AV Integration

this was origionally posted on GH (RIP) so i've saved it as it seemed pretty useful and something along these lines has been requested for those wanting to know...

You have a number of choices....

1) just plug your video sources (vcr, dvd, laser disk, etc) stereo outs into the back of your hi-fi amplifier. this will give you better sound than you would get from the built in speakers on your tv but not the full surround sound experience.

2) Replace your Hi-Fi amp with an AV amp and plug everything into this. This will work but you will compromise the Hi-Fi aspect of your system.

3) Buy a Yamaha DSP-E800. this is a nifty bit of kit which handles dd & dts decoding (accepting digital inputs from LD, dvd) and dpl decoding (analog inputs fron a vcr) and also has 3 channels of amplification for center and rear channels. the trick bit is the front chanels are output as a stereo line level signal so you can use an unused input on your hi-fi amp to amplify the front channels. volume levels are set on the dsp so set your hi-fi volume control to 12 o'clock or another easy to find level and then tweak the gain so that volume levels are the same across all channels. voila 5.1 sound. however there are none of the newer features on this thing (dpl2, 6.1, 7.1, etc.) and yamaha's internal amps may not match your hi-fi amps that well!

4) Newer a/v amps can mimic the functionality described above for the yamaha by also passing out the front stereo channels as line level outputs for your chosen hi-fi amp to use. amp matching again may be a problem however you can get the dpl2 and 6.1 / 7.1 toys if you buy an a/v amp that handles them (best at the mo for vfm seems to be the marantz sr 4200 from richer's for £199). another nifty trick is to use a spare tape in/out loop for the a/v this will allow you to loop through your cdplayer so you can listen to them with dpl2 enhancements if that's your bag.

5) seperate a/v processor. these are usually very expensive boxes from the likes of lexicon, naim, tag, myriad etc. and have no on board amplification at all, just line outs. this enables you to use matching power amps for your hi-fi amplification and therefore get the perfect solution. however, it will cost a LOT more than the solutions above.

Added origionally from theMadHippy:
6) this olny works with dvd players with a built in decoder
1) as no 1 above,route the l+r from dvd to hifi
2) get a pair of powered computer speakers, plug these onto the rear l+r outputs of the dvd player
3) conect the center out of the dvd player to the audio input of the tv,if your using a fully wired scart lead for the video remove the wires on pins 1,3 and 4 at the dvd end.join these to a suitable conecter for the dvd player,1+3 are signal(join them together) and 4 is the earth

i used the above set up for sevral weeks,it takes a bit of time getting the volume levels right but hey its cheap

4) when you get p****d off having 3 volume controls to adjust go out and buy a proper av amp/reciver

cheers


julian