Surround Sound for Gaming/Movies?

SativaSam

SativaSam

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Hey guys I am in need of some help as to what to ask for for Christmas to enhance my game room. I just recently bought a 42" LCD 1080p LG TV so I'm fine there, but I cannot decide on what to get surround sound wise.

Home theater, or just surround sound? And if so, which model is best? Can anyone recommend me a nice set? Mainly wanting to play videogames and watch blurays. I already own a ps3, so a home theater system with bluray player built in is useless to me.
 
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Hey guys just a little update, my mom ordered the HT-S5400 and it is on its way here. I am excited beyond belief because I've wanted surround sound all my life and now I'm getting 7.1 surround sound in my BEDROOM. I think that's pretty freakin' sweet. Anything I need to go with this order or am I good? It's got the receiver, speakers, and wires I am guessing.
 
[quote name='SativaSam']Hey guys just a little update, my mom ordered the HT-S5400 and it is on its way here. I am excited beyond belief because I've wanted surround sound all my life and now I'm getting 7.1 surround sound in my BEDROOM. I think that's pretty freakin' sweet. Anything I need to go with this order or am I good? It's got the receiver, speakers, and wires I am guessing.[/QUOTE]

Well you could always get a higher gauge speaker wire, and banana plugs if you wanted easier connections.

A Harmony One remote perhaps?
 
I've got a question about the set I ordered. People are complaining that they're needing higher bandwidth HDMI cables for their game systems due to the Onkyo making flickering effects or something. Is there a workaround or can I avoid this problem? I order my HDMI cables from monoprice.com so IDK how I'll fair. Here's their complaint:

Flashing video:
If you have a PlayStation 3, Blu ray player, XBOX 360 or any other device that uses a large amount of HDMI bandwidth, BE WARNED. I got very frustrated when the video output from my PS3 to my TV started flashing / cutting in and out / turning off altogether for seconds at a time immediately after hooking up the system. It turns out that you will need to either play with the display output settings on your PS3 (Turn off / down one or more upscaling video effects) or buy higher bandwidth HDMI cables (I didn't have to buy new cables but some online sources recommended it as a possible fix to the problem). The solution for me was as simple as turning off the "Deep Color" setting in the display settings on my PS3, and the whole thing just went away. The only real "con" is that there is no reference made to any of this in any of the technical support sections of the literature provided with the system. This seems to be a common issue, based on the amount of content available online describing the exact same problem, not only with this Onkyo receiver in particular.
 
Hey guys I have another question about my surround sound. I'm loving it to death so far but how do I get the 7.1 surround sound to activate? Seems like everything I use is only 5.1.
 
[quote name='SativaSam']Hey guys I have another question about my surround sound. I'm loving it to death so far but how do I get the 7.1 surround sound to activate? Seems like everything I use is only 5.1.[/QUOTE]

You'll have to get your receiver to add it in post-processing (dolby PL-IIx for example) if it isn't native 7.1.
 
[quote name='pjb16']You'll have to get your receiver to add it in post-processing (dolby PL-IIx for example) if it isn't native 7.1.[/QUOTE]
How do I do that? I read up on my manuals and there wasn't anything about post-processing, no idea what that is even lol. All of my Xbox games seem to be 5.1, all my Blu-Rays are, and most of my PS3 games. Also TV, and my iPod.
 
[quote name='SativaSam']How do I do that? I read up on my manuals and there wasn't anything about post-processing, no idea what that is even lol. All of my Xbox games seem to be 5.1, all my Blu-Rays are, and most of my PS3 games. Also TV, and my iPod.[/QUOTE]

On my AVRs (onkyo tx-nr3008 and onkyo tx-sr876) I'm pretty sure you go through the listening mode pre-sets (movie/tv, music, game, THX) until you find one that you want for that particular input. If you're playing blu-rays through your PS3 you likely are using LPCM in which case processing doesn't occur at the AVR.

I am not aware of any 360 games that are 7.1, and not all blu-rays or ps3 games are but there are plenty of both.

Edit: It talks about listening modes in pg 27 of the HT-s5400 manual.

Also, unless your rear speakers are set-up directly behind your listening area (I wouldn't be able to do that in my bedroom for example because the head of my bed is against the wall), I'd opt for using the 6th and 7th speaker as front heights.
 
[quote name='pjb16']On my AVRs (onkyo tx-nr3008 and onkyo tx-sr876) I'm pretty sure you go through the listening mode pre-sets (movie/tv, music, game, THX) until you find one that you want for that particular input. If you're playing blu-rays through your PS3 you likely are using LPCM in which case processing doesn't occur at the AVR.

I am not aware of any 360 games that are 7.1, and not all blu-rays or ps3 games are but there are plenty of both.

Edit: It talks about listening modes in pg 27 of the HT-s5400 manual.

Also, unless your rear speakers are set-up directly behind your listening area (I wouldn't be able to do that in my bedroom for example because the head of my bed is against the wall), I'd opt for using the 6th and 7th speaker as front heights.[/QUOTE]
Not sure what you mean but I have my PS3 set to the Bluray input, Xbox to game, iPod to USB and TV to CBL/Satelite so...yeah.

So I guess there's no way to make use of the extra 2 speakers unless what I'm watching/playing is in 7.1. My bed's head is against the wall too.
 
[quote name='SativaSam']Not sure what you mean but I have my PS3 set to the Bluray input, Xbox to game, iPod to USB and TV to CBL/Satelite so...yeah.

So I guess there's no way to make use of the extra 2 speakers unless what I'm watching/playing is in 7.1. My bed's head is against the wall too.[/QUOTE]

No, you can use 7 speakers when source material only calls for 5 so long as you aren't using LPCM. Like I said, your manual gives explicit directions on how to do it, starting on page 27.
 
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