| Re: surround sound
If you want true surround sound then you'll need a decoder with amplifier/speakers. These can be quite pricey, but are well worth it IMHO. You can also get "all in one" boxes that come with build in DVD player, amplifier and speakers and these are by far the most cost-effective way of doing things, but reliability can be an issue (just like a regular all in one sound system vs seperate hifi units).
Unless you've got an HD signal, you will only have 2 channels of sound from the TV broadcast itself. Sometimes these have ProLogic encoding which can roughly be translated into surround sound by the decoder, and you can force the two channels to come out of over however many speakers you have anyway. A DVD is typically has 5.1 channels of audio, but will need the decoder to output more than two of them. |