LCD or Surround Sound?

  • Thread starter aussie2620
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aussie2620

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Aussie2620
Hey guys! My birthday is coming up in a week or so and I'm trying to figure what I should get - an LCD TV or a 5.1 surround sound set-up. I'm not going to be getting top of the range stuff though, about $400 or is the budget which is enough for a decent LCD or 5.1 set-up (my room isn't that big lol).

Anywayz, which is more important for GT5P? Sound or visuals?

Thanks in advance. :)
 
If you're doing this for GT5P, you must must must put an HDTV as a priority if you don't already have one. Don't get me wrong, surround sound is lovely and all, but if you're not playing it in HD already you're going to want to remedy that pretty quick. 5.1 can wait, in my opinion (even though I got my 5.1 system before my decent TV).

With regards to the TV its self, I'd recommend Sony. I know they're a little bit more sometimes (although mine was actually cheaper than all but some Toshiba models) but it's worth it. They're a complete joy to use, and they've thought of everything conceivable. If you get a chance to play around with the menus in a store somewhere, you'll see what I mean. And of course, the HD performance is sublime. Not quite up to the standard set by much more expensive sets, but for the price it's about the best I think.
 
Thanks for the advice mate. I've had a chat to one of my mates about this and he reckons I'd be better off getting a good set of speakers over a low-end LCD for the amount of money I'm willing to spend. He thinks 1080p is the way to go only, so yeah, any input to that statement? :)
 
Any form of HD content > standard defintion. For $400 ($347 USD as I see you are in Australia), you are not going to find any speakers (because you would need speakers + receiver...and you will not be able to buy a receiver + 5 speakers and a sub for $400) worth buying except for a decent HTIB. If you must go with speakers, I recommend Onkyo. Their HTIBs are some of the best bang for your buck IMO.
 
If you can't grab a 1080P set then settle with a 720P one. Surround sound is high on my list but you could always get a subwoofer for the 2 channel to add to the TV intill you get the 5.1 later.

Even a cheap Sony surround sound system is good and gives you a more immersed feel to a game than 2ch as you can't hear a car driving on the back-right.
 
aussie2620
Thanks for the advice mate. I've had a chat to one of my mates about this and he reckons I'd be better off getting a good set of speakers over a low-end LCD for the amount of money I'm willing to spend. He thinks 1080p is the way to go only, so yeah, any input to that statement? :)
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That is sort of true, in that I think low end TVs are a bit of a false economy. I mean it's fine to have a cheap TV if you're after an SD CRT (our house is full of them and they're just as good as the main brand stuff picture wise), but buy a 'cheap' HDTV and you'll be shooting yourself in the foot. I mean it'll display HD, but you won't be impressed by the picture quality. Think of it like those budget 10MP digital cameras you can buy - sure, it'll be a 10MP image that comes out of it (ie made up of that many pixels), but it doesn't mean it'll actually take a decent photo.

Your friend might have a point, in that if you can't afford a decent TV for that, you're better off investing in a good speaker system. I think for that price you'll be looking at a one box system, but most of those aren't to be sniffed at. I can't see it improving your GT5P experience as much as an HDTV, but it'll make TV and music more enjoyable too.
 
I'd also suggest the TV over surround sound. At the price range you are looking at, 1080p wouldn't really be that noticeable on a small TV. 720p will still look really good, and that is what the majority of games play in now anyway. As for brands, I like to recommend Sharps. However, they don't sell any versions of the AQUOS that I can find to meet your budget.
 
Thanks for the input guys! Well I'm being told to get the TV over the sound, but I still donno' - I'm still leaning towards the sound. This is the sound system I'm looking at...

http://www.sony.com.au/homecinema/catalog/product.jsp?categoryId=34346

I'll be able to get it for about $500 at JB HiFi - any thoughts?

