Hello everyone.....
Finally convinced the Mrs. that I could no longer live with my old 27" piece of junk TV. Just bought the Hitachi 51F59 and feel like I'm king of the world. Got it all set up and adjusted (as I read here) and it's great (in our world anyway). The boss (my wife) then said she could no longer live with my early mid-90's rack stereo system.

We're wanting something simple (like the Panasonic SC-HT740, she likes the thin front speakers). There is no gaming issues, we don't even have digital cable (yet...LOL) and don't want to spend a lot of money, which is leading us to the HTiB.

Really, we're only wanting the system for watching a few movies and having the TV in surround sound.

What's the best deal? What should we look at for basic TV watching (Cox Communication) and an occasional DVD?

Thanks!
Sorry for the "stupid newbie" questions.

Sounds like you want some small speakers to make the mrs happy. For the money, Onkyo makes the best sounding HTIB, but they may be too big for you. Small speakers + sub typically dont sound as good as large floorstanding speakers. Actually, looking at the Onkyo HT-S590 ($280 at Crutchfield), it may fit your needs. Otherwise if you get a set of speakers separate from the receiver... say a Polk RM6005 + PSW10B sub ($280) and a good budget receiver, Onkyo TX-SR504 ($240) and set the crossover at least 100hz or higher, you may do a little better. I bought the RM6005s w/o sub as a Christmas gift for my dad last year. They're nice, but can't handle bass. Little 3" or so drivers distort badly at mid to high volumes.

If it were up to me, and I were considering an HTIB, I'd prefer the HT-S680 over the HT-S590 for the simple reason that the sub is active, rather than passive. Add to that the fact that the receiver is much better and the 680 system is a 6.1 system rather than a 5.1 system, and it makes even better sense. Check it out at this link:

http://www.onkyousa.com/model.cfm?m=HT-S680&class=Systems&p=i

I surfed into www.shoponkyo.com to see if they have any refurb units, but none appear at this time. However, different items appear on a regular basis, so if you can wait a while they will probably have a 680 system. Unfortunately, I can't remember what price they wanted for a refurb unit, but in the $300 range sounds reasonable, so it is in line with what FrozenPilot found the 590 system on sale at Crutchfield.

For your stated purpose, in my humble opinion, the HTIB option is a good one. Most who post here know that better sound can be found for the same $$ if one is willing to research separates and spend considerable time dealing with multiple sources, but for someone who is not a gamer or into SPL's capable of shaking the house, I like the option of having everything in one box. It is much more simple. I've gone both routes and both yielded acceptable performance, as long as one is aware of the limitations of the HTIB. For the Onkyo HTIB's, the star is clearly the receiver. To offer HTIB's at competitive prices, manufacturers must economize somewhere, and the speakers are the easiest place to do so. Fortunately, if you decide you become less than happy with the sound quality of the Onkyo's factory speakers, you can upgrade later and still use the Onkyo receiver, which is pretty good on it's own.

Good luck with your search. Try surfing into www.onkyousa.com or www.shoponkyo.com and looking at their offerings. Read the reviews available at the links below the descriptions of the products--most posted by people just like us who chose the HTIB route. Refreshingly, Onkyo posts a fairly representative sampling of reviews and doesn't seem to try to hide what some view as weaknesses, such as sometimes limited options for digital sound connections.

Doug

amgann, I've read on here several times that you only get surround sound when watching movies with a Panasonic HTiB....you won't get surround when watching television. I bought the Sony DAV-FX500 and love it. It took me no time at all to hook up and you won't be overwhelmed with a lot of settings. The front speakers are towered. The rears are not and can be put on stands or the wall. The DVD upconverts to 1080i and it has an HDMI out.

I have a 57" Hitachi HDTV running off a rooftop antenna. No cable or satellite. Just regular hd stations. We watch 2 or 3 dvd movies a week. Little or no music cd's.
Living room is 14' wide and 18' long with seating close to back wall and 12' from TV. What Onkyo setup would be good? The 5.1 or 6.1?

After flip flopping between the Onkyo and Yamaha units I got the YHT-270 and I couldn't be happier. It's a small system with a lot of clarity to it. I'd recommend it to anyone.