Home Cinema System (£700 tops)

Mauness

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Well ive been looking to buy a new home cinema system at home. I dont have a big budget unfortuneatly (things always get in the way <cries>) so i can spend £700ish roughly.

Am looking for

Blu-ray player
37-42" LCD/Plasma (not sure whats best now?)
5.1 Speakers (would love tallboy type speakers)
Nice tv stand/unit to fit all this on.

Is it possible for my budget, if so what can you recommend?

thanks for any input

Maunie
 

old.user4556

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Oh I like this game, I'll go and put together a shopping list.
 

old.user4556

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Right,

I've had a look at some of the more recent kit and £700 is probably not going to buy you anything decent at all if you must have all of the above items.

In my opinion, there's no point buying into blu-ray unless you get a full HD TV (for obvious reasons), but to get the most of full HD, you really need upwards of 40". That's a pisser on your budget, because anything worth spending money on is going to blow a significant chunk of your money leaving you no cash left over.

Additionally, full HD plasmas don't tend to start until big sizes (around 46" and upwards) which again will cost a significant chunk of your budget; so you're onto LCD. When I was TV shopping, RGB Direct did some of the most competitive prices in the UK, so I've checked their LCD list and sorted by price. The cheapest full HD set at 37" is:

Panasonic TXL37S10B - £429

It's ex demo and I don't know if it's even any good. It leaves you £270 to play with to get the rest which is simply not enough money. I don't think this can be done for £700, it might be an idea to get a great TV now (that won't break the bank) and then look at adding more bits as you've got the money to do so?

Samsung LE40B550 TV review - from the experts at whathifi.com

£550 and an excellent review for a 40" set with full HD, Google reveals that you could get it for £520 some places. That leaves you £180 to buy:

Sony BDP-S360 Blu-ray player review - from the experts at whathifi.com

Both units review very well and amount to £700, but you've got no amp / speakers. If it was me, I'd rather have a great TV and blu-ray player with the aim of adding to the setup later on instead of buying an average TV at 26-32" just to cram in other bits.
 

Ch3tan

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Nope, can't be done. Not with anything even half deserving the label of "decent". You can get cheap 5.1 + BD player, but it will be shit, and sound shit.

Spend £700 ish on a TV, save up for the rest.
 

Mauness

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thank you very much for the time/effort put in there Big G, and thx for reply ch3t.

If i was to spend say 700 on a new tv, which would either of you recommend? (assuming 700 will be enough hehe)
 

Ch3tan

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You can get older models for around £500-£600 that are good, and then spend the extra on a cheap BD player from Richer-Sounds or similar.

I'm not sure whats around with Tv's at the moment, as I only tend to research when I am buying. Go over to avforums.com and have a look, there is bound to be someone who has asked the same question this week.
 

Zenith.UK

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I'll have a go, but the others are right. You're best getting a moderately decent TV and then saving up for the rest.

LG 37LH3000 37" Full 1080P High Definition LCD TV | TVs | ASDA direct
£397

You can pick up a PS3 Slim 120GB for about £200 if you're prepared to get one 2nd hand. This will do for playing blurays and DVDs (with digital output for surround sound systems), and you can also use it for *gasp* playing games. :)
Amazon.co.uk: Used and New: Sony PlayStation 3 Slim Console (120GB Model)


You can pick up a TV stand from Argos that will allow for your surround sound system in the future for about £43.
Buy Verona Long TV Bench. at Argos.co.uk - Your Online Shop for .

That leaves you with about £60 for incidentals like delivery, cables and so on.


If you were to blow the big money on a decent TV from the outset, I'd personally go with something like this...
Kikatek.com | (42ZV635DB) Toshiba Regza ZV 42ZV635DB 42 inch HD Ready 1080p LCD Television with Freeview
That's the current model of the TV I bought 2 years ago. It's the premium Toshiba and costs about £700 if you find the right dealer for it. Put it this way, I *STILL* look at my TV now and think "That's a damn good TV!" :)

If you're going to get a FullHD TV, it would be an idea to get SkyHD. It costs an extra £10 a month on your subscription but the channels are luvverly! I've had to downgrade for a few months to save some pennies and I'm really missing HD channels. Thankfully BBC HD is free to air so I get to see things like Doctor Who, Wonders of the Solar System, and sport events in crisp shininess.
 

Embattle

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Remember to pick a screen size suitable for the room it is in.
 

Yaka

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tbh id go for sound first then tv last, warferdale 9/10 series sounds preety decent for speakers. i my self recently got 7 svs speakers pretty cheap via avf forums, managed to talk both sellers to lower when they delivered, £140 for for 5 and 80 for other was not bad for decent sounding speakers for the money. my denon 2309 was £350 2nd hand as well.
 

Cyradix

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And make sure your sound system has some HDMI in (usually 3-4) and a HDMI out and supports Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD :D
 

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