See, most of the time I'm actually not that impressed with HD TV's unless they're top of the range stuff. Sure, they're better than my SD TV, but I don't really go "holy crap, looks so crisp!" unless it's one of those 50" 1080p jobs haha. But yeah, keep on the input guys, you're helping heaps. :)
 
Hard choice really. I would still prioritise a HDTV over sound, but the sound from LCD sets are really really bad... so getting the sound system first maybe better. Since you're in Australia I presume you're talking in Australian dollars, so I guess you won't be able to afford sets I'd recommend from Sony, Samsung, Sharp or even LG. They're generally fairly better quality than the cheaper sets around, with a few exceptions.

Not sure what to suggest sound-wise though, but I've been very happy with a £130 Samsung 5.1 system for over 2 years now - been faultless (apart from the amplifier's fan being noisy)/
 
Yeah that's the thing, the amount of money I'm willing to spend won't really get a great LCD but it'd get me a decent sound system. I could go higher in price, but I'm trying my best to save up a good amount of money for a first car.
 
With $400, get the best full HD monitor you can find and make sure you have a decent set of head phones. :)

Rock on!

:cheers:
 
I agree that you should prioritize visuals over sound, I personally have never been a sound buff and im very happy with the Cambridge Soundworks setup I have.. Still saving for an LCD TV, want a Sony full HD one and they aint cheap! :indiff: but you can get 1080p sets for quite good prices if your willing to sacrifice the brand.

Robin
 
eye candy > ear candy, but thats just me :lol:


thats unless its a music video, then i'd rather hear the audio than see the video
 
If you dont have surround sound you are missing out for sure. Gaming is a much better experience if you have surround sound. You can get a very good 5.1 surround sound for between $100-$200. Get the optical cable for sure.
 
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CAMAROBOY69
If you dont have surround sound you are missing out for sure. Gaming is a much better experience if you have surround sound. You can get a very good 5.1 surround sound for between $100-$200. Get the optical cable for sure.
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And save the rest for the TV in the future.
 
I've never understood the hype about surround sound. I've experienced it but, it doesn't wow me any where close to visuals. Sound is sound... I say put it this way.

If you were watching porn what would your priority be? Visuals or Sound? :dopey:

although... I have heard in some cases HD ISN'T a good thing in this application. : shudders :
 
G.T
Not sure what to suggest sound-wise though, but I've been very happy with a £130 Samsung 5.1 system for over 2 years now - been faultless (apart from the amplifier's fan being noisy)/
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Couldn't agree more 👍

I've got a Samsung system in my room and it's fantastic. I bought it ages ago, and it was fairly cheap, but it is great for everything (TV, movies, games, music, the lot). We recently bought a Panasonic system for our lounge, and it's nowhere near as good despite being worth twice as much. I mean it's got just about everything (3 inputs, HDMI upscaling etc) but it just doesn't sound as good. I've tried everything set up wise, but it just doesn't immerse you in the same way or give anything near the same sort of clarity. It only sounds a bit better than the TV its self, actually. I wish we'd bought another Samsung now.

I dunno, in the face of what everyone else has said, it might well be better to go get the sound sorted first. That's what I did. If you're happy with your current TV, it's probably more sensible actually. But if you're just doing this for gaming's sake, please spend your money on something else. Seriously - it won't make that much difference, and after a while you'll just become immune to it. I mean if you're going to listen to music on it, or watch DVDs or whatever, by all means go for it. For the PS3 only though, just don't bother.
 
V1P3R
I've never understood the hype about surround sound. I've experienced it but, it doesn't wow me any where close to visuals. Sound is sound... I say put it this way.
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WOW, you series??? surround sound puts you in the middle of the game, its so needed for racing online where you can hear cars pull up next to you or hear when you are starting to brake traction and back off the throttle a few tenths etc,
And on games like Halo3, COD4, Resistance listening to footsteps or gun shots gives a clear idea of where enemies are,
If you not using surround sound in this gen of consoles you really at a big disadvantage to those who are.
 
