It just doesn't seem worth it for a couple of left to right wing flutters and car explosions.

now THAT is funny!

Well, the system would hook up just fine to the front inputs. Anything will, it's just stated that it's moe convient for cameras and such.

Also, is the system hooked up with an optical cable? If it's only hooked up with standard AV cables, then you will never notice a difference (at least not a big one). If the system supports it (and it should since you just bought it), try any movie with a DTS track. You'll really begin to feel the bass and you'll literally become surrounded. Of course, you have to have the optical cable for that. Try any of these:

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/05/02/030214.php

You also need to be sure everything is configured correctly and the speakers are in the proper places. Not all rooms are the same. If you need any more help, drop me a line.

And the television, being new also, should definitely feature surround, at least on most shows

Ok, I will look into the set-up, but I still think it's balls, especially when we don't have $500 to be tossing out for a DVD player we're going to use maybe once a week.

I agree - I'm totally fine with a simple, two-speakers-in-the-TV-set approach. I've got two friends who have expensive surround-sound systems (one was around $6000!) and while I agree there are some benefits to it, they don't add up to enough to compensate for even the lowest-priced home theater system right now. I just have better things to spend my money on . . .

i mostly watch movies like Pi, Zelig, etc...talking head movies. so surround is definitely a waste of money.

I am not a gadget, techie type at all, but I can't imagine going back to just plain TV and DVD - with a good receiver, the surround, and the subwoofer, it's a whole new world for not that much expense. The big screen TV is next.

i will admit that as soon as front projectors become more affordable, i'll probably buy one.

imagine not having to have a humongous box in the room, just a screen on the wall (or pull-down, whatever)

Tom (#5), you moan and complain any time anybody mentions that might listen to *gasp* compressed music in MP3 of AAC formation, and yet watch movies through your tv's built-in speakers?

Man, talk about some screwed-up priorities!

Anyway, though I didn't spend very much, I'm still bummed out that I finally put the finishing touches on my living room surround-sound system just shortly before going deaf in one ear. Fat lot of good surround-sound does a guy with one ear!

My family and friends love it, though. And yes, there is always just one or maybe two features that the "universal" remote just isn't universal enough to handle, no? Ah well, mine's pretty darned close.

Music is important. TV just fills the time between listening to music. ;-)

Really, the few times I've experienced surround-sound, I've found myself irritated because it seems to cause people to just turn the volume up louder. Dude, seriously, When Harry Met Sally sounds just fine at conversation-volumes. (But I totally agree - Billy Crystal's performance of "Surrey With A Fringe On Top" in that Sharper Image-type store was awesome in surround. And, yes, yes, I admit it's really impressive to hear Bruno Kirby say "You made a woman meow?" from just in back of me to my left while Crystal's bat pings loudly from my right.)

I'm waiting on the big-screen TV thing until they get this HD-thing worked out. A friend just got a big-screen (one of the less ridiculously expensive ones) and while it looks great for things designed for it, TV shows looks horrible - not only is the image stretched out to fit the width, it also looks like someone smeared vaseline all over the screen. Since I only watch movies a very small percentage of my in-front-of-screen time, it seems a waste to put up with the crappy TV performance. In time, they will not only get better, they'll get cheaper. And I'm cheap, so this works out pretty okay.

Yeah, non-HD stuff looks terrible on an HD. That's why mine is for games and movies only. Even some of the older games (Genesis, SNES, Saturn) are sometimes hard to play. You can buy an "Up convertor" or something like that which will double the resolution (or again, something like that) and make it look a whole lot better. Of course, they cost like a grand...