New TV

Hopefully. Just realised the composite on the TV are in and not out. About to try a 3.5mm to composite cable instead using the headphone jack. It's either that or an optical to analogue box which means more expense plus an optical cable etc to effectively achieve the same effect as the 3.5 to composite cable.
I think you are delaying the inevitable; I'd replace the integrated DVD/Home cinema app, you are already only using the front part of it, the technology isn't really matching nor keeps it digital between the devices. I would get a good quality soundbar with some HDMI sockets and switch your sources through there together with that nice new telly. Less speakers, less wire, and much better quality which is what you are after.
 
A Blu Ray player and soundbar could be inevitable but the only thing holding me back is that I know I would probably not buy very many Blu Ray discs. The 3.5 to composite is working and the sound quality is much better than the TV speakers plus if I want bass then I can crank up the bass level to the large sub.

Part of me wants to wait until the 4k players come down on price and more content comes available so I can not just be in the middle with Blu Ray and then have to upgrade again and eventually utilise the full potential of the TV.
 
Sod it, got a Sound Base. Went around Currys using my phones Bluetooth and YouTube to test them all and they had a panasonic all30t knocked down to £140 from £400 but the bass caused pretty bad vibration. Ended up getting the Panasonic SC-HTE80 which had lovely clear vocals and just enough bass. Also has hdmi in and out so I can use my TV remote to control it and not lose an HDMI port.

Will see how it performs in my house.
 
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Away from all the hussle and noise of the store this is a very good sound base and contrary to the reviews I've found the bass can go deep enough not to be intrusive. Had a strange issue where my DVD player (connected through the Sound Base) was coming up with a pink tinted screen. Changed the Belkin High Performance cable for an unbranded one which said High Speed instead and also did a full restart of all devices and it seems fine now.

Only issue I seemed to have is that the TV remote controls the Sound Base perfectly for both volume and turning it off, but when I turn on my DVD player the DVD remote seems to take over and the TV remote loses its link. Very annoying. The DVD remote will still do this even when turning the DVD player off, so I had to switch everything off and restart to get it all back to normal.

Since changing that HDMI cable it now seems like the TV and DVD remote both operate in harmony although I've not tried actually turning the DVD player on yet. I also did a Remote 1 set on the Sound Base, perhaps that's sorted it.

Anyway, I can recommend this Sound Base as for £140 the vocals are very clear, decent bass, lots of audio adjustments available, fast and easy Bluetooth pairing and the HMDI In / Out is handy for not taking up an HDMI port on your TV if using ARC.

Next up is a Blu Ray player. I'm wondering if I should avoid a Panasonic one in case of the remote control issues, but then I've also read that Panasonic Viera link isn't anything different from regular CEC, they've simply branded it with their own name.
 
Surely the remote issue won't, at least, be any worse, since you'll no longer need the DVD player.
 
Was doing it again today, the dvd remote seems to take control and screws with the Arc link. No sound from the TV to the sound Base and only works from a dvd being played.

Could be due to the age of the dvd player but I've removed it completely and it's back to normal.

Looks like I'll just have to get a new Blu Ray player.
 
This was the setup when it was conflicting. I also tried connecting the DVD player directly to the TV and running the HDD Media Player through the Sound Base instead but that damn DVD remote still took over. Even disabling Viera linking in the DVD menu didn't help. I'm hoping it's just a age thing with the DVD player and the remote and it doesn't happen with a new Blu Ray Player when I get it. Or should I hold off for the 4K players to come down in price? lol




TV Setup.jpg
 
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