Hello. I would greatly appreciate any advice from the wise members of this forum on my situation. :D

I have a Samsung LNT61FX (40 inch 1080P) in the living room of my small apartment. Its about 25x10ft. I sit about 7 feet away when watching tv and movies and sometimes 5ft away if I'm wreckin' noobs in Call of Duty :cool: . I have a PS3 and an HD Tivo attached by HDMI cables. Also a Series2 Tivo attached by an S-video cable.

I've grown very dissatisfied with the audio I'm getting from this unit. :(

However, I got word from an Elf that a $500 gift certificate to onecalldotcom is coming my way this month for the winter solstice and what not. :)

So what's the best way to spend this amount on adding something home theaterish to my living room? I'm a bit of a techie guy but not at all an audiophile and don't really understand much of the options out there. :confused:

Some considerations:
1) Girlfriend in residence = No wires running around the room, must "look nice", and can't make the tv become complicated to use.
2) Small rental apt = space is premium and nothing's going in or on the walls.
3) The setup is mostly used for HDTV, gaming, and weekly blueray/dvd rental. I don't need to play music or personal videos. Not looking for a redundant DVD or bluray.

Some Questions:
1) there's an optical audio out on the TV. Could this be as simple as connecting something like a sound bar to that to basically redirect all my audio from the tv speakers to the speaker bar??
2) If I have to run the video though a receiver are they all going to pass through 1080P OK or is that something I need to check on?
3) If I get a sound bar am I going to end up wasting a lot of money just to get "stereo" plus a subwoofer??
4) I remember hearing that HDMI would let components magically control one another so I don't need ten remotes. I have yet to ever see it happen. Does that really exist? Would that only happen with a Samsumg audio product?

My research so far shows they have a Sony HT-CT100 Component Home Theater System for three hundo and a Yamaha YAS-70 Black Home Theater System 5.1-channel Virtual Surround Speaker Bar for a little less than 5 large bills. Any experience with these? Am i in the right ballpark for my needs?

Again, any guidance, help or feedback are greatly appreciated. I'm locked into that one vendor so please don't recommend products they don't carry and I'm not looking for price comparisons. I also don't have any real funds of note to add to the gift certificate being as the economy sux and all.

Some Questions:
1) there's an optical audio out on the TV. Could this be as simple as connecting something like a sound bar to that to basically redirect all my audio from the tv speakers to the speaker bar??

Most TVs would downmix the audio to stereo if you did this, necessitating on the receiver remixing it up to surround sound again. Not exactly ideal. I think even a soundbar would prefer a full 5.1 mix being sent to it directly, but most soundbars should have a good collection of inputs (although maybe not as many as a dedicated receiver.


2) If I have to run the video though a receiver are they all going to pass through 1080P OK or is that something I need to check on?

Should say in the ad copy if it passes through 1080p video.



3) If I get a sound bar am I going to end up wasting a lot of money just to get "stereo" plus a subwoofer??


What's the room like? Fully enclosed? If it is, soundbars work surprisingly well, as they bounce sound off of the walls to recreate surround sound. If it's open to other rooms, the effect is diminished or lost.

If that's the case, I would save money and get a receiver, front/center speakers and a sub and forget the surrounds if running wires is out. Most info will come from the front three/sub anyway, and surround info will just be incorporated into the front, so you won't lose sound, it'll just all come from the front.


4) I remember hearing that HDMI would let components magically control one another so I don't need ten remotes. I have yet to ever see it happen. Does that really exist? Would that only happen with a Samsumg audio product?

I don't think HDMI does that, but some makes like Onkyo and Pioneer have their own protocols and remotes that can do that.

However, a good universal remote ($100) can be programmed to turn on multiple makes and components all at once with one button.