cheep surround sound question

[Skie]

Ok i've decided to buy some surround sound for my tv/systems. Right now i have hooked up to my main tv is: Wii, 360, ps3, and cable box, ps3 and 360 connected via hdmi cables, wii by the 3 color cables, and the cable by the hd color cables. How exactly can i get my surround sound for at least tv/360 at one time and keep my HD video out put. Not sure how they work so any advice would be helpfull. Also what is a good one to get. I was looking at:

Primary
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Sony+-+B...=1218065493710

Secondary
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Samsung-Ho...ystem/10992396

I perfer the first one just becuase well it looks a hell of alot better. But none of the local wal-marts have it in stock >< and i kind of want it before this weekend.

[Isiolia]

The products you linked to won't really do what you're looking to do.

Normally, a consumer home theater system is going to be going to an A/V receiver. Ideally, everything just hooks up into that, the receiver passes the video along to the TV and outputs the audio through the speakers.

What you're looking at there are essentially DVD players + powered speakers. They've got some very limited line-in options, but that's about it.


If your budget will allow it, I would look first into a decent HDMI-capable receiver. Granted, this will probably cost as much or more than the entire systems that you linked to, but it'd be a solid foundation to build on.
You can get a non-HDMI receiver for a bit less, but that will require running separate audio out from your PS3/360, and giving up on HD audio from Blu-Ray, as those streams are only passed over HDMI.

Once you've found something suitable, then start looking at speakers. You don't have to buy five speakers and a sub all at once.

While it will certainly cost more this way, you'll wind up with hardware that's more capable, more flexible, and that you'll likely be happy with for a lot longer (or at least that will be able to be reused as you upgrade).

Do you have a general price range you're working in?

[Skie]

need around 250 just looking for something to bump up the sound effects in cod/halo nothing godly just 250 worth. Main thing is i just want more volume without losing my hd video i dont really care about blue ray at the moment maybe later in life when out of college

[Mabubeezareel]

Might want to check out this Sony system. It's only $50 more than your listed price range, includes free shipping, and has gotten very good user reviews for an entry level system. It should be able to handle most, if not all, of your needs. You'd be able to run audio/video of the xbox and PS3 into it via HDMI, as well as the audio of your cable box and wii. You'd still have to run the video for the latter into your TV though, as this unit doesn't have any component video inputs.