stuff might have eARC, which is just a better version with more features.

 

With ARC, you connect all your devices to the TV itself (eg: Blu-Ray Player). Then, you find the ARC port on your TV, and you connect that to your Soundbar via HDMI. The ARC port will take the audio from your other inputs (eg: Blu-Ray Player), and send the audio backwards along the HDMI cable from the ARC port to the Soundbar. This also works for stuff like Streaming Apps or even OTA channels if it's a Smart TV.