GTP_V8SuperCars
WOW, you series??? surround sound puts you in the middle of the game, its so needed for racing online where you can hear cars pull up next to you or hear when you are starting to brake traction and back off the throttle a few tenths etc,
And on games like Halo3, COD4, Resistance listening to footsteps or gun shots gives a clear idea of where enemies are,
If you not using surround sound in this gen of consoles you really at a big disadvantage to those who are.
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I got to be content with a 3 year old Sony 5.1 surround sound system with all default speakers and I feel "right in the game" when ever I play games.
 
GTP_V8SuperCars
WOW, you series??? surround sound puts you in the middle of the game, its so needed for racing online where you can hear cars pull up next to you or hear when you are starting to brake traction and back off the throttle a few tenths etc,
And on games like Halo3, COD4, Resistance listening to footsteps or gun shots gives a clear idea of where enemies are,
If you not using surround sound in this gen of consoles you really at a big disadvantage to those who are.
Click to expand...

I have a cheap $60 5.1 system but it's not connected via optical or anything. I can here stuff around me just fine. What irritates the hell out of me is situation where during movies or whatever you got people talking and you have to turn the volume up then they start music or something and it's so loud you gotta turn it down. The center channel makes it seems like it's coming out of a tunnel sometimes too. Again... I'm not just talking about from my system, but family and friends too.
 
V1P3R
I have a cheap $60 5.1 system but it's not connected via optical or anything. I can here stuff around me just fine. What irritates the hell out of me is situation where during movies or whatever you got people talking and you have to turn the volume up then they start music or something and it's so loud you gotta turn it down. The center channel makes it seems like it's coming out of a tunnel sometimes too. Again... I'm not just talking about from my system, but family and friends too.
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A optical cable will change that system a lot.
 
I have a monitor and it doesn't use optical, furthermore... I don't have HDMI for the 360. It's just more cables and more of a headache at the moment. Maybe when I get a "real" tv that will all change, but my setup will do for now.
 
V1P3R
I have a cheap $60 5.1 system but it's not connected via optical or anything. I can here stuff around me just fine. What irritates the hell out of me is situation where during movies or whatever you got people talking and you have to turn the volume up then they start music or something and it's so loud you gotta turn it down. The center channel makes it seems like it's coming out of a tunnel sometimes too. Again... I'm not just talking about from my system, but family and friends too.
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Oh i see, you need to run it in Digital, no wonder you think its over hyped, you are sending 2 channels of audio and trying to split it into 5+sub, thats would just sound like a mess.

As for the Movies, same deal you need it in digital sound so it can split the voice to centre speaker and other sounds to the other speakers, not only this but if you running it in digital your input device (amp) should support sound levels for each speaker, so tune the centre to have a higher mid range freq and turn the level up so its on par with the rest of the speakers you are using, and dont forget to set all the levels in your main seating position, if you do this you will not know what hit you.

For the hook up you need to run a digital cable directly from the PS3 or 360 to your amp/input device, on the PS3 go to audio and put audio to Digital cable, you can still run HDMI to TV but direct the audio to the amp.👍
 
I didn't quite catch what you're saying, but I have it set up to "manually" switch to stuff.

The red and white is the 360 while the current connection there is everything else. Since pretty much all the sources is going though the tv and HDMI the sound automatically switches over to the source I select. Hope that's clear...

 
GTP_V8SuperCars
WOW, you series??? surround sound puts you in the middle of the game, its so needed for racing online where you can hear cars pull up next to you or hear when you are starting to brake traction and back off the throttle a few tenths etc,
And on games like Halo3, COD4, Resistance listening to footsteps or gun shots gives a clear idea of where enemies are,
If you not using surround sound in this gen of consoles you really at a big disadvantage to those who are.
Click to expand...

I have to agree here, I've got a fairly old Goodmans 5.1 system and although it's not true 5.1 (it emulates it using the rear speakers) it really does make a difference. Often when I'm playing Call of Duty 4 online I can tell where an enemy is just by listening to where their gunfire or footsteps are coming from! It's a great advantage to have and it really immerses you in the game.

The amount of times I've heard rockets fly past my head behind me and made me jump...:lol: Or you can even hear the bullets hit/ricochet off objects around you. It's great fun.
 

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