Home Cinema setup help.

[Neo_VR]

Can anyone help.. or direct me please
Im trying to purusade the parents to get the home cinema setup sorted at home..
we already have a 32" wide Toshiba tv that has dolby digital built in. but the speakers are quite poor.
we also have a Yamaha 6 channel amp/AV unit that was used in our old sound system.. problem is, this amp does not have a digital decoder, just a bunch of inputs. and our dvd player (kiss dp500) only has digital outputs.
so heres a few questions

1) Would it be better (read:cheaper) to get a new amp/decoder combo to use as the centre of the sound system or could anyone suggest just getting a decoder for the dolby digital sound?

2) can anyone suggest a nice speaker package to use.

thanks for the help

[Howard]

A seperate, modern amp and speaker system would certainly be beneficial.

The main surround sound formats that are becoming more and more common are Dolby Digital, DTS, ProLogic 2 and DTS NEO:6, with the 6 and 7.1 variants being Dolby Digital EX, DTS:ES and ProLogic 2x. Most half-decent amps will have all these built in and more

How much do you want to spend? RicherSounds is a good starting point, selling some nice gear.

How about this as an excellent starting point amp. They're quite well regarded and despite it's small size it does everything mentioned above, even 6.1 which allows for an upgrade later on.

Decent speaker systems cost a little bit more, but www.richersounds.com has some good value bargain sets. Also look at other sites such as www.avland.co.uk, www.hifi4less.com and www.hifibitz.co.uk (can't think of any more off the top of my bead!)

[5lab]

a cheapish solution is this - creative do a decoder with no amp onboard - the quality is meant to be reasonable.. it accepts lots of digital/other inputs, and outputs 6 channels for yer amp. bingo!

[kushtibari]

Tannoy FX5.1's are a nice cheaper set of 5.1 speakers for a home cinema set up. Come right down in price and give you a good sound. Denon do a nice one box system (DHT500) with the speakers/amp/DVD for about £400 that I've listened to and was quite impressed.