LED TV Surround Sound advice needed - Page 2

Bigmuz7 · 26 November 2012, 17:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hightower

Well the cheapest option for me is to just buy an AV tuner/amp to plug everything in to. Yamaha1 or Yamaha2 is probably the best option for about £200 new or something second hand, just not too old as I want HDMI connectivity.

I have found this to be the most flexible solution, even though it means an extra remote

I use two Yamaha RX-V750's 7.1 units with HDMI and cant fault them although they are 4 years old now IIRC those units youve chosen look pretty good what with optical, composite,HDMI etc .. should be able to handle pretty much any application .. I think my amps were 4 times that on the day

Hightower · 16 December 2012, 17:05

...Now what?

I've had my new TV for a couple of weeks and although disappointed initially with the picture I've had a fiddle around with the settings and all I can say is WOW!

Smart features work like a dream and I can control and steam stuff from my S3 phone too. I can share all my pictures and video from the computer though All Share which is brilliant in showing my 85 year old Dad what's been going in the lives of many family members from around the country.

DVD works brilliantly too and although the 3D glasses look naff they do a great job of converting films in to realistic 3D .

The only thing that lets the whole system down is the sound.

I've found a very keenly priced AV receiver but the only thing putting me off at the moment is the fact I might need to buy a wireless dongle and an optional Blue Tooth transceiver to gain full use of the unit. This is going to cost me an additional £100. I could hard wire the unit to the home network but haven't the ports on the wireless modem as both are taken up with the home PC's.

Can I just buy another wireless modem with additional ports in the back or can I buy some sort of splitter that I can plug in to the existing modem that will expand the number of ports from 2 to 4?

Bigmuz7 · 16 December 2012, 18:02

Just get another 4 port hub (or so) .. connect one port to your existing gear/router and gives you another 2 free RJ45 connections for your network

IanH · 16 December 2012, 19:25

Switch not hub. They are completely different things but achieve the same thing hence are confused. Switch good, hub mostly bad for the same reason wifi and power line networks are bad - they flood network with all traffic where as switch is device to device isolating rest of network from unnecessary traffic.

Bigmuz7 · 16 December 2012, 22:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by IanH

Switch not hub.

Fair comment

Hightower · 16 December 2012, 22:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by IanH

Switch not hub. They are completely different things but achieve the same thing hence are confused. Switch good, hub mostly bad for the same reason wifi and power line networks are bad - they flood network with all traffic where as switch is device to device isolating rest of network from unnecessary traffic.

Switch...Hub...? I'm confused (which is easy around computers).

Can't I just purchase another wireless router but with 4 ports for Ethernet cables to plug in?

Like this?

http://m.novatech.co.uk/products/net...nov-nadsl.html

SPR · 16 December 2012, 23:19

switch would be cheaper!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B000N99BBC

Hightower · 17 December 2012, 02:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by SPR

switch would be cheaper!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B000N99BBC

I assume that one patches one of the sockets to the wireless router and the computers/Av Receiver/TV to the other ones?

Is it easy to set-up?

IanH · 17 December 2012, 07:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hightower

Can't I just purchase another wireless router but with 4 ports for Ethernet cables to plug in?

A router is a device for routing network data from one network to a different network, ie your home network to Internet not home network to home network as you want to do. What most people call a router, is really much more than a router, it includes other bits such as a wireless access point and a small switch - the ports on the back. You don't need any of the other bits other than the switch so might as well buy just that and not all the other bits. As well as cost, if you don't know what you are doing and don't disable some of the bits of the router, you will end up causing all sorts of issues which will probably cause major confusion and frustration when some computers or smart

devices start working intermittently.

On cost and most importantly sanity grounds, the switch is the way to go.

If you need more advice such a recommendation, pm me. I write and test networking software for home media devices ( incl. iPhone/iPad and Mac) and use to develop computer systems used for global networking by most of the worlds financial and news media institutions.

Bigmuz7 · 17 December 2012, 07:52

I have a router for internet access .. which also has four RJ45 connectors on it, but they arent enough, because I have various devices around the house which need connections to the network in order to gain access to the internet, or other devices, and if I dont have enough sockets I will buy another of these

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Netgear-GS10...5730240&sr=8-1

As Ian mentioned some routers have wireless built in, but if you just need to add extra sockets to your network (you already have a wireless access point), the above solution is simplest .. you can chain several of these units together easily .. which will still allow any device on the network access out to the internet via your router as long as the whole network is plugged into your router ... does that help ?

IanH · 17 December 2012, 08:31

I actually recommend to people not to use the switch built into the router but use a reliable standalone switch instead. You will still need to link one port of the switch to the router.

This makes the network more robust and often much faster. The switch will effectively isolate high speed devices from the router which often do not run at full network speed.

If you use say an 8 (16 and 24 or more ports versions are also available) port gigabit switch instead of the 4 ports (often not gigabit) on the router, you will have 7 high speed ports available which is important if you transfer large amounts of data around the network such as for network storage ie audio/visual servers.

The other thing with switches is that they can be easily cascaded to provide more ports where you need them, ie near a PC or behind the TV where you may have TV, bluray, game consoles, music etc all connected.

Hightower · 17 December 2012, 12:24

What a great community we have on RIBnet!

OK guys thanks, for your help! I understand that all I need is a switch. I just needed to know in layman's terms what the different bits and pieces did so that i didn't buy the wrong part.

Hightower · 24 December 2012, 01:28

On your advice I bought and have installed an 8 port Gigabit switch. What a difference! Sped up my whole network including internet traffic too.

I can upload and download/stream video, photo's and music between all my devices including an iPhone and an Android.

All I need to complete my system is the AV receiver with network facilities so that I can get internet radio and I'm complete!

Anyone use a Denon AV receiver? If not I'm going to play safe and buy a Yamaha.

IanH · 24 December 2012, 08:15

Glad that sorted you although surprised the Internet traffic was much quicker - there was possibly something else going on with the router too or it simply feels faster because everything has been sped up.

Bigmuz7 · 24 December 2012, 09:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by IanH

although surprised the Internet traffic was much quicker -.

Well he used wireless a lot IIRC .. if the router is a 'G' on the wireless side, that will only be transferring data at 54 Mbit max.. where the switch will be operating at 100Mbit most likely, and I would assume the ports on the router would run at 100 also so that would explain it. Wirless 'N' can go much faster however.

Hightower · 24 December 2012, 09:53

I only use wireless for the TV and phones. The two desk tops are hard wired and are the mainstay of the household, it's these that are faster. I play a few online games and all of a sudden I've either got really good or the connection speed has increased because I'm on fire and whipping ass.

When I get a couple of RJ45 leads delivered I'll hard wire the TV and the AV amp (when I get it).

IanH · 24 December 2012, 10:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bigmuz7

Well he used wireless a lot IIRC .. if the router is a 'G' on the wireless side, that will only be transferring data at 54 Mbit max.. where the switch will be operating at 100Mbit most likely, and I would assume the ports on the router would run at 100 also so that would explain it. Wirless 'N' can go much faster however.

Most internet connections are generally still far slower than wireless and still typically remains the bottleneck. There are exceptions of course.

Hightower · 26 December 2012, 15:51

Just to update this thread. I purchased a Denon AVR2113 AV receiver this morning. I was looking at all the usual contenders. Pioneer, Onkyo's and Yamaha's as well, but decided to go for the Denon because it was such better value for money once the price point came down from what they were selling them for.