Home Entertainment Center Setups - Q&A

[RickR]

I've been struggling lately with our main family room entertainment setup and I'd like others' opinions.  What do you use, and do you like it?  Let me describe what I have and the issue I'm trying to solve.  I'll post pics later if necessary, but I think you've all seen my family room setup in various high-score contest pictures.

TV:  Samsung 50" (we love it, such a beautiful and bright picture.  Replacing this is not on the table)

Audio:  Sony digital receiver with Bose 3.1 speakers.  Sounds really great with a deep bass boom.  This has been our setup for years, so we are very used to it.  8 HDMI inputs.  This is the heart of our system.

What is connected:  Main item:  A Roku streaming device, which we use daily.  Also:  A blu-ray player, my PS1 Classic, an empty HDMI cable that we use for laptops or other gaming, and a USB thumb drive full of music.

The problem:  The Roku sound is terrible.  This is a new (withing the last six months issue, and it isn't just me...MANY people have this issue and Roku seems oblivious).  It will often either get REALLY loud or really quiet.  Very annoying. 

My experimentation:  Hooking the Roku directly to the TV helps.  The sound issue occurs MUCH less often.  Let's say twice a week instead of twice a day on average.  However, the TV sound is pretty weak with NO bass boom.  It also appears that the picture is cleaner this way, although I don't know why. 

 

My idea:  I've been thinking of ditching the digital receiver and speakers and simplifying.  Instead, how about adding a nice soundbar (with subwoofer) to the TV, and then an HDMI switchbox.  I could use the extra space that the receiver occupies for another gaming console (like the VCS).  I'd play it more if it were down here.

 

What do you all use?  Any advice greatly appreciated. 

 

 

[CrossBow]

I can't be of help on this because in my eyes I prefer to try and keep the gaming side of my life a little bit separate from the main movie watching. That said, I'm still using a very old setup by most accounts these days but I just like it.

We have a 77ish" LG we got recently on the wall. We use an old (late 80s era) custom made buffet like console cabinet. It only has space in the center designed for audio components with 3 large drawers on either side of the center section where we keep all of our movies. We have an old Onkyo 7.1 surround system at the heart but it only has the TV, Blu-ray, Switch, and a firestick plugged into it. It is so large it doesn't even fit in the center section properly so I actually having it stand on its side since day one we bought it. Due to my Jamo speakers I have in the setup, I required a receiver and Blu-ray player that still provided separate outputs for each channel. And I've never replaced out that setup. 

The Firestick... I've not had the volume level issues you are talking about that I know of, but I will say that with it being essentially 'ON' at all times even when the TV is powered off, that I've had the firestick now take out at least 1 of my HDMI ports on the back of the receiver and I had to recap the AV output board in the receiver about a year ago when all of the outputs just stopped working all of a sudden. I personally don't care for the firestick but it is about the only way to have all of our digital services at the ready as the LG while being a smart TV, I don't think it has all of the apps that we have for streaming.

My setup in the game room is basically the same but using just a 5.1 surround Yamaha receiver that I've had for well over a decade now. But again, separate speaker inputs for all the surround.

I'm not a fan of soundbars as I've yet to hear one that is as convincing to me on the surround emulation they provide as my actual separate speakers provide.

[CrossBow]

I forgot to mention that many modern TVs from the past few years will feature an HDMI port labeled as ARC. That means it has Audio Return Channel. Which also means that you can technically plug stuff into the HDMI inputs on the TV and the audio from those systems will come back down into your AV receiver. So in essence, you can use the TV as an additional HDMI switcher/select device in addition to your AV receiver.

I'm actually use that feature on my Sony in the game room. I have my Hi-DEF NES and extra HDMI cable plugged off the inputs on the TV and can still hear their audio through the AV receiver when the TV is selected in the AV receiver source.

 

[RickR]

Oh Ye Gads!  I just downloaded the manual for my TV and LOOK at this monstrosity!  Samsung!  NO!  BAD!

 

[RickR]

I agree with everything you've said Crossbow.  But the other problem is the complexity of the digital receiver.  My speakers include surround modules, but I have no desire to run wires to the back of the room.  Hence, I don't use them.  So then setting up the receiver to convert sounds to the 3.1 format instead of 5.1...well, it is cumbersome and god forbid someone touches the wrong button to goof it up. 

 

[RickR]

I'm also a little bit discouraged by the reduced image quality going through the digital av receiver.  I wonder why it would do that? 

[CrossBow]

Well, in my case I didn't really have to run wires... See wiring already existed when we bought the home. I just attached new wiring from the old and run it through easily. For the game room, I just have it going across the baseboards and have so much other stuff in the game room and on the walls, that I'm able to hide most of that wiring from being seen.

As for quality reduction? I'm not sure. My receivers are both passthrough devices so they don't do anything with the video and only use the audio channels.

[RickR]

9 minutes ago, CrossBow said:

My receivers are both passthrough devices so they don't do anything with the video and only use the audio channels.

Mine too!  But something is going on.  I don't think it's the HDMI cables themselves, although I can easily switch those out. 

More experimentation I don't really have time for coming 🙂 

 

[CrossBow]

You know...my blu-ray is actually decently high end and it has a dedicated HDMI for video and audio like most, but it also has another HDMI that is audio only. I use that to the receiver and the HDMI with video goes straight into my TV. So only the switch and the firestick are likely connected into the AV receiver in my main living space.

 

[- Ω -]

JUst a quick question, have you gone into the TV's settings for "sound leveling"?  Both my Sony TV's have the ability to level the volume, works wonders.

[RickR]

5 minutes ago, - Ω - said:

JUst a quick question, have you gone into the TV's settings for "sound leveling"?  Both my Sony TV's have the ability to level the volume, works wonders.

Good question, and I've tried it with that both off and on.  No difference in results, although I did leave it on as I like the way that works.

 

[RickR]

Here is a pic of my setup.  I've re-hooked up the AV system and made a few changes.  We'll see if this helps.

• I went ahead and added the two rear speakers, but I put them underneath the cabinet facing sideways.  I have no idea if that will work well, but it beats running cables across the room!
• I made some tweaks to the settings on the receiver.

Of course, about 30 minutes in to this basketball game, the sound went wonky loud again.  Sigh. 

[RickR]

Promising update:  I found that the Roku device itself have sound leveling set, and I think that is what was glitching.  Turning off that leveling setting made it work fine for the couple of hours of TV we watched.  Fingers crossed that it is now fixed. 

The updated AV settings and two extra speakers make it sound pretty great.  So I think for now, we stick with this setup.