What will we need for a good HDTV and other home theater stuff?

Question

My parents are thinking about getting a new tv, but noone in our family really knows much about HDTV or surround sound. I looked on amazon and I think they like the philips one on this site. http://www.amazon.com/Philips-46PP9302-Digital-Widescreen-HDTV-Ready/dp/B000066R5O/sr=1-130/qid=1161137562/ref=sr_1_130/102-4871100-3554544?ie=UTF8&s=audio-video
There are also some other tvs around 40 to 50 inches by akai. But they all say they need a tuner. What does an hd tuner do and where can I get it? also, will it connect to the tv's?

I also have some questions about sound. pretty much all of the tv's we've looked at have speakers built in, but we want to get surround sound too. The thing is that we don't know much about surround, either. I looked on amazon for those too, and I've seen sets with a special box that looks like a dvd player as well as some that say they bounce the sound waves. Do we need a box, and will normal speakers work with the 'bounce' ones?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Well, first of all, if you are trying to get a home theater system going you don't need speakers attached to the tv, so get one without speakers attached. Panasonic and NEC are the best ones. Get one that is HDTV ready, and it probably comes with the HDTV tuner, so you won't need to buy it seperately.

For the sound system you need a receiver and a set of 5 speakers. If you are into bass, then you could get a subwoofer. That's the standard 5.1 system. You have the front and rear speakers, and the center channel for dialogue, plus the subwoofer for boomy bass. They all plug into the receiver. You would need a 5.1 surround receiver, which is the standard nowadays for home theater. The receiver is the most important component for sound quality. Sony or Denon are the best brand of receiver. Harmon Kardon is very popular and decent, but not as good. Polk or Infinity are good speakers for mid-range price. Bose is a low end speaker, so don't get hyped into buying bose. Then all you need is a dvd player that is decent enough to play hdtv quality. Just don't buy a really cheap one. That's all you really need to get a good home theater system.

Answer 2

first off, don't buy one of those home theater in a box (HTIB) systems. Get a Yamaha RX-VXXX receiver. A blue-ray dvd player, and some decent speakers....floorstanding, bookshelf or in-ceiling/in-wall. Klipsch, Polk, Monitor Audio, Energy, Boston Acoustics are all great brands with a wide range of style/price. DO NOT WIMP OUT ON THE CABLES!!! Get a good power conditioner (doesn't have to be Monster Cable) but you are better off WITH one than w/o. Don't buy the extended warranties on the speakers but do buy it on the reciever.