Thanks for posting your question about a great sound system for your Mac Pro. I'm a Mac Pro one generation behind you (Mac Pro Early 2008 Quad Core 2.8 GhZ, 4 GB). I love this machine --- it can be swapping out to vm like crazy and it still runs fast enough for me most of the time (I only need to reboot this thing infrequently)! Since about 2003 I've been using a Logitech system THX system that takes in audio via the standard audio output jack that all Macs have).
Its time for a sound system upgrade, and I really want to make use of the Mac Pro's optical output. My needs are a bit more simple in that I don't use Boot Camp on this machine and I only once in a while use Windows via VMWare (and when I do, its for work, not games). I'm not much of a gamer either. What I really want however is a great audio and video experience (I don't watch movies often but when I do I really want to enjoy them ... and I don't watch TV often but when I do, I want to really enjoy a great sports game off of ESPN HD for example Wimbledon or the World Series). All I have right now besides this old Logitech THX system is on my Mac Pro I have two Lenovo 22" L220x monitors side by side (great monitors btw) -- I have tried watching a movie on one of them but from enough of a distance in my room its not the greatest experience really (for work related stuff these monitors are fantastic). So, I am thinking of being courageous and even in an economic recession, possibly dropping some hard-earned dough on one of the new Samsung LED ultra slim eco friendly TVs (it would have to be the smallest one because they're not only expensive but I don't have a lot of room in my place). I also want to be able to play Blu Ray movies from my Mac Pro but allegedly Steve Jobs has his reasons as for why Apple won't license Blu Ray from Sony. So my guess is that I'll need a Blu Ray player that I can connect to the Samsung (these Samsung thin LED TVs apparently only have HDMI input) but I also want to be able to route the audio of the Blu Ray player to the same speaker set I would end up using via the optical audio output of the Mac. I would also like the option of ripping Blu Ray movies that I end up buying so I can play them (as MPEG-4?) on a MacBook when I travel. I'm also not all that keen on buying movies or videos from Apple's iTunes store and being swept up into also buying an Apple TV (I like freedom and options) but maybe I'm missing something in that perhaps the Apple TV is useful? Of course I would like the option also of sending video to the Samsung not necessarily just from the Blu Ray player (I also have to figure out my cable TV options for HD sporting events). Sigh. Why does this have to be so complicated? With that being said, can anyone make the best recommendation as to what I should do?
Woah! You're sure opening a can of worms there!! I can answer a few parts of your question though. Ripping blu-rays is a right pain in the backside right now and needs Windows and a Bluray drive (or PS3 connected over gigabit ethernet) to do. I've ripped one film via the PS3 method (look in the AppleTV forum on here for a howto) and it took forever.
As for what speakers, receiver, TV and bluray player to buy... well its compeltely dependent on your budget. You need to decide how much you'd be willing to spend on the whole setup and how important different parts of the setup would be to you. For example, if you don't care about the highest level of Bluray audio quality then you could settle for optical digital audio from a Bluray player instead thus meaning you wouldn't need an HDMI audio input on your receiver. It sounds like you'd need at least two optical inputs on a receiver in order to have 5.1 sound from your Mac and 5.1 sound from a Bluray player.
Its basically a how-long-is-a-piece-of-string question until you work out a budget. As an example, my lounge set up would probably cost about £1100 to rebuild at a guess, excluding the television. That's for a PS3 (~300) + Onkyo 606 AV Receiver (~£350) + Mordaunt Short Avanti Premiere Plus speaker package (~£480). I wanted the high def sound decoding in the 606 and also wanted the extra HDMI inputs so as to be able to run the PS3, Sky HD, an EP35 HD DVD player, a Wii and a Mac Mini all through the same receive. The Receiver then connects via a single HDMI connection to my 46" Samsung LCD TV. But then someone else would probably be happy with a speaker and standard receiver for about £300 total. Up until about six months ago I had a similar system but without the Mac Mini, Onkyo amp, Sky HD and Mordaunt Short speakers. Instead my PS3, EP35, Wii and standard def Sky were all hooked up directly to my TV and their audio signals went into my old Sony Receiver + Speaker package that I mentioned previously in this thread which I now use in my office. A set up like that new would be much cheaper.
My advice would be to work out an approximate budget, work out what you want to be able to do with your set up and then go to an AV forum and ask for advice there. Bare minimum you'll want is an optical input to connect your Mac. If you're in the UK then a good forum to go to is
AVForums.com and if you're in the US then I think an equivalent site is
AVSForum.com. I used the first of these extensively in the set up of my lounge setup.
I hope that helps, sorry I can't be more specific though!!
Phil
tv, HDMI isn't available on the rest of their products. Yet the licensing isn't expensive. Membership fee of $50K USD which can be spread out over all of the units manufactured with it, and $0.04 USD per device. Not much, given the economy of scale.
