I am looking for a surround sound amp for my HDTV, Blu-Ray Player and XBOX 360 – but the ones which have optical in/out sockets are a bit on the expensive side – are the cheaper surround amp / speaker sets with standard red and white audio connectors, just as good – all in one sub woofer and speakers sets for example – i know that optical connection to a sound source is the best – but are the above type of connections just as good – i want real surround sound, not just the simulated stuff ya can get – or can anyone suggest a website for reference on this subject

Hi,
My HDTV isn’t working as well on Normal Sky not Sky HD or Sky+ I have hooked up it via Scart lead which is gold plated and its all fussy it’s actually Pixelated even my PC comes out blurry I don’t think that it’s the TV has my computer doesn’t reach the related resolution However my DVD player comes out blurry I just don’t understand why this is happening I went to Comet to do some of the TVs where Pixelated more worser than mine I asked a Pakistani man he told me that it’s the ariel then I asked him that why are the other TVs blurry I said it’s the reception they can’t Identify what FPS they need to work they can’t Identify what type of TV it is he recommended buying a SKY HD He also claimed that it will cost you a hell lot of money .
I have ordered a Blu-ray player from QVC it should arrive on monday (Fingers cross) but I don’t understand why is it blurry the Pakistani man seemed to be confused him self so it’s better to ask.
Thank You
AJ

I have a 19″ LCD Monitor, this one…

http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?sku_id=0665000FS10089660&catid=22334&logon=&langid=EN

My video card is the ATI Radeon X1650 PRO 512MB AGP…
On the box it says that these are the external connections…
5-pin D-Shell (female) VGA output
DVI-I Output
TV-Out with S-Video Connector (TV-Out Version)
VIVO with S-Video Connector
HDTV Display Support
Anyways, in the box is a coord that could go into the classical keyboard/mouse slot, not the usb one, the one with like 7 pins. The wire then leads to 3 colored wires with holes in them, that my Wii yellow, red and white coords could fit into.
Not sure what all this mess is, but is it possible to hook my Wii up to my LCD Monitor?

I’m 8 years removed from high school, but just from reading all of the questions here.. it’s obvious that folks remain popular/otherwise at the top of the food chain in high school by being immature, wild/impulsive, and especially if involved in sports/cheer leading (I’m stereotyping, but you get the idea). The folks at the absolute bottom as far as social status goes are the ones who are smart, a little less social, and more mature.
I’m just wondering how that same old mindset survives in today’s world. It was understandable 20-30 years ago when the pinnacle of technology was the “anyone can work on this” car, but now…
A teen will wake up in the morning when their handy atomic clock/radio/iPod dock starts buzzing. They’ll hop in the shower, use their electric razors and electric toothbrushes and advanced skin/body/hair care products and do the rest of their high-tech grooming. They’ll sit down in front of their DVR-equipped HDTV and watch some digital shows while text messaging some friends and hop on their computer/laptop and browse through various sites loaded with complex web applications which let them interact with people all over the globe. They’ll jump in their fuel-hybrid, mp3 dock, satellite radio enabled vehicles and as soon as they get to school… sneer at and mock the same kids who will (in a few years) be the ones making all of those gadgets and applications upon which they absolutely depend.
I don’t get it!

Recently I’ve bought a HD TV, and I’ve regularly been switching cables over the past few days from pc to monitor (dvi converter, vga 2 vga), to pc to tv (dvi-d single to hdmi). I have a feeling I’ve damaged the port because now I’m getting alot of interference in the bios sometimes, and always when I play intense winamp visualisations / rome total war.
I did a system restore / reinstalled graphics processors so I know its not that. I also know its not the leads. It must be the port.
Is there anything else I haven’t considered? And could it be my cpu, as the interference tends to occur when the cpu is working at above 70%. If so it is a coincedence its happening now, as I’ve had this computer for 3 years and the first day I get a HDTV it stops working. Do I need a new graphics card? How do I avoid this problem again? Maybe I shouldn’t have broadcasted HD through my 9800 SE radeon graphics card?

im off out on friday to buy a new tv and home cinema system, paying cash
i popped into currys yesterday and had a quick look around and spoke to a member off staff, i found a hdtv 47″ lg priced at £749 and a sound system for £249 the bloke told me he could do me the tv and sound system with a hdmi lead for £929. do you think this is a good price as ive never haggled befor,also its currys im shopping in and do they do haggling???? i wanna get the best deal as poss without making a fool out of myself!!!

Not the people mind you their government. I mean they are constantly bashing the USA over this and that, it gets old.
Yesterday Europe decided to put 2.3 trillion dollars to bail out their own banks. And here comes France’s president Nicolas Sarkozy with this snide comment.
“United Europe has pledged more than the United States,” added Mr. Sarkozy, who has taken a lead in getting the cooperation.
Sorry France but the US doesn’t believe it is the peoples duty to bail out those companies that their CEOs messed up in the first place we are not Socialists
Mr. Sarkozy has been blaming the entire financial crisis on the USA.
The USA is the biggest consumer in the world, and this financial crisis just shows how much the world needs the US. If we Americans stop buying your 64,000$ Jaguars or that new 52 inch Sony HDTV then the entire world feels the punch.
“When America catches a cold, the world catches pneumonia”  Read more... (166 words, estimated 40 secs reading time)

They’ve shown up on the upper portions of my computer monitor and TV, both of which are CRTs. They span the entire width of the screen, but are very thin. Still, it’s easily noticable, and it’s distracting. When I adjust the angle of my computer monitor, it temporarily makes the lines disappear, but I haven’t been able to do that with my TV. What could have caused this to happen? Is something like this usually caused by a damaged power supply? The TV, computer monitor, and fan are all on the same circuit, which leads me to think it’s probably some sort of electrical problem… but, I also noticed the lines shortly after the power to my entire house was repeatedly turned on and off via the circuit breaker while the CRTs were still powered on (I didn’t do that btw >_>)… if you have any ideas of what the problem is/how it could be fixed, please tell me. I recently bought an HDTV and I really want to move it into that room, but I’m too worried that something like this will happen again.

Both my Xbox 360 and my Wii consoles have lost their colour red when I plug them in via conponent cables, the red is now a muggy green.
I have been advised that the best way to fix this is by attaching both consoles via an HDMI cable into my HDTV. I have an HDMI socket on the TV but none on either my Xbox 360 or my Wii but I do know that it it possible to get converter boxes into which you plug the component cables then on the other side you plug a HDMI cable into the box leading to the TV.
Does anyone know of any other way I can do this as the converter box costs about €60 on eBay and Amazon.co.uk won’t deliver it to Ireland as it’s via a market trader.
Can anyone else help with any other suggestions?

Here’s some info:
Processor Type: Intel Core 2 Quad Core Q6600 2.40GHz 1066FSB 8MB cache
Motherboard: Asus P5NE-SLI Quad / Core 2 Extreme / Core 2 Duo
Hard Disk: 500GB SATA2 16MB lead free Cache
RAM Memory: 4GB DDR II 800Mhz Kingston Ram
Graphics Nvidia GF 9800GT SLI 1GB PCI-E, 2x DVI, HDTV