FAO home cinema boffins : reccomend me a solution

[G4Z]

Hi all

I am looking to buy an acer LCD 32" TV next month and was thinking of hooking all my audio kit together.

I have a creative 7.1 speaker set with an external USB2 audigy 2 sound card.
I plan to connect my shuttle to the TV and get a wireless keyboard and mouse for distance use.

I want to be able to connect a sky digi box and DVD player to he speakers somehow and be able to run the whole lot through the speakers.

How do I do it?

I think i need some kind of decoder or preamp but could use some advise.

the sky has a coax output and so does my current DVD player (dont mind replaceing tbh) the audigy 2 has optical out and optical in.


any help appreciated

[unrealrocks]

There are huge numbers of solutions, although they depend greatly on how much you want to spend.

Your cheapest option is probably to get a couple of coax to optical convertors and run the DVD and Sky box through the Shuttle and out i nto the Creative set. About £30

Your best option is to throw the Creative set out the window and go buy a proper AV Decoder, and a set of speakers then just plug everything into that About £300 upwards

[Howard]

Your best option is to throw the Creative set out the window and go buy a proper AV Decoder, and a set of speakers then just plug everything into that About £300 upwards

Does the external soundcard (or the speakers) have any optical and/or analogue inputs? Use those.

[G4Z]

Well, the 7.1 creative set is rather nice and produces a good sound so i see little point in binning it. The sound card has an optical input and an analogue input (3.5mm jack line in)

[Howard]

Take the dvd player into the optical and the Sky box into analogue, then

[Nemeliza]

Your best option is to throw the Creative set out the window and go buy a proper AV Decoder, and a set of speakers then just plug everything into that About £300 upwards

>What i just did

Got a pioneer AV reciever and some wharfedale floorstanding speakers.

I thought my Creative Gigaworks sounded good, but OMG!!!! i cant believe the difference in sound quality. Havent tried bi-wiring them yet, but apparently it makes a difference.

If you can afford it, Do it........you will NEVER go back!!

[G4Z]

Is there a way I can migrate over to a solution like that and use the creatives for now?

with the TV and a decoder new speakers will push me over budget.

[Nemeliza]

Well i got a AV reciever first and plugged that into my creative gigaworks via the preout. I used the optical connections to connect the amp to my PC(can also use Digital Coax or Analogue RCA if you want to), as well as to my sky+ box.
I then added surround speakers later, and disconnected the gigaworks from the AV reciever.
This way i always had a sound system i could use, even while i was upgrading.