"Donwill" wrote in message
...
Having moved into a new house 6yrs ago and it having been constructed with
very little change over 50 yrs ago, the time has come to upgrade the
living room.
My TV is approx 10yrs old and is showing it's age so a new one is
scheduled for Jan or Feb, (SWMBO fancies a wall mounted 50ins) I must
admit I fancy one also.
Modern TVs I understand have a connection named HDMI which I had not come
across before, but they also have a myriad of other connections some of
which I recognise, others I don't .

If the TV gets fixed on the wall I shall need to chase a channel for many
cables perhaps, with separation distances no doubt, so to save chasing,
I'm inclined to make a false chimney breast (floor to ceiling & approx 12
ins wider than the TV) using vertical 3x2 ins square battens covered with
plasterboard except for a region behind the TV where the cables will
terminate.

It would be useful to have a TV bracket which would allow the TV to hinge
on one side to allow easy access to the rear, does such a thing exist?

I used to have a very good Hi-Fi system in the previous house and it's
been in dry storage for 6yrs, It's now time to dig it out check and
reinstall it. After looking at this NG and mags Hi-Fi News etc I realize
that I am hopelessly out of touch with modern AV systems, I don't
understand most of the jargon.

I noted in a previous thread that Dave Plowman said you can take the
audio (stereo) signal off the back of the TV via Phono sockets (avoiding
delays) which sounded promising for connecting to my Amp. Are these
available on all modern TVs?

I like my Amplifier/Speakers combination, (Linsley Hood 80 Watt / B&W
DM330) I had excellent performance (maybe slightly bass heavy) out of them
in my previous house and despite advice from a computer literate
acquaintance I want retain them. The conversation went something like this
" He said,- Every thing's gone digital now, get rid of your amp and get a
digital one, but my speakers are analogue I said. Get digital ones he
said. But my ears are analogue I said!!!!!!!! :-\
All very confusing.

My excellent CD player, a Phillips went missing in moving house, I have a
cheap sony Video player which also plays my CD collection but only through
the existing TV speakers so cannot judge it's CD performance.

Should I invest in a blue ray for the latest HD Videos and will it also
play ordinary videos and most importantly play my CD collection without
degradation of audio quality?
--------------------------------

CONNECTIONS
Input to TV.

Mains.-
Blue Ray -
Sky receiver-
Second Sat Receiver-
Can the last three be daisy chained or would they best be separated ?

Any others needed?
-----------------------------------
Output connections from TV

Audio phono stereo L&R

Any others needed ?


Things may change as I haven't tested my Amp and Speakers yet. :-(


I'm charmed by the idea that a TV a mere 10 years old is "showing it's age".
My living room TV is a 27 year-old Philips and is still going strong,
despite near daily use. Over that 27 years it's only had one fault, about
ten years ago the de-gauss thermistor burnt-out leaving the screen with a
wonderful array of psychedelic colours. Otherwise it's been fault-free, I
keep waiting for it to go wrong to justify getting a new set, but it just
keeps on working ;-)

If you are going for a 50" set you would be well advised to go HD at the
same time as SD does not look good on large flat-panel screens. If you have
Sky get their HD set top box. And Bluray is also well worthwhile, it will
also play DVDs and CDs just fine.. You will need to use HDMI to link a Sky
HD box and a BD player to your new TV so you will need at least two HDMI
inputs as you cannot daisy-chain HDMI sources. (You can get HDMI switches,
but it's much easier to have enough inputs on the TV). If you want to
output AV audio to your old HiFi amp you will either need *analogue* audio
output from the TV, or an external DAC to convert a digital audio output
from the TV to analogue for your amp. (Many modern TVs only have digital
audio output). If you want to play CDs on a Bluray player connect the
analogue output from the player direct to your amp so that you don't need to
switch-on the TV when playing CDs.

